I poked suspiciously at the lump of mushy green in my bowl. "I'm not entirely sure about this," I muttered. "It's green, Frankie."

Frank sighed. "It's just pistachio, Gerard. Try it. You'll like it."

I wrinkled my nose at the bland green ice cream as I said, "I really doubt that. It looks like it's radioactive. I could be mutated by eating this, Frank. Do you really want to be responsible for killing me?"

He giggled and inhaled a spoonful approximately the size of my head. "That should give you incentive to eat it," he laughed after he swallowed. "You'll be like, Spider-Man the second or something. Honestly, you'd like it if you gave it half a shot."

"I don't wanna," I pouted. Yeah, I sounded like a little kid, but I didn't care. Pistachio can't be an ice cream flavor….it's a nut! You don't see walnut ice cream or whatever! The closest thing is pecan pie. And that's not a flavor, really. It's more of a…topping, I suppose. Yes, topping. That works.

Danzig came trotting over and dropped his thick head on Frank's thigh. Frank reached down and extended a finger dipped in pistachio, inviting Danzig to slurp at and nearly inhale it, which he did with the gusto he normally reserved for poodles and table scraps. He licked his chops and stared up at Frank adoringly, as if thanking him for the most wonderful treat ever. Frank looked at me. "See? 'Zig likes it."

"Ziggy likes people food, period. You could give him rotten potato peels and he would love it."

Frank gave me a look that told me I was being childish. "Am I going to have to force you to try this ice cream?" He asked threateningly, and I could see the frustration mixed with amusement. Instead of meeting his gaze, I dropped my eyes to the nasty looking pistachio flavored ice cream that was now slowly melting, warmed by my body heat. Now it wasn't a scoop, it was a tiny greenish island surrounded by a creamy green sea that looked like pea soup-another thing I just didn't like. Now it was doubly unappetizing, and I set my bowl down on the coffee table, pushing it away from me. I looked up at Frank and cocked my eyebrow at his incredulous expression.

"I don't understand you sometimes," he said as he shook his head.

I shrugged and leaned back on the couch. "It's just not a good flavor for ice cream. It's nasty."

"You didn't even try it!" His voice rose with indignation.

"If something is that gross looking, you don't have to try it!" I half-shouted back. Just give up already….it's just ice cream.

A sharp, squealing wail interrupted our blossoming argument from behind the only closed door in the hallway. Frank shot me a look that made me feel like crawling into the bowl of ice cream soup and drowning myself. "See what you did?" He asked me rhetorically as he stood up and went toward the door. He cracked it open, and the crying escalated in volume. "Hey, baby," he cooed, all the anger gone from his voice. I watched him disappear into the darkened room, then watched him bend over the crib and lift Lyric into his arms, the pair of them illuminated by the moonlight streaming into through the windows in her room we hadn't found curtains for yet. I watched him carefully, his face changing from frustrated to almost serene as he walked her around the room, the moonlight throwing his features into sharp relief as he smiled at Lyric, who had stopped crying as suddenly as she started, and suddenly the fucking ice cream just didn't matter. I got up as quietly as I could, stepped over Danzig (who was now conked out and snoring) and paused at the doorway.

"She just dropped off," he breathed. "Shh."

"It's just ice cream," I whispered. I stepped up behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist, and looked down over his shoulder at Lyrics' tiny, perfect face. Her eyes were closed, and her eyelashes cast tiny shadows over her already prominent cheekbones-Frank's cheekbones. Her small, round nose wrinkled, and she sniffed, her entire face tensing; then she let out a tiny, tiny sneeze and then relaxed, her mouth falling open as she fell deeper and deeper into the sound sleep only babies and puppies could achieve.

Frank placed her back in her crib and then turned to me, winding his arms around my neck and kissing me. As I kissed him back, I tasted something other than him. It was sweet and…nutty? I pulled back from him just in time to see Frank grin at me.

"I knew I'd get you to try the ice cream," he grinned.