Art by the awesome  TheClockworkJester
Artist's upload: Please go share some love with a talented artist https://www.furaffinity.net/view/53073550/
And thank you  facharly both for inviting my little fella to a lovely time with her Sukari, and for writing the amazing story to go with it!
And of course her friendship, that above all.

It was a warm summer Sunday, and the local ice-cream parlor was busy with folks flooding in and out on their pursuit of sweet, cool treats: from a sizeable group of lemmings lining up for paw-psicles, to a family of elephants enjoying nutty sundaes, and everything in-between. A corgi of characteristic build for his species had just finished doing a bit of maintenance for the shop-owner, when he spotted her: a large ligress whose white fur intensely reflected the sunlight where it was not covered by her orange crop top and her blue shorts. Her bright red albino eyes twinkled with curiosity, while her ample tummy and hips slightly quivered with each of her steps. Momentarily distracted, the corgi dropped his wrench on his foot, seeing her walk by to get in line. After hobbling for a couple of steps, he straightened his red shirt and rushed over to introduce himself:
"Hello there! Lovely day for a banana split, isn't it? My name is Todd Baker by the way, pleased to meet you Ms. ...?"

The dapper corgi’s swift approach had already drawn the hefty feline’s gaze away from the extensive display of ice cream flavors on the back wall of the establishment. His kind smile, warm voice and wagging tail suggested that he was truly interested in striking up a conversation.
“Good afternoon, Todd Baker.” Low sonorities distinguished her vocal timbre, as she gently smiled and studied Todd’s brown eyes. “Very nice to meet you, as well. My name is Sukari. Sukari Stripely. Do you work here, and was that your recommendation for one of your house favorites?”
“Oh, well, I just help the owner with occasional maintenance; got to keep those freezers up to code.” He gestured towards the tall elephant behind the counter, serving ice cream. “You see, some maintenance tasks are best suited for nimble folks who might not hit their head on lower clearings and tiny ducts…”
“Hehehe! Of course; that makes sense.” Placing one of her large paws on her round belly and the other one on her bulbous behind, the BBW ligress blushed very slightly, but did not lower her eyes to the floor. “I suppose I wouldn’t exactly make the maintenance team…”
“Oh dear, … that’s not what I meant … I mean …“ His eyes bugged slightly as his thoughts were racing. He was hoping he had not offended this curvy lady he had just met – particularly not, since he actually found that said curves suited her extremely well. How to smoothly recover now, while his concentration struggled at the sight of her paw sending a little bit of a jiggle across her rotund tummy?
“…Yes…?” As Sukari’s voice filled the silence, the canine almost jumped. Oh, good: she was still smiling… in fact, there now appeared somewhat of a smirk-grin on her face. “I know you didn’t.” Her voice sounded soothing, as she winked. “But I certainly came here for a different kind of maintenance. One’s gotta maintain one’s cuddle-factor, you know? So, your menu recommendation was…?”
“Oh, … Banana split!” Todd had regained his confidence: “Their banana splits are a delight.”
“Ah, I see.” For a brief second, she seemed to contemplate, scanning the room, before continuing with a bright smile: “You know, I was just going to grab something to go, but: you seem like a really nice guy, whose judgment one should trust. So, would you care to join me for this ice cream treat over there in that section? My treat.” She pointed towards the back of the café. “I also heard that this place does a Sunday-Sundae special kind of thing – not sure what it is. Do you happen to know?”
Tail wagging excitedly, Todd nodded: “Great! Yes, let’s enjoy our treats together. However, I do get as much ice cream as I would like for free on the days I work here; so, please allow me to treat you.”
Sukari briefly raised her eyebrows, then nodded in agreement: “Ok, that sounds great. I’ll leave a nice tip.”
Todd continued: “And yes, on Sundays, they essentially offer a buffet style ice cream bar where one can help oneself to as many toppings, bells and whistles as one might care to enjoy. Although, sadly, that offer doesn’t extend to butter pecan.” He pointed over towards a large counter that matched his description, right in the area where Sukari had suggested for them to sit. “But: a lot of folks will take advantage of that offer today; so, why don’t we go for a slightly quieter spot over there?” He gestured towards the back of the café.
The enthusiasm that had appeared on his feline counterpart’s facial expression during his explanation of the Sunday-Sundae-Bar was briefly replaced by a slight blush and a quick head-shake, as she leaned in a bit closer, lowering her voice: “Well, to answer your question straight up: it might, indeed, be quieter over there; but take a look at those little chairs with the arm rests and at those booths… Neither of them are exactly … ligress-sized, but appear to be designed for smaller species…”
A quick glance over at said furniture and then back at the wide, amply cushioned hips in front of him immediately convinced Todd: “I see, I see. There is an empty table over by the toppings bar, and we’re next in line here…”

Indeed: during their conversation the line had made good progress; and the two were now greeted by the owner of the store, who, in elephantine kindness, was more than happy to extend Todd’s free ice cream offer to the both of them. Each of them armed with a generous amount of scoops of different ice cream flavors in a dish, they proceeded to the toppings bar, where Todd completed his banana split with a banana, whipped cream, a pawful of crushed pecans, and a cherry on top, while Sukari opted for slices of pear and pineapple for her fruit, but otherwise followed Todd’s lead.
As they approached the empty table, Todd, following common practice in mixed-species establishments, proceeded to scoot two chairs close to one another on one side of the table for Sukari, while keeping one chair on the opposite side for himself. Gratefully, the large ligress settled on those two – fortunately very sturdy – chairs, still overflowing them on either side, while her round tummy was squishing against the table top. Meanwhile, her canine companion had managed to seat himself atop of the backrest of his own chair to best reach his frozen treat.
They both couldn’t help but giggle at the situation.
“There is always a middle-ground that can serve as a suitable compromise for everyone to be comfortable, right?” To underline her words, Sukari gave a brief wiggle to her hips – careful, just to be sure not to overtax the chairs after all.
Todd nodded emphatically: “Absolutely. There’s always a way to make things work.”
Licking a bit of ice cream off her spoon, the ligress smiled: “Thank you again for sharing your ice cream benefit with me. This is really a top-notch treat. I can see why it’s so busy – and why you might enjoy working here.”
“Absolutely!” He raised a paw. “The owner’s and my family go back quite a bit – we’ve been friends for decades. They’re awesome folks – and really, really great at their ice cream craft.”
“Sounds awesome! And I do love their ice cream – as well as your friendly company. Tell me more about yourself.” Leaning slightly further forward at her last words, a little bit more of the brown surface of the table was covered by white fur with dark stripes.

The two ended up chatting long past the point at which their ice cream was gone – and they agreed that there should soon be another ice cream date to follow.


Art by  TheClockworkJester
Todd Baker is me.
Sukari Stripely is by  facharly
All characters depicted are +18 Todd is just short.