Backstory WHO: Randall Bereta and Tessa Callahan WHEN: Friday, April 8, 2016 around 7:00 PM WHERE: Ice Cream Jubilee (Washington, D.C.) SUMMARY: A father/daughter ice cream date, pre-Spring Break trip. WARNINGS: Probably none
"I don't know. I'm torn." Tessa Callahan inhaled a deep breath, her expression a study in concentration. The weight of her current predicament lay heavy in the set of her slender shoulders. "You know the Strawberry White Chocolate is my go-to here, but I'm really intrigued by the idea of this Caramel Popcorn ice cream."
A few pairs of eyes darted in her direction as she vocalized her internal struggle, but she was oblivious to the looks. Over the last ten years, a lot of stares had been aimed her way whenever she was out with her stepfather. Standing next to the massive wall of a man whose skin was so much darker than her own, they were a curiosity. She liked to think that things had gotten better as she'd gotten older, but the truth was that she'd decided a long time ago that nosy people weren't worth the energy it took to acknowledge them, and that no one was entitled to an explanation of their relationship. That didn't stop her from calling him Dad in public, but it wasn't the reason she did it either. To Tessa, that was just who Randall Bereta was. It was his name, his title, his role in her life. It had been that way for a decade now; she expected it to last for several more.
"What do you think?" For almost all of those ten years, this had been their thing. Skinned knee? Ice cream. Bad hair cut? Ice cream. Straight-As? Ice cream. Early graduation and a full scholarship to MIT? A whole heck of a lot of ice cream. She'd missed this. They had their spots around the city that they hit each time she was home for a holiday, and each time her parents had come to visit her at school, they'd found a new place in Boston, but she'd still missed this. In fact, it was probably one of the things she'd missed most after leaving home at sixteen, so she didn't take these moments for granted. "Or...there's the Dark and Stormy. Candied ginger, dark rum. I could start getting my island on a little early."
Most people would probably sound a lot more enthusiastic about that. Tessa only sounded amused — and that was mostly because her dad was the only reason she'd decided to accept this all-inclusive trip. He was always on her to have more fun, and what could possibly be more fun than a trip to a private island for Spring Break?
That was a real question she'd asked, because she'd never gone on a Spring Break trip before.