Ravi groaned and started passing out the goodies. “If anyone would have told me this game would be so busy, a person would have to wait fifteen minutes to order a Coke, I would have stayed home and watched it on my beautiful new sixty-inch flat-screen.”
Charlie snorted. “Are you kidding? This is the best thing ever.” She thanked him for the soft pretzel he handed her before she bit off a big chunk.
He kept handing out the concessions, shaking his head when he handed me what I’d asked for. “You order like you’re Willy Wonka.”
I stabbed my straw into the Icee, clutching my Red Rope and Milk Duds like someone was going to try to rip them away from me. “Grant has eliminated all signs of sugar and processed anything from our kitchen. He’s making me drink toxic sludge and eat all of these superfood things that taste more like super yuck food. The only time I can indulge in my beloved sugar is when he’s out there, a little preoccupied with winning the biggest game of his life.” Still, when I took a sip of my Icee, I turned slightly away from the field, just in case he was looking. Part of me didn’t doubt that he’d see and send someone to take it away.
“He’s making you eat them because those things are healthy for you,” Ravi said, right before he took a big bite of an ice cream bar.
“Hey, when you’re not in your white coat thingy, you’re Ravi my friend, not Dr. Patel my doctor.” I leaned my Icee over so Charlie could take a drink. “And that other stuff might be good for my body, but this stuff is good for my mind.”
“You should see what your brain does when a person eats sugar. It pretty much has the same reaction as someone on cocaine.” He grinned and took another bite of his ice cream bar, which was no doubt loaded with sugar. Or cocaine. Or whatever point he was trying to make.
“It’s good for my mind as in my mental health. It keeps me sane and off the Prozac, so give me a break. The last time I had sugar was two weeks ago at the Divisional Playoff game.”
On the other side of him, Ravi’s wife leaned forward. “Don’t let him give you a hard time, Ryan. You should see this man’s secret stash at home. It would shame a dozen eight-year-old boys.”
Ravi faked an offended look. “That’s my secret stash for the end times. My stockpile for the living dead apocalypse that we all know is coming.”
His wife nudged him. “Is that why I have to restock your ‘emergency’ supply every few weeks?”
He answered with a grumble, crunching into his ice cream bar again.
Michelle, his wife, shot me a wink. “Getting excited for your trip?”
Charlie’s attention was back on the field, so I leaned all the way over her so I could talk with Michelle instead of scream at her. “Yeah. Excited-nervous. Nervous-excited.”
She waved at me. “It will be fantastic. You’ll get to see some fantastic sights and meet with some fantastic people with fantastic options for you.”
I smiled at her. “Sounds pretty fantastic.”
She laughed and leaned into her husband. “It will be great. Ravi wouldn’t send you on a wild goose chase. If he says it’s promising, I know he means it.”
“He is right here, sitting between you two,” Ravi said around a bite of ice cream bar.
“Well, wild goose chase or not, we leave Thursday.”
Ravi glanced over as he wound his arm behind Michelle. “You’ll be happy you went. Believe me. Sadly, compared to Europe, the US is in the dark ages of medicine.”
“Are you talking about our trip?” Charlie popped back into the conversation as a time-out was called on the field. “Do you know I get to go too? Dad and Mom are going to take me to see the Louvre, and we get to take a river boat all around a bunch of countries.”
“Sounds like you’re going to be the most cultured seven-year-old I’ll know by the time you get back. Three months in Europe is a long time,” Ravi replied.
Charlie nodded. “Yeah, but I’ll still have to do my school work and keep up with that. So it’s not a total vacation.”
“Oh, the hardships of reading while traveling down the Rhone in a river boat.” I nudged Charlie and tore open my Milk Duds.
She was back to focusing on the game, so she didn’t hear me. A fire alarm could be blaring a foot away, and she wouldn’t have noticed when she was watching her dad on the field.
“All packed?” Michelle asked me.
“I guess. Grant said to pack light, and we could shop for what we needed over there and ship it all back if necessary, but the most exotic trip I’ve taken was a day-trip to Multnomah Falls outside of Portland. I don’t have a clue how to pack for three months in Europe.”