Accidentally on Purpose

Chapter Thirty-Two

But earlier this morning, Mom had asked me to invite Jonah to have dinner at our house.

Actually, she'd been asking to meet Jonah since a long time ago, but I always made numerous excuses to avoid that situation. But she'd been pushing and pushing more aggressively lately, so I couldn't help but let out a huge sigh and tell her that I would ask him.

Which I was planning to do exactly right now.

The car ride had been completely silent, if you didn't count the slightly scratchy oldies music coming out from the radio (Jonah had stopped playing the songs from his CDs in the car since the questions game last Sunday). Usually, we would make small talk (I know, shocking, right?) or maybe bicker over something trivial like how it was or was not possible for Daisy to actually be our kid since she had some of our facial features (I told him she had his exact eyes, he glowered at me because his eyes "did not look creepy", and I snorted at him because, yes, his eyes could look creepy if they wanted to).

"Jonah?" I said, breaking the silence.

He didn't steer his eyes off the road, but he did hum, "Mm?"

I hesitated, "Are you... free tomorrow?"

This time he did glance at me for about a second before returning to the road. "Other than work, yeah, I think so. Why?"

"Well... my mom's inviting you to dinner. You know, just to get to know my partner a little better." His eyes sort of widened the slightest bit. I coughed before adding, "I mean, my partner for this school project. So, yeah, if you could come to my house tomorrow... that would be awesome."

"Um." He paused. "Okay," he said. "But, um, I'll have to ask my mom first," he added, a bit awkwardly.

"Of course," I said, shrugging to let him know that it wasn't a big deal.

"I'll just call you later tonight," he told me, and I felt my heart soaring into the sky.

"Alright."

Just as we arrived at the diner, Daisy began to cry. Jonah groaned and lightly banged his forehead against the steering wheel, before unbuckling his seatbelt and ready to shut her up.

But I stopped him. "I'll take care of her. Just go ahead and clock in."

"You sure?" he asked, but his face looked relieved. He really hated Daisy. I understood him wholeheartedly.

"Yup," I said, unbuckling my own seatbelt and immediately jumped out of the car with my backpack, opening the back door and taking Daisy out of the baby seat along with her bag. I carefully carried her while lightly swaying her in my arm while Jonah locked the car. He gave me another look to make sure I was alright with the crying doll in my arms, and I held up my thumb.

Before he went inside through the backdoor, he asked, "Want me to get you a drink? I'm experimenting with some recipes I found online."

I grinned. "Yup."

He gave me one last nod before finally turning around to leave. Once he was out of sight, I looked down at the baby, sighing at her while grabbing the bottle from her bag and began bottle-feeding her. She shut up immediately.

"Good girl," I cooed and began walking toward the diner.

[]

"Out of all the drinks I've made you," Jonah said, his voice sounding like a melodious hum over the phone, "which one is your favorite?"

I grinned. "I don't know, Jonah. You've made a bunch of different ones and they're all good to me."

He scoffed. "Just pick one."

"Okay, okay. Hmm, well, I really liked the first one you've ever made me."

"The green tea latte?"

"Mm-hm."

"Huh." He paused. "Why?"

"Because I really like green tea and I'd never tasted one as good as that. It's not too artificially sweet and it doesn't taste like those instant powder mix ones you find at the store. Also," I added, my voice turning playful, "you proposed to me with the same drink."

He chuckled.

"But really, everything you make is good," I said. "You should open your own coffee shop one day."

"Maybe I should," he agreed. I imagined him bobbing his head up and down as he said that. "Anyway, it's past midnight. Aren't you sleepy?"

I glanced at the clock on my bedside table, my eyebrows slightly furrowing when I saw that he was right. It was nearly one in the morning. Almost immediately, I started yawning, and I guess Jonah heard my obnoxious yawn, because he started laughing.

Jonah had called around ten o'clock to inform me that he would be coming to dinner tomorrow. It didn't take long until we started a bunch of different conversations, talking about a to z; at one point, Daisy started crying and he had to put the call on hold, and I just sat there as I listened to Jonah talking to the doll in hopes that it would make her cries stop.

It was funny to hear how he was taking care of her. The frustration and irritation in his voice were unmistakably there—but he clearly made an effort to be patient with Daisy so he wouldn't, like he'd a thousand times said he would, throw the doll out of his window. After fifteen minutes, he tried singing to Daisy—and I had to hold in my urge to coo out loud—as he probably rocked her to "sleep". She stopped crying about five minutes later.

And now here we were, nearly one in the morning, playing another round of the questions game.

"Just go sleep," Jonah told me, but I shook my head.

"Not tired," I replied, obviously lying. Talking to him apparently made my body forget that I needed sleep, but as soon as he pointed out the time, it was as if the exhaustion immediately pulled me down.

"You'll just end up bitching at me tomorrow morning because you don't sleep enough," he pointed out.

"Okay, okay, but one more question."

"Shoot."

I bit my lip, hesitating a little bit. "Okay. So, you've told me before that your first impression of me was that I was pretty much an annoying bitch."

He snickered. "Yes. Sorry not sorry."

I rolled my eyes. "The question is..." I paused. "What do you think of me now?" I asked.

He paused to think.

"Am I still an annoying bitch?" I asked with a grin.

"Obviously," he said, and I laughed. "But not as much."

I smiled. "Is that so?"

"Yeah." After a pause, he settled with, "I think you're great friend." And then he added hastily, "But that's only just because I've never had any friend before, so my judgment of what a good friend is is probably a little wacky."

"Jonah!"

"Hannah," he mocked me in a high-pitched voice, and I was instantly amused and irritated at the same time. "Question answered. Now go to sleep," he said flatly.

"Okay. Good night," I sang, ready to hang up.

But then, "Hold on a sec."

"Hm?"

"Uh." He hesitated. "What do you think of me?"

I let a few seconds pass as I tried to let the smile on my face fade. "I think..." I started. "I think you're not an asshole, Jonah," I finally said, because I remembered that I'd told him that I'd thought he was an asshole.

"Really?" he asked, amusement lacing his voice. "What am I, then?"

"You're... an apple," I said.

"... Huh?" He clearly was confused, but I just laughed at him.

"See you tomorrow, Jonah."