Yummy Treats & Sweet Surprises

“Jessie, here comes somebody!” Olivia tugged at her friend’s arm and pointed to a large man walking through the front door of the grocery store.

“Excuse me,” Jessie said to the man. “Would you like to buy some delicious cookies?” She pointed toward the stacks of baked goods on the table in front of her.

“Noooo thank you, girls.” The man patted his round belly and chuckled. “Just started my diet,” he said as he walked away.

“It’s for our ballet class,” Olivia shouted after him. But the man just kept walking.

“Hmmph,” Jessie sighed. “We’ve only sold two so far.”

Just then their ballet teacher came back from handing out flyers for the dance school. “Miss Dawson, why aren’t we selling anything?” Jessie whined.

The teacher patted Jessie on the shoulder. “Just do the best you can. In the end, either people will buy, or they won’t. But, if there are any leftovers, we’ll just eat them!” She laughed. “Hang in there while I pass out more flyers.”

“Maybe we just need to try harder,” said Olivia. “Here comes someone.”

Jessie perked up. She pasted on her biggest smile and held up a huge cookie dotted with chocolate chips. “Hello, ma’am!” she called out. “Would you like to buy—?” But the lady just walked on, pulling her two children along, straight for the grocery carts.

After a while, a woman with a sour look on her face rushed in through the door. “She won’t buy anything for sure,” whispered Jessie, and Olivia nodded in agreement. The woman paused briefly to read the sign, “Dawson School of Dance.”

“Would you—like some baked goodies?” Olivia asked timidly.

The lady looked at the girls. Her lips were puckered as if she had been eating pickles. Her forehead crinkled like she was thinking very hard, making her eyebrows smoosh together above her shiny black glasses. “It’s for your ballet class?” She sounded a bit grumpy.

The girls nodded.

Suddenly, the woman looked at her watch and gasped then hurried into the store.

“I knew it,” said Jessie, flopping into a chair behind the table.

Olivia plopped down beside her. “I give up!”

“Business a little slow, is it?” An old man with a cane shuffled toward them.

“Yes, sir,” the girls mumbled.

“Looks like you’ve got some yummy treats here.” He peered through his thick glasses at the goodies. Then he read the sign. “Reminds me of my granddaughter.” He grinned. “I always loved going to her ballet recitals. Well, what goodies have you got?”

The girls popped up from their chairs, happy to have an interested customer. “Those are chocolate chip.” Jessie pointed.

“These are oatmeal raisin, and we have lemon bars, too,” said Olivia, leaning toward the end of the table.

“We-e-ell.” The man licked his lips. He reached into his pocket and swished his hand around, jangling his keys. Then he swished his other hand in the other pocket. “Well,” he said, “if that don’t beat all. I went and forgot my wallet. Sorry girls.” He turned and shuffled out the door to his car.

Jessie and Olivia slumped down in their chairs feeling deflated, like two balloons that lost all their air. “I thought for sure he would buy something.” Jessie sighed.

“Me, too,” said Olivia.

Business finally picked up when a group of teenagers came in. Jessie and Olivia stayed busy for quite a while. “I didn’t know teenagers could eat so much,” said Jessie finally sitting back down.

“Well,” said Olivia, “my cousin Dwayne is a teenager, and he can sure eat A LOT! He could probably eat all these cookies by himself!”

“Too bad Dwayne’s not here right now.” Jessie giggled as she counted the rest of the cookies.

Soon Miss Dawson came by again. “It’ll be time to leave soon,” she announced. “I’ll go get the car so we can load things up.”

Jessie and Olivia began putting cookies and cupcakes back into boxes when they heard someone say, “What’ve you got left?” The girls turned to see the sour-faced lady!

“Oh,” Jessie replied, surprised. “We have a few of every kind left. Which—which ones would you like?”

“No, I mean, how many do you have left?” said the woman, pulling her wallet out of her purse. “I need all of them. I’ve got company coming in twenty minutes, but I haven’t had time to bake anything. I barely had time to grab a few groceries for dinner.”

The girls quickly put all the leftover treats into boxes for the woman as she counted out her money. “Here you go,” said Jessie, handing the boxes to the woman and taking the money from her outstretched hand. “I hope your company enjoys them.”

“Oh, I’m sure they will,” she said. “Besides, I love sweets—and ballet. Maybe I’ll come to your next performance. Thanks—bye!” And she rushed out the door.

When Miss Dawson joined the girls a few minutes later, they told her about all the different people they had talked to. “Well,” their teacher replied, “it’s like I said, in the end, people either buy, or they don’t.” She glanced at the empty table. “Hey, you two sold everything after all!”

“Yeah,” said Olivia with a little sigh. “But I was hoping to eat at least one or two leftovers.”

Miss Dawson laughed. “How about we go get ice cream?”

“Really?” the girls exclaimed.

“Sure, you two are great salespeople! You deserve it!”

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