Death's Apprentice

Sarah scooped out a tripledecker chocolate sundae skillfully behind the counter, and then gave it to a rather pleased hyperactive eight year old who had obviously been spoiled too much by his parents. Sarah smiled graciously though, knowing that his money was going towards her classes.

“May I help you?” she immediately asked as the next person stepped up. She blinked.

“Oh! Hi! I know you! Are you going to try something new today?” she asked politely. The boy in front of her grew a little pink in the face, but nodded slightly as he leaned awkwardly on the counter. Then as if he had been holding his breath for some reason, he let out,

“CouldItastetheRockyRoad?”

Sarah took a moment to glance around the store. Good. No one else was coming up. It was the slow hour.

“Sure....” she said slowly, spooning up some. She had noticed this guy had come in just about every day for two weeks now. At first she just thought he really liked ice cream, but now she was getting to be suspicious.

“Yeah I’ll take that.” he said quickly, as if he was having difficulty breathing.

“Single scoop kid cone. Gotcha.” she said. Then she promptly handed it to him and rang him up. And yet, after he paid, he didn’t leave. He just stood there with the ice cream cone in his hand. Sarah glanced around again. No one else in the store.

“I’m Jeremy.” the boy blurted.

“Oh. Well nice to officially meet you Jeremy…” she said slowly. “I’m Sarah.”

“I know. I mean-your name tag-I saw-yeah…”

He took a bite of his ice cream awkwardly and turned as if to leave.

“You come in here an awful lot.” Sarah commented, freezing him in his tracks. He took a deep breath and slowly turned back to her.

“Well... I..uh...haven’t just been coming here for the ice cream… Even though it is really good….”

Sarah raised a brow and leaned on the counter expectantly. Jeremy swallowed.

“I would… like a chance to...uh...get to know you better…”

“You mean...like a date?”

“No! I mean-not necessarily-I mean-I know we don’t really know each other and all so uh…”

Sarah snickered. She had liked that he had been thoughtful of how she might feel by being asked out by a stalker of two weeks. And he was cute… With blue eyes and swept back blonde hair…

“I’d go on a date with you.” she smiled. His eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Jeremy smiled, and his blue eyes lit up and twinkled, causing Sarah’s heart to flutter a little.

“Well hot dog!” he exclaimed.