Candy Hearts | Watty's 2015

| 15 | Friday, July 31

| 1 5 | Friday, July 31

It’s a sweltering July afternoon when Jeremy calls Arizona to cover his shift at The Number. Despite the fact that all she wants to do is spend a lazy birthday at Briana’s, Arizona can’t not help her boyfriend out. He’s covered her countless times by now, and who knows, she might make a lot of tips. The place tends to get more business on either really hot or really cold days.

            Grunting, Arizona rolls over onto her stomach on the bed for a few seconds before slipping into some flip-flops. Pulling her hair into a ponytail, she grabs her bag before yelling at her mom that she’s going out to work. The walk there is only a few minutes, but it feels like years under the sun pounding on her back. Arizona really wishes her permit would become a license overnight. Crosley had agreed to teach her how to drive months ago, but then they had both forgotten about it after the first two (disastrous) times.

            Arizona walks into the restaurant-café and can immediately feel her sweat evaporating at the cool air rushing at her face. She had been right, the place is packed with mostly teens. A group of girls huddles over a huge ice-cream, talking amongst one another whilst eyeing a pack of oblivious boys. They are actually pretty hot, and Arizona makes sure to look straight ahead as she walks past them. There are already too many male figures in her life, as it is.

            Brushing a few stray strands of blonde hair from her face,  Arizona ties an apron from the back wall around her waist before logging in. She catches Jane’s coal-lined eye from across the glass covering the ice-cream, and almost immediately a look of pure relief brushes across the latter’s face. Handing a cone to the last person, Jane walks towards where Arizona stands by the register.

            “Do you want to take the ice-cream serving job?” she mumbles, but she looks so hopeful that Arizona can’t really say no—and that is the second time today.

            “Sure,” she smiles softly, nudging Jane gently ahead of her to the counter before grabbing the scoop. This morning, when she had woken up, Arizona had been ready to stay at home with a boxed set of Friends and some ice-cream cake, and maybe she had also been ready to flop onto Briana’s couch for the rest of the day until Jeremy would take her out to a movie.

            A deluge of kids in polka-dotted party hats almost knocks the front door in after half an hour, two women trying their hardest to herd the children to where Arizona stands, grinning subconsciously. Don’t get her wrong, Arizona doesn’t enjoy taking care of kids for more than an hour, or what goes along with it, but the interactions are always fun, and kids always have something stupid and/or funny to say. It’s brilliant.

            Tucking a chunk of hair behind her ear, Arizona leans over the glass covering to peer down at the what looks to be kindergartners. “What can I get you guys?” she asks with raised eyebrows, and who is probably the birthday boy jumps excitedly, much to the angst of the unimpressed-looking girl next to her. The boy grins a huge grin missing one of its two front teeth. After multiple tries, he stutters out that he’d like a triple-scoop waffle cone of bubblegum ice-cream—which his mother than lowered to one scoop. (“Mom!” “You can’t finish that, Will!” “But, Mommmm!”)   

            Getting everybody a cone takes effort, along with ten minutes (not including the time it takes for everybody to order). An hour later, there are even more people crowding The Number, and Arizona is so very glad to be getting out. Grabbing a tray to pile dirty dishes on, she pushes the kitchen door open to put them in the sink. Jacob’s already there, sliding food onto a plate. He glances over his shoulder to see her, and that same, easy smile slides onto his lips.