" Pizza Palace?” David asks. It’s just a few doors down. I picture my friends all huddled in a booth in the back. No need to combine David with my real life.

“Nah.”

“I figured you wouldn’t want to go there. Pizza Pizza Pizza is so much better and has that great two-for-one deal. I just didn’t want to suggest it,” David says.

“Why?”

“The name. It’s not like they have three times more pizza than other places. Ridiculous.”

“How about we not get pizza at all?”

“I thought you might say that too, since you had such a hearty, well-balanced lunch.” He pauses. Clears his throat. Stares at the single car making its way down Main Street. “That’s going to be one of those things I said out loud and then will regret later, isn’t it?”

I laugh and it feels good. He looks sweet when he realizes he’s said the wrong thing. His eyes go big and wide. To rescue him, I link my arm with his and start us walking down the street.

“Just so you know, if asked, I would have no idea how to describe your frequency,” I say.

“Honestly, sometimes I think only dogs can hear me,” he says.

“For what it’s worth, I can hear you just fine.”

“It’s worth a lot,” David says, and I blush, and I’m pretty sure he does too "

― Julie Buxbaum , What to Say Next