Page 56 of Aperture

Theo walks over and hugs Sarah and Jeff, and reintroduces us.

“Hi, Millie. It’s so good to see you again,” Sarah gushes, as she gives me a big hug.

“I was so excited when Theo told me you were coming today.”

“Thanks for playing it cool, Sis,” Theo responds.

There’s clearly so much love between these two. It makes me feel so happy to see families who are close.

“So how does this work?” I ask.

Jeff answers, “We are playing the yellow team.”

“The Hungry Hornets, Babe,” Sarah corrects him.

“Forgive me.” He laughs. “They will start the game and every player on the field, including the goalies, will run toward the ball and become one large super team. The coaches will yell ‘no bunching’. It will be chaos. Every once in a while you get an athletic kid who can handle the ball, but it’s usually a mosh pit.”

I chuckle lightly. I can’t wait to see this unfold.

“By the way,” Theo adds, "that one kid with some athletic prowess is not Emmet.” Both he and Jeff laugh while Sarah swats at her brother playfully.

“Where’s Ellie?” I ask.

“She’s at a friend’s house. She just makes these things more stressful,” Jeff adds.

We watch the game and it was every bit as entertaining as promised. I stand with Milo on his leash to my right and hold Theo’s hand with my left. The game ends in a 1-1 tie. How anyone scored, I have no idea.

Afterward, we drop Milo off at home and then we all head to a pizza parlor for a late lunch.

“What do you like on your pizza?” Theo asks.

I answer confidently because I’ve found the answer to this question can cause normally level-headed people to lose their damn minds.

“Canadian bacon and pineapple.” I stare at him, gauging his reaction. I notice a twitch in the outer corner of his right eye, but otherwise, he has no other tell to indicate his disgust.

“What do you like?” I ask.

“Pepperoni, of course,” he says, as if it’s the only possible answer. “How about half and half?”

“Perfect!” I exclaim, happy with our compromise.

We all start eating and laugh while Emmet regales the group with tales of his soccer prowess.

It’s been a great day, but when Theo drops me off at home later, I’m feeling pretty tired.

“I’m kind of beat,” I yawn. “You can come in but I may fall asleep on you.”

“Me, too. How about we take a nap?” he proposes.

“That sounds heavenly,” I reply, leaning over the console and kissing his full lips.

So that is exactly what we do. We snuggle up on the couch next to the warm fire, our bellies full of pizza and Pepsi, pull a big blanket over ourselves, and fall asleep for two hours.

I wake up to a hot, heavy, foul-smelling breath on my face. I scrunch my nose up and squint at the big brown eyes greeting me in anticipation.

“Milo, Dude, that is not good,” I tell him. I look at the clock and realize it’s after 5:00.

He’s hungry and probably needs to go outside. I try to unwind Theo’s arms from my waist without waking him, but he stirs and hauls me back to him. I lean down and kiss his cheek.