Free The Summer of Cotton Candy by Debbie Viguié

young lady to take out to dinner tonight, and I was wondering if you knew of any young ladies who were free for dinner and not adverse to being seen in public with the likes of me?”
    Over the sudden pounding of her heart, Candace thought she had just heard him ask her out.
Be cool, be cool
, she told herself.
Think of something clever.
    “That’s me.”
Smooth, Candace, real smooth.
    “Wonderful. What time are you available?”
    “I get off at five, but I’d like to go home and change,” she said, pointing to her pink-striped blouse.
    “Shall I pick you up at six thirty then?”
    She nodded. From somewhere he produced a pen and paper and she wrote down her address and phone number.
    “Until tonight then,” he said, giving her a bow.
    “Yes,” she said, breathlessly.
    He moved on then, walking past her cart. It was then that she noticed that her cart was parked in the middle of the road on which he had been walking.
She was literally in his path!
She laughed out loud and patted the cotton candy cart. “You did just fine, thank you.”

8
     
    Candace couldn’t focus the rest of the morning. When Martha finally relieved her for lunch, an hour late, she raced toward the Splash Zone. Josh saw her coming from a ways off and waved to her.
    “Guess what?” she said.
    He looked at her closely, squinting. “Well, either you just got named Referee of the Month or Kurt asked you out.”
    “Kurt. Me. Asked.”
    “Awesome! And when is the happy date?”
    “Tonight!” she squealed.
    “Dude doesn’t waste time. Where are you going?”
    “I don’t know. He didn’t say. He’s picking me up at my house at six thirty.”
    “Sweet. You’ll have to tell me all about it tomorrow.”
    “I don’t work Wednesdays,” Candace said.
    “Then Thursday. Or you can email me. ZonerJosh at yahoo dot com.”
    “Got it,” she said. “I’m so nervous.”
    “Just be yourself — you know, the sweet Cotton Candy we’ve all come to know and love.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Josh. He barely knows me.
You
barely know me. How do you even know I’m sweet?”
    “Because it’s obvious. Duh. Besides, we swapped secrets. You can tell a lot about a person when you do that.”
    “Like what?” she asked.
    “Like you’re trustworthy. If you weren’t, the whole park would know my secret by now.”
    She blushed. “It’s not my secret to tell.”
    “Exactly. And that tells me that you are a good, kind person.”
    “You are something else, Josh.”
    “Thank you, I take that as a compliment. Now you better take off. I see a whole group of kids coming my way, and I can already tell you that half of them aren’t going to pass the height requirement. It could get ugly.”
    “Good luck,” she said, before heading off.
    She found she was too excited to eat her lunch, so she returned to her cart early. Martha looked at her in surprise. “You’re back early.”
    “Nothing better to do at the moment,” Candace confessed.
    “You sure? There won’t be an afternoon break.”
    “That’s okay. I’m good. Just make sure someone relieves me at five.”
    Martha looked at her closely. “Got somewhere to be tonight?”
    “I have a date,” Candace said, blushing.
    Martha smiled. “Have fun, dear. I’ll make sure you get off in time.” Martha left without warning Candace about not dating guys she wouldn’t want to marry. Candace was relieved. That would have been a lot of pressure to put on a first date.
    She thought five o’clock would never come, but it finally did, bringing Martha with it. “I brought you your check to save you some time,” Martha said, handing Candace an envelope with her name on it.
    “Great!” Candace said, eagerly tearing open the envelope. She pulled out the check. It had her name, Candace Thompson, on it. At least the accounting department got her name right! She looked at the amount. “Three hundred and ninety-six dollars. That’s it? Where did all my money go?”
    Martha laughed.