Work Text:
I like to think of him working at a little diner. He's got his hair tied back and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth (you know the food is immaculate when the cook is smoking) He's frying up hash browns and making perfect omelets like it's nothing, all while he hums a song he's been working on.
He's such a flirt and I think he would enjoy being called "chef"
Maybe a customer doesn't like their food so you go back to ask him to remake it, he begrudgingly does and huffs out, "Just for you, sweetheart. Can't have the customers getting mad at my girl, can I?"
"No, chef."
He's taken aback by how much he enjoys it but decides to put a pin in that for later.
He shoots you a wink and goes back to flipping the most perfect, fluffy pancakes you've ever seen.
One morning it's slow so you're helping with prep work and shredding potatoes. You accidentally knick your finger, it's barely a scratch but you hissed out of surprise when it happened. He immediately stops what he's doing, grabs the first aid kit, and starts tending to you.
"If you wanted my attention, you could have just asked. You didn't have to go chopping your finger off." He says, wrapping the bandage around your seemingly fine-looking finger.
"I wasn't-" he cuts you off with a laugh.
"Just messing with you, Sweets. I have bacon to attend to. Be careful with yourself, please." he gives your bandaged finger a quick peck before returning to his station.
I also think he'd crack jokes about the food, too. Like he's just finished deep frying onion rings and he sets them out, bowing and saying "Hors d'oeuvres for our gracious patrons"
"Hey Eddie, can I please get a side of extra crispy bacon for this table?"
He frowns at you and looks around the kitchen dramatically, "Who's Eddie?" It takes you a second before you realize his game and reply, "Chef, can I please get a side of extra crispy bacon for this table?" A big toothy grin stretches across his face "Sweetheart, I'd give you the whole pig if you asked." As ridiculous as his joke is, it manages to give you butterflies.
Once the bacon is ready, you go to grab the plate from him and graze his hand with yours. You jump a bit at the sensation and he blushes and murmurs "You'd think I'd be used to touching hot stuff by now, wouldn't you?" He's such a dork.
One evening when it's especially slow, you're vacuuming the carpet. It's already spotless but you're just trying to find anything to keep yourself busy. Eddie is sitting on one of the stools, mindlessly twiddling with a toothpick. Once you make your way to where he's seated, he kicks out his foot in front of the vacuum. You look up at him, he's still focused on his toothpick and doesn't acknowledge your presence. You move out of the way and he does it again, still not acknowledging you as he tries desperately to hide his growing smirk. You turn off the vacuum.
"Do you need somethin', chef?"
He blushes the tiniest bit, still not looking at you.
"Nope, all good here sweetheart." He walks off to the kitchen, returning a few moments later with a piece of toast.
You ignore him and continue working with your head down. You notice a line of crumbs in front of where you know you just barely vacuumed. When you look up, Eddie has his back to you as he makes a trail of breadcrumbs for you to vacuum.
You turn off the vacuum and ask him, "What are you doing?! Can't you see I'm trying to clean?"
"Honey I'm helping you! You were just vacuuming air." He still isn't looking at you. The fact that he's bothering you so much while simultaneously ignoring you is driving you crazy.
You roll your eyes and turn the vacuum back on. Once you do, he says something too quiet for you to hear since his back is still turned.
You turn off the appliance.
"What?" You ask
"Hmm? Don't know what you're talking about."
You turn the vacuum back on and he does it again.
"Eddie! Quit messing with me."
He finally turns to face you and crowds you. He's closer to you than he's ever been before and you're suddenly unable to make eye contact with him.
"I haven't even begun to mess with you, sugar."
One morning you are folding napkins and arranging silverware while sitting at the counter. Eddie sees you as he's walking by the kitchen window and smiles, he's over the moon that he gets to work with his girl today.
You glance up at him and give a smile and a wave. He gives you a little wave back and ducks out of view. He starts walking back and forth by the window, looking at you from the corner of his eye. When you finally look up, he starts doing that thing people do when they pretend they are going downstairs. You laugh at his silliness and he looks over at you. "Oh, I'm heading downstairs for a bit. You handle the fort while I'm gone, yeah?" You shake your head at him, covering your mouth to try and dampen your laughter. He comes back into view.
"Hey now, don't go hiding your giggles. Why else do you think I go around making an ass of myself if I didn't want to hear them?"
You forget your lunch one day and Eddie grabs your order pad and pen and says, "Hi! I'm Eddie, I'll be your server today. Can I get you started with any drinks or appetizers? If you're ready to order, the chef recommends the hotcake special."He adds a silly little fancy accent to "hotcake special" because he is ridiculous.
During a morning shift, a middle-aged man comes into the diner. He's a bit quiet but polite. He has his "please and thank yous" down pat. You check up on him during his meal and ask how everything is.
"Wonderful, my compliments to the chef." he says.
You smile and say, "He'll be so excited to hear that."
The older man looks up at you and says, "I would mention to him to cut back on the salt a bit. He has done a number on my blood pressure enough as it is." as he says that you feel an arm wrap around your shoulder.
"Hey pops. Was my girl good to you?"
You realize this must be Wayne, Eddie doesn't talk about him often but when he does it's with adoration.
"She was great. It's good to put a face to the name since you're always talkin' 'bout her."
Eddie laughs, a little too loud and you giggle at the pink on his cheeks.
One day during your break you step outside to get some fresh air. You can hear Eddie talking to someone near the dumpster.
"You like that, sweetheart? Look at you. You're just the cutest thing I've ever seen." Your heart aches, aren't you supposed to be the cutest thing he's ever seen? You know he's a big flirt with everyone, but you thought you were special. You quietly creep around the corner and when you finally see him you want to cry. He's squatted behind the dumpster feeding chicken to a scruffy little cat while rubbing its back. It's not even scraps from a customer's meal, this son of a bitch cooked a chicken breast for a kitten who, upon further inspection, reminds you of Wayne with its greyish fur and blue eyes.
He walks you to your car after your shift. He started doing it one night the two of you were working and hasn't stopped. Even when you're leaving before him, he walks you out and then goes back inside.
"I'm in a band, y'know?" He says, drying silverware. He's facing you and has his hip pressed against the counter.
"Oh yeah? An ABBA cover band?" You joke.
"How'd you guess? We do a cover of "Chiquitita" that'll knock your socks off."
You stop rinsing cutlery and look at him.
"I know you're kidding, but I love that song."
"Yeah?" He says, turning away from you. He's known it's your favorite for weeks. You were humming throughout your shift once and he spent the following day at the record store trying to figure out what song it was. He eventually went up to an employee and hummed it to them until they could help him find it. He bought the goddamn ABBA record.
You lightly flick him with water and he acts like you've just waterboarded him, stumbling around and gasping for breath. He reaches toward the faucet and flicks you back, he throws more water than you had and you gasp, "You're getting me wet!" His eyes get huge and he starts to giggle. When you realize why you giggle right along with him.
You come in for your dinner shift one day and notice a stack of papers at the register. You pick one up and see a sketch of a fire-breathing dragon. The dragon is guarding various food items like pancakes, milkshakes, burgers, and fries. All of the papers are copies of this drawing and next to the stack, there is an old box of crayons. You ask your coworker what this is, and she says Eddie brought them in this morning to give kids something to entertain themselves with while they wait for their food. You can't wait to hand them out and you save any colored in pages for the next time you have a shift together so you can show him what a hit they were.
"Hey, Chef?"
"Yes, my dear?"
"What is 'Eddie' short for?"
"Edward. Why?"
"Is-" you try to stifle your laughter "-is 'Chef' short for Chefward?"
He gives you an annoyed look before shaking his head and laughing. It's an awful joke but he loves it nonetheless.
He opens his mouth to say something but stops himself. He was going to ask, "Yeah, you wanna be Mrs. Chefward Munson?" But he figures you're not quite there yet.
It's 3 pm on a Tuesday, the diner is pretty much dead save for two older women who have been gossiping in their booth since they came in at 1. You're busying yourself with cleaning the countertops, Eddie has his elbows resting on the window counter and his head resting in his, looking bored while he watches you. The radio in the diner is set to Soul and R&B, as it usually is. One song ends and then "Baby You Got It" by Brenton Wood starts to play. You nod your head to the song and jump once you hear Eddie begin to sing along. It's absolutely not his usual style but he's learned it from how many times it is played on this station. You walk up to him with eyes wide, the two women seem to be so wrapped up in their stories that they don't pay attention to him.
"Eddie" you whisper trying to get him to stop.
He smiles at you and leaves the kitchen. You watch him as he comes out into the dining area, still singing. He walks up to you,
"Foxy clothes" he tugs at your apron string.
"Cutest nose" he boops your nose.
You're mortified yet endeared, a combination you so often feel around him.
The women are staring now with their mouths open as he serenades you. You're holding your face in your hands.
"People can be cruel, they say I've lost my cool" he makes eye contact with the women and looks back at you.
"But baby it's hard to keep my cool when I'm around you" He has most certainly lost his cool.
He holds your face in his hands, "Cause baby, you got it" your heart is beating a mile a minute as you look into his eyes. He looks down at your lips for just a second, then you both jump at the sound of clapping and whistling from the two ladies. You give them a sheepish wave and lightly elbow Eddie. "Back to work, Romeo."
For lunch, you order a plate of pancakes for yourself. He places the plate on the counter for you and gives you a smile. You go to grab the plate and say, "Thank you, Chef. Do we have any peanut butter?"
He raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I think so. Why? Someone want a PB&J?"
He gasps and covers his mouth.
You shake your head. "S'for the pancakes."
"What kind of person would do that to my pancakes?!"
You shrug at his dramatics and say, "I would, they're for me." and pulls away your plate, horrified that he could have feelings for such a monster.
"Sweetheart, why are you tainting my delicious food? You a dog or something? Gotta put peanut butter on food to eat it?"
You swat at him "Don't call me a dog! That's rude."
"Well, you're being rude by messing with perfection."
You huff at him and sneak back to the kitchen, grabbing the peanut butter. You spread a thin layer over each pancake as Eddie watches you in horror. You pour over the maple syrup and cut yourself a piece.
"You're just doing this to mess with me, aren't you?"
You look up at him before taking a bite. It's delicious, nutty, creamy, and syrupy, all the good things.
He shakes his head, "You're committed to the bit, I'll give you that."
You roll your eyes. "It isn't a bit! Here, just try it."
He sighs and decides to try it. Not because he thinks he will like it, but because it would mean he gets to eat off of your fork (which is basically like kissing, right?)
You hold the fork up to his lips and he takes a tentative bite.
"I mean... I'm not going to die or anything. But I'm still not happy with you, missy."
In reality, the pancakes are fine, but the way you're sharing them together has him thinking this may be his favorite meal ever.
He starts calling you "Sue" like "sous chef" when you help around the kitchen and the nickname sticks. You're not even sure if he knows your real name anymore. Sue turns into:
Suzie
Suzie Q
Woozy Suzie when you stumble/or trip
Boozy Suzie after you have one sip of beer
Sue Chef & the banshees
Susan when you are in trouble
He also jokes to Dustin about how both of their girls have the same name (even though they don't)