The explosion occurred one day in the sun. Summer made it look like a minor apocalypse, sharp little sparks of fury frothing around the couple as each maneuvered to prove the other wrong. From where he was standing, Joe blinked lazily. Kids these days…

Mighty cute they were too with their modern phrases like 'commitment' and 'relationship'. When he and Misty had been their age, there had just been 'us' and 'today'. Then again, as his mind wandered further back in time, the long days of summer had seemed much longer when they'd been in love. Everything had moved at a snail's pace, from the mail to the sun moving across the sky. People could take their sweet time, stop and smell the roses before continuing on their way and then come back just in time for another whiff.

"FINE!"

The young lady, curly-haired, blue-eyed and red in the face, released the word with all the force of a tot wielding a sling-shot and she turned on her heels just like that. The gentleman, a tall and lanky youth just shy of sixteen, stood there with his lower jaw dangling by the hinge. Sixteen was a tricky age nowadays. You could never tell if a boy was ready enough to be a man from the looks of it alone anymore. Now, back then, the kids had grown up real fast, faster than the apple trees blossoming in the fall. There was no need for this new-fangled mollycoddling that came with their IPods and Macbooks and other…

"… not fair." Joe heard his grandson mumble as he stalked past him on the way to the refrigerator.

"Only a lover's tiff, Kyle. Everyone goes through them."

An unintelligible grunt from the figure hunched over a bowl of left-over casserole made Joe wonder. Had he been this incomprehensible once upon an Indian summer? Surely his teenage life can't have been all that fraught with emotional mines. Perhaps the kids were right and the times had shifted.

"… always 'want, want, want' and 'me, me, me' with her. Can't she give it a rest or are all women really old nags deep down at heart, Gramps?"

"Well, Kyle," Joe shifted in his favorite wicker-chair as he prepared to take up the dreaded mantle of paternal wisdom. "Like all women, she assumes chivalry is dead. Therefore, deep down, she was hoping you would be the one to prove her wrong."

The boy averted his gaze, a remorseful blush immediately staining the skin behind his freckles. "She expects too much."

"Just goes to show how much of an impression you must have made on her the first time."

"Well, what else can I do? I've already tried reasoning."

"I believe the tactic you're hoping to apply is," For added suspense, Joe made the chair creak on purpose. "Compromise."

"Honestly." Kyle looked at him with disdain.

"It's like medicine. You might not like taking it today but you'll be more than grateful that you did tomorrow."

"… Doesn't work that way anymore, Gramps."

Joe left it at that, a knowing smile on his lips. Come next sunset and the young lovebirds would be thrilling to their heart's content again. Ah Misty, he stared wistfully at the smiling woman in the photograph, if you could see me now…