Close encounters of the cutie kind

Not long after I arrived at work this afternoon, I was groaning inwardly and bemoaning my luck - after the torturous shift I had to contend with recently, another of my colleagues had brought his son into work with him, and, to make matters still worse, I was working the position next to 'the archbigot', the very last person I would want to see the slightest hint of 'the real me'. I'd met today's boy's older brother, 14 but looking more like 12, and cute with it, on a couple of previous occasions, and 'little bro', 9 or thereabouts, certainly showed a family resemblance. Far too young, needless to say, for anything other than 'eye candy' status, but still a potential pitfall I could certainly have done without. Things, though, didn't pan out quite as I'd expected. For the first half of the shift, I didn't see much of the boy - Dad was in the support position on the 'back desk', and the little guy stuck pretty close to him, but, later on, things got busier, and my colleague had to get 'hands on' with the job, in the positions, successively, on either side of mine. Given that I wasn't especially busy, I ended up 'child minding', answering the boy's questions about what was going on and generally keeping an eye on him while his dad was otherwise engaged. And he gave the impression of being a rather bright, switched-on little cookie, always a massive bonus as far as I'm concerned. There was one awkward (for me) moment, when I'd stood up to do something, and he moved and ended up standing very closely in front of me, close enough that I could feel his body heat, which had a physiological effect, so to speak, but the boy, of course, was completely unaware of anything untoward, as, thankfully, were the rest of the company. All in all, we got along famously, to the point that when the boy said goodbye to me - his dad finished ten minutes or so before I did - and I gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder, he moved as though he was going to give me a hug. He stopped short, maybe because his dad was standing right behind him, but I think it was indicative of how we'd connected. The best 'boy moment', in short, that I've had for many a long day. Not that it will lead to anything, given his age, but it's certainly brightened my weekend.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B