I hope you’re having a great Sunday. Today I’m sharing a snippet from Boomerang Boyfriend which is the next book in the Boyfriend Chronicles series. This chapter is from Delia’s point of view.
***
Over the next couple of hours, it was strange to witness Jack being polite to everyone at Betty’s when he’d been a thorn in my side since I’d started hanging out with Zoe. Then again, he was paid to be polite at work, so that didn’t mean it was a predominant personality trait.
“If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t believe it,” an all too familiar male voice said behind me. I turned to find the object of my possibly unwanted affection, Aiden, studying me with a perplexed look on his face. He wore that look around me a lot. Maybe that was part of the problem. I didn’t fit into his people shape sorter.
Zoe stood behind Aiden, holding Grant’s hand. This had to be her meddling. Aiden had never been to Betty’s Burgers before.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, like I hadn’t already figured it out.
“Zoe called Grant and asked him if he wanted to grab a burger while I was at his house, so he invited me to come along.” He pointed at my tiara. “Why are you wearing a crown?”
I adjusted my freshly bedazzled head gear. “It’s a tiara and it’s part of the uniform when you’re the Pie Princess.”
“And it doesn’t bother you to wear it?” He pushed his glasses up on his nose, framing his coffee colored eyes.
“Are you kidding? It feels like the accessory that’s been missing from my wardrobe all my life.” I struck a pose. “Admit it. You think I look awesome.”
He chuckled and shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “You always look good, but that tiara is ridiculous.”
I latched onto the first part of that statement and ignored the second. A waitress came over to me with a piece of paper. “Excuse me, but you’re up Pie Princess. The little girl at table four wants chocolate cream pie for her birthday, with extra whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles.”
“Duty calls. I’ll come visit you guys if I can.” Turning my back on Aiden, I cut a piece of pie, added a mountain of whipped cream and a dash of chocolate sprinkles. Now where were the birthday candles? I checked all three drawers and of course they were in the last spot I looked. Hopefully Betty wasn’t timing me. After adding the candle and lighting it, I was ready to make my debut but wait a minute…I had no idea where I was going and the waitress who’d told me about the birthday girl was nowhere in sight. Several of the tables had families with little girls. Crap. I sidled over to Jack. “Which one is table four?”
He looked at me like I was an idiot.
“While you’re judging me, a little girl is waiting for her pie.”
He pointed out the table without commenting, and I approached the little girl and her family. “Is it someone’s birthday?” I asked, because I wouldn’t put it past Jack to lie to me for his own amusement.
“It’s mine.” A kindergarten aged girl wearing a Hello Kitty dress wriggled in her booster seat.
“Do you want me to sing?” All conversation in the dining room stopped. Good thing I didn’t mind being center stage.
“Yes, please,” The girl said.
I cleared my throat and sang happy birthday, sticking to the basics, not adding any embellishments or “many mores” at the end. The little munchkin blew out her candle and dug in. Mission accomplished. Now on to my sales pitch. “Would either of you like to order a piece of pie?” Betty had stressed the order part because she wanted the parents to know that the free pie was limited to one piece for the birthday boy or girl.
“We’ll split a piece of pecan,” the mom said.
“Speak for yourself,” her husband said. “I want my own slice. If you can’t finish yours I’ll sacrifice myself and take care of it for you.”
The wife laughed. “Fine, two pieces.” She pointed at her husband.” And if you aren’t sharing, neither am I.”
“I’ll have those right out for you.”
I headed back to the dessert case. Zoe waved at me from across the room where she sat with Grant and Aiden. I nodded at her and went to cut two more slices of pie.
When there was a lull of customers waiting for dessert and no one in line to check out, I approached Jack. “I know you’ll be painfully honest, so how did I do?”
“If you’re fishing for compliments, go ask Aiden.”
And there was the Jack I knew and didn’t care for. “I’m not asking you to stroke my ego, I’m asking what Betty will think.”