Sirens and Sprinkles

Delightful Doughnuts

In all of his time as a firefighter, Dave had never been so nervous. He approached Delightful Doughnuts with all the confidence of a minnow in shark-infested waters.

Thankfully, only a lone cashier was present to witness his first doughnut run for the team. Neither the blindingly yellow tables speckled with crumbs and faded coffee stains nor the ancient refrigerator full of milk humming in the corner judged him, although he could have sworn the tabby in the lone painting decorating the store was giving him the stink eye.

"Welcome to Delightful Doughnuts, home of our famous Dunkers," the cashier said with a smile. Dylan was written on their name tag in neat cursive next to a purple and yellow heart. "How can I help you?"

By explaining what the heck a dunker is and by making sure his coworkers weren't pranking him again, he thought. Finding out they had hidden a chocolate bar in his pants had been bad enough thanks to the unfortunate stain it made when it melted, although at least it had still tasted nice.

"This is probably a bit weird," he said, "but is it really free doughnut day? The guys at the station told me to pick up a half dozen."

"I take it you just started working there?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah, on Monday," He shifted from one foot to the other. Was this something they did to every new guy to test how gullible they were? "I'd better go," he said as he turned to leave.

"Not without your free doughnuts!"

Dave's eyes widened in surprise as the cashier plopped a small white box onto the counter. "They weren't just pulling my leg?"

"Nah." The rainbow beads woven in Dylan's hair clicked together as they shook their head. "We always give all the firemen free doughnuts every Friday."

"That's a pretty sweet tradition."

His pun was met with a chuckle. "So, what'll it be this week?"

Dave's eyes wandered to the display case. He'd been so worried about the doughnuts not being free that he hadn't actually bothered to glance at the tantalizing treats until now. There were of course classics like jelly-filled doughnuts and his personal favorite, chocolate glazed, but more unique offerings like pop rock surprise and maple bacon tempted his taste buds and terrified his arteries. Rows full of doughnut holes rested beneath them, whispering for him to maybe get a little something extra for himself.

"Well, it's hard to go wrong with chocolate. That might be playing it too safe though. Maybe peanut butter filled? But I'm not even sure if anyone is allergic..." Dave absentmindedly ran a hand over the stubble lining his jaw as he pondered his options. With his luck, he'd probably be the one guy who'd screw up free doughnut day.

"Don't stress about it," Dylan said. "There's no such thing as a bad doughnut, so I'm sure they'll be totally cool with whatever you pick."

"You think so?"

"Yup, as long as you don't go for the lemon filled ones." They leaned over the counter and whispered conspiratorially, "Roger hates those. When Walt picked nothing but those one week, Roger squirted the jelly right in his face. As much as I love messy doughnuts, I don't think you particularly want to risk having lemon curd shot into your eyes."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be great." He ran a hand through his short brown curls. "Let's go with three chocolate glazed, two raspberry jelly-filled, and one maple bacon."

"Good picks!" Dylan loaded the six doughnuts into the box. "Anything else?"

"How about a small bag of those doughnut holes, just to be safe?" He pulled out his chocolate stained wallet. The scent of two-day-old melted milk chocolate made his mouth water as he said, "Make that a medium."

"They'll definitely love our Dunkers. Does a mix of peanut butter, chocolate, and passion fruit sound good? Those are our most popular flavors right now."

"For sure." He reached into his wallet to pay, but they put up a hand to stop him.

"Consider them my treat." They gave him a wink. "Have a delightful day! We hope to see you back real soon."