"Alright, where to?" Jace asks after looking back to ensure Sam had his seatbelt on.

"I wanna go to that ice cream place near Target," Sam announces.

When Sam doesn't give anymore information about its location, Natalie explains to Jace, who starts driving.

By the time they've reached the ice cream store, Sam is already lying down, dead asleep. Hunched over in fetal position, he greedily takes in every inch of the seats.

"Do you want anything?" Natalie whispers to Jace, "I'll order for you."

"Just some soft serve, I'm ok with any flavor."

Natalie nods and gets out of the car. After several minutes, she comes out with a cone and 2 plastic cups with a scoop each. Gently knocking on Jace's window, he rolls it down and takes his, mumbling a thanks. She walks around the car and gets inside, putting Sam's cup on her lap.

"Sorry about him," Natalie gestures to a snoring Sam, "this was his idea in the first place."

Jace shakes off her apology, "it's no problem, besides I got a whole dinner from your family and I wanted some ice cream anyway."

Natalie smiles at him. Jace capitalizes on his chance to spend more time with her. He twists his body towards her to show his sincerity.

Maybe he should try that pretend-to-yawn-and-somehow-casually- swing-his-arm-around-her move. He eyes her as subtle as he could without coming off as a creep. Jace decides it was too early and too risky to attempt that not so casual move. He decides to play it safe and asks her:

"How about...my treat next time since you paid."

Next time? What does next time entail?

Natalie's mind veers back in the course of the conversation.

"Sure," she accepts the offer easily.

She doesn't mention the fact that Jace paid for the weed her friends enjoyed and had already driven her several times. In her mind, it was definitely her turn to repay him with something. Of course, that something she had in mind probably wasn't what he had in mind. Or maybe it was.

She smiles back at him in order to seem as casual as possible.

They lapse in silence until they take however long it takes to finish a scoop of ice cream. Or it would be silent if not for Sam's noisy snores.

When Jace finishes his cone, he pulls out a hand sanitizer and hands it to her when he finishes.

"We should get back soon or else my parents will start to worry," Natalie voices.

That was a blatant lie. Sure, if she were out too late, normally her parents would get antsy and start calling. But after their first meeting with Jace, Natalie knew her parents already adored him and wouldn't mind their daughter getting ice cream with him.

"Yeah, of course," he clears his throat and sits up, putting his hands on the wheel.

He starts the car and drives off.

Exhausted, Natalie's mind can't conjure up any conversational topics to talk about with Jace. And the silence was too nice and comfortable to disrupt, even Sam's snores quieted.

When they near Natalie's house, she tries to shake Sam awake. Like the petulant child he was, he shrugs off her relentless shaking and resumes his sleep. Meanwhile, Jace is just chuckling quietly.

"Thanks for the help," she mumbles, grumpily to which Jace continues to laugh in amusement.

Annoyed, Natalie increases the intensity of her shaking and pinches one of his ears.

"Ow!" he gets up with a yelp.

"We're almost here."

Natalie hands him his ice cream.

He whines an "okay."

Jace slows the car to a stop by the sidewalk.

Does he want to come in?

Unsure if Jace wanted to come in to say bye to her parents like the polite gentleman he was, Natalie decides to spare him the awkwardness.

"Um...thanks again. For the ice cream and the drive."

Natalie wasn't sure what exactly to thank him for, but she wanted to be polite and wanted to let him know that this was goodbye.

"Yeah no problem. And tell your parents I said thanks for having me over for dinner," he responds.

Natalie turns to open her door when Jace calls her name out.

"Uhh, I thought we should exchange numbers."

Oh!

Her mind short circuits at the worst time.

Jace's face drops in disappointment when she doesn't respond for several, humiliating seconds..

"You know, if you ever need a ride or want to get ice cream again. Or something like that. If you want, I mean," Jace hastily explains.

Her face gets hot. She rambles back to him when she finally remembered how to speak:

"Yeah, of course, here's my number." She hands him her phone nervously. Though, it was comforting to Natalie that Jace also rambled when he was nervous.

And cute too.

Natalie says good night and gets out of the car. Sam follows and they wave before walking back in their house.