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It’s after the third time he catches them making eye contact and breaking it like 10 year olds that he decides to say something.
The third time, that day. He’s lost count how many times since the girl’s been working here; if she wasn’t such a rigid pain in the ass he’d think Carmen hired her just to stare at her all day.
Richie’s not in the mood to deal with his cousin’s rancid attitude so he corners… she said her name was Sydney right? Or Cindy? Fuck those two names sound too similar.
It’s safer to skip the name part, get to the point. “So you got a thing for little Bobby Flay over there or what?”
She looks up at him, rolls her eyes and Richie just ignores it, digs in his pocket for his pack of Sapphires that he knows is in there.
“I don’t even know what you’re asking or how to respond to that.” He’s almost scared to piss her off considering she’s holding a tenderizer in her hand but she’s like 5 foot fuck. How much damage could she possibly do?
Richie scoffs, finally pries the pack of cigarettes from his pocket. “Yeah, okay. Don’t tell me.”
Sydney (?) mutters under her breath, but he still hears, vindicated by the response. “Like I would tell you shit,”
“So there is somethin’. Gonna circle back.” He smirks and turns his back on her. “Fuck off, Richie.”
Before he leaves for a smoke he finally hears Carmy’s voice. “You alright, Chef?” Richie mocks him under his breath, but smirks again when he hears Sydney’s reply. “Uh yeah. Yeah, fine.”
Cousin’s such a little fuckin’ dickhead. Where does he get off? Mikey offs himself and now he’s king of fucking restaurants? Doesn’t matter that Richie’s been here longer than Carmy’s even been a legal adult, and now he’s taking orders from this jagoff. When the fuck is it Richie’s turn to have a good day? Why does someone have to shit in his cereal every morning?
Now he has to ride along in his own car with Little Miss Knows Everything to the hardware store in the middle of the workday. Richie looks over to see Sydney’s nose scrunch up and inwardly rolls his eyes. Acting like she’s never been in someone else’s car before.
“I wasn’t expecting company by the way. These Arby’s cups are from different visits.”
Sydney wipes the look off her face, sighs. “I respect that.”
It doesn’t get any better at the stupid hardware store. Richie comes here all the time. A fucking regular even it’s just that they move everything around all the time. The caulk used to be right in front and now it’s not. He hates having to ask for help like an asshole so he insists he can find it.
He’s still complaining about Carmy to the poor girl when she asks what happened to Michael. There’s something about that question. It’s like the receptor in his brain that stops to wallow or drop to his knees in despair is shut down. At least when he’s pissed off. He answers. “He shot himself in the head four months ago.”
“Jesus,” Sydney whispers under her breath. He gets it. Richie almost wants to apologize for the way he answered when he finally spots the fucking caulk. At least something’s going right.
They’re back in the car and Richie is still huffing. “Ah shit. We’re gonna be in gridlock for over an hour, ‘cause of your new boyfriend. Don’t know why you even wanna work for that little stunad.”
Sydney’s eyes widen into saucers. “He’s not my—" She scoffs loudly and shifts in the driver's seat. “He’s good, Richie. Like whether you like it or not he’s incredibly talented and we could learn a lot from him. You know he was one of Food and Wine’s Best New Chefs when he was only 21—?”
Richie hardly lets her finish before he’s mocking her. A part of him wants to feel bad but she makes it way too easy. She might as well be showing him an entry in her diary right now.
“How the fuck do you even know that anyways, what are you some sorta fangirl? I know you have a little crush but shit. Fuckin’— why the fuck is she callin’ me?” He’s distracted by Tiff’s repeated calling, especially since she’s the one who told him only to call if it was an emergency.
When he gets off the phone he’s forgotten what he was even teasing Sydney about and suddenly she apologizes for Mikey. Whatever that’s to mean at this point. If it’s even his condolence to accept. Shit.
That doesn’t matter. Richie has a theory to test.
Meatloaf is such an annoying food. It’s either a block of bland nothing or the best thing you’ve ever eaten. Luckily the one Sweeps makes is amazing, doesn’t make him regret forgetting his ham and cheese sandwich in the fridge this morning that Eva decided she didn’t want.
Sydney’s next to him talking to Sweeps about his meatloaf and how it’s actually on par with her dad’s. At least he thinks that’s what she’s saying, he’s in the middle of this insane story about how Mikey almost convinced him to jump to the next rooftop when they were hammered one night at the restaurant after closing. Tina rolls her eyes, says she remembers the story and is glad they pussied out because “no one’s trying to go to the hospital,” Richie just scoffs. It would have been fucking awesome, he was totally down to jump.
Carmy’s skipping out again. It’s insane, it’s like the dude swears he wants the stomach ache in the middle of dinner service. Richie’s not his fucking mom, isn’t gonna scold him into eating something, but that doesn’t mean he’s not worried.
He glances at Sydney next to him to see her making eyes at the door when it opens, deflates a little when she sees it’s just Ebra coming back from the kitchen. Richie shoves another forkful of mashed potatoes into his mouth when he speaks.
“You know, I was crazy about this girl in high school. Got all shy around her and only ever smiled at her and shit. She smiled at me too and I thought “fuck, I have a shot”. Took way too long to fuckin’ ask her out and when I did she told me she had a boyfriend. Tore me up.”
Sydney’s eyebrows scrunch together when she looks up and sees that he was indeed talking to her. She scoffs. “What the fuck are you talking about now?”
“I’m talking about if you like someone, you fuckin’ baby. Don’t hide that shit.”
“I didn’t even wanna give you this satisfaction but what do I have to do to get you to stop talking?” Sydney does this freaky shit with her voice, tries to make it sound lower like she’s trying to scare him? It nearly makes Richie laugh but he refuses to drop this right now.
He shrugs, piles up his fork again. “Bring him a plate. I’d do it but, eh I don’t know. Lazy I guess.”
Her seat makes a loud sound when she pushes back. “Whatever,” she piles up a dish and makes a show of it so Richie can see, rolling her eyes on her way back through the kitchen.
He gives her five before he pushes his own seat back, mumbles something about taking a smoke. Richie pushes through the door and leans on the wall closest to the office. He’s not eavesdropping, alright? That’s for little girls. He just wants to see if she actually brought him the fucking food.
Sydney’s voice is a little wobbly. “I think he put like thyme in it maybe? Tasted a little like five spice too but I don’t know if that’s Sweeps’ thing.”
“Woah,” Carmy responds. “I think he threw some chorizo in here too. Bold,” What the—? And she’s actually laughing at that shit.
Richie rolls his eyes, of course they’re talking about their nerd cooking shit. He’s not sure why he expected any different or really what he was expecting at all. He keeps listening.
“So, can I ask why you like hole up in here instead of, I don't know, eating?”
“Stomach’s kinda fucked. I uh. I had to finish filing the backed up paperwork for some loan Mikey didn’t pay back and I’m not even sure why I expected him to be organized when he couldn’t even get his own shit together or let me—"
There’s a pause and Richie didn’t realize how close he’d been leaning in until he almost trips. Carmy continues.
“I am. Shit I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean to say any of that. It’s just a little…”
“Fucked?” Sydney speaks again. “Yeah it’s um. It’s cool. It’s a lot, I get it. Just. I think you’d feel better if you ate something. Like every day maybe? I think that’s the suggested amount by like… doctors and shit.”
Richie makes a face when he hears Cousin start to laugh, not too hard but he’s definitely laughing. Huh. He hasn’t heard that since. Well he honestly doesn’t remember.
“Yeah I um. I’ll try. Thanks, Chef. Syd-Sydney.”
He’d stick around to hear her reply, but he doesn’t wanna be faced with her attitude if she catches him so he rushes out the back to actually take that smoke.
Carmy makes it to Family every day after that, sometimes even sticks around the entire time. Makes a habit of sitting right next to her.
Holy shit. He fucking likes her too. A lot.
“Glad to see Syd’s having some fun,”
It’s drizzling outside but it’s really light so Carmy and Richie are still taking a smoke there. It’s been a long fucking morning so he’s grateful for the breather. Between the window being shot out and said girl being particularly annoying Richie’s way past over it.
“Yeah.” Carmy’s eyebrows push together. “Wait, what?”
Now, Richie’s never been an amazing liar. Tiff used to tell him she could see it right in his eyes when he even tried, going from an affectionate comment to something she said with a grim look and a scoff. Still, Richie could pull one over on someone when he wanted, when it mattered.
Carmy asks again. “What um. What-what are you—?”
“Someone’s got the hots for her. Came in here, and like saw her apparently and asked for her number. I don’t fuckin’ know.”
Cousin’s still squinting like that’ll help. “Who? When did this even happen we’ve been all over the place today.”
“It wasn’t today, dumbass. So you know Nico—"
“Nico? Richie what the fuck, why was he even here let alone—"
“Let me fuckin’ finish! As I was sayin’, Nico’s brother, you know the one with that fancy tech start up? Came in the other day and talked her up.” Richie shrugs. “Nice, right?”
Carmy’s looking down at the ground, drops his cig butt down and snuffs it out with his foot. “Nico’s brother is an asshole,”
That makes Richie laugh. Fuck he’s easy. “You don’t even know him.” He gets a scoff in reply.
“If he’s related to Nico he’s a fucking asshole. I gotta finish looking for the tax shit.”
And he really wants to push it, wants to press him. Ask why he’s so bothered by someone he’s never met, if he’d rather be the one making the moves on Sydney. But the day gets away from him, like everything else has, and it’s all fucking stupid.
There were times that Richie just felt like a bookmark in Mikey’s story, and maybe somehow, he could still impress him even after he kicked it. It never made sense and it sure as shit doesn’t now. If these two shitheads wanna change this place then there’s nothing he can do. It won’t bring Mikey back, so who the fuck is all of this for?
Stupid.
Richie kind of put a pause on his little plan. Well, it was less of a plan and more of a curiosity. The only end goal was to at least get one of them to be honest with him. With themselves.
It seemed pointless eventually. Both Carmen and Sydney are stubborn as shit, it was impossible to get either of them to spill.
Until tonight. Kind of.
There’s dust in his ears and eyes, wood chips, plaster, maybe even a little mold but he still hears Sydney’s stammering.
“What uh-what what- what is this what- what happened?”
Shit. She sounds pissed already. Not even the raccoon explanation helps.
“Uh. What-uh. S-sorry. So we just knocked everything down?”
“Yeah,” Carm replies like it’s the only answer in the world.
And that’s what fucking takes him out. They start arguing like a married couple. All whispery and close. He couldn’t pay for this to happen last year.
Carmy’s rubbing a fist over his heart and apologizing to her and Richie can’t help it anymore. “Oooo!” Cousin makes his way back to the pile when Richie decides to twist the knife, see what happens. “Upset the missus, huh?”
Carmen just gives him a death glare, and that’s it. Doesn’t matter. Richie’s officially back on this shit.
He tries to take it a little bit easier this time, lest he upset Princess Prissy Pants. He catches Sydney walking to the L after the amperage fiasco, which wasn’t his fault by the way. Richie wasn’t stealing shit, the manager next door said “you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours” when he begged for a free beef that one time. It’s totally still valid. Natalie just screams too damn much.
“Syd! Yo! Wait up.”
She answers before she turns around, barks at him. “What?”
It blows him back, Richie’s not sure why but he wasn’t expecting her wrath.
She seems to consider her tone, looks down at the ground while shuffling her feet. “I um. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. Sorry for yelling.”
“It’s cool. You seemed… upset? Back there earlier or whatever,”
“I mean I’m not thrilled that you were stealing electricity—"
Richie rolls his eyes. “No, no not that— I meant um. Claire’s nice right? It’s cool that Carmy’s getting out there. Enjoying himself?” Holy yikes. That was such a bad segue.
Sydney narrows her eyes. “That’s what you stopped me for? To ask me about some girl I don’t know?”
“‘Some girl’ huh? I mean Claire’s really nice y’know? She’s like a genius doctor and super giving and shit. She seems to really like him I think, we all know her really well and—"
“Then let’s throw a parade! What’s it to me if Carmy’s dating or-or… whatever. He can do what he wants. Why are you—?” Sydney stops herself and mutters under her breath, turns to walk away again.
“Why am I what? Sydney I’ve been telling you this for a while. If you like him you need to tell him.”
“Drop this. I’m serious. Ev-even if I did, it doesn’t matter. We work together, in an incredibly stressful restaurant no less, it’d be—" Her eyes soften a little and she shakes her head. “And obviously he’s found his true love right? So-so if that’s why you stopped me to throw this in my face then, you got your wish.”
“Fine. Fine, this’ll be the last time I bring this shit up. I swear. But you gotta promise me something.”
Sydney rolls her eyes but nods. “Carmy can be a fuckin’ idiot alright? He’s got a big heart but he's all over the place. Mikey used to say that shit all the time. Don’t push him away, and don’t-don’t let him push you away. I’ve seen him with you. It’s fuckin’ freaky. In a good way. Not sayin’ to like wait or anything. Just don’t give up.”
She doesn’t answer, just turns around and walks off. Richie calls after her. “I’m gonna take that as a yes!”
“Something up with those two, you think? Like maybe you saw something or—?”
Natalie’s response is muffled in between bites of her sandwich. “Carmy and Syd right? He’s in love with her.”
Richie leans up from his spot on the stool in the corner of the office. “Holy shit. He told you that?”
“He didn’t have to.” Sugar belches loudly after her last sip of Sprite and Richie chuckles. “Shit, Sug have some decorum. This is a nice restaurant.”
She just flips him off and keeps talking. “I see the way he looks at her. The way he talks about her. And he does, all the time. ‘Oh yeah that was Syd’s idea. Can’t talk, Syd’s coming over to jam on menu. Syd liked the nightstand I got so I bought the bookshelf to go with it, she said I should.’ I’d throw up if it were anyone else.”
Richie stands, all jumpy now. “That’s fuckin’ awesome. We should uh. We should do something like lock them in together somewhere or send them somewhere—"
“Richard. We’re not doing any of that. That’s a terrible idea. What if Syd doesn’t feel the same way?”
He scoffs. “But she does. She’s had googly eyes for him since she got here. Sug, trust me. I’ve been tellin’ her to go after him for the longest, they need the push they’re both pussies.”
Natalie takes another bite of her sandwich and shakes her head. “No pushing. He’s gonna tell her. I know he is but he needs time. If you corner him he’s gonna get all shy, then get all mad, then he isn’t gonna do shit.”
“Pssh. Yeah, right. 50 bucks says Syd makes the first move. I won’t push her either.”
They shake hands on it, and Richie’s off to tell Carmy to whip Sug up another Sprite.
It takes a couple months, two and a half to be more accurate. Nat’s on maternity leave, so Richie’s volunteered to help Carmy and Sydney out and take over most of her duties, which just means that Sug calls him at least four times a day to make sure he isn’t fucking up a prawn order.
“Okay. Yeah, yeah I got it. Don’t tell him that 15% is an okay price markup.”
“No! 10%! Richie I swear to god do not fuck this up we have a deal with this guy and he loves to pretend he forgot about it he’s gonna pull one on you—"
“Sug, are you forreal? I’m a master negotiator, suit or not. I got this. That motherfucker isn’t pulling anything on anyone.”
“Okay but when he says that we had a handshake deal do not fall for it—"
“Ah connection’s shit can’t hear you—krrr, you’re breaking up talk to you—krrr, later!”
Carmy bursts in the office as soon as Richie hangs up, the look in his eye somehow more exhausted than normal.
“Yo. You’re here early.”
“Yeah. I had Eva, she had to be at school early as shit for some school trip. The fuck is up with you?”
Cousin shucks off his coat, throws it to the corner of the room. He’s lucky Nat’s not here, she fucking hates when he tosses his coat in the office instead of his locker. “What do you mean what’s up with me? What’s up with you?”
Richie shrugs. “You look weird, I don’t know. I mean you don’t have to tell me shit Cuz, you know that but if you ever want to—"
“I kissed Sydney.”
That has to be number one on the list of last fucking things he expected to hear this early in the morning. “You what?”
Carmy’s pacing now, as much as he can in the small office. “I kissed her. We uh. We were finishing up the winter menu like-like we usually do on Mondays and we took a break and watched some—honestly terrible but she insisted—movie and I just looked over at her and she looked so…” He grabs at his hair like he’s trying to pull it out. “Anyways I fucked up. I fucked up I made it weird and now she’s probably gonna fucking quit.”
Richie stands up to slap his hands onto Carmy’s shoulders, get him to stop freaking out at the very least. “Cousin, chill out alright? You don’t know any of that. What did she do, what’d she say?”
“She um. She didn’t say anything for like ten seconds and I tried to uh. To apologize and then she just. She pulled me forward and kissed me. And-and right after she looked fucking horrified, gave me some excuse and rushed out.”
Richie’s face falls into a deadpan expression, eyebrows raised and all. He takes his hands off of Carmen’s shoulders and sits back down.
“So what you’re sayin’ is. You kiss this girl, she kisses you back, and you let her leave without saying anything ?”
Carmy looks at him like he’s confused. “The fuck was I supposed to say? She left because she was uncomfortable. End of story.”
“No. Nope. I’m sorry I’m not lettin’ you do that. And I know you don’t want to. Cousin look at me,” Carmy does.
“If Syd kissed you, it’s for a reason. You’re both fuckin’ weird okay? You get all weird with feelings so someone has to call you on it.” Carmy scoffs but doesn’t interrupt.
“This isn’t like Claire, alright? You guys didn’t fit but that’s okay, right? You’ve been making eyes at Syd since she’s been here, you get all light around her and-and open and shit. And the way she looks at you, Cuz it’s. It’s real. You feel something. It’s alright to act on it.”
Just then Sydney appears, almost bumping face first into Carmy as he’s about to leave the office. Their voices sound off at the same time.
“Shit, I’m sorry—"
“—No, no that was all me,”
They engage in an awkward ass staring contest that feels oddly intimate when Richie puts them out of their misery. “Sydney, is that a new scarf? Looks lovely.”
Her eyes flit around the room. “Uh no. No it’s. It’s the same one I wore yesterday. The day before that too. Thanks though, I-I guess?” Syd turns around and leaves without saying another word, Carmy pinching the skin between his eyes.
“Forget I said anything,” He leaves too before Richie can contest, so he does the next best thing and pulls out his phone.
$50.00 to N. Berzatto
Message to recipient: You were right, here’s your blood money.
Richie catches her peeking out the window to the front from expo. He leans into her line of vision to see what she’s looking at, isn’t surprised to see her checking up on Carmy, making sure he grabbed a plate of food fit for an actual human in need of it. Mikey’d have a goddamned field day with this girl, warn Carmen every day that one wrong move and he’d lose something great. Still manage to annoy the shit out of her in the process, it’s just what he did. Richie misses the hell out of that dumbass. Every moment he’s awake.
He sidles up next to her, doesn’t miss the soft smile on her face before she tries to smother it down.
Richie doesn’t say anything, just starts to smirk and wiggle his eyebrows until she spills.
Sydney sighs, rolls her eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business, like at all, but we’re um. We’re going out. Tonight.” She can hardly tamp her smile down and it makes Richie’s smirk grow.
“He asked you out?”
“Actually I asked him, and that’s the last fucking thing I’m telling you so don’t even think about trying anything else,”
He raises his hands in surrender, turns to push through the door when he stops and walks back toward her. “Hey I um. I don’t think I ever apologized. For saying all that shit to you, and like about you when you first started here. That uh. That wasn’t cool. You’re a really good person, Syd. I’m a fuckin’ prick sometimes. A lot of the time.”
She lets him see her smile that time. “Thanks. I appreciate that. You’re a good person too, even if you are a prick. Sorry for the whole stabbing thing too by the way. Still a prick.”
He chuckles. “Syd’s got jokes.”
Syd rolls her eyes again on her way out to the front. “Fuck off, Richie.”
The last thing he sees is Sydney taking a seat right next to Carmy, who’s doing little else than picking at his food. She taps him on the shoulder, crosses her eyes in a goofy way that makes him chuckle, and they both pick up their forks.
Richie pulls out his phone, dials Sugar’s number.
“It’s the prawn guy isn’t it? Richie I told you—"
“She asked him out. I want my money back.”
Nat barks out a laugh. “Nice try. He kissed her first. Deal’s a deal. Lucky we didn’t make it $100.”
“Are you callin’ me broke?”
“Of course not, sweetie. Not yet anyway. Don’t call me again unless it’s about prawns!”