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“I decided to take a little detour.”
“Thomas.”
“You'll like it, and so will the girls.”
“My grandmother will worry about me if I get home too late.”
“I promise I won't take up too much of your time, but you can call her and let her know where you are.”
“And where am I?”
“In an ice cream parlor.” I pointed to the façade as I stopped the car in a parking space in front of the establishment.
“Ice cream!” The girls vibrated in the back seat.
“Before dinner?” Helena twisted her lips, making me laugh.
“Just one day won't hurt.” I blinked.
I got the girls out of the car, and the four of us headed inside the establishment. I settled them in chairs around a table and asked which flavor each of them wanted before pouring two scoops for each, adding syrup, and weighing them. I ordered myself a milkshake in honor of my first meeting with Helena, and she did the same. While I waited for our orders, I watched the twins slurp their milkshakes.
“Is it tasty?” I asked them.
They nodded.
I looked at Helena sitting next to me and put my hand over hers.
“Thomas.”
“Don't you think we'd better tell them straight away?”
“We can prepare them a little more.”
“They're clever.”
“But...” She didn't even manage to finish her sentence before Mary screamed.
“Dad and Helena are dating.”
“How do you know that?” The teacher and I spoke together, wide-eyed.
“Matt spoke,”Anne answered. “He saw...”
“What did he see?” I tried to extract what they knew.
I'd only dropped Helena off at school, I hadn't even kissed her in front of the building or anything that could arouse any suspicion.
“Youtogether.”
“When?” Helena insisted.
“Hoji.”
I started to laugh.
“I thought we were telling them something new.”
“Can I have some moresorbet?” Anne lifted her pot.