Harry is unusual because he doesn't like chocolate. He doesn't like any sweets. Harry is allergic to peanuts and tomatoes and his stomach doesn't tolerate dairy. But he is standing in line to buy a giant chocolate chip cookie with macadamia nuts. He will throw it away uneaten.

Harry is in love with the girl behind the counter and he doesn't even know her name. Sometimes she pins a name tag to her blue apron that says, "Hello, my name is Judy Jetson." She has also been Hillary Clinton and Daisy Duck. Sometimes she doesn't wear a name tag at all. Harry likes her sense of humor and thinks she is beautiful. She has long, red hair which she pulls back in a ponytail. Her lips look soft and pink like bubble gum. She has big blue eyes that make her look curious and vulnerable. Harry thinks she looks like a nice person.

The only reason he comes to the mall is to buy organic soap because regular soaps irritate his skin. The soap store is right across from the Cookie Corner where the pretty girl works. He comes here at least twice a week to buy soap (his cover) and a cookie and to work up the courage to talk to her. He has so many bars of soap he is storing them under his bathroom sink, in his linen closet, and now under his bed.

Harry is old-fashioned. He doesn't own a DVD player and he still plays cassette tapes. He doesn't have a MySpace page and he's never searched for anything on Google. The only cookies he knows are the ones he buys from the pretty girl. He does not know how to talk to women.

There are two more people in line ahead of him. The one being waited on is a mother with two small children and another in a stroller. She is still scanning the menu trying to decide what she wants. Harry is glad no one is behind him. He doesn't want anyone to listen when he talks to the woman.

Over and over he is saying in his mind, "Hello, my name is Harry. Hello, my name is Harry. What's your name? Hello, my name is Harry."

The mother at the head of the line is clumsily shoving change in her wallet and juggling three milks and as many cookies. Her children's arms are flailing about to grab their cookies. They remind Harry of baby birds craning their necks while their mother doles out their worms.

The mother leaves and now the only one ahead of Harry in line is a girl who works in the hair salon in the mall. She's still wearing her black apron so Harry assumes she must be on her break. This girl has short, spiked hair dyed dark purple. Harry doesn't think it's very good advertising for a hair stylist to have hair like that.

Harry's girl and the stylist must know each other because they strike up a friendly conversation. This makes Harry smile because he likes the sound of the pretty girl's voice. The stylist gets a ten percent discount off her order because she works in the mall but this only saves her less than a quarter.

He thinks to himself again, "Hello, my name is Harry. What's your name? Hello, my name is Harry. It's nice to meet you."

The stylist takes her cookie and walks away. Harry shifts on his feet nervously and blushes when the pretty girl smiles at him and says, "Back again?" She doesn't have to ask what he wants to order so she grabs his cookie and tell him his total. He tries to hide his sweaty hands when he hands her the money.

For a second after she gives Harry his chocolate chip cookie with macadamia nuts she is looking in his eyes. He swallows hard. He opens his mouth to say something but someone comes out of the back room wearing red oven mitts and carrying two long trays of freshly baked cookies. She asks for Madeline's help. Madeline. That's her name. The beautiful, red-headed Madeline turns around to help slide the cookies into the glass display cases. When she looks back Harry is gone.

Harry walks through the mall and says to himself, "Hello, Madeline. I'm Harry." He'll come back again on Thursday. He doesn't have to work on Thursday.

When the little girls in the kindergarten class wanted to be ballerinas when they grew up, Melissa Choate wanted to be a writer. In high school she published maudlin poetry but she is now focused on writing a collection of mysteries. Her favorite place to write is laying on her chaise lounge with her pink laptop. When she's not writing she can be found playing Mahjong or WebSudoku.