Work Text:
“Do you got some new broad in your life you're not telling me about? Is her name Carmen? Does she run a burrito truck?”
~~~
Richie scoffed as he left his brother's apartment. Seth could be such a weirdo sometimes.
He checked the Jaeger on his wrist as he got out to the street. It was almost 10:30, just enough time to swing by the corner of King's and Park before the truck was moved to the construction site down by city hall. He had made the mistake once to go down to the site to order his usual lunch menu and it hadn't been pretty. Construction workers apparently take their lunch break quite seriously and having some bloke in a suit come and steal minutes off of their precious meal time was far from appreciated.
He got into the car and shook his head again as he thought about his brother. Seth was way off. It wasn't a burrito truck, it was a taco truck. And her name wasn't Carmen it was Teresa, as in Teresa's Tacos.
He drove around the bend towards the park and as he cleared the box cut hedges he saw the small, white and green food truck, parked on the corner. He didn't realize he had a big grin plastered on his face until he closed the car door behind him and caught his reflection in the side window. He gave himself a quick look over, ran a hand through his hair and pushed the glasses up the ridge of his nose.
There weren't a lot of customers and he saw her wiping down the small counter in the truck. As he got closer she met his eyes and her face lit up like the break of dawn.
“Hola cariño!” It was the smile of an angel with the voice of a muse.
“Good morning, Teresa.” He didn't feel comfortable trying to use any Spanish. He had tried it a couple of times at home in front of the mirror and had even recorded himself just to make sure his pronunciation would be correct, and it was good, but he didn't feel it was good enough.
“What can I get you, sweetie?” She leaned on her elbows over the counter, giving him a candid view down her fitted, deep necked top. He quickly averted his eyes, feeling a blush creep up as he put his index up to his glasses, adjusting them although the were already at the top. Teresa grinned mischievously, and he was sure that she did it on purpose, just to rile him up. She had done it plenty of times before, every time with the same result.
Richie cleared his throat before answering. “I'll just have a horchata, thanks. I have to be on my way.” he smiled, hopefully endearing but he had a feeling it was mostly sheepish.
Teresa smiled at him as she straightened up to get him his order. “No tinga today then?” she raised an eyebrow at him over her shoulder. “Can't keep up that big, handsome body of yours on liquids alone, you know.” Another smile that made him feel his cheeks heat up again. He was about to cross his arms over his chest but stopped halfway, thought it might look weird, off-putting, and for what felt like a horrifyingly long moment he just stood there, arms by his side like in some strange attention. Finally he shoved his hands down the pockets of his black slacks, and looked down at his feet.
“Ehum, I... yeah, it's...” he put a finger up to press at the bridge of his glasses again as he looked up at her, thinking about the inner workings of rotary combination locks to gather his thoughts. “I'm on my way to an appointment in a short while so I thought I would pass on the solids this time.”
Teresa passed him the big cup of agua fresca, a pink straw sticking up from the top. She tilted her head to the side, making her mahogany curls fall over one shoulder, and looked at him with big, dark brown, almost black, eyes. “Big job, huh?”
~~~
He got back in the car and clenched his hands on top of the steering wheel.
That went well, right? Right? No, he had talked to much. He closed his eyes and groaned. He had gotten nervous when she mentioned big jobs. It had sounded as if she had known, like really known, and he had in sheer panic changed the topic. Why did he start going on about cinnamon? But she had smiled and nodded and chuckled softly as she replied with “No, I didn't know that” and “I have never thought about that”.
Just smile and nod.
God. That was what Seth used to tell him whenever he dragged him to some social event, knowing full well that Richie hated those things. And whenever Richie got fed up with some overly enthusiastic talker Seth would creep up next to him and murmur in his ear, “Just smile and nod” and Richie would do as he was told. Seth had always been far better than him when it came to those things, and it had worked well beyond expectation. People had seemed much more relaxed around him and he found he could get through entire conversations by just smiling and nodding with the occasional “hmm” or “you don't say” put in just for good measure.
He slammed his forehead down between his hands, sure it would leave a red mark on his pale skin but not caring enough to regret it.
He tilted his head and glanced over at the close to emptied cup of horchata placed in the cup holder between the seats. He straightened up and leaned over to take a napkin from the glove compartment and started cleaning the straw, his face a mask of closed off focus as he meticulously rid the pink plastic of any residue from the sweet beverage.
When he decided it was clean enough he put the napkin down into the cup for later disposal and the straw was put in a box he pulled out from under the passenger seat. He opened the lid and put the straw in along with numerous other straws in various neon bright colours. He smiled from the corner of his mouth. As soon as this box were filled he would take it home, clean the straws properly and then add them to the ones he already had in his collection.
It had turned out pretty nice so far, the mural. He just needed some darker colours for the eyes. Those eyes were almost black.