Chapter Text
“Here she comes.” Darla knocked Maggie’s shoulder with her own and indicated the door with her chin just as the bell rang, and a slender woman with chin-length dark hair and a black leather jacket came in and headed for a booth. A strand of blonde hair escaped Darla’s messy bun as she leaned over the counter to blatantly eye the customer’s ass, not that Maggie blamed her. Megan smacked her arm and nodded her head at Maggie’s discomfort.
“Knock it off, Darla. This is a place of business.” Pursing her lips, Megan slid a pencil behind her ear, her own dark hair up in a much neater arrangement. As the manager, she made it her job to make sure Darla, who didn’t seem to have much of a filter, didn’t go too far.
The morning crowd was slowly dissipating, but there was only one bussed table, right in the middle of Maggie’s section, much to the delight of Darla. She and Megan had been teasing Maggie mercilessly for the last week about her new favorite regular. “You need to get her number this time,” Darla whispered as Maggie grabbed paper placemats and utensils, and Maggie rolled her eyes at the prodding. Darla had suggested the same thing yesterday, and the day before, and the repetition was not endearing.
“You want to date her so bad, you get it,” Maggie muttered under her breath, hating the fact that she had been obvious enough for her co-workers to have picked up on her interest. She ignored the thumbs up Megan gave her from behind the register, glad the customer in question was sitting with her back to their antics.
Bright light streamed in through the windows, casting every bit of grime and grunge in the old, beaten-down diner in sharp relief. The place desperately needed to be hosed down, if not cleansed by hellfire, Maggie thought idly as she stepped up beside the table. Her new favorite regular was seated in a booth by the windows, and Maggie’s smile widened as the same sunlight that showed every scratch and scar in the linoleum brought out sparks of red in the woman’s hair as she raised her head to greet Maggie.
“I don’t know why you study the menu. You’ve gotten the same thing every time you’ve come in,” Maggie teased as she set the table and fished in her apron for her notepad and pen.
“Maybe I’ll surprise you.” Her voice was rough, deeper than usual. “Maggie… right?”
Maggie bit back the teasing rejoinder about liking surprises and tried to ignore how the whiskey-rough timbre of the brunette’s voice saying her name hit her squarely in the gut. “Yup,” Maggie replied, tapping the plastic name tag pinned to her t-shirt, smirking a little at the adorable blush that spread across her cheeks. “Alice, no… Alex?” She only pretended not to know the other woman’s name.
“Yeah.” The word rumbled out of Alex’s throat and a bashful smile graced her lips as she lifted her head to meet Maggie’s eyes. “I guess I’m becoming a regular, huh?”
Maggie tilted her head with a smirk. “The last couple of weeks, at least. You look like you had a rough night.”
“It was a little crazy,” Alex agreed, and she started to say something more when another of Maggie’s customers called to her. With an apologetic shrug, Maggie went to take care of him before returning to Alex’s booth.
“Your usual?”
“Just coffee to start. I’m going to see if I can surprise you,” Alex replied, bending her head back over the menu to study it more closely.
The coffee was running low, and Maggie busied herself with starting a fresh pot, so when the bell rang, signalling another customer, Maggie simply gestured to toward the booths. “Seat yourself.”
“Thanks!” The voice was sunny and entirely too chipper, and Maggie glanced in annoyance as the fresh-faced blonde embodiment of wholesome living breezed by her, her irritation increasing tenfold when she stopped in Maggie’s section… at Alex’s booth. Maggie watched in horror as Alex slid out of her seat and hugged the blonde before they both sat down.
“Damn, your cutie has a cutie,” Darla muttered near Maggie’s ear while the blonde chattered animatedly about her morning. “Kinda looks like a Disney Princess.”
“Like the kind that gets dressed by woodland creatures while she dances around the room and sings happy songs?” Maggie grumped as Alex laughed at something the blonde was saying.
“Some girls like the preppy argyle look. Maybe your crush is one of them.”
“I do not have a crush,” Maggie growled as she rolled her eyes and picked up two glasses of water, making her way down to Alex’s table. “This is a surprise,” she said as she set the glasses down and flipped Alex’s coffee cup over and filled it. “You don’t usually have company.” Her eyes settled on Alex for a moment before shifting to the blonde with a raised eyebrow. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Coffee would be great, thanks!”
Up close, the blonde was even more perky and cute than she appeared, if that were even possible, and Maggie hated her on the spot, especially when she saw the warm, indulgent smile on Alex’s face as she gazed at the blonde.
“Kara, are you ready to order?” Alex asked, and Maggie stifled the sigh that welled up in her chest. Kara. Of course the cute blonde girl would have a cute blonde girl name.
“Oh, hold on, you go ahead.” Kara scrambled for the menu, studying it quickly.
“I’ll have my usual.” Maggie was sure it was just wishful thinking that Alex’s smile widened when she glanced up at Maggie to order, but it was enough to alleviate a little bit of the annoyance she was feeling for the blonde.
“Not going to try anything new?” Maggie teased gently.
“Nah. I’ll just have some of whatever she’s having. She’ll probably order enough for three people.”
Kara cocked an eyebrow, looking vaguely insulted by the presumption. “Who says you are getting some of my food? I’m starved after last night.”
“Worked up an appetite, did you?” Maggie looked between the two women, seeing a flash of unspoken communication from Alex the blonde missed.
“Totally! It was…. Hey!” Maggie would have pretended she didn’t see Alex kick the blonde’s shin under the table, but Kara’s reaction called attention to it. Whatever had gone on last night, Alex definitely did not want the other woman to talk about it.
“Why don’t you just order, Kara?”
“Okay, okay. I’ll have the big plate special with eggs over easy, and can I get biscuits and gravy instead of just biscuits and stuffed french toast instead of pancakes?” She flipped the menu over and gave a small squeal. “Sticky buns!” Maggie pursed her lips, tapping her pen as she waited, and Alex rubbed her forehead, a pained expression on her face. “I’ll have one, no, wait, two sticky buns.”
“Anything else?” Maggie asked drily, surprised to see Kara take the question seriously and go back to scouring the menu.
Alex reached over and took the menu out of her hands and handed it to Maggie, grinning despite the glare from the blonde. “That’s it, thanks, Maggie.”
As she placed the order, Darla craned her neck to get a better look at the booth where Alex and Kara were laughing. “They seem cozy. Did I hear something about a crazy night as I passed by? Do you think they had a crazy night together?”
Leave it to Darla to find the absolute worst conclusion and voice it. “It’s none of my business if they did,” she replied curtly, knowing she wasn’t fooling her co-worker in the least. Her mind had already leaped there, but she didn’t need Darla to reinforce it.
Maggie’s section cleared out except for Alex and her friend, who had already devoured her sticky buns and seemed to be looking around anxiously for more food. Finally, their order was up, and Maggie grabbed a plate in each hand and delivered them to the booth. “Steak and eggs,” she said as she set the plate down in front of Alex, “and a big plate special.” The blonde actually hopped a little and clapped her hands when she saw the stuffed french toast. “I’ll bring your biscuits and gravy right out. You need anything else?”
Kara was already scooping eggs onto her toast and shoving it into her mouth, and she shook her head at Maggie’s question. Alex gave an exasperated sigh and looked up at Maggie with a smile. “I think we’re good. I’ll try to keep her from licking the plate, but no promises.”
Maggie soaked in that smile for just a moment too long, until Kara interrupted to say, “This is really good.” She stabbed her fork into the french toast for another bite. “Alex, you should try this next time you are here.”
“How about I try it now?” Alex reached across and snagged a corner, earning her a yelp from her dining companion.
“Order your own french toast,” Kara said as she tried to shift her plate away from Alex and nearly upended it into her lap. Their shenanigans would have been cute except that there was a clear fondness between them despite their bickering, like they had been together for years, and Maggie grimaced as she stepped away to get the rest of Kara’s order.
The bell dinged once again, and a delivery guy stepped through the door with a cart stacked with boxes. “Thursday delivery, like clockwork.” Megan raised her voice. “Frank, for you.”
The doors to the kitchen swung open, revealing Frank, the owner of the diner. He rarely left his dingy office off to the side of the kitchen, but he always signed for the Thursday 10 AM delivery, three boxes, bearing the name of a pastry shop and a postmark from Star City.
“He loves those cannolis,” Darla laughed as Frank disappeared back into his office, three boxes perched precariously on top of one another.
“He does know there are bakeries that make cannolis in National City, right?” Maggie asked.
“He says nobody makes cannolis like Mario’s. Something about a secret recipe for the dough that came over from the old country.” Megan threw up her hands and rolled her eyes. For a boss, Frank was better than most, so they put up with a few quirks. “He let me have one once, but I didn’t taste anything different, and he called me a troglodyte.”
Maggie cocked an eyebrow and made a funny face. “Impressive vocabulary. You think he’s reading a dictionary back there?”
“I have no idea.” Megan laughed. She looked like she was about to add something when a construction crew came in, taking up two tables in Maggie’s section. Maggie got buried, taking orders, filling drinks, and she only had half a second to drop a to-go cup of coffee and the check at Alex’s table.
“My hero,” Alex told her with a grin as she wrapped her hands around the cup, and Maggie winked at her. Alex’s cheeks flushed and she dropped her eyes, earning them both a speculative look from the blonde. But then one of her tables called, and Maggie was off again with one last glance at Alex.
When she finally got a moment to breathe, Alex and her friend were already heading toward the cash register. “Maggie, pack up a sticky bun to go,” Megan called as Alex fished out her credit card.
Maggie did as she was told, hustling it up to the register and into the waiting hands of Kara, who was making little grabby motions with her fingers.
“You,” Megan said, pointing at Alex affectionately, “bring this one back with you again. I like the way she eats.”
“My wallet doesn’t,” Alex grumped as she signed the receipt. She handed the slip of paper and the pen back to Megan, but her eyes and shy smile were directed at Maggie. “See you around, Maggie,” Alex said, before hastily adding, “and Megan.”
“See you around, Alex,” Maggie called back.
The two women were barely out the door before Darla said, “Are you done swooning, Sawyer? Cuz table 8 needs coffee refills.”
Maggie swatted at the other woman as she grabbed the coffee pot. “I don’t swoon.”
“Too bad she has a girlfriend,” Darla taunted, but Maggie ignored her as she headed toward her section.
A cash tip was on Alex’s table, and Maggie paused long enough to swipe the bills. As she did so, a small piece of paper slipped out and fluttered to the floor. When Maggie picked it up, she found a phone number written in a small, neat numbers. Hope blossomed in her chest, and she smiled at the slip of paper before schooling her face into her usual friendly-but-not-too-friendly expression before Darla walked by. Maybe Alex wasn’t dating the blonde after all. Stashing the number in the front pocket of her jeans, Maggie went on with her work with a new spring to her step.