10:30am
"Hey stranger!" The boy skips into the empty cafè. Today he's wearing a Spongebob hoodie and black jeans.
"Guess what today is?" He bounces on his toes.
Raising my eyebrow, I shrug.
"It's our 4th time meeting! We are no longer strangers, isn't that great!" He claps by himself as he cheers.
Is he okay? I don't think I've seen someone this energetic.
"So, in order for us not to be strangers we have to introduce ourselves."
Introduce ourselves? Come to think of it, I don't know his name. He's just the bubbly brown haired boy who comes every Saturday for a slice of red velvet cake.
"What's your name?" He beams.
That stumps me. The question is never asked and I hardly have any idea how I'm going to answer him.
"I'm waiting." He crosses his arms and smirks.
I grab one of the pens placed in a flower cup and a napkin that's near the cup. I scribble my name onto the flimsy material and slide it to the boy. He lifts it and reads it with joy.
"Jackson." He looks at me with a big smile. "Hi Jackson, I'm Mark!" He spins himself in a circle and bows.
My lips twitch a little from his actions.
His name is Mark. I can see it, it fits him well.
"Okay Jackson. Today I want three chocolate chip cookies, please."
I grab the tongs resting near the cookie warmer and place them in the cafè's trademark cookie bag. I hand them to Mark who gratefully accepts them and pays.
"Two for me and..." He grabs a napkin and picks up one of the cookies. "one for you!" He raises on his tippy toes and stuffs the cookie into my mouth.
"Mmf!" I grunt from the sudden object thrusted into my mouth.
"You made a noise!" He giggles and cheers as I chew the soft, gooey cookie.
It looks like he won a gold award for putting a cookie in my mouth.
"Is it yummy?"
I nod my head.
"Good!" He grabs his bag.
"Bye Jackson! Enjoy your cookie!" He skips out of the shop again.
I stare down at the warm cookie in my grasp. I don't find food delicious but today, this cookie is pretty good.
Maybe because Mark fed it to me. I don't know. He's a strange person.
