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THE BLUE DIRNDL DRESS that Starcourt Cafe forced its waitresses to wear was Steve's pride and joy. Not in a creepy way—at least he hoped. He'd never revealed this information to anyone, anyway. But on the inside, behind his longing stare across the middle of the mall's open floor plan where Valentina worked alongside her best friend while he scooped ice cream with the most annoying coworker in the world, Steve just couldn't help himself from drooling into the bucket of Butter Pecan.
"Um, excuse me?" the boy no taller than the top of the counter interrupted Steve's thoughts.
He snapped back into reality, wiping the sight of Valentina cinching her apron around her waist out of his mind along with the string of spit dripping down his dehydrated lips.
The little boy was staring up at Steve, more confused than impatiently, and immediately smiled like he hadn't been waiting five minutes for the young adult to stop stargazing at his best friend when he spoke, "Sorry. What can I get for you?"
"Not the Butter Pecan," he said. His cheeks were larger than the boy's eyes, bulging around the corners and mushing his eyelashes. Steve almost couldn't fight the smile pulling at his lips at the sight of such a happy young boy, but then he grimaced as he was reminded of what he'd been caught doing a moment ago.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Steve scratched the back of his neck.
"It's okay. Were you looking at the pretty blonde over there?"
Steve gulped. His eyes darted to the nearly empty ice cream parlor and deeply into the little boy's soft green gaze, as if interrogating him like a spy. Slowly, he nodded.
"Yeah. I like her, too." For the slightest second, Steve worried he might have competition. Then he remembered who he was talking to. "My mom always gets coffee there before she goes to work. The pretty blonde gives me a plastic cup of whipped cream for free!"
Steve smiled with a little squint in his eyes. That seemed unlikely of Valentina, to be so generous to an unfamiliar child, but maybe she was really striving for those tips.
He nodded, "Yeah, she's pretty cool."
Ice cream order forgotten, the little boy suddenly seemed very interested in Steve's infatuation with the blonde waitress from Starcourt Cafe whom he'd also developed an interest in. He pushed onto his tippy-toes and leaned over the counter to partially whisper to Steve, "If you want, I could be your wingman."
Steve told himself the only reason he was entertaining this idea was because the little boy reminded him of his real wingman, Dustin, who was currently away at summer camp. Also because he still had two hours before the parlor closed and he couldn't wait that long to see Valentina.
"And what would that entail?" Steve asked.
The little boy thought for a moment. "I'll tell her a customer changed their mind about their order, so there's a free cone if she wants it!"
