Work Text:
“This sucks.”
“Are you complaining again?”
Dan pops his head up, and sees his co-worker, PJ, raising his eyebrows at him. “What? I’m bored , and don’t tell me you’re not bored either. We’ve been standing around for like ten minutes now.”
“Would you rather we be slammed?” PJ asks. “At this time of night?”
“Well, I’d rather not be bored. I still have two hours left. This feels like the longest eight hour shift ever,” Dan complains. He pulls his phone out of his apron for the millionth time in just one hour, and sighs when he sees that only a few minutes have passed since the last time he checked the time. “Fuck me.”
“Language.”
Dan looks over and sees their supervisor, Phil, walking past the registers. “There’s no one here!”
Phil raises his eyebrows at him. “Your point?”
“You’re not seriously going to write me up for swearing, are you?” Dan asks.
Phil snorts. “No, of course not. I honestly don’t care if you swear as long as there’s no customers around.”
“Thank God,” Dan says. “Look, is there anything else I can do? Do we really need three registers open? Chris looks like he’s about to fall asleep over there.”
Chris looks up when his name is mentioned. “I’m perfectly wide awake, thank you!”
Phil chuckles, and shakes his head at his employee. “Yeah. That’s very believable, Chris,” he says, and then he looks back over at Dan. “Well, I don’t want you to have to go out and push carts with baggers. So, the only other thing I have that you can do is put away the go-backs.”
“Come on,” Dan groans. “You know I hate doing fucking go-backs.”
“I’ll do the go-backs!” PJ exclaims as he raises his hand.
“No, sorry, Peej. Dan’s doing the go-backs since he’s so bored right now,” Phil says, and smirks when Dan groans even more. “What? You asked for this.”
“You are my least favorite manager,” Dan grumbles as he bends down to shut the light off on his register.
Phil barks out a laugh. “Yeah, right. You and I both know that isn’t true,”
Dan grabs his water bottle and walks over to Phil. “You’re right. Sarah is a bitch and I still hate her,”
“Pipe down. You’ve only been here for three months. Try working with her for three years,” Phil says as they start walking towards the service desk. “Just be glad you don’t have to work with her directly.”
“I still have to see her face when I come into work, and that’s way more than I’d like,” Dan complains.
Phil chuckles, and he walks over to the go-backs area with Dan. he watches as Dan grabs an empty cart to start putting the unwanted groceries in to put away. “Hey, are you doing anything this weekend?”
Dan stops, and looks up at Phil. “Uhm, no? You know I don’t work on the weekends,”
“Right, of course I know that, yeah. I’m the one who makes the schedules,” Phil says, chuckling. “Well, look, it’s just… I’ve been meaning to ask you to hang out, but we’re always working together.”
“We’re working now?” Dan points out.
“No, I know. I just wanted to ask,” Phil says.
“And what exactly are you asking? Is this like a date? Phil Lester, are you asking me on a date? Isn’t that against some policy rule here or something?” Dan asks, raising his eyebrows. “You are my manager.”
Phil shrugs his shoulders. “Not that I know of. Employees date each other all the time.”
Dan sighs softly as he stares at Phil, because he’d be lying if he said he didn’t think Phil was hot, because he is, and Dan’s always been interested in him ever since he started working at the grocery store. “Okay,” he says. “But, if we get in trouble, then it’s your fault.”
Phil can’t help but laugh. “No, why is it my fault?”
Dan shrugs his shoulders. “Because I said so, that’s why,” he says, and grins. “Now, excuse me sir. You’re bothering me. I have these unwanted groceries to put away. Fucking hate go-backs.”
Phil’s eyes widen when a customer walks by just as Dan swore out loud. “Dan!”
“What?” Dan asks, looking up at Phil innocently.
“Watch you’re swearing around customers,” Phil warns. “Please don’t make me have to write you up.”
Dan glances over at the customer, who’s now waiting in the self-checkout lane, not paying any attention to him or Phil. “Oh please. She didn’t hear me, and she probably doesn’t even care that I swore,”
“Dan, honestly, what am I going to do with you?” Phil mumbles, and looks over when an employee at the service desk is calling for him. “We’ll talk more later about this weekend, yeah?”
“Yeah, okay,” Dan says, and watches as Phil walks away.
Shit .
Dan’s in so much trouble. He already knows that he is. He knows he shouldn’t go out with his manager. That’s got to be a policy rule. But, he just can’t help himself. He wants to go out with Phil.
Dan and PJ are both off at eight o’clock, Chris being the closing cashier at eleven.
“So, I’m pretty sure Phil asked me out on a date this weekend,” Dan says as they walk to PJ’s car.
PJ instantly stops dead in his tracks, causing Dan to stop too. He looks over at PJ. “Phil?” He asks, and Dan nods. “ Phil , as in our supervisor Phil?” Dan nods again. “What the hell, Dan?”
“What?” Dan asks, shrugging his shoulders as he starts walking again.
“You never told me you were interested in Phil,” PJ continues.
“Yeah, I’ve been interested in Phil since I started working here. Like, I’ve had the biggest crush on him since the first day I saw him which makes me sound like a little school girl with a crush, but I can’t help it,” Dan says. “I was just too afraid that I’d get fired for dating my supervisor. I mean, don’t you think that’s a rule or something? It has to be a rule.”
PJ shrugs. “Highly doubt it. Employees date each other all the time at this store. Some even get married.”
“That’s what Phil said. I mean, the dating part. Didn’t know about the married part,” Dan mumbles.
“Yeah.” PJ nods. “I’m sure you’ll be fine as long as you keep it on the down-low at work, right?”
“I guess so,” Dan says. “This is so… silly. Like, we haven’t even gone out on our first date and I’m already panicking about fucking policy rules about dating your manager.”
“I don’t blame you, Dan. But, I honestly don’t think you have anything to worry about,” PJ assures him, and they start walking to their cars again.
“Hey, can you not say anything to Chris about this? I know you guys tell each other everything and all that but, I… I wanna see where this goes first. I wanna make sure we actually have a chance,” Dan says.
“It’ll be hard, but I promise not to say anything to Chris,” PJ says.
“Thanks, appreciate it!” Dan grins as walks over to his car, pulling out his key. He looks over at PJ. “Well, see you tomorrow?”
“Same time as always,” PJ says, before getting into his car.
Dan also gets into his car. He gets himself comfortable and turns on the radio, MCR playing quietly. He pulls out his phone and sees that he has a text message from Phil. He smiles, and opens it.
phil lester, 10:04pm
saturday night at 6pm? i’ll pick u up
Dan chuckles to himself as he reads the text.
you, 10:04pm
sounds perfect, is this a casual date?
phil lester, 10:06pm
ofc
you, 10:06pm
i can’t wait :) stop texting me before you get in trouble
phil lester, 10:06pm
there’s literally no one here shut up
Dan snorts at the text, and shakes his head fondly, a burst of excitement rushing through his body as he thinks about going on a date with Phil. He has no doubt in his mind that Phil will go out to make it special.
The rest of the week goes incredibly slow for Dan, and he hates it, because he’s excited for his date on Saturday with Phil. He just wants to be able to spend some quality time with Phil outside of work. He only knows Phil the supervisor, so it will be nice for Dan to know who he really is when he’s not taking charge and bossing his employees around.
“Peej, I’m freaking out. What the fuck do I wear for a casual date with Phil Lester?” Dan asks PJ on the phone as he looks around his messy bedroom, clothes scattered all on the bed.
PJ chuckles. “Dude, are you really freaking out over a date with Phil?”
“Yes!” Dan whines. “Peej, seriously don’t laugh at me right now. I’m having a meltdown and you laughing is not helping me right now. What the fuck do I wear?”
“Well, did he tell you what type of date it’s going to be?” PJ asks, calming down after laughing.
“No, he told me it was casual,” Dan says.
“Then just wear something you would normally wear,” PJ says. “I know that’s not what you want to hear but if it’s casual, then that’s all you can do. Or, wear something you think is nice that would still fit under the casual category. I’m sure Phil will think you look nice no matter what you wear.”
“I don’t want to look just nice though,” Dan whines. “Can you come over and help me pick an outfit?”
PJ laughs softly. “Dan, I’m literally at work right now. You’re lucky I was on break when you called me. But, I’ll send Chris over and maybe he can help you pick an outfit. Is that good enough?”
Dan huffs. “Fine, send him over fast. My date is in two hours.”
“We need to work on your timing, Howell,” PJ says before hanging up on him.
Dan huffs as he stares at his phone. “My timing is perfectly fine, thank you very much,” he grumbles, stuffing his phone in his pocket. He bites his lip as he glances at the clothes on his bed, still panicking.
Luckily, Chris arrives at Dan’s apartment in fifteen minutes.
“Finally!” Dan exclaims as he lets Chris into his apartment. “Fuck, I’ve been pacing around the place for the past fifteen minutes waiting for you to get here, man.”
“Shit, man. I got here as fast as I could. PJ sent me an sos text, saying that I need to get to your place immediately. He said that you were freaking out over a date. You have a date tonight? With who?”
Dan freezes. He knows he can trust Chris with any secret, but the less people who know about him and Phil dating, the better. Dan can’t risk rumors getting out. He doesn’t want to get fired, and he doesn’t want Phil to get fired either. “Uhm, that’s classified.”
“Classified?” Chris repeats, snorting. “What are we? The Avengers?”
“Look, I’ll tell you eventually. I’m just trying to keep this date hush hush,” Dan says.
Chris rolls his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m helping you get ready for a date and you won’t even tell me who you’re going out with. I mean, Jesus, I bet PJ knows who it is,” he mumbles, and his eyes widen when Dan doesn’t say anything. “Oh my god. You told PJ but you didn’t tell me?”
“Chris!” Dan groans. “My date is in two hours. Can you please just help me pick out an outfit?”
“You fucking owe me for this, Howell,” Chris grumbles as he stomps over to Dan’s closet.
Dan rolls his eyes. “You’re so dramatic. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“PJ tells me that on a daily basis,” Chris replies with a grin.
“Well, it’s a good thing, because-” Dan laughs when suddenly a pair of jeans is thrown at his head. “Chris, what the fuck, dude? These are ugly. Why do I have these jeans?”
“Why do you think I threw them at your head?” Chris shouts from the closet.
Dan rolls his eyes, and shakes his head fondly, before tossing the jeans onto the bed.
The next thing Dan knows, his bedroom is a mess. But, eventually, a half an hour before he’s due to leave for his date with Phil, Chris has finally found Dan an outfit.
“I really don’t know how this turned into me getting rid of half my clothes, but I’m not complaining about it,” Dan says after he puts on his outfit for his date. He’s gone for black skinny jeans with holes on the knees, a simple black old Muse shirt with a red flannel to go with it. He’s pretty pleased with this look.
“You have so many clothes, Dan. It’s a bit ridiculous,” Chris says, sighing as he sits on his bed.
“What? I like fashion. I can’t help it,” Dan pouts. “Thanks for your help, Chris, but you should get going, because I have to finish getting ready for my date with Phil.”
Chris instantly snaps his head up at Dan. “Phil?”
“Shit,” Dan groans and slaps his forehead. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
“Surely you’re not talking about our supervisor, Phil Lester?” Chris asks, standing up.
Dan looks up at him, slowly nodding. “That’s the very one.”
“Jesus Christ,” Chris mumbles, and shakes his head. “This is going to be messy. You have to know that.”
Dan lets out a sigh. “Probably, but I just want to give it a shot. I- I really like Phil, and he seems to be interested in me too. So, we’re going on a date, and we’ll see what happens from there.”
“Well-” Chris sighs. “If you’re sure. I hope it all works out for you. He seems like a nice guy.”
“Yeah,” Dan mumbles, nodding. “I- I should probably get going. You wanna walk out with me?”
“Sure,” Chris says, and makes his way out of Dan’s bedroom with Dan.
Finally, Dan makes it to the restaurant where he’s supposed to be meeting Phil. Surprisingly, he’s on time, and Phil’s already there, waiting for him at the door.
Phil smiles, and waves as Dan walks up to him. “Dan, hey. Right on time,” he says, pulling Dan into a warm hug, and Dan instantly feels safe in Phil’s arms.
“What? You didn’t have any faith in me?” Dan asks, grinning as he looks up at Phil.
Phil laughs softly. “I had faith, I just worry. I’m really glad you made it,” he says. “But, I’m starving, so… should we go in and get a table?” He asks, gesturing towards the door with his thumb.
Dan bites his lip as he looks up at Phil. “Phil, I have to make sure… Do you really want to do this?”
“What do you mean?” Phil asks, blinking.
“I mean, this. Us. I mean, our job… people are going to talk if they find out, and they are going to find out, because I may have accidentally let it slip to Chris earlier that I was going on a date with you and Chris has the biggest mouth on the planet. He can’t keep a secret to save his life,” Dan says.
“Dan, I don’t care if people find out. They already know I’m gay. It wouldn’t be that surprising, and employees date all the damn time. Besides, work is kind of like high school. People are always going to talk no matter what. I mean, as long as you’re okay with that, of course. We can keep it hush hush if you’re uncomfortable. I totally understand,” Phil says.
“No, I don’t care either. I just… it’s kind of a big deal. I wanted to make sure you’re okay with that before we went any further on this date. I- I really like you. I want to try this,” Dan admits, his cheeks turning pink.
Phil smiles, and he reaches over to grab Dan’s hand. “I like you too. A lot,” he says.
Dan takes a deep breath, and nods. “Okay. I’m glad we got that out of the way then.”
Phil laughs. “Me too, Dan. But, I really am hungry. Can we go eat?”
“Yes,” Dan laughs as well, and squeezes Phil’s hand. “Yes, Phil. We can go eat. Let’s go enjoy our date.”