SWEET TREATS

I was walking down the stairs following my son, Alex, as we headed to my office when I reached into my sweatshirt pocket and felt the familiar crinkle of a candy wrapper.

Pulling it out I offered it to him. “Would you like a hard candy?”

Alex stopped right in his tracks and turned around to look at me. He then looked down at the golden wrapped candy I held in my hand. “Did you actually just pull a hard candy out of your pocket?”

I was a little confused. “Yeah.” I looked at the candy. “It's wrapped. It's not like it has pocket lint on it or anything.”

“It's not that.” Alex shook his head. “But you do know that's something a little old lady would do?”

“What?” Now I was a little indignant. “I'm not old!”

“I didn't think so either until you started keeping hard candies in your pocket.”

I put the candy back in my pocket and felt the other two that were already in there. I decided not to mention those to him. “It's not just a hard candy!” I argued. “It's a Werther's Original! A delicious caramel treat!”

“It's a hard candy.” Alex repeated as he went into my office to help me with my computer. He sat down in my chair and began checking to see why my computer was running so slow. “Pretty soon you’re going to be wearing sweaters in the middle of summer.”

I looked down at my sweatshirt. “Okay, I'm wearing this because the air conditioning is always freezing in here! I don't go outside wearing it!”

“Ah-hum” Alex nodded as he scrolled through my computer. “I see a few cats coming your way soon.”

“Oh my gosh!” I cried. “I just wanted you to taste a really good candy one of my friends gave me!”

Alex turned the chair around to face me. “Did your friend pull the candy out of her sweater pocket?” His eyebrows were raised in a questioning look.

I thought back to when my friend and I were talking about our favorite candies and she'd been surprised that I'd never tried a Werther's. As I pictured our conversation I realized she had taken one out of her pocket. I looked at Alex and sighed, there was nothing I could say.

Alex just laughed. “If you and Dad aren't careful, old people ways are going to start sneaking in.”

“It was just a hard candy.” I sighed again.

“It starts with a hard candy and moves on to Dad wearing black socks with his sandals and having one of your cats curled up on his lap as he's waiting to have dinner at four in the afternoon.”

“You know we already eat dinner at four.” I reminded him. “You like eating that early.”

“That's my first dinner.” He began going to different sites on my computer. “So it's really like a late lunch for me.”

“Well, your Dad's allergic to cats so I don't think that one's coming.” I sighed as I pulled the candy out of my pocket and began unwrapping it. “But I'm telling you these are delicious!” I popped it in my mouth, then took the other two out of my pocket and tossed them on my desk. “But I'll stop carrying them in my pocket, okay?”

“That's a good start.” He picked up one of the candies from the desk, unwrapped and popped it in his mouth. After a few seconds he looked back at me. “These are pretty good.”

I just shook my head and laughed. “Do you know you drive me crazy?”

He got up from his chair. “Yup.” He kissed the top of my head. “You're computer's fixed.” he said as he headed out of my office.

“Thanks!” I called as I sat down to get some work done. I looked over at the golden candy wrappers laying on my desk. Maybe I'd get a bowl for them instead.