Turns out I don’t really have everything (or even anything) needed for an aesthetic picnic date, like one of those weaved baskets, a picnic blanket or anything much to eat. I haven’t really done much picnic-ing at university as I’ve usually used my free time either partying or going to cafes and such. Either way I pick out a handful of comics for us to read and then head over to the kitchen to see what we can take with us to eat.

“Um. I think we need to go to the store to buy picnic stuff.”, I say sheepishly as I look around, picking out an opened bag of chips and a packet of cookies I forgot I even had, but that’s all I can find. 

“I’m okay with just those snacks”, Wyatt says, “I don’t think we really need anything more…”.

“But we need a picnic blanket to sit on.”, I insist, “So, we need to go to the store anyway, so we might as well go and then we can pick out better snacks as well.”

“Can’t we just sit on our jackets or something? Or just a normal blanket?”, Wyatt suggests, sounding a bit reluctant. 

“But I should own a picnic blanket anyway, so I might as well buy one now, so that we’ll have one for next time we want to go on a picnic. Spring is just beginning, so there’s going to be plenty more nice days when we might want to sit out in the sun.”, I smile as I grab my bag, packing my wallet and keys as I head for the door. “Come on, let’s go, shopping won’t take that long. I’ll be fast, I promise!”. 

“It’s not the time I’m worried about…”, Wyatt mumbles as he follows me out. 

As we get to the store, I grab a cart, humming to myself, excited to pick out some fruit, baked goods, maybe some cheese…

“We’ll just grab a few snacks and a blanket, I don’t think we need a cart.”, Wyatt tries to say, but I just wave him off. 

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be quick! I already have a vision of what I want.”, I flash him a smile as I put everything that looks good in the cart as we pass by, “Mmm! A watermelon! Definitely getting it, but then we also need a knife and…”, I mumble and trail off, thinking of everything we need as I continue filling the cart. The more I pick the more things I need to add, because some things can’t be eaten without plates, I need to get paper plates and some foods require utensils, so I get those, and so when we finally get to the register to pay, I’ve unintentionally filled the cart with more stuff than I originally planned. But it’s fine, it’s not a proper picnic without a good variety of snacks and treats. 

As we are loading everything onto the conveyor belt, Wyatt looks a bit concerned, but he quickly smiles at me when he catches me looking. When it’s time to pay, I naturally go to look for my wallet, but before I can pay, Wyatt insists that he’ll get it. 

“But it was my idea, you really don’t have to–”, I try to say, but he’s already paying. 

As I pack everything at the end of the conveyor belt and I see how long the receipt is as it gets printed out, I realize that the cost of this picnic is probably quite steep for a normal person. I didn’t even look at the prices as I picked out everything, but now I kind of wish I had. I should probably have thought about how my budget and Wyatt’s are vastly different. Now I feel kind of bad, but I think it’ll make him feel worse if it seems like I feel bad about it. He is a bit sensitive when it comes to talking about money and I think his pride is getting in the way of me paying for everything. I mean, money is kind of the reason we broke up in the first place back when we first dated… Damn, I should have been more thoughtful. I try not to let Wyatt see what I’m thinking, instead trying to get my excitement for the picnic back. Fake it ‘til you make it, you know. And it does work, soon enough thoughts of money and worries are gone as we spend a wonderful picnic outside in the beautiful spring weather. Reading comics, eating delicious snacks and basking in the sunlight. We decided to have our picnic on the campus lawn, like many others as well. I get some aesthetic picnic pictures for social media and to our delight even the campus cat (a cat that is known to wander the campus grounds) pays us a visit. I feed it some watermelon and Wyatt, who absolutely adores it, plays with it until it falls asleep in his lap. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t be surprised if my phone’s camera roll was completely full after this picnic.