Vanilla Was Her Favorite

July 7, 2023

The hot day fading into a cool evening as the sun kissed the tops of the foothills made those long days feel worth it. I almost always smelled of coconut that summer and had developed a crease between my brows because I had been stubborn to buy a hat for too many months. Looking back on it, as September creeped closer, I was happy with how the summer had gone. It had been the longest summer I could remember in the past 28 years of life, but not in a bad way; it had been the first summer I had loved in a long time.

The days felt longer than I remembered, but maybe it was because I was making the most of them; filling them to the brim with long walks and homemade ice cream. I had mastered vanilla in June, but chocolate was much harder because of the cocoa powder. Luckily, vanilla was her favorite.