Hermione leaned on the counter, keeping one eye on the door for customers and another on the clock. There was only seven minutes left until closing time, but her uncle was always adamant about closing at the exact time and never a second too early.
Her mind wandered and she imagined what the girls were doing now. Probably watching a movie on her Netflix account with popcorn, chocolates and a fat tub of ice cream. Hermione had never envied them so much.
A tinkle rang through the room, signalling the arrival of a customer. Hermione quickly straightened up and smiled.
"Welcome to Cherry on Top Ice Cream Shop!" she said, feeling slightly silly but plunging on. "Let me know if I can..." she started brightly before trailing off slowly. A girl, around her age, stood in front of the counter, with choppy black hair, a daring outfit and the hottest body Hermione had seen in a long while.
The girl raised an eyebrow. "If you can...?" she prompted. Hermione gathered herself quickly and gave a sheepish grin.
"If I can help you," she finished.
The stranger grinned and started looking at the display of ice creams. Hermione took this opportunity to take in her features - short black hair and brown eyes that seemed to challenge her. Her skirt was dangerously short, her neckline was dangerously low. She wore fishnet stockings, for god's sake.
Hermione swallowed and tried not to stare at her, um, ample cleavage.
"What's your name?" Cutie Stranger - as Hermione had privately named her - asked suddenly, looking up from the frozen desserts.
Hermione flustered and, after a second in which she seriously asked herself what her name was, replied with "Uh, Hermione."
"Pansy," the other said. "Which ice cream would you recommend?"
Hermione bit her lip. "Um, the chocolate extravaganza is quite nice," she offered. Pansy raised both eyebrows.
"That sounds pretty fancy," she commented. "Which one is it?"
Hermione pointed at the one in the furthest corner, a chocolate ice cream with previously-melted chocolate frozen on top and chocolate chips.
"It comes with the cookies next to it," Hermione added. "But some people find it too chocolatey."
"There's no such thing as too chocolatey," Pansy dismissed airily, and she smiled. "Can I get that one?"
"Sure," Hermione smiled, dropping her gaze. She was pretty sure she was going to self combust soon, thanks to this absolute stranger coming out of nowhere and doing strange things to her heart.
"Two scoops, please," Pansy said before pausing and correcting herself. "Actually, make that three."
Hermione picked up the scoop and, after a moment of hesitation, made each scoop as large as possible before sticking the extra-chocolatey triple-chocolate chip cookie on the side of the small bowl.
She passed the bowl over to Pansy, her fingers brushing against the other's. Hermione willed herself not to blush. She wasn't thirteen, for god's sake!
"If this isn't heaven, I don't know what is," Pansy laughed, taking a generous spoonful and stuffing it in her mouth.
Hermione smiled, biting her lip again as she started to clean the counter.
"What time does this place close?" Pansy asked as she bit into the cookie. Hermione looked at the clock.
"Um, two minutes ago," Hermione admitted, wishing, for the first time, her shift hours were longer.
Pansy looked surprised. "Oh, bugger. I'm keeping you, aren't I?" she said. "I'll just finish thi-"
"It's okay, I'm waiting for my uncle to get here anyway," Hermione said quickly. "I don't have the keys to close the place myself."
And they talked as Pansy finished her ice cream, small talk about the weather, where they wanted the next Olympics to be held and whether pineapples on pizza was acceptable.
"You don't happen to know a girl called Parvati?" Pansy asked curiously. "They're always talking about someone called Hermione and it's not exactly a common name." Hermione's eyes widened.
"You know them?" she asked excitedly, dropping the cloth in her hand.
"Course I do," Pansy laughed. "I used to help my dad in the photography club a while back, me and my friend Astoria, and she tried to hook me up with Parvati."
Hermione blinked. "You and Parvati...?"
Pansy shook her head. "Nah. I told Astoria I liked girls and she tried hooking me up with every female that was in the room, and Parvati happened to walk in at the time."
"You like girls," Hermione repeated, head whirring. This hot, confident, sexy stranger with and an unlimited capacity for chocolate, no matter how chocolatey and thought that pineapples on pizza was the best idea after the internet... liked girls. Hermione felt giddy. She had, no matter how small, a chance.
"Is that a problem?" Pansy asked, watching her intensely. Hermione smiled.
"I think it'd be a little hypocritical if I had a problem with you liking girls," she said, looking away. Pansy grinned suddenly, and Hermione felt her face grow hot and she smiled back.
After a while, a car pulled up to the driveway and her uncle stepped out, talking loudly on the phone and ignoring the annoyed glances of passersby.
Pansy got up.
"Well, that's my cue to go," she said, handing the bowl back. "Thanks for the ice cream and the company."
"You're welcome," Hermione smiled. "Come again soon."
She had said those words to many customers as they walked through the door but, she mused as she watched Pansy leave, she hadn't said them quite so sincerely before.
Hermione picked up the bowl and noticed a small piece of paper blue-tacked to the side. She thanked whichever deity that was listening that she hadn't started washing it and soaked it or, worse, left it in the hands of her uncle.
Pansy must have put it there when Hermione had nipped to the store room. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves as she held it in her now sweating palm, hoping desperately it was what she thought it was.
She unfolded the tiny piece and, sure enough, there was a number scrawled on it, alongside 'call me' and, at the bottom, signed 'Pansy'.
Hermione smiled.