Chapter 3 - Counters

Another week went by and Lola found herself back at the ice cream shop.

"Hey Lola," Leo says from the counter as she entered the store.

"Hi Leo," Lola says as she walks to the counter with the ice cream.

"What can I get you today?" Leo asks.

Lola pretends to browse the ice cream.

"I'll take…sea salted caramel today," she says with a smile.

"That's a good choice," Leo says, also smiling.

Leo scooped two scoops of ice cream and went over to the cashier to check out. Once Lola checked out, she went over to a table by the window to eat her ice cream. Leo began wiping the counters when Lola spoke up.

"Does it get busy here?" Lola asks, to no one in particular.

Leo looked up towards her.

"Not really," he says.

Lola goes quiet as she eats her ice cream.

"Then why continue working here," Lola quietly says as she ate her ice cream.

Leo joins Lola and takes a seat at the table she had been at.

"Why not?" Leo says as Lola notices his presence. "I mean, I enjoy it here. Ice cream has this superpower that makes people happy," Leo adds with a smile.

Lola also smiled.

"You aren't wrong," Lola says as she looked out the windows again.

"Enjoy your ice cream, I got some work to do," Leo says as he gets up and walks back to the counter.

Lola finished her ice cream and got up to leave.

"Goodbye Leo," Lola says as she walks out.

"Bye Lola," Leo says as he watches her walk out.

Ace walks up behind Leo.

"Whatcha looking at?" Ace asks as Leo returns to wiping down the counters.

"Nothing," Leo says.

Ace looks at Lola who just left and then back at Leo.

"By chance, have you…fallen for her?" Ace asks, nudging Leo.

Leo looks at Ace.

"Does it look like I did?" Leo asks.

Ace pretends to think.

"Yes, it really does," he eventually says.

Leo rolls his eyes.

"Besides her name and her favorite ice cream, what else do you know about her?" Ace asks.

Leo takes a moment to think.

"Not much," Leo responds honestly.

Leo looks back in the direction that Lola left in.

𝘈𝘤𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵.

Leo thought as he returned to wiping down the counters.

"Bro! I know you like being clean but you've been wiping the same counter for ten minutes now. There's plenty of tables over there for you to wipe," Ace says pointing to the other tables.

Leo walks over to the table Lola had been at and starts to wipe it down.

𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳?

Leo wonders as he moves on to wipe down the neighboring tables.