She hooked me in with that pretty, little, 8-year-old toothless smile of hers.

“Cookies!” she shouted at the top of the Freedom Steps. “Get your Girl Scout cookies!”

She looked so damn cute. That green sash was thrown overhead, blowing in the wind and glistening off the brown vest tucked in tight. She wore a matching green beret on her head that folded the brown curls of her hair just above her forehead.

“Tagalongs, Samoas, Thin Mints … only $4 a box. You know you want some.”

I did. I did want some. How could she know me so intimately in our first encounter? Surely, despite our difference in age, she could read through to the depths of my heart.

I reached for my wallet — only a twenty inside.

“Sorry, sir, I don’t have any change yet, since I haven’t had any customers. You would be my first.”

Her first customer? I stammered backward. What an opportunity.

But it would come at a cost. No change.

“What if I bought five boxes?” I asked her.

She smiled coyly and tilted her head a little to the left.

“Well, that would be your choice,” she said with a wink.

She was playing hard to get. But she knew I wanted to give in to her sweet little commands. She could see it on my face.

The drool dripped down from my lips as I stared at her boxes and boxes of cookies, stacked high in that little red wagon of hers. My glazed-over eyes, dreaming of frozen Thin Mints taking swan dives in the white pools of milky waters. My palms sweaty, seeping with perspiration from the nerves of the exchange, the tension in the air.

“If I do buy five boxes, what would you recommend?” I asked.

I could play the game, too. I wasn’t just going to throw myself helplessly at her. Too much pride for that. So I decided to make her work for it.

“The Do-si-dos are my favorite,” she said. “But that’s because I really like peanut butter. The Thin Mints are most people’s favorite.”

Ah, a dilemma. What to do? Should I impress her and buy the Do-si-dos, which could link our tastes together forever? Should I play the neutral card? Or go with the popular choice, the low-risk cookie, America’s favorite?

I looked deep into her eyes. The little angel held her powerful gaze. Then she spoke in such a soft chime that I almost melted from the serenity of her voice, the sweet song.

“If you buy five boxes though, you could get both the Thin Mints and the Do-si-dos. Plus, you could try some Trefoils or a Lemon Chalet Crème.”

She was so smart. And she used such big words. I got lost in her sugarcoated fantasy world, an addict to the cause.

I wanted nothing more than that fix, that euphoric rush that thrills the senses when you buy a box of Girl Scout cookies.

Or five.

-Ty Thompson is an MFA grad student in fiction. Reach him at cosythews@yahoo.com.

-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec.