It All Started With Ice Cream

Ice cream

It all started with ice cream.

Nanami isn’t fond of sweet things, but sometimes he would indulge. Once in a while, he’d find something not too sweet and enjoy. June was the exact opposite. She asked him what his favorite flavor was. Tough question, he didn’t Partake in ice cream enough to think about it seriously, but he did like lemon shebert. They had that at the restaurant they ate at, funnily enough. She liked caramel-flavored anything, he came to learn. Sugar. That was fine enough.

But then she asked him something He’d never really expected to be asked.

“Do you want some?”

She was asking if he wanted to taste the ice cream she’d ordered. He declined, he wasn’t particularly interested in it. But that question came up again and again. On different days for different meals. Do you want some of my Laksa? Do you want some of my Nasi Lemak? Do you want some of my sambal fish? At some point he wondered what it was she was trying to say with these questions, even though he refused each and every time. He would have to admit, it was getting on his nerves. Was she implying something else by always asking if he wanted her food? Something he was yet to discover? Something negative?

He’d let himself think that for a while, long enough for him to finally ask the next time she did. Her answer?

“Because the food’s really tasty!”

That was it.

That was all. He declined again that time too. But then he thought about it for a while after. Most of the food he’d eaten was good already. Why did she feel the need to share the good food SHE had eaten? They both enjoyed their food separately. Was that not enough? And in that thought forming, the answer came to him like a bolt of lightning.

A shared experience.

THAT was what she was really asking about. To enjoy something together. It was a strange request in his eyes, but then again that entire vacation was strange from the moment he’d met June, but it sparked curiosity in his mind, and the next time she asked if he wanted to taste a dish she ordered, he said yes. She was shocked by his answer (then why was she always asking him, he thought) but soon she was grinning, pushing over her plate and a spare fork for her chicken. It was great. And she was happy. He had confirmed that hypothesis of his. Partly.

And that is when he asked her if SHE wanted to taste the seafood he’d ordered. Before she even answered, he had confirmed his thoughts from the way her face lit up. A shared experience. Two worlds meeting. And in meeting, they would come to know each other better than just words could achieve. Just like how he now knew she liked dishes that leaned sweet, and she knew he liked anything but. And that changed everything. Suddenly, he noticed just how much she extended to him the option of a shared experience, and how often now, he was taking those chances. And in receiving those options, there was a need that arose, to share his own. Now he was the one asking if she wanted to try a restaurant out, if she wanted to go to a market, or get drinks at the bar. So many shared experiences. So many shared memories that he would reminisce upon fondly.

And it all started with ice cream