Chapter Text
Another weeknight, another night when Jeremy all of a sudden had last-minute plans and needed Trevor to do daycare pickup and keep Andrew for the night. Keeping Andrew for the night was no problem, sleepovers with his little bro were one of Trevor’s favorite things in the entire world. It even wasn’t that Trevor minded picking him up at daycare, he liked being able to catch up with Pete for a few minutes and hearing Andrew’s stories all the way home about his friends Thor and Sasappis - earlier that week his friend Thor taught him and the other kids in their little class a song about stabbing Danish men and bashing their heads against the wall after they pillaged their villages, which amused Trevor but left him equally concerned about what this daycare was teaching in story-time - but Trevor already had a long day at work and he was looking at having to go back to get done everything he needed to get done.
Which meant more than anything that Andrew was going to put up a big fuss about not being able to see Hetty and Isaac at the café.
Andrew pointed out the window the familiar building the second Trevor drove past the café to head back to his office. Damn. Sometimes Trevor swore that kid was better than a GPS system. “Uncle Trevor, no!"
Trevor looked as sympathetic as he could as he met his nephew’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “I know, buddy, but your dad’s busy tonight and I’ve got to finish some work reports before tomorrow or else I’m going to get in real big trouble with my boss and he’ll put me in big boy timeout. I think I’ve still got some toys from the last time you were in my office and markers, too. You can color. That was fun last time you were there, wasn’t it?”
Andrew slumped miserably in his car seat and kicked his legs. Trevor looked away so he wouldn’t dare laugh at him for how his legs were too short to make contact with anything so he was merely kicking air. "Not fun."
Trevor firmly agreed. "Not arguing with you there, kiddo, I don't think work is fun either." At that moment Trevor’s phone started to buzz with a text message notification and when he glanced down at a red light to see who it was, he made the executive decision to call Hetty back and ask her for the biggest favor in the history of favors.
He'd been to the cafe enough times and had heard from Hetty equally enough times to know that weeknights weren't busy at all. He was surprised they stayed in business, to be honest, but knew better than to say so.
Hetty agreed after not nearly as much cajoling as Trevor expected and seconds later he was making a U-turn to head back in the direction of the cafe. Andrew cheered from the backseat. The entire way there Trevor made it clear to the little boy how Hetty and her friends were doing them a favor and he expected Andrew to be on his best behavior. Andrew nodded and seemed to be paying attention (he usually did when Trevor enforced rules because he didn’t enforce rules very often) and Trevor, again, tried hard not to be frustrated that for the millionth time in the last six years he felt like the roles were reversed when they weren't supposed to be - that he was Andrew's dad and Jeremy was the fun uncle that only did 20% of the work. Trevor had no business doing any of this.
(He and Hetty had talked about this multiple times before and Hetty always encouraged him to take their mom up on her offer to have Andrew for a week so he could take some days to unwind and talk seriously to Jeremy. Trevor’s response was the same as it always was: that he’d have a talk with Jeremy if she stood up to her father and Elias. Hetty rolled her eyes that day and said point taken, and neither of them had ever brought it up again.)
Andrew started running first to Hetty even before Isaac a couple weeks back and as long as Hetty wasn’t holding coffee or with a customer Trevor didn’t much feel the need to stop him. The first time she’d formally been introduced to the five-year-old she’d patted the top of his head and generally acted like she didn’t know what to do with him and hadn’t met a child in her entire life. Trevor assumed she’d be like all the others who’d said it was too much responsibility to date him when they came face-to-face with Andrew and found out how much of a fixture his nephew was in his life. He and Hetty hadn’t even gone on a date yet.
Hetty Woodstone, though, seemed to take the ultimate delight in surprising him, and it didn’t take long for her to slowly start to warm up to Andrew. The fact that she was another adult in the café that gave him cookies didn’t hurt, either.
Hetty gave Trevor an impossibly smug smile and told Andrew that there were freshly made cookies in the back that were just about done except for Isaac and Alberta needing help decorating them, and did Andrew want to help? Andrew barely waved goodbye to his uncle before disappearing in the back.
Trevor couldn’t help but smile back at Hetty. She was his friend, one of his very best friends now, but she was also beautiful and Isaac’s words from so many weeks ago played on repeat in his head. “Please do your best to stop Isaac from overloading him with sugar.”
Her smug smile got even larger, if that was possible. “I will do my best to contain Isaac but I reserve no such promise for myself or Alberta.” She shook her head and held up two fingers even though Trevor knew for a fact she’d never so much as gone to a single Girl Scout meeting in her life. “Three little cookies or two regular-sized ones and no soda this late at night. We will abide by your rules, Trevor.”
Later he wouldn’t know what possessed him to do so but he went up to the counter where she stood and impulsively, he kissed her cheek. “Thank you, and be sure to tell Isaac and Alberta thanks, too. Two hours, I promise.”
Trevor didn’t make it back for two and a half hours and Isaac merely pointed to the very back booth when he first opened the door to the café. Andrew had his head in Hetty’s lap and was fast asleep. Hetty lifted her head when she heard Trevor’s footsteps approaching and narrowed her eyes at him. “Two and a half hours is not the same thing as two hours, Trevor.”
Trevor squatted down at the edge of the booth and put his hand against Andrew’s head. The kid didn’t move. “I’m well aware. I’m so sorry I took up your entire night, but on the plus side I got all of my work done and won’t get yelled at or get fired. I talked to Jeremy and he’s taking Andrew to a sports camp for the weekend. That means every night this weekend is free for me.” He looked up at Hetty pleadingly. “How about I take you out to dinner to make it up to you?”
Hetty blinked. “I don’t think I understand.”
Alberta popped her head out from the back. “A date, Hetty, he’s asking you on a date. I know your father emotionally stunted you on purpose but don’t tell me you’re not familiar with the process.”
Trevor stood up in surprise that Alberta was even there. Hetty shrugged. “Isaac stayed as well to do paperwork, as you can see. I volunteered to stay and wait for you and close the store myself, but I know enough about myself that it’s in everyone’s best interest that I not be left alone in charge of a child.”
He smiled and waved his hand out to indicate his nephew that was currently sleeping on her lap. “You seem to be doing fine from what I can see. You’ve been doing fine since we’ve started coming here, Andrew doesn’t usually take to just anyone.” He looked pleadingly at Hetty again. “Dinner on Saturday?”
“I am scheduled to work that night, unfortunately.”
Once again it was Alberta to come to the rescue with an interjection of her own. “I’ll swap shifts with you. There. You’re free. No more excuses.”
Hetty narrowed her eyes at Alberta but couldn’t stop the smile that showed on her face when she looked at Trevor. “I’d like that very much. Dinner on Saturday. You can pick me up here.”
Trevor couldn’t help himself from smiling back. She was so much bossier and more opinionated than anyone he’d ever dated before but he thought that maybe he was starting to like that. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”
Samantha Arondekar, co-owner of the daycare with her husband Jay where little Andrew Lefkowitz was part of the five-to six-year-old class, wrote a note to herself to remind her and Jay to set up a meeting with Thor’s parents to discuss the inappropriate subject matter of his current stories. He was starting to scare the other children and they were getting phone calls from worried parents.
Samanatha Arondekar, co-owner of the daycare where little Andrew Lefkowitz was part of the five-to six-year-old class, also loved Hallmark movies. She didn’t think that made her a bad person. Fine, so she’d made a mess of things between her husband’s sister and that friend of hers last Christmas and Bela hadn’t spoken to her for a few weeks after that, she’d admit to that, but she wasn’t going to apologize for wanting the people she cared about to be happy. She didn’t even gloat (much) when her instincts about people turned out to be right.
She didn’t gloat when she heard it through the grapevine (really two of her employees named Pete Martino and Susan Montero and she was eavesdropping on purpose, but that part really didn’t matter) that Andrew Lefkowitz’s uncle Trevor and Hetty Woodstone from the café were taking things slow but were definitely dating.
Or six months after that when she got a phone call from Jeremy Lefkowitz wanting to add a new name to the list of people allowed to pick up his son from daycare: his brother’s live-in girlfriend Hetty Woodstone.
She most definitely did not gloat four months after that when Hetty Woodstone came to pick up the little boy after work with a diamond ring on that finger on that hand and the boy ran to her so they wouldn’t be late to meet Uncle Trevor and Daddy for dinner.
She didn’t gloat - but she also didn’t stop herself from writing a note for Jay and putting it on top of his paperwork where he’d be sure to see it at the end of the night: I told you so.