Chapter Text
“I just don’t understand people who like pineapple on pizza.”
Maggie smiled and tucked her white button-up into her jeans. “You say that every time someone orders Hawaiian pizza.”
“I know. And I mean it, every time.”
Maggie shook her head in amusement. “Matt, can you just give me my orders so I can go? I don’t want to start late. I could actually be early, for once.”
“Since when do you care about being late?” Matt asked, and Maggie ignored him.
Then, she heard the shuffling of receipts as she turned around and saw Matt, who was behind the counter, stacking pizza boxes. She counted three, four, five…
Maggie felt like groaning as she looked at her watch, hoping that those six, now seven, boxes stacked up all belonged to the same party. But then she saw Matt fingering through what looked like multiple receipts and couldn’t help a sigh.
Matt stopped and looked up with a smug smile. Maggie just pursed her lips and grabbed the stack of receipts out of his hand, thumbing through to count them. Four. That wasn’t bad for the first shift of the night.
Matt disappeared into the back and came out with yet another box and Maggie stood on her toes to grab two black pizza holders from the shelf. Thankfully they were on the lowest one so she didn’t have to ask Matt to get one for her.
Then, she looked at the addresses on the iPad screen and mapped out the fastest route in her head without even having to think about it. Three of them weren’t too far and one was a little out of the way, but she’d do that one last. Maggie always stacked her pizzas so the top ones were for the first orders -- even though Matt always made fun of her for being so organized and efficient when the other delivery people didn’t care -- so she un-did Matt’s tower of boxes and started to re-organize them in the pizza holder.
Maggie swiped through to and scrolled down the fourth order, the farthest address from Stilton’s and her last stop, smiling when she saw the Hawaiian pizza that Matt had been complaining about.
She kept scrolling to see if there were any Special Delivery Instructions (there usually weren’t) and froze when she reached the bottom.
Maggie blinked.
Matt came out of the back again to see Maggie standing there with a very small smile on her face, not moving a muscle.
“You okay, Mags?” Matt asked, taking receipts from Riya, another delivery girl who had just gotten back from a shift. Maggie laughed a little bit but didn’t seem to hear him, so Matt poked her shoulder and Maggie whipped her head up.
Matt shot her a confused look, “Did you get a weird request or something?”
“Um…you could say that.”
“Ooh, what is it? Is it as weird as that guy with the dogs?”
“Nothing will be as weird as that guy with the dogs. But…” Maggie said, looking down at the screen again. She didn’t continue so Matt swiped the iPad out of her hand. Maggie leaned over the counter and reached for it back but Matt just held it away from her.
“Give it back, Matt,” Maggie said, going around the counter.
Matt just backed up out of her way but stopped walking when he read what Maggie had read.
A grin grew on his face and he laughed. “Oh, my god. ”Send your cutest delivery girl”? Am I reading this right?”
“That’s what I read, so…yeah.”
“This is amazing! It even has a little wink emoticon at the end! I thought this kind of thing only happened in movies and stuff.” He looked back at Maggie who was just standing there with folded arms, waiting for him to give the iPad back to her. Matt suddenly dropped the smile. “You can’t take this order.”
Maggie just looked at him, confused. “Why not?” Then, she smiled and turned away from Matt and shouted to the back, “Hey Vick, you gotta come see this request.”
“Vick is not going to let you take this,” Matt said, tapping the iPad with his finger.
“Why wouldn’t he? It’s just an innocent request. And I mean, I’m obviously--”
“You better have a good reason for calling me out here, Sawyer,” Vick said as he came out of the back room.
Matt just handed him the iPad and pointed to it. They both waited in silence until Vick was done reading.
He looked back up again with a smile. “Who’s taking this?”
Maggie smirked and took the iPad back, going around the counter again.
“Me,” she said, starting to put the pepperoni and Hawaiian pizza boxes in the holder.
It was silent for a second before…
“Sawyer, you’re not delivering this.”
“What? Why not? It’s my shift, Vick. My order.” She looked back up and saw that the smile had disappeared from his face as well. She couldn’t understand why these two weren’t excited about this. This was the best, albeit pretty weird, request she’d gotten in a while and she couldn’t stop smiling about it.
Vick crossed his arms over his chest and Matt went into the back again, probably to avoid whatever was going to happen next.
“Because it’s most definitely a guy. And last time I checked, you’re not into guys. Not even a little bit.”
“Who says it can’t be a woman?” Maggie countered, swiping to the next order and continuing to re-stack and stuff pizza boxes into the holder. She knew it probably wasn’t a woman, but it didn’t hurt to argue.
“It says it’s for someone named Alex, Sawyer,” Vick stated.
Maggie hadn’t looked at the name on the order yet. She’d been too distracted by the request to look, but now she did. She cursed to herself when she saw that the name on that order was indeed Alex. Alex Danvers, to be exact. But Maggie wasn’t going to let this go that easy.
“It could be Alexis. Or Alexandra. Or--”
“Sawyer.”
Maggie stopped what she was doing and put a hand on her hip.
“C’mon, Vick. Even if it is a guy, so what?” She asked with a shrug.
“So what? Sawyer, this Alex guy obviously wants a cute delivery girl for a reason, and you would not be…the right reason.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“But…you know what I mean. I can guarantee you that this guy, who is probably going to be a bit of an asshole, is going to hit on you. I know they usually do anyway, but you always complain about it.”
“Well, I’ll just punch him if he does.” Maggie saw Vick’s eyes widen and she smirked, “I’m kidding, Vick, jeez. I could, and you know I could, but I don’t want to get fired.”
Vick sighed and ran a hand over his bald head. “I’m just saying, Sawyer, maybe we should give this one to Riya.”
Maggie’s mouth dropped open and she shook her head, “No. No way. This is my order, you can’t just take it from me.” She turned back to her task, having finished the first pizza holder and starting on the second one. “And besides, I am way cuter than Riya, we both know that,” she glanced over her shoulder with a wink, “So, technically, I have to take this order. I am obligated, as the cutest delivery girl, to fulfill this request.”
“That’s not going to work on me.”
Maggie sighed, knowing that was true before she’d even started saying it. She couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal. It was just one order, and she could obviously handle some horny guy if she needed to.
And, there was always the what if. The small, ‘what if this was a woman?’
Usually when Maggie got stuck with weird requests, she found herself regretting her job, but this one…for some reason, this one she couldn’t stop smiling about. She thought about what Matt had said about this only happening in movies and cheesy romantic novels, and had to agree with him. But it was right there, on the order. This was happening. To her.
“If the guy -- if it is a guy -- tries to do anything, you know I have some hand-to-hand combat training from the academy, so obviously that is not the problem.”
“I know, but…why are you so insistent on taking this? You hate weird requests like this.”
Maggie pursed her lips. “I…I don’t know. This isn’t that bad of a request. I mean, it has ‘please’ on the end, how bad could this person be?”
She heard Vick scoff as she finished zipping up the pizza holders. “It also has a little winking-face thing. There is no misinterpreting what this guy wants.”
“Well, he’ll just have to be disappointed then, won’t he?” Maggie said with a smirk. “Probably won’t be the last time, especially if he’s trying to pick up chicks over pizza orders.”
Vick sighed. “But what if something bad happens, Sawyer? It’ll be my fault if I let you go and it goes horribly wrong.”
“Nothing bad is going to happen,” Maggie said, and added, I hope, to herself. “I mean, it’ll either be some guy who wants to get laid and he’ll have to put it back in his pants when he realizes that I am not interested, or, there is a small chance that this Alex person will be a woman and it’ll go smoothly.”
Maggie was already gearing herself up for the first option, but she couldn’t seem to let go of this order.
“I still don’t feel good about this. Look, I’ll give you extra orders tomorrow or something and you can--”
Maggie groaned. “No, Vick. This isn’t even that big of a deal, I don’t know why you’re fighting me on this. I shouldn’t have…” she shook her head and looked down at her watch. “I shouldn’t have told you about it. I thought you would think it was funny but you’re just…And besides, I’m already almost late for delivering four orders. I know I usually am anyway, but if I leave now, I can be on time, for once.”
“It’ll just be easier to give it to Riya.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. She was becoming frustrated that Vick was so adamant about her not going. She couldn’t understand what the problem was, and she was running out of arguments.
Why was she the only one who thought that she was supposed to deliver this order? The only one that for some reason thought that she was meant to--
A small smile appeared on Maggie’s face as she got an idea.
A crazy, stupid, but this-will-definitely-work idea. She quickly willed herself to keep her face calm and instead let out a small sigh.
She ran a hand through her hair, “It would be easier, and it does make a bit more sense, if you give it to Riya. It does. But…you know, Vick…I just…”
Vick came around the counter and stood in front of her. “What?”
Maggie shrugged and leaned against the counter casually. “It’s just that I…I don’t know, it’s like I have this…this feeling, you know?” Vick just looked at her. “And it’s probably stupid but…I think that I have to be the one to deliver this to this Alex person.”
“What do you mean? Why?” Vick said, noticeably more interested in what Maggie was saying.
Maggie used all her willpower to not smile. Vick was so easy, why hadn’t she just said this earlier?
“I don’t know, it’s like…I just keep thinking, what if Alex is a woman’s name, this time? I mean, the chances are so small…so very small, but…I just have this…this strong feeling that I am supposed to be delivering this for a reason or something. That this note is meant for me, you know?”
Vick stared at her but looked like he was listening very carefully to what she was saying.
Maggie shook her head and smiled, “You know what? Nevermind. It’s…it’s stupid. Forget I said anything.”
But Vick shook his head and put a hand on her shoulder, his face softening. “No, Maggie, it’s uh, it’s not stupid. I mean, if you think this…then maybe…”
Maggie couldn’t help it as the corner of her mouth quirked up a little bit. Then she pursed her lips to keep her smile from growing. If she was going to do this, she might as well go all out.
“Nah, no, no…it is kinda dumb.” She crossed her arms, “I mean, I did start to think…before… that maybe I was meant to deliver this order because this Alex woman -- if it is a woman -- and I are like, meant to be, or something.”
She hated every word that was coming out of her mouth, but she was too far in to back out now. And besides, this was kind of…fun.
“Meant to be,” Vick repeated. “Like…your soulmate?”
Maggie sighed. “Yeah, well, I don’t know. I think that’s why…that’s why I want to take this. I mean, I don’t even know exactly why I want to so badly, but there’s got to be a reason, right? There’s got to be some reason why I was given this order in the first place.”
She wasn’t willing to admit, even to herself, that she sort of thought that last part was actually true.
Matt, having heard a bit of the conversation, came out of the back again and just smirked at Maggie. Maggie looked at him and smiled a little bit because Vick looked like he was thinking very hard about what Maggie had just said. Matt rolled his eyes and Maggie mouthed, “Shh,” at him.
They both knew that this was probably going to work. Vick was a sucker for this crap, and Matt, Maggie, and every single person who worked at Stilton’s knew it.
“I mean…a girl Alex. What are the chances?” Vick said as he crossed his arms as well.
“Just think, Vick, if…if fate is on my side,” Maggie said as she shot a glare at Matt, who looked like he was trying not to laugh, “then this Alex will be a girl, a woman. And she’ll be…she’ll be just perfect for me, you know? Maybe she will be my soulmate. Maybe. You never know.”
Vick was silent, and then he mumbled, “You never know…” under his breath, looking between Maggie and the iPad.
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon… Maggie thought, Just let me have this so the merciless teasing from Matt will be worth it.
Vick looked at Maggie again and Maggie pleaded with her eyes.
“Well…I can’t go against fate, I guess. I mean, if you really believe you’re meant to… that this Alex person is…is the one for you,” he finally said, and Maggie beamed.
She thought about hugging Vick but decided against it. He’d definitely know something was going on if she did that, and Matt was already shaking his head in amusement.
“Yeah, I…I really think, I really feel, in my heart,” Maggie said while thinking how does he not know that I am completely bullshitting him right now, in her head, “that she might be a woman, Vick. I…I have to take advantage of it, right? I could even get a date out of this, you never know.”
Maggie hadn’t dated in a while and was kind of missing going on dates and having a girlfriend. She didn’t think (but that didn’t necessarily mean she didn’t hope) for one second that this was going to work out, but Vick didn’t need to know that.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Vick nodded and simply said, “You never know.”
And that was all the confirmation Maggie needed. She picked up both pizza holders, stuffed the receipts in her back pockets, and slung the handles over her shoulder before he could change his mind.
She shot a smirk at Matt, who just looked sort of amazed, and patted Vick on the shoulder.
“Thanks, Vick. I’ll let you know if it works out.”
Maggie turned around and smiled smugly as she opened the door to exit Stilton’s. She was never going to hear the end of this from Matt, but she was also incredibly proud of herself for pulling that off. She’d only done that once before, and somehow Vick hadn’t caught on yet to the fact that basically everyone had done that to him at some time or another.
Vick scoffed and crossed his arms, “When you get back, you are definitely, one hundred percent, going to let me know if it works out, Sawyer.”
Maggie had done it. She had the order, she was taking it, and she didn’t know why she’d been willing to embarrass herself for it, but she had.
So she smiled, gave Vick a little shrug, and said, “If I’ve got fate on my side, how could it not?”
--------------------------
--------------------------
Maggie was driving faster than she usually did, but it was only because that whole conversation had lasted a while and she had ended up leaving later than she’d intended.
But by the third order, she was basically on track again. Maggie pulled the pizza holder out of the backseat of the car and shut the door.
As she walked up to the house, she could hear music playing inside. She figured they were having a party, especially since they’d ordered three large pizzas, and she was correct.
The man who answered the door already had his wallet out. The music became louder when he opened the door, and Maggie had to raise her voice above a normal volume.
“Hi, are you--”
“Yeah, yeah, three pizzas, right?” The man said with a wave, looking down at his wallet, already getting two twenties out.
Maggie paused. She was used to dealing with people like this, but it always surprised her when it happened, for some reason. She took a deep breath and willed herself to keep calm.
“Yup. One large veggie and two large pepperoni. Comes out to $44.89,” she said in a monotone voice, handing him the receipt. The guy wasn’t bothering to hide his disdain for her, so she decided she wasn’t going to use her usual chipper, customer-service voice she’d learned from her many years working jobs like this.
The man just dug into his wallet and then gave her $50 with the receipt after he signed it, saying only, “Keep the change.”
Maggie took the money and unzipped the pizza holder, handing him the pizza boxes. He turned around to give the pizzas to somebody and when he turned back, Maggie willed herself to smile.
“Have a nice night,” she said.
“Yeah, you too,” he said back, already starting to close the door on her.
Maggie stood there for another half a second after the door shut as she chewed the inside of her cheek. Then, she spun around on her heel and headed back to the car.
Why did people like him bother her so much? He’d said barely ten words to her, but that was probably why it bothered her. She slammed the door to the car shut as she slumped inside and looked at the last receipt for her first shift of the night.
She couldn’t help a small smile on her face, but she was also a little bit worried about what would happen with this one.
Maggie started the car and pulled onto the road, her mind wandering.
It could be a woman, she thought. It really could be. But the chances of this Alex Danvers person being a woman, and her age, were so small. If it was a woman, Maggie would already have confirmation that she liked girls, so she wouldn’t have to wonder about that, at least.
But, if it was some horny dude, which is most likely was, then she’d probably have a similar experience to…well, her usual deliveries, actually.
She had a ways to go to this apartment building, and looked at the clock. She was on time because that guy had wanted her to leave so fast, and she might, if she hit all green lights, actually be early. That had certainly never happened before.
Maggie thought back to the party she had just delivered to, and then wondered whether this next apartment would also have a party going on. Maybe that note was just some dare that someone had to do. It was likely, because there were two large pizzas. There had to be at the very least two other people in the apartment, she thought. No way would two large pizzas be for one person, or even two.
Maggie sighed and gripped the steering wheel. She concentrated on driving and turned up the radio so her brain wouldn’t start down the worried path she knew it was bound to take.
Fifteen minutes later and she was at the apartment building. It was pretty nice, she thought, as she took the pizza holder from the passenger side. And she was a couple minutes early. And, the pizza holder wasn’t that heavy anymore because there were only two pizzas left. This was going fine, so far. Good, even.
Maggie took the receipt out of her pocket to check the apartment number as she went up the steps to the front door of the building.
Maggie was about to roll her eyes when she saw a note that said, “Out of Service,” taped to the buzzer box. She was going to have to call.
She thought she’d have a little more time to prepare herself for whoever was in this apartment, but finding out over the phone wasn’t too bad. Maggie took her work phone out of her back pocket and called the number on the receipt.
It didn’t take too long before she heard a, “Hello?”
Maggie didn’t even think about the fact that the voice was a little higher than she was expecting before she spewed out her usual script. She used her I-don’t-know-if-you’re-a-jerk-yet-so-I’m-going-to-be-nice-to-you voice that made her sound a lot nicer because she always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, at least at first.
There was a pause and only then did Maggie realize that that “hello” was not in the tone of voice she had been expecting.
She shifted the pizza holder on her hip. That had sounded like a woman.
“Uh, yeah. Yup, that’s me,” she heard from the other side of the phone.
Maggie only stayed silent for a split second, trying not to get excited that she was sure that this was a woman. And that she had just said that she was Alex Danvers.
“Okay, great.” Really great, actually, she added to herself. “I would have buzzed the apartment but the buzzer isn’t working down here, so can you let me into the building?” She asked, because she did need to get inside and actually deliver the pizza, no matter who she was delivering to.
Maybe the note wasn’t for her. Maybe she had just ordered it, or some teenager had used their mom’s credit card and was pretending--
Maggie shook her head to stop her thoughts from wandering off again as the woman answered her. It only took a couple of seconds before she heard the front door unlock. She said a quick thanks and hung up, pulling open the door before it locked itself again.
As the door closed behind her, she looked around the lobby of the building. Not too fancy, but not too shabby either. She pursed her lips and headed up the stairs to the third floor, trying to keep calm about this whole thing. Her boss at the police academy had said she couldn’t take the elevator anymore, just to stay in shape, but she didn’t mind.
At the very least, she thought, there was one woman in this apartment, and it wasn’t going to be all guys. That fact made her feel a bit better about this whole thing, but she also couldn’t help but think that was going well. A little too well, actually.
As she climbed the stairs, which wasn’t too hard for her because it was steps-training week at the academy, she let herself believe that maybe this was actually going to work out. If it did, Vick was going to have a field-day.
Maggie reached the third floor and let the door slam to the stairwell behind her. She hadn’t meant to, but she also hadn’t been expecting it to make that much noise.
Maggie walked a bit slower than her normal pace down the hall as she looked at the apartment numbers. She ran a hand through her hair and finally reached the end of the hall, where a plaque indicating apartment number thirty-four was plastered onto the door.
She only paused for half a second because she thought she’d heard noises inside before knocking three times. Maggie also noticed that it didn’t seem like there was enough noise coming from the apartment for them to be having a party.
Maggie shifted the pizza boxes on her hip again when nothing happened, and the silence in the hall became deafening.
She waited another couple of seconds and decided to knock again before she almost jumped because the door opened.
Her fist seemed to not be able to move as she took in the sight in front of her.
The first thing Maggie noticed was the pajamas. The second thing she noticed was the slightly red-tinted hair, the front part of which was pinned back on this woman’s head.
The third thing she noticed was that this woman, Alex probably (maybe, hopefully), could not seem to close her mouth.
Maggie couldn’t help but smile and was finally able to put her hand down back at her hip. If this was Alex, she thought, she was about the luckiest woman in the world.
This woman wasn’t saying anything, so Maggie decided to just go along with her usual spiel because she didn’t really know what else to say at the moment.
“You’re Alex Danvers?” She asked. Just to make sure.
Silence again. Maggie started to wonder if this woman was ever going to say anything. It didn’t seem like she could speak, at the moment. Which was weird, because that had never really happened to Maggie before. People usually weren’t…rendered speechless by her. Especially when she was in her Stilton pizza uniform, which was definitely not her best look.
And why did this woman seem surprised that she was here, anyway? She had specifically requested a cute delivery girl. Maggie was the one who should be surprised. If her quickening heartbeat said anything, she was, but somehow she was able to push that aside and act normal and calm about this whole thing.
Finally, the woman stuttered out, “Yeah, yes. I am, sorry,” and plastered an awkward smile on her face.
So…this was Alex. Alex was definitely a girl. Definitely a woman. Definitely gay, too, if the way she looked at Maggie indicated anything.
Huh, Maggie thought. This is definitely not how she thought this was going to go but…she was okay with it. So far.
“Okay, well, great,” Maggie said, looking down at the receipt. The more this woman seemed to not be able to say anything, the more confident Maggie got, and the more Maggie wanted her to say something, for some reason. So, she continued her usual script with, “So, you ordered…one large Hawaiian pizza, one large pepperoni,” she paused and smirked. Might as well address the elephant in the room. “And a cute delivery girl, correct?” She asked, pointing to herself.
Some weird noise that kind of sounded like a laugh escaped the woman – Alex – and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Maggie wondered what was going on in Alex’s mind as she started to unzip the pizza holder. Alex finally opened her eyes as if she was gearing herself up to talk to Maggie. But if Alex was the one who had requested the cute delivery girl, then why was she so…
“I’m so sorry, about that,” Alex said, a small smile on her face. Another apology. ‘Yeah,’ ‘yes,’ and ‘sorry,’ seemed to be the only three words this woman could say to her. Maggie wished Alex wasn’t so uncomfortable so that she would say more, and smile more. “My sister…she, it wasn’t me, she wrote that.”
A sister. She had a sister, who had written the note. So this note wasn’t for her.
Maggie didn’t know why she was disappointed, but she also knew that she did not want the woman to know that, so she turned her head completely away to focus on getting the pizzas out of the holder.
It didn’t make sense though. Maggie had been so sure that this Alex woman was the one who had written it, who wanted the cute delivery girl, and everything that had happened indicated that that was true. Why wasn’t the sister here?
So she bit the inside of her cheek and asked, “Oh, well, where’s your sister?”
And Maggie almost jumped again when it only took a split second for Alex to hastily reply with, “But she wrote it for me, though.”
Maggie turned back and brushed some hair that had fallen in her face behind her ear. As soon as their eyes met again, Alex seemed to go stiff and mumbled, “She, um…”
Why was this woman so in awe of her? She wasn’t used to this. It didn’t make sense to Maggie. Alex seemed to be watching, noticing, and calculating every move Maggie made, every facial expression she let Alex see.
“I wanted to set her up on a date,” a voice said from inside the apartment. Maggie couldn’t help a smile as she leaned slightly to see where and who the voice was coming from. That was probably the sister, if Alex’s flushed face and clenched hand on the door said anything.
In the time it took Alex to shoot her sister a death-glare that Maggie hadn’t thought she was capable of, Maggie had decided to cut this woman some slack. To try and make her more comfortable. Now that Maggie knew for sure that the sister had indeed written the note, and Alex had probably not been informed of it, Alex’s reaction to this whole thing made a bit more sense.
And, now that she also knew that this Alex woman thought she was attractive, that she wanted to but couldn’t seem to talk to her, and that she did, in fact, want a date, Maggie was going to help her out.
“A date, huh?” Maggie said, balancing the pizza boxes on top of the holder now that she had gotten them out. They were starting to get a little heavy, but Maggie didn’t mind. “She thought you could land the cutest delivery girl? Alright,” she continued with a smirk, putting a hand on her hip and nodding to Alex, “Let’s see what you got.”
Just as Maggie had expected, Alex was definitely not expecting that. Maggie had a feeling that she was going to have to be very blunt and direct about everything so Alex would know that Maggie found her attractive (even in the pajamas, which for some reason were not weird, but actually pretty cute), and that Maggie wanted this to work out as much as she thought Alex did.
And it also amused Maggie that this was probably the first, last, and only time she was going to have to tell someone to hit on her.
Maggie raised her eyebrows when Alex just stared at her, and finally, finally, she seemed to get over her initial shock and said, “Um, okay, well, I’m kind of new to all this--” she waved a hand and Maggie tried not to smile at Alex telling her something she’d figured out already “--But I suppose I can try, I guess. Actually, I…I think it would be easier if I had your name.”
Oh, right. She didn’t even know her name.
“It’s Maggie,” she told her, “Maggie Sawyer.”
Then a smile, an actual smile, appeared on Alex’s face as she said, “Well, Maggie, I um…”
Maggie just waited as it seemed like Alex was actually thinking very hard about what to say. About how to flirt with her. Maggie was just happy that she’d gotten Alex to smile, and she was a little embarrassed at how much she liked hearing Alex say her name. And that was why she almost didn’t hear Alex say that she didn’t have a pick-up line after what seemed like an eternity.
Maggie was about to roll her eyes playfully but decided against it.
“You had forty minutes before I got here and you can’t even come up with one line?” She said lightly, trying to let the woman know that yes, it was okay to flirt with her, I am asking you, I am telling you, to flirt with me, so just do it.
Then, Alex took a deep breath and said, “Well, I suppose I did have one, but then you showed up here looking like that and I found I couldn’t really think straight.”
Maggie just looked at her for a second. Then, she smiled and let out a laugh as she realized that Alex had actually managed to complete a whole sentence, and that that actually wasn’t half bad.
“Wow,” she said. Then she added, “Story of my life,” just in case Alex still didn’t know, for some reason, that she was gay. “That was pretty good.”
Maggie could tell Alex was biting her cheek as she said, “Really?”
“Oh, no, it was horrible. But the best one’s always are,” she said with a wink, just to make sure Alex knew she was teasing her.
And then Maggie realized that the pizza boxes were a little heavy and decided to give them to her. She forgot that she was supposed to give her the receipt first, but that was probably because she was so distracted by this whole situation and how well it was going.
Alex hadn’t thought of a reply to what she had said, so Maggie decided to keep the conversation going before she could take the pizza boxes into the apartment with, “You know, this is going a lot better than I anticipated.”
Alex just looked confused as she said, “It is?”
Maggie was usually better at showing than telling, but despite the fact that Alex seemed to notice Maggie’s every move, she didn’t seem to know that Maggie liked her. So Maggie decided to just tell her.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” she said with a nod. “I mean, I thought for sure you were going to be some fourteen-year-old hormonal asshat with his friends who wrote that for a dare or something, so this is actually great.” Really great, she added to herself, again, “I mean, I’m pretty lucky ‘cause really, what are the chances that ‘Alex’ is a woman’s name and that you have so much game?” She licked and bit her lip with a smile, and Alex still looked surprised.
Why couldn’t she see how endearing her stumbling and mumbling was? Coupled with the pajamas and the hair and…everything, Maggie couldn’t understand why she was amazed that Maggie liked her.
Alex then turned around with the pizza boxes to go put them away but didn’t get a chance to before her sister took them from her. Alex slowly turned back around and Maggie smiled in amusement. She didn’t get a chance to see much of the sister before she disappeared faster than Maggie thought humanly possible, but she decided she’d like the meet this sister one day.
Maggie didn’t want this end, not yet, and Alex was definitely not ready to ask her out yet, so she just put the pizza holder on the floor and resisted the urge to shake out her arm. She hadn’t realized just how heavy those pizza boxes were.
“So, Alex, what do you do?”
“For my job?” Alex asked, and Maggie nodded. “Oh, I um…” Alex paused as if she had to think about what her job was. “I’m an agent.”
Maggie just looked at her with raised eyebrows. “An agent, huh?” That was vague. She looked Alex up and down quickly, trying to imagine the pajamas replaced with tactical gear and a gun in her hand, and couldn’t seem to do it. “Like Secret Service or FBI or something?”
“I can’t say.”
Maggie nodded because she’d figured she couldn’t, if she was being that vague about it. And then Maggie felt the need to tell Alex that she was not just a pizza delivery girl, because maybe that was why Alex didn’t seem to want to ask her out. A pizza delivery girl and a government agent didn’t make much sense, but a cop and an agent did. So she told her she was a cop, and Alex looked surprised, yet again.
“Yup. Are you surprised?” Maggie asked, feeling a bit defensive.
But Alex just quickly said, “No, I’m not surprised. I mean, you certainly have the body for it.” Maggie smiled as Alex’s eyes widened and she groaned as if she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “Oh god, I didn’t mean it like…”
It seemed the only way Alex could complete sentences was if she was hitting on Maggie, and Maggie wasn’t going to complain.
“I just wanted to let you know that, so you didn’t think I had no real job and was stuck delivering pizzas on Saturday nights,” she said, only slightly kidding.
But when she saw the look on Alex’s face, and how quickly Alex jumped at the chance to let her know that she didn’t care about that with, “Oh, I don’t think-- I don’t have a problem with--” and Maggie’s face softened.
“Hey, chill, I’m kidding,” she said, and reached out a hand to touch her arm but pulled it back just as quickly. If Alex couldn’t handle talking to her, Maggie didn’t know how she would handle Maggie touching her arm.
It seemed as though Alex was getting frustrated with herself as well, and how awkwardly she seemed to be handling this whole thing. Maggie was hoping she’d continue the conversation, but then Alex did something that Maggie was not expecting.
“Thank you for the pizza, by the way,” she said and Maggie froze.
She barely heard Alex apologizing yet again for the note and asking how much the pizza was as she just stood there.
Maybe it was because her last delivery hadn’t gone so well, or maybe it was because Alex had said it so nonchalantly, but…she had said thank you.
Maggie backtracked and tried to think about how many times this week the houses she’d delivered to said thank you, and then remembered that she was not supposed to be counting anymore.
It was just two words, two little words, but they meant a lot to her because she didn’t hear them very often. And if Maggie was unsure before that she liked Alex and wanted to see her again, she was sure now.
Then, Maggie realized that Alex was waiting for her to say something, so she looked down at the receipt again and said, “Oh, right,” so Alex wouldn’t see how happy she’d just made her.
Maggie looked the receipt. And the name on the top. And realized that Alex was just going to let her leave, and that she wasn’t going to ask her out on a date.
And Maggie decided, as she crumpled the receipt in her hand, that she couldn’t let that happen.
“You know what? It’s on me.”
She saw Alex’s eyes widen again as she reached for the receipt, saying, “Oh, no. No, no, no. I--”
But Maggie just smiled and stopped her with a hand.
“You didn’t let me finish,” she said. “It’s on me…but only if you take me out for dinner Friday night.”
If Maggie had a dollar for every time she managed to render Alex speechless…
“What?” Alex finally said after a few seconds of silence. Maggie repeated it again, and Alex just said, “You…you want to go on a date with me?”
Maggie couldn’t help a small smile and she just looked at Alex. Maggie was thinking the opposite, actually. Who would want to go on a date with a pizza delivery girl in the first place? This woman was still so astonished that Maggie liked her, and that Maggie wanted to go on a date with her. It was cute. Adorable, even, that she couldn’t seem to fathom why Maggie liked her.
So Maggie shrugged, “Well, after that incredible line you gave me, how could I not? And it didn’t seem like you were going to get up the nerve to ask me, so…”
And just before Maggie could start to worry that Alex really did not want to go on a date with her, she said, “Yes, yeah, of course I do want to take you out…next Friday. This Friday.”
Maggie couldn’t help a smile as she said, “Okay, great. It’s a date then.”
She uncrumpled the receipts and took a pen out of her pocket. She then easily separated them and pressed the Customer copy against the door frame. As Maggie wrote down her phone number, she noticed that Alex was just watching her, but she didn’t look back at her until she’d smoothed out the receipt again. And Maggie definitely did not notice how soft Alex’s hand was as she brushed it as she handed the receipt back to her.
Alex smiled as she looked down at Maggie’s phone number on the receipt like it was the holy grail or something.
In fact, she didn’t look back up until Maggie said, “You’ll text me and let me know where we’re going?” And then she picked up the pizza holder from the floor and decided to teasingly add, “This better be a great date, Alex Danvers.”
Alex Danvers. An hour ago, that name hadn’t meant anything to her. But now she was sure it was going to be the basis for so many jokes from Matt and so many discussions about fate from Vick.
“Oh, yeah,” Alex said with a smile, “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Yeah, you better. And maybe you could wear some actual clothes? Or maybe even a nice dress? I mean, the pajamas are cute, but…” Maggie said as she smirked and glanced down again at Alex’s pajama pants. She was sure that she would be able to better imagine Alex as a covert government agent if she could actually see how fit she probably was, and the pajamas were not letting her do that.
Alex let out a breathy laugh again, and Maggie found herself determined that one day, hopefully soon, she would be able to actually make her laugh.
When she promised that she was not going to wear pajamas either, Maggie just said, “Alright, good.”
She started walking down the hall, still facing Alex because she knew that as soon as she turned around, it was going to be over.
Well, not exactly over, she thought. She was going to see her on Friday.
“I’ll see you later, Alex,” she said, and when Alex replied with a quiet, “Yeah, see you,” Maggie didn’t have another excuse and turned away from her to walk down the hall.
Maggie wanted to turn back, just to see her again and confirm that what had just happened had happened, and that it was indeed real, but she hadn’t heard the door shut yet. Maggie waited until she heard a tiny click when she reached the end of the hall to turn around, and Alex was gone.
Alex. Who was not a man. Who had liked her, a lot. Who she liked, a lot. And who she was now going on a date with.
Maggie sucked on her bottom lip as she tried not to smile. She didn’t even care that she now had to pay for those two large pizzas, but she was definitely going to give herself a very generous tip somehow.
She opened the door to the stairwell and practically bounced down the stairs.
One thing Maggie wasn’t looking forward to was facing Matt. And Vick. Matt was definitely never going to stop teasing her about her terrible acting job, and Vick was going to bug her about fate actually working out in her favor for forever. But, she decided, embarrassing herself by fighting so hard for that order had been worth it.
Definitely worth it.