the table tennis crush

One of my "extra-curricular" activities is playing ping pong. A few days ago I was serving the light orange ball into the left corner while trying to not step on Florin and Sandu's new puppy who is named Tzitzi. Behind me I heard the gate open and a girl from the 4th grade, her hair in pigtails, with a fashionable, medeivelish red shirt on to go with her red jeans stepped into the yard.
"Sarut Mana" she told me.
"Buna Ziua," I told her and she came over and picked up Tzitzi. I assumed she was a neighborhood friend coming over to play. And then I noticed that Florin was wearing a bigger smile than I would have imagined possible. And in between returning the ball and yelling out the score in romanglish he would surreptitiously glance at the girl in red.
After we had finished the match, he asked her, "would you like to play, Gabi?"
"No, no." she respondd shyly.
"Oh come on, I can show you how," he countered chivalrously.
"ok."
Florin stood at the table with red Gabi and showed her how to hold the paddle, "you can put your finger on the paddle or just wrap it around. whatever you want."
Gabi did fine for her first time and after Florin told her so, he and I played a match together. I have never seen him try to beat me so hard. After every point he won he would look over at Gabi to make sure she had seen.
When we were at 9, 7, my advantage, I finally realized: Florin has a crush on Gabi. He is trying to impress red Gabi with his table tennis skills. Aaaah.
So I stopped hitting back every ball. Because what's the point of having a crush in the 5th rade if you can't show off your skills?
Of course, Florin won the match and looked as if he was living a perfect day when Gabi in red smiled at him when he announced the score, 9, 11.