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Colton and I decided on getting pizza as we made our way to his parked car.

I wanted to just have it delivered to my apartment, but Colton suggested that we could just get it ourselves, saying that we might get our dinner faster that way.

It was a Saturday night, after all; the pizza place might be busy with more deliveries than usual.

‘But we can have it delivered if you want don’t to,’ Colton told me as he started the engine of his car.

A song instantly started playing on his radio and the very familiar chorus of ‘Mamma Mia’ greeted my ears, reminding me of the first time he ever drove me home—the night that led me to the decision of letting this boy into my life.

‘Getting it ourselves sounds better,’ I started. ‘But only if you let me pick which ABBA album we’ll be listening to.’

He let out a chuckle. ‘By all means.’ He was reversing the car out of the parking space when he said, ‘the rest of the albums are in the glove compartment.’

Opening it, I took out all five albums he had. When I found the one I was looking for, I ejected the CD from the music system. I placed it back into its respective case before inserting the one that I chose.

I could see the moment Colton’s face lit up, as the intro to ‘Waterloo’ blared out from the car speakers. He immediately started singing along to the song, taking the same parts as he did the last time we sang together on that fateful night a few Saturdays ago at his aunt and uncle’s bar.

The night I realized something had shifted between us.

Up until then, I had always thought of Colton’s presence in my life with the romantic notion of him breaking down the walls around my heart through its little cracks that I needed to patch up.

But, as I looked at the boy sitting next to me, happily singing along to a Napoleon metaphor song about surrendering to love, I realized that wasn’t it at all.

Colton wasn’t trying to take it down.

He just kept waiting at the gate, persistently making his presence known and patiently waiting to be granted entry.

As I joined him with my parts of the song, and we sang the last chorus together, I couldn’t help but be hopeful that the after-events of the duet this time around would be different than the last time. In a good way.

And I was very much looking forward to it.

The funky sound of the second track started to play, and I joined the band as they sang out the words.

Colton’s eyes widened as he stole a glance in my direction, before returning his focus to the road.

I burst out laughing at his reaction. ‘What?’

He shook his head. ‘Nothing. I’m just a bit surprised. I don’t think this song was in the Mamma Mia movie.’

‘It’s not,’ I agreed. ‘It’s not in the second movie either.’

‘Then, how …’ he trailed off.

‘So, there’s this really handsome guy that I like, who loves ABBA,’ I started.

‘I’m talking having their physical albums kind of love.

It’s the cutest thing ever. And I don’t know, I thought I would expand my ABBA music knowledge and listen to their other songs that are not in the Mamma Mia movies. ’

After that night, when I had played the Super Trouper album to prepare dinner, I started listening to their other albums, and actually went through all the songs on each of them, instead of just skipping to the ones I knew.

I remembered rationalizing to myself that I was just listening to the songs from a very beloved band.

But I think, deep down, I knew that the main reason for it was the person sitting next to me.

With that being said, it didn’t mean I would ever be bold enough to admit this to him out loud. But after having Colton reveal to me how he had read my favourite book, just because it was my favourite book, I figured it was worth the potential embarrassment.

Colton didn’t say anything as the song continued to play. Just as I was starting to feel mortified, he reached his hand across the console to grasp mine that was settled on my lap.

I looked over at him and saw a genuine smile on his face as he gave my hand a gentle squeeze before pulling it away to switch gears.

But that gesture alone was enough for me to convey what he meant—the things that couldn’t be expressed through words.

I gave him a smile of my own—even though he couldn’t see it—before turning my head to the open road. We sang along to the rest of the songs as Colton drove ahead.

Unlocking the door with my keys, I twisted the door handle and let myself into the apartment. Colton followed closely behind me with a large box of pizza in his arm.

‘Welcome to the apartment,’ I said to him.

‘This is the kitchen, that’s the living room and that’s where the washer and dryer are.

This one is Nina’s room and that’s mine.

’ My fingers pointed out each of the spaces and the door to mine and Nina’s rooms respectively.

‘Do you want to eat at the counter or in the living room?’

‘Living room sounds good.’ Colton made his way to the living room, placing the pizza box on the coffee table.

I headed to the kitchen. Placing my tote bag on the island, I opened the fridge to see what drinks we had. ‘Okay, so you have two options for drinks,’ I called out. ‘Do you want water or chocolate milk?’

‘Chocolate milk?’ I heard him ask.

I closed the door of the fridge partly to look at him. ‘Too old for chocolate milk?’ I arched a brow, slightly offended by his remark.

‘Definitely not,’ he answered without missing a beat. ‘Just a bit surprised, that’s all. I’ll have the chocolate milk, please.’

Pouring him a glass and one for myself, I brought them with me as I headed to where he was standing right next to the TV, holding up a framed photo of me and Nina in our old dorm room during freshman year.

‘Here you go.’ I handed him a glass.

‘Thanks,’ he said, taking it from me with his unoccupied hand. Raising his other one with the framed photo in my direction, he asked, ‘when was this taken?’

‘Freshman year, second semester,’ I answered.

I still remember the day we took that photo.

There wasn’t anything special about that particular day: no birthdays, no achievements to celebrate, nothing worth commemorating.

Nina and I were just chilling in our room, catching up on our work, when I randomly realized we had never taken a picture together in our dorm room before.

We had immediately enlisted the help of Claudia and Lily to help us take the photo.

The photo was nothing more than me and Nina with our arms around each other.

No cute outfits and our slightly messy room, just two best friends, standing in a place where their lives intertwined with one another.

But there was always something endearing about that photo, and when we moved in together for sophomore year, Nina had surprised me by having it printed and framed.

And then, it sat proudly next to the TV.

‘You look cute here,’ Colton pointed out.

A blush rose to my cheeks.

That, I agreed with; I did look cute in that photo, and Nina did too—which was why, it was a mutual favourite from the bunch that we had taken. Or I didn’t think Nina would have it printed out, much less have it framed.

Colton placed the photo back in its original spot as he turned to me. ‘So, pizza?’

‘Sure.’ I nodded. ‘You can wash your hands in the kitchen, I’m gonna go change first.’

Picking up my abandoned tote bag on the kitchen island, I headed to my room and set it on my desk chair. After I carefully hung Colton’s baseball jacket, I reached through the rest of my closet, searching for an oversized t-shirt and some sweatpants.

Once I was done changing, I returned to the living room and found Colton sitting on the right side of the couch, scrolling through his phone. I washed my hands on the kitchen sink before joining him, folding my legs together once I sat down.

Colton leaned forward to put his phone on the coffee table, the screen facing down. Opening the pizza box, he picked it up and brought it towards me. ‘Your dinner, milady,’ he said, not forgetting the head bow as he uttered the words.

I shook my head at his dramatics, amused laughter coming out of my mouth. ‘Why thank you, milord,’ I said, picking up a slice of the pizza.

He gave a playful grin and took a slice of his own before placing the box back on the coffee table.

We both ate in silence, content with our food of choice for the night.

I was only halfway through my slice, when Colton reached for his second one.

As I sat there eating pizza with Colton in my living room, I couldn’t help but think of the other male figure in my life and our little pizza tradition.

Without even second-guessing myself, the words were already out of my mouth. ‘My dad and I had a baseball tradition while I was growing up.’

‘Yeah?’ Colton said as he started on his second slice.

I nodded. ‘We used to attend those little league games when I was in middle school, and we would get pizza afterwards. It wasn’t something we did intentionally, but the more games we went to, it sort of just became a routine—a tradition.

When the divorce happened, we sort of stopped doing it for a while. ’

‘What happened then?’

‘We started it again, only this time, instead of eating pizza after going to a baseball game, we ate it while we were watching a live baseball game on the TV. It didn’t matter which team was playing, I would just go to his house every Sunday, and he would already have the pizza ready for us.

Sometimes he would even make it himself.

’ I couldn’t help but laugh at the memory.

‘It took a few tries, but he eventually got the hang of it. And now, whenever I go to his house to watch a game, the delicious smell of pizza never fails to greet me.’

‘Was your dad a big baseball fan?’ I heard Colton ask.