Celeste thought it was pretty funny how surprised Jude was by her confession of not loving the cold. It really wasn't that she disliked it - she was ambivalent. She did like the cold a lot more than the heat though. She'd rather be freezing than hot any moment of any day.

>> "Tch. You're spun sugar and whipped cream. If I'm cute, you're a walking, talking confection, the kind that Japanese school kids squeal about."

Celeste giggled and nudged his shoulder slightly. Definitely cute and adorable with that kinda expression. He was a pretty charming guy, too. "I don't know, seems like they'd be squealing all over you, too." 

>> "No. It's a romance language, though so it's in the neighborhood of French, I guess. The guy I work for is as Texan as they come and I think he knows Spanish. Or maybe only the swears..."

She laughed, "There's a lot of similarities. It'd probably be pretty easy to pick up on. You know, some people say learning the swear words first is the best way to learn a language." She had actually talked to a Mexican-Canadian back in Regina who said he initially learned English swear words before he learned the rest. It seemed to be a famous way to pick up languages, at least from her experience.

>> "Oh man. I feel like I have to take a risk because there's some crazy stuff here. I've already had black goma flavor somewhere else and it was only meh. I had to try it, though 'cause it was black. How about this. You go safe and I'll go crazy. That way, if mine's bad, I can steal from you." 

She smirked. No way was she going to eat black ice cream. She was a total foodie - she loved eating different things. But she was not about to risk ice cream. Ice cream was just too sacred. She nodded her agreement to the deal, "Sounds like a plan. I'll get basic and you go for the crazy... I might steal a bite of yours, though." How cute of them - offering to eat each others ice cream. Their friends gathering was a strange one for friends.

Caramel corn and bacon ice cream. The caramel part sounded pretty good in that equation but the rest made Celeste smirk. "Good luck," she whispered to him. After reviewing her options, she decided on the safe bet; "I'll take... A waffle cone, with a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of strawberry." Everyone loved vanilla and strawberry, but she looked over to him to make sure he would like those options before she confirmed her part of the order. 

She whispered a thank you when he purchased her ice cream. He didn't have too, since it was a friends gathering, but Celeste figured she probably shouldn't oppose. She could get them the next time they're on a... Friends gathering thingy. "Do you want to walk and nom on the ice cream or do you want sit in here?" She was leaning more towards taking a bit more of a walk but they had done a lot of walking.

She could have cooties. Buuuut it'd be better to ease himself into them, right? A little ice cream swap was like testing the waters. Could build up his cootie immunity.

He did have to bite down on a "basic b*tch" joke when she admitted to wanting a safe ice cream flavor. Maybe when he knew her better, he could say those things, but right now he was too worried about saying the wrong thing even in jest. In fact, he was pretty amazed he'd avoided that so far. And really, there was nothing wrong with strawberry and vanilla.

"It's good. We'll get a baseline with the vanilla. Like going to a Chinese restaurant and ordering the sweet and sour the first time. You gotta know how it measures up."

The man worked behind the sneeze guard and just watching him made Jude realize how he'd gotten those forearms. Scooping ice cream was work. At the end of the line, he set two cones next to each other and there was something totally cute about seeing them there.

"Would either of you like a cherry on top?"

"Yeah." Jude glanced at Celestina for her answer. "I mean, I do."

The man rang up the cones and while Jude was getting some cash out of his wallet, he spun in place on his heel. There was something weirdly elegant about the motion and at the end of his turn he came out with finger guns.

"Pew, pew!" He shot his fingers at the ice cream cones and poof like magic cherries appeared.

Jude barked out a laugh because the whole thing was so unexpected. "Magic trick or mutant power?"

"I'm from a long line of berry slingers, son." And he was proud to point at a photo on the wall. A blackberry appeared on top of a framed photo of three men standing in front of the ice cream shop they were in.

"Ha! That's amazing!" Useless, but hilarious power. He would definitely have to steal that some time.

The man winked and shot his finger guns at Jude and Celestina. A blueberry popped into being in front of Jude's hand. He bobbled it before managing to get it into his mouth. Dang. Peak ripeness. It was perfect. "That is the best power ever!"

"Come back next week. I'll be adding golden raspberry ice cream next week." That definitely explained the multitude of berry flavors he had in ice cream form...

> "Do you want to walk and nom on the ice cream or do you want sit in here?"

"This guy's awesome, but I think I'd rather walk." It was easy to tell which cone was his. While there were no popcorn chunks, there were obvious caramel and bacon bits. They wouldn't be getting confused on whose was whose. "Here." He held out his cone to Celestina before they'd even managed to make it back out the door. "I'll let you have first bite. That way it's cooty free."

>> "It's good. We'll get a baseline with the vanilla. Like going to a Chinese restaurant and ordering the sweet and sour the first time. You gotta know how it measures up."

Celeste nodded, "Right? Exactly." It was a very basic option - vanilla and strawberry. She almost thought a joke was going to come from Jude, but he responded with understanding for her plain ice cream. Wait until they went out to eat actual food, though, now that'll be fun. Celeste was a huge fan of trying new foods. Well, if they go out to eat actual food. But ice cream? That wasn't something Celeste was willing to mess with. 

>> "Would either of you like a cherry on top?" 

She smiled, "Oh yeah, I would love a cherry too." The two cones looked delicious. She smiled and stood beside Jude, unsure of really what to do as he began to pull his wallet out. She figured he'd get it this time, because, guy things and she'd get them next time. That's what friends did, right? Just switch paying or whatever. 

Celeste's eyes opened wide as he spun and made a shooting noise. And then there was cherries on top of them. Celeste grinned wide, but Jude had already beat her to the question. When she heard the man say 'long line of berry slingers,' Celeste nearly lost it as she laughed. That was just too funny. What a awesome power. Plus, hereditary? That was even cooler. She nudged Jude, "you should totally use that power sometime." 

They definitely needed to come back here - the selection was amazing, the ice cream guy was honestly the coolest guy ever, and the ice cream looked good - even Jude's cone, which had bacon on it. Celeste wasn't sure how she felt about it but she always said she'd try something at least once.

>>"This guy's awesome, but I think I'd rather walk. I'll let you have first bite. That way it's cooty free."

Did he just say cooty free? She giggled and gave him a playful look, "You're going to get all my cooties then." Celeste didn't want to try it and insult the man's weird flavored ice cream, but she ended taking a nice,yummy lick off of Judes ice cream cone. Hopefully, she wasn't too embarrassing in her licking of the ice cream because she felt extremely self-conscious as she did it. It was... Interesting. She enjoyed the caramel, but the bacon taste in it? She wasn't too big of a fan of. It wasn't bad, just not something she'd probably ever order.

Once they were outside, she offered her opinion of the ice cream to him.  "That flavor was, in my professional opinion... Interesting. The caramel was great, but the bacon bits? I don't know about that part." She chuckled and watched his face intently for any indications that he liked or disliked the weird ice cream flavor. 

Jude raised his eyebrows at her mentioning that he would get her cooties. "I'll have to build up a tolerance somehow." Those eyebrows went up and down again in a playful waggle. Indirectly talking about indirect kissing. They couldn't be any less coy.

After Celestina took her taste, Jude had his. It was salty, sweet, and creamy which wasn't bad. But somehow wasn't super good either. It hit the spot in some ways... in others...? "I think it's the little bacon bits. That's weirdly chewy." Cold fat. It made for heebies and jeebies.

"Or maybe too smokey? There's a hint of smoke in there." On second lick, he'd tapped his nose without noticing. He'd have to have a few more bites to be sure it was too weird. And maybe a few more to be sure that he didn't like it. It was one of those kinds of flavors where Jude felt like he just had to go back for more because he couldn't believe it.

"How's strawberry and vanilla?" Where they were walking, Jude couldn't say. It was nice to just be out and about, though. There was something really freeing about that.

Celeste smiled. She was actually pretty happy in these moments. She definitely hadn't planned for the day to turn out the way he had, but she was really glad she showed up to the mansion today. And that he was there.

>>  "I'll have to build up a tolerance somehow."

Celeste blushed deeply. She nudged him bashfully, "Well, you'll have plenty of time to build up that tolerance, then." Did he actually want to kiss her? Well, not now, but eventually? That was exciting and a little terrifying - when was even the last time she had kissed someone? She had to have been 16 or so. And that was pretty... Interesting experience, to say the least. In either case, it was pretty clear they liked each other - they had practically been fawning over each other since 

>> "I think it's the little bacon bits. That's weirdly chewy. Or maybe too smokey? There's a hint of smoke in there."

She made a gross looking face towards the ice cream. It definitely wasn't something she would buy. It was definitely the bacon, at least in her opinion. Maybe it was both? Smokey and bacon? She shrugged, "I think it's both."

She smiled as she licked up her strawberry and vanilla, "It's super basic but it's delicious. Want a taste? It'll give you some more cooties, fair warning, though." She grinned and held it over for him, well, if he wanted to get rid of the smokey, bacon taste. Personally, she wasn't a fan the more she thought about it. 

Jude took his taste, first vanilla and then strawberry.

"Yours is better." And that was easy to admit. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the strawberry actually has some tartness and tastes more like real strawberries. Not after Mr. Berryman. But this..." Jude twirled his cone which he had made surprising progress on considering that it wasn't super great. "There's something about this weird taste that I just can't quit."

They walked and chatted, mostly just sharing surface things like observations, likes, and dislikes. Jude admitted defeat and threw his cone away after a block or two of wandering. Eventually, Jude got a call and those are much harder to ignore. After an earful, he hung up and decided it was unavoidably time to go.

"Hey. I didn't expect to... I mean... Today was a real surprise to me. The good kind." An unexpected bout of nerves gripped him. "Thanks for hanging out. I'll text, okay? Or you text. Actually, hopefully both." Geez it was like he was his own age or something. "Au revoir!" He wasn't running away. Nope. He was running to work because he was so totally late. That was it. Totally.