2019-11-20 - Chocolate is the Best Invention

It's early afternoon, probably right about the time that Ashira has gotten out of school, or a tiny bit later, when they arrive at Sweet Retreat to meet up with Erin. Ashira seems to have been talking a mile a minute, judging from how they enter -- her still talking, her father looking at her with an amused expression.

"...and then he told her to shut up," she says with wide eyes, the last two words whispered as though they're about as bad as anyone could possibly get. Can you believe that, Ciprian?! "He had to go to the principal's office."

Erin is waiting inside, out of her car, just inside the doorway. She's wearing a dress that's belted at the waist, but the heels aren't quite so high. She's already 5'9" without them! She doesn't want to tower over the little girl. Holding a clutch purse she smiles as they pile out of the car.

Hearing part of the conversation, she tries to hide the smile at the direness of the words shut up from the little girl. But when she lifts her eyes to Ciprian's, the smile makes an appearance anyway, a shared amusement at the story from the girl. "Hi Ashira, Hi Ashira's daddy." The smile widening. "It's good to see you!"

Ciprian sees Erin as soon as they enter, and the smile is returned as he lifts a hand to wave at her. "Hi, Erin," he says, "it's great to see you, too. Ashira, do you remember Erin? We saw her the other day at the dog park."

Ashira leaves off whatever it was she was talking about to look up at Erin as well -- she's obviously not 5'9", but she does look tall for her age; considering her father's height, Ir's probably not surprising. "Yes," she confirms, and then she smiles. "Hi, Erin! Are you going to have ice cream, too? It's so delicious. I'm going to have chocolate. Or maybe strawberry. I was trying to decide on the way here."

"It's so good to see you again, Ashira. I would love to have ice cream too, if you don't mind if I join you for some? There's so many good choices. Strawberry is good. So is banana and chocolate and every other kind. Except spinach. I don't think I want spinach ice cream." Erin crinkles her nose and winks at the girl, sharing the tease maybe.

Straightening, she asks. "Did you have a good day today?" This asked of Ciprian, because she didn't want to bombard the eight year old with so many questions or anything at once. She looks between the two though, making sure Ashira doesn't feel left out.

"You can," Ashira pronounces quickly with a nod, before she laughs at the idea of spinach ice cream. The laugh is about equal parts scandalized and amused. "Spinach ice cream," she says, shaking her head. She seems fine to let the adults have a conversation, though, as she heads toward the ice cream display, walking slowly in front of it as she finalizes this most important of decisions.

Ciprian is smiling as well as he turns back to Erin. "It was pretty good," he confirms. "I had a deposition to do, but it went pretty smoothly. How about you?"

The laugh just gets her in the feels and Erin can't help but respond in kind. "Watch out for the green ones," she tells her as she heads over. "Except the pistachio." While Ashira goes to the display case, Erin focuses once more on Ciprian. "A deposition? Was that for your DA work or the work on the side? I guess sometimes it's harder to get a witness statement when it's a criminal case?" Certainly not a lawyer, she's not exactly sure how it works. "Unless you're defending the criminal and not the district attorney's side of things."

"For the DA," Ciprian replies as he hangs back, letting his daughter have time to make sure she's chosen her very favorite flavor. God forbid she choose wrong! "It really depends on the witness," he admits as he turns back to Erin. "If the witness is willing to testify, it's easy enough. If they aren't, then yes, it becomes more difficult. The good thing about depositions is that you can get most things out of the way beforehand, so that when you actually go to court, you don't have many surprises you have to navigate in front of a judge. Contrary to what Law and Order looks like." This is said a little bit more dryly.

"I think it would be interesting to sit in and watch you in action in front of a judge. I'd be willing to do that if it would be allowed. If I would be welcome. I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything, I guess I'm too inquisitive at times. So a deposition lets the witness know what it is you're going to question them on?"

It was nice talking about him, Erin seemed genuinely interested. Though she does keep an eye on Ashira because it was fun watching her make her own decisions independently. "Is being an attorney what you aspired to be all your life?"

"You wouldn't make me uncomfortable," Ciprian replies. "If it's an open trial, you're welcome to come and sit in. I don't know if it would be that interesting, though. A lot fewer instances of yelling 'objection!' than you might imagine." This gets a little amused huff, before he continues, "The deposition is pretty much getting the entire witness testimony beforehand. You don't actually want surprises in court, and you aren't supposed to surprise the other side, either. You do ask question there, but all the questions have already been answered in the deposition, so both sides know what's going to be said before the actual trial so they can make their arguments based on it. The only people who haven't already heard it is the judge and jury." As for whether he's always wanted to be a lawyer, he nods. "Most of it, at least," he confirms. "There was a point where I wanted to be a superhero, but I think that stopped when I was about Ashira's age." Is he joking? Perhaps!

Speaking of Ashira, she comes back to both of them right then, taking her father's hand. "I want chocolate," she says with another decisive nod, her choice made. "What flavor are you getting, Erin?"

"Thanks, I will take you up on that. Just to sort of get the lay of the land so I understand better when you want to talk about your work. Or your day or anything." Erin listens closely, the bulk of her attention there on him with some shared with Ashira. "I guess that makes sense. There are some really good movies depicting court scenes and while some are more serious, I think some of the comedy ones are fun. Liar, Liar would be a fun one for Ashira, I imagine, if she's not already seen it. There are a few older ones that come to mind but I'd much rather see you in action."

The superhero bit surprises her and she laughs softly that he had managed to do that. "Which begs the question, if you had super powers, what would they be?"

With Ashira's decision made, Erin looks like she's contemplating it, "I really like chocolate, but if I get chocolate I'll want strawberry. Maybe strawberry, I can't go wrong with pink can I? Pink tastes good."

"That is a good one," Ciprian agrees with a little wider smile. "I'm sure we'll watch it together eventually. She does love to tell me that I'm very boring, though. Right?" he asks as he looks down to his daughter, who wrinkles her nose and then nods.

"He doesn't do exciting things like a doctor or a firefighter," she agrees, but her attention is caught by the taste of 'pink.' "Yeah," she confirms as she starts to pull her father toward the counter. "My best friend at school is allergic to strawberries, though, so she can never have strawberry ice cream." She says this as though it's one of the worst things she's ever heard in her life. Can you imagine that, Erin? "I'm not allergic to anything. But we don't eat pork. So I guess maybe I'm allergic to that and I just don't know I am. Are you allergic to anything?"

"Boring?" Erin gasps softly. "Oh no! What can we do? Not boring!" Tapping her chin, she winks at Ciprian before offering to Ashira, "How about after we get our ice cream, we see how boring he is okay? Cause I got an idea!" She gives the girl a conspiratorial smile.

Placing her own order, she changes it at the last moment. "Vanilla shake, in honor of Ashira's friend who can't have strawberries." It's spoken with a smile. "I guess that does mean you're kind of allergic to it, doesn't it? Pork, she means. Following along. "I don't think I'm allergic to anything. I've not tried everything though so maybe. Do you like pecans or anything on your ice cream? I like that when I have a sundae." She grins at Ciprian. "So we get to guess what flavor you're getting too? Or are you going to surprise us?"

The mention of an 'idea' has Ashira's eyes lighting up, and she smiles widely, in contrast to her father whose smiles are more few and far between. Though he is smiling now, so that's something. "What idea?" she asks as she does a little excited hop, before she stills and looks around, as though remembering that she's not a very little child anymore. "I don't usually get toppings," she replies. "I like the plain ice cream." However, she has to add, "He always gets the same thing." See? Boring.

Ciprian snorts, replying, "Thank you, Ashira. I know what I like." He looks back at Erin in a little put-upon way, though he's also obviously amused at the whole thing. "French vanilla," he admits, before he orders their ice cream. After he's paid and they've all been handed their respective ice creams, Ciprian starts them toward a table as Ashira starts in on her ice cream. "Chocolate is the best invention ever."

"I'll tell you as soon as we get settled. You'll see your dad's not so boring at all." Erin smiles, realizing she wasn't such a small girl too, but hey, even she enjoyed a sundae on occasion. "Plain ice cream is pretty good too." Admittedly she was curious as to what he would order, smiling at his choice when he finally does.

Catching that look from him, she lowers her lashes, not wanting to press too far, but just enjoying herself. She collects her shake and slides into one of the chairs. As soon as they are all seated, she puts her treat down and reaches into the clutch purse of hers and withdraws a pen and a small notebook.

"I bet your dad writes a lot of things. You can pretend to be him just so you'll see how boring he isn't. So what you do is write down a question then ask him or ask either one if us if you want, but maybe you'll find out fun things. Give your dad a deposition like he talks about all the time. Then you can write down his answer. Maybe ask him..." Erin hesitates here and ponders Ciprian. "Ask him what's his favorite toy when he was younger? Or his favorite ride at an amusement park? Maybe what was his favorite game? You'll find out a lot of things. You can keep the book and the pen."

Ashira continues to eat her ice cream as she regards Erin, just a little bit skeptically, but still intrigued at whatever it is that she's going to come up with about her dad. Erin's idea does seem to interest her as it gets explained, and she shifts in her seat, looking toward the pen and the notebook. "Hm," she muses as she takes another lick of her ice cream, looking from Erin to her father, then back. "I could do that," she finally pronounces, and she reaches her free hand for the pen and pad. "Thank you," she adds after a look from her dad.

Ciprian is watching this exchange with interest, himself, and a little chuckle escapes him as Ashira answers as though she thinks she's doing him a favor. But his expression is obviously very fond. "The superpower I would've had, by the way," he says a little belatedly as he looks to Erin, "is flight. I always wanted to fly. What about you?"

Erin wasn't sure of the girl would like the idea or not, but she presents it. It sure sounded like a fun one to her! Maybe her own enthusiasm was contagious. Either way when Ashira agrees, even if grudgingly, she gives her a smile. "Only if you want to. And you're very welcome."

She takes a sip of her shake though when she realizes Ciprian was going to answer about the super power, she smiles her encouragement. "Flight, that would be a fun one, I think. Maybe a little breathtaking with nothing between you and the ground as a safety net." She considers it until he returns the question she has an immediate response. "Psychometry." Though there's no further explaining.

Ashira takes the notebook, flipping it open to the first page before she shifts the ice cream to her other hand. She draws a line down the center of one page, and on one side she writes, 'Dad.' "How do you spell 'Erin?'" she asks as she looks up to Erin curiously. "Also, what's psychometry?" While she waits, she writes down, 'flying' in the Dad column.

"That would be a pretty good power," Ciprian admits. "I wouldn't mind being able to do that, too." Turning to his daughter, he adds, "It's the power of finding out something about an object just by touch. So say you didn't know whose pen that was. If you had psychometry, you could touch it, and maybe you'd see whose it was in your mind. Like that."

Watching Ashira, it just made Erin smile with tenderness at the steady hand and the curiosity. She would so love to encourage the imagination that he had mentioned her having. "E-r-i-n." Spelling out her name for her, only saying the next letter once she'd written down the previous one.

While Ciprian offers the definition and example, Erin smiles at the interaction between the two. "I think it would be interesting. Flying would be too. So many powers to choose from it's hard to settle with one." Though technically there are powers out there and while she can see or feel the glimmer in him, she doesn't bring it up. "What's your favorite game, Ashira? And yours?" She asks Ciprian as well.

"E...r...i...n." Ashira looks at her handiwork, and then she nods, as though satisfied. Looking up again, she says, "Oh. Yeah, that would be cool. I'd like to turn invisible. Or maybe fly, too. Or run really really fast like Dash. But I think that'd kind of be like flying." She writes down, 'sicometry' on Erin's side, before she continues, "I love playing dress up. And sometimes we play Salon, and then Daddy pretends to be a character and he tells me what he wants me to do to his hair, like one time he made up that he was really rich and so he had to have his hair into a dollar sign." She grins at this, "It didn't really look like a dollar sign but I took a picture."

Ciprian reaches up to rub a hand over his face, but there's still a little bit of amusement in his expression as he replies, "We do play that sometimes. I admit I'm more partial to regular card games. What about you, Erin?"

Erin watches as she writes and makes zero corrections, pleased at the way the girl had sounded out the word for her own spelling of it. "Dash is cool. I like the Incredibles. Everyone does something different but it still helps them all out." Another few drinks through her straw before she places her cup down and just listens.

There's a time in the story that she laughs softly, eyes going to Ciprians hair. "Maybe you should do it like Shrek's sometime too. Or Prince Charming. Or the Beast with blue ribbons. I bet you did a good job on his hair. Maybe take a lot of fun pictures of things you do and build a scrapbook."

The amusement from Ciprian is contagious and Erin's expression echoes his. "I like card games and some board games. Trivia is kind of fun. Spades and Canasta are fun. Hand and Foot is fun. Being an only child I didn't have a lot of partners for games, but I really like them."

Ashira is writing furiously on the pad, apparently having gotten into the spirit of the thing now. "It's hard to do anything really because it's short," she admits as she makes a little face. "I could do your hair better." You're welcome, Erin. She takes a bite from her ice cream now and then, but she's quite focused on this project for the moment.

Ciprian nods, leaning back as he takes a couple bites from his own cone, looking from his daughter to Erin. "I used to know how to play Canasta," he admits, "but it's been a while. Sometimes we play Hearts, but she likes to try and shoot the moon every hand."

"You are welcome to do my hair. I've got cool curlers," meaning not heated, "barrettes, hair ties, ribbons and bows. We can do each other's hair and try on all the clothes and have a pageant. What are your talents? Do you like to sing or dance? Or jump rope?" Erin leaves it open for Ashira to fill in any blanks she likes.

"Canasta is fun. Red threes are worth a lot, black threes are discards. Jokers and 2's are wild. You try and get 7 of a kind without wild cards for a red canasta or anywhere as low as four of a kind with wildcards to make a black one. That's the easiest explanation. Hand and Foot is much like that, but with several decks of cards." She smiles at the idea of Ashira playing Hearts. "Hearts is so fun. I have an app on my phone for that. Sometimes I play it when I can't sleep." Lifting her eyes to Ciprian. "Do you have a favorite book?"

Ashira looks up again at the mention of curlers, and then her eyes widen at every subsequent reveal of some other thing that would allow her to do Erin's hair in a super exciting way that Ciprian's hair would obviously not he able to manage. "Really?" she says with a wide grin. "That would be so cool! I like to sing. That's what my name means. 'I will sing.'" She finishes her ice cream, writing down some more things in the notebook.

Ciprian smiles as he lists to Erin explain the game, and he replies, "That sounds fun. As for favorite books, I like biographies, but I don't read as much as I should." He finishes his ice cream, and glances at his watch. There's a little reluctant look as he admits, "We should probably get going, though. Ashira, would you like Erin to watch you sometimes?"

This gets a little gasp from Ashira, and she nods her head a couple of times vigorously. "Yeah!" she says. "That would be fun. Then I could do her hair."

"I didn' t know that's what your name meant. That's really neat I can't wait to hear you sing." Erin tells her honestly. She holds her breath a moment when asked about babysitting and the quick agreement seems to make Erin smile. "Then you could do my hair. It'll be fun. I look forward to it."

A smile is given to Ciprian and she also rises to her feet, collecting her clutch purse and the rest of her shake. "There's an app for the phone, a Kindle app, and even free books now and then. Worth looking into, if you ever need something to read." Then she adds, "Thank you for the ice cream and most of all the company. I truly had a wonderful evening with you both. Maybe you can stay for dinner one time when I babysit or something. If you'd like." She steps back so the two of them can leave ahead of her, but she'll follow shortly after to her own car.

"Yes!" Ashira pumps a fist in the air, which makes Ciprian laugh, but he can certainly understand her eagerness. "Thank you for coming," he says as he looks back to Erin. "This was fun. And I'd be happy to do that sometime." He stands up, grabbing a napkin and wiping his hands after his daughter does the same.

"Bye, Erin!" Ashira says as she slips off the chair. "Thank you for the notebook!" She's holding it firmly, as well as the pen, and Ciprian smiles, reaching over to brush a hand over his daughter's hair briefly before he turns to Erin again. "I'll see you soon," he says. "Have a good evening." With that, they turn to head out to the street.