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“Stephen who?”
“I’m assuming Spielberg.”
I shake my head. “If it doesn’t also have Kate’s name, it’s not from him. I’d guess Colbert.”
“Wow,” she mutters, looking for the card on the next bouquet. “The executives at Galaxy Studios.”
She goes through all of the flowers and balloon bouquets, gasping and reading the cards to me, and I can’t help but find it very refreshing that she’s not pretending any of this is normal. Her reactions are real. Excited. Just like I used to be when I first got my start. “Do you want me to open the presents?” she asks, clearly wanting me to say yes.
“Please do.”
“Sweet!” she says, lifting a huge bag up onto the foot of my bed. “Let’s see what rich people buy each other when they do something heroic.”
“You mean stupid.”
“Heroic,” Allie answers, yanking the tissue paper out of the bag, then sliding a box out of it. “Nordstrom. This should be good.” She sets the box down and screws up her adorable face. “I’m going to guess a plush blanket and some aromatherapy candles.”
“Ooh, good one.” Grinning, I say, “Who’s it from?”
“No clues.”
“Tricky. Okay, in that case, I’m going to go … bathrobe and slippers.”
“Interesting. Should we bet?”
How is it possible that I’m having fun right now? “Definitely. What’s up for grabs?”
“All the chocolate in this room.”
“Deal,” I say before my brain catches up with the conversation. “Wait. The chocolate is already mine. What are you putting up?”
“I have an almost new box of TicTacs in my bag,” she says with wide eyes and a big smile.
“Come on, all my chocolate for some used TicTacs?” I ask. “You can do better than that.”
“A box of pastries from my parents’ shop.”
Shaking my head, I say, “I’m not really a sweets guy.”
“Not a sweets guy?” Pursing her lips together, she says, “That’s not a thing. Everybody’s a sweets guy. We’re genetically engineered to crave sugar.”
“Not me. I’m all salt, all the time,” I answer. “Except I do love a milkshake from In-N-Out on occasion, but that’s only because it’s the best thing to wash down their fries.”
“All right, weird, but if you say so, you’re not a sweets guy.” She taps her lips with her index finger, then says, “Wait. If you’re not a sweets guy, why do you even care if I win all the chocolate?”
She’s got me there. I have no answer for that one. “Umm, because chocolate is very important to me. It’s comforting to have it around.”
She bursts out laughing. “And you can have it around until I eat it all.”
Now, it’s my turn to laugh. “All right. Just open the box already so we can see what’s in there.”
Lifting the lid off the box, she then opens the tissue paper inside to reveal a robe and some slippers. “Nuts. You were right. How’d you know?”
“Lucky guess.”
She puts the lid back on, then places the box back into the bag. Picking up a smaller one, she says, “Double or nothing?”
I start to laugh again. “What? Do you have two packs of used TicTacs?”
