Freezer Burn

“Ok but it’s the Sadie Hawkens dance, you have to ask Kai. It’s like… fate.” My best friend, Terry reasoned with me while we scooped ice cream at the local shop.

“He doesn’t even know who I am,” I replied. 

“He comes here all the time while you're working. Doesn’t look like that to me.”

“I'm not doing it. Plus, the Sadie Hawkins Dance is very sexist, and comes from a sexist comic strip. I don’t know if I want to participate in a dance that suggests that a female taking dominance in terms of a social dance is atypical. The idea of Sadies emphasizes and encourages outdated gender norms, soo...” 

Terry looked baffled. 

“When did you pull that out of your ass?” Terry laughed, ”and anyway, the school isn’t going to get rid of it so you should just go.” I promised her maybe, but in my head I knew I probably wouldn’t. 

A couple of days later I was back at the shop, without Terry, when Kai walked up with his little posse. Heart pounding, I asked him what he wanted, and a couple of other employees did the same to his friends. A lot went wrong with his order. He's allergic to nuts, and of course I accidentally gave him peanuts on top. When I read the order back, he awkwardly had to tell me. I was remaking the order while all his friends waited. Some of them had already finished their ice cream, and I saw them fidgeting. I finally finished and rang him up. Needless to say I got no tip. I handed it to him a little too aggressively and it smudged on his shirt.

“Shoot, I'm sorry.” I said.

“It's fine, have a nice day.” He looked pissed and started leaving. 

In a horrible attempt to fix it I yelled, “I can remake it!” 

“Before I could even finish he yelled, “No, no, no, umm I’m kind of in a rush soo... thank you, though.” The door slammed behind him. My co-workers stifled giggles. 

“Shut up, Frank.” I said, also laughing a bit, because the whole thing was truly a disaster. I went and sat in the walk-In freezer for too long until Frank came and made me help with orders. 

“There’s a long line, sorry to make you, but we're understaffed as it is.” I can help you if you forget again.” He laughed and reached his hand for me to grab. I went out and successfully made orders perfectly the rest of the night.

When I told Terry, she could not stop laughing. We were sitting on her bed after my shift as I recounted all of the night's events. 

“I sat in the walk-in for like half an hour. I was mortified.” I said. “Frank had to come get me out, but he was nice enough to let me stay in there for as long as I did.”

“Dude,” Terry said, “Frank’s totally into you, and he's hot soo..”

“Because he was remotely nice to me? Hon, your standards are low.” I said, but Terry looked serious.

“No, for real, he’s always doing stuff like this, plus he’s always asking to take over my shifts only when you're working.

“Um. Sure Terry, but I really think he’s just trying to pick up shifts to pay for that trip to Chile he’s trying to do this summer.” I shook it off, but now that I think about it, he was always working when I was, and was always extremely nice to me, and offering to do favors for me and no one else. 

The next day, Kai came in again. I decided not to serve him because of last time, so Frank served him, and Terry served his friends. I went over to the cash register, something I knew I wouldn’t mess up. Kai was up first. As I put the order in on the tablet, I asked,

“Are you going to the Sadie Hawkens dance?” Not a direct ask. But a pretty fat hint.

“Umm, do I know you?” My heart fell. 

“No, I um, I mean well–”

“You go to Stacy High? I’ve never seen you around. Huh. Well have a nice day!” He swiped his card, signed the tablet and left. No tip again. All of his friends shuffled after him and the shop was empty. Terry was staring at me with a laugh trapped inside her. She was never one to be sympathetic.

“Go ahead,” I said. 

“At least he doesn’t remember last time,” She said between gasps.

“Great. I think I need to go back to the freezer.” Thankfully Terry said she could cover for me for ten minutes. 

“I’ll take it,” I said, already putting my coat on to go sit by the vats of ice cream. 

“I’ll come grab you!” Terry yelled after me. Fifteen minutes later Terry still hadn’t come. I didn’t want to leave, though, so I just bundled closer into the corner. A couple of minutes later, the big door latch started moving. 

“Finally,” I thought. But it wasn’t Terry. Frank walked in. He awkwardly stood in the doorway of the freezer. About 7 long seconds passed.

“Hi?” I said. He shuffled over to where I was standing. I had no clue what was happening. 

“Um, the manager came in, so um, Terry is working with her right now, she kinda forgot about you so I came to get you.” 

“Oh thanks.” I began standing up.

“But wait. Um, do you want to go to the dance with me?” He was staring at the ground. I raised my eyebrows. 

“Frank.. It’s the Sadie Hawkins dance. Ya know, girls ask guys…” 

“Ok, but like you said yourself, it's a sexist dance, so why abide by it?” he said, more confidently. I grinned so wide. He was working that very first shift when I brought it up. He had been there the whole time.

 “Of course, Frank, of course I’ll go with you.”