“Where do you want to go next?” I asked Hunter. I knew he was tired and would have been happy with takeout and TV, but I was buzzing with energy. I would have to work it off if I had a hope in hell of getting to sleep that night. Hunter cocked his head at me.

“Like where?”

“We could go to Dandy’s,” I suggested. “Get dinner?”

His face lit up. Dandy’s was about his favorite place in town, and I loved it too. It was an old-fashioned diner with an arcade section full of classic games, and the two of us would head down there a couple of times a month to play games and eat greasy food. We had already been out today, and I didn’t much feel like cooking. Plus, the thought of sitting around this house and thinking about everything that had gone down—no, I didn’t need to linger any more than I already had on all of that. I needed to get my head out of my damn asshole and focus on taking care of Hunter. This was what today had been about, hadn’t it? Letting Autumn get to know us so she would be able to find someone better suited to my son. Nothing more than that. Nothing less.

Hunter changed, and I threw on an old T-shirt and jeans, thanking God that the dress code for Dandy’s was about as casual as they came, and we headed across town. Hunter was chatting to me the whole time about a series of books they were reading at school, and I tuned in and engaged him as best I could. Soon enough, I found the thoughts of Autumn—the way she had looked at me when she had said goodbye, the way she had let her hand linger in mine—drifting away like debris on the water.

We arrived at Dandy’s, and Hunter headed straight over to the arcade as I got us a table and ordered our usual. The wait would be a while, as it was a weekend night and a lot of parents had the same thought as me to bring their kids there. I went over to join my son and found him already deep into a game of Space Invaders.

“I bet I can beat your high score,” I challenged him, and he raised his eyebrows at me.

“Try me,” he replied, and I saw that flash of competitiveness in his eyes. He got that from me, that spark that made him want to beat out everyone around him any chance he got. We swapped the controllers a few times, and I made sure to fudge my skills to make it so he could win. I loved the look on his face when he punched the air after beating me, the little wrinkle in his nose as he celebrated.

“Did you see that?” he exclaimed after a particularly impressive run. “That’s the best score I’ve ever got!”

“Well, you sure got me beat.” I held my hands up and shook my head as if disappointed in myself. “Maybe I’ll do better next time, huh?”

“Maybe,” he agreed, but he didn’t much seem to believe it. He shot a look to the other end of the arcade at his favorite game, Heath Fire. A small cluster of kids was hanging around it right now, laughing and whooping as one of them pulled off an excellent run.

“You want to go over there and wait in the line for it?” I suggested. “I’m sure they won’t be too long.”

He shook his head, and his face seemed suddenly cloudy, as though there was something bothering him that he didn’t want to admit to.

“Why not?” I wondered aloud. “Something up, buddy?”

“No,” he replied, but his lips were pressed together like he was trying to keep something inside.

“You can tell me,” I told him gently, and he glanced up at me, his eyes suddenly sad.

“They’re kids from school,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t want to disturb them.”

My heart sank as those words came out of his mouth. I wanted nothing more than to be able to go over there, introduce Hunter to those kids, and have the five of them play all together, but I knew he would about expire from humiliation if I did something like that. His shoulders sagged, and I could see this was going to ruin his night unless I jumped in to fix it quickly.

“Hey, shall we go and see if our food’s ready?” I suggested. “I got the root beer float, the one you like.”

“Sure.” He nodded, and I could tell he was trying to hide how hurt he was.

We made our way back over to the booth, and as soon as he had his food in front of him, he seemed to forget all about the incident with the other kids in his class. It concerned me a lot, especially given that Autumn and I had met because she was worried about his social development. But it wasn’t going to do a lot of good to try and push him on it right now. It wasn’t often I got to spend quality time with him like this, and there was no way I was going to mess that up by forcing a conversation on him that made him uncomfortable.

“How’s your food, Hunter?” I gestured to his waffles with bacon and maple syrup. It was the kind of food my mother would have turned her nose up at feeding me when I was a kid, but I knew that denying him these treats would lead him to sneak candy from his classmates when he thought he could get away with it, and I had no interest in that.

“It’s good,” he said, munching on a bite and washing it down with a sip of his root beer float. There was a time when he would have had to hold that thing up with two hands, and I couldn’t help but smile when I remembered how insistent he had been the first time he started eating and drinking by himself. He wanted to be independent, the same way I always had. Except his independence seemed to stretch to include social isolation as well.

“Good.” I smiled. “And did you have a good day today?”

“I had an awesome day,” he gushed. “It was so fun seeing Miss Becks out of school. I’ve never done that with a teacher before.”

“Me neither.” I shook my head. “It was fun, wasn’t it? Do you think she had a good time?”

“I think so.” Hunter nodded, and I silently scolded myself for needing my nine-year-old kid to confirm that I hadn’t completely fucked up the day.

“I’m so glad the two of you are dating now,” Hunter continued, and I spluttered into my lemonade.

“I’m sorry, what?” I held a hand up, smiling at him gently. “No, that’s not what we’re doing. We’re not dating.”

“Oh.” Hunter furrowed his brow. “But you went out with her before, didn’t you? And then again today?”

“Yes, I did, but it’s not like that.” I shook my head. “We’re just friends, that’s all.”

“Oh,” Hunter looked a little disappointed. “Oh, okay. I suppose so. It’s still nice to have her around.”

I took a sip of my drink to clear my throat and wondered if I was going to have to put up with these questions from literally everyone in my life. It felt as though the entire world had an opinion on what I was doing with Autumn whether I liked it or not. I only wanted to spend time with her and get to know her. Was that so wrong? Had I time traveled back to fifty years before, when men and women couldn’t spend time together without people assuming they were bumping uglies?

“I really like her,” Hunter continued. “Will you start dating her? When would you do that?”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, Hunter,” I told him firmly. “We’re friends. And besides, she’s your teacher. It wouldn’t be appropriate.”

He pulled a face, and his disappointment was obvious. He continued to eat his food and left me sitting there feeling as though I’d had the rug pulled from under me. Hunter obviously saw something between us, and he was the only person who’d spent time with us together. Kids were meant to have that great intuition, weren’t they? Maybe he was sensing something that the two of us, as a pair of adults, were a little too nervous for the time being to acknowledge.

“I hope we get to see her again soon,” he replied. “Not just in school, I mean.”

“She said she wanted to meet up again,” I promised him. “And I’ll make sure we get to spend time together, all three of us.”

“Yay!” Hunter grinned widely, the sugar rush from his float clearly hitting him. He glanced around at the arcade and saw that the game the other kids had been playing earlier was free now. “Oh, can I go over and play a game? Please?”

“Of course.” I waved my hand. “Just stay where I can see you, all right?”

“I will,” he promised, and he got up and practically sprinted across the room toward the game. I watched him go and drummed my fingers on the table in front of me. Autumn was in my head again, filling my mind, escaping from that space I had tried to commit her to for the time being.

I couldn’t stop thinking about that moment before she’d left when she had shaken my hand and given me that look, as though there was something else going on in her mind beyond the purely platonic.

Or maybe I just really, really wanted her to feel that way. Today had been something more than what we’d had before. She had slotted so well into my little family, getting on well with Hunter and managing to balance the two of us out perfectly. Maybe Hunter was right, and I didn’t know it yet. Maybe we really were dating, and I needed to catch up with the game and get on board. And maybe Autumn felt the same way.

I leaned back from the table and sighed. This was all speculation, and until I saw her again, I wouldn’t be able to figure it out one way or the other. As far as I knew, we were a couple of friends hanging out together, and that was the way things were going to stay as long as she kept steady in her attitude toward our relationship. What she wanted came first. I wasn’t going to do anything to fuck whatever we had up. Because the thought of going on without the promise of seeing her again made my heart sink right down to the bottom of the water we’d been sailing on together all day.