220. Sweet Somethings

"So, how many glasses of sangria did you have?" Cayden said when I picked him up from the shopping center. He'd spent the afternoon watching Transformers 3D.

"Two? Three?" I guessed. "The real question is... 'how many muddy buddies did I eat?' And the answer is,  'more than you want to know.'"

"Ah, that's my girl," Cayden said, pulling me in for a hug from the passenger seat. My gear shift jabbed into my ribs, but I didn't care. "I missed you, baby."

I hated that we had to miss each other while he was in town. We did enough missing each other during the months between visits. I wanted to kiss his neck before he pulled away from the hug, but decided not to initiate something in the parking lot of some random shopping center. I wasn't sure if it was the sangria or the muddy buddies, but I was feeling frisky.

On the ride home I filled him in on the ins and outs of the bridal shower.

"And then I won the game... And someone gave her this awesome wedding certificate holder.... and then this chick announced she was pregnant and everyone went all crazy.... and this other chick met a British guy in Vegas during the bachelorette party I didn't go to..."

Cayden watched me with an amused expression.

"You Americans are so strange!"he said, laughing. "All of these wedding traditions. Showers? Parties? Rehearsals? I don't get it."

I tried my best to explain it to him, which entertained us for the entire drive back to Addison. We held hands over the gear shift that had recently accosted me. Talking about weddings with Cayden made me wonder what ours would be like one day. I could picture all of his guy friends getting drunk before the wedding and all of my girlfriends asking them to say different things so they could make fun of their drunken British accents.

I shook my head to clear my mind. I didn't want to start obsessing about my hypothetical wedding while my boyfriend lives 5,000 miles away. That would be torturous. But every now and then, I couldn't help myself.

"So, what's the plan for tonight?" Cayden asked as we pulled into my driveway. For once, we didn't have any plans. It was our last night together without plans. Part of me wanted to pull him into my bedroom and lock us in there until the sun came up the next day, but another part of me knew we'd get hungry at some point. Body chocolates and whipped cream weren't exactly what I'd call "dinner."Dessert on the other hand...

"Not sure," I shrugged. "We could grab dinner somewhere and then call it a night." I gave him a suggestive smile so he'd know what kind of night were were calling it.

We ended up going on a double date with Joyce and Joey to check out a relatively new restaurant called Whiskey Cake.

"We're supposed to try the Whiskey Cake while we're there," Joyce said. "It's their signature dessert, and I hear it's to die for."

It was turning out to be a two dessert kind of night. Good thing was, the calories gained and the calories burned would probably even out.

"I can't wait until the four of us live together," Joey said as we sipped cold beers on the patio at Whiskey Cake. Terry was planning a move to Houston, so Joey was going to move into our house in August. It would be just the three of us until Cayden moved over here next year. "Can we have a Man Cave? With a nice TV and a kegerator?"

Joyce and I rolled our eyes and Cayden as Joey eagerly awaited our response. It was like they were 7-year-olds who'd just asked their moms for permission to build a treehouse.

If they had a Man Cave, that meant I wouldn't get stuck watching football games I didn't want to watch (see: any game not played by OU). And no one could get mad at me for watching a marathon of Say Yes to the Dress. Joyce and I exchanged a look that proved we were thinking the same thing.

"Sure," we said together. "You boys can have your little man cave." Joyce and I would get the rest of the house.

I imagined the four of us living together being not unlike a sitcom. Sort of like How I Met Your Mother meets FRIENDS meets Rules of Engagement, with a little bit of Man Vs. Food sprinkled in there, because lord knows we all like to eat.

Our love for food was evident as we "OOOOO'ed" and "AHHHH'ed" over the Whiskey Cake we decided to share. The toffee torte with bourbon, spiced pecans, and whipped cream literally melted in our mouths as we shoveled it into our mouths by the spoonful.

My love for Cayden was evident as I "OOOO'ed" and "AHHHH'ed" over dessert round two.