“Hi, my car shit the bed, are you headed into school soon?” She asked smiling. Damn he looked this good rolling out of bed in the morning?
“I don’t have class for another hour, but I can give you a ride. C’mon in while I grab a shirt.”
“Not on my account, I hope, you look just fine without one.” Ellie thought. Luke grabbed his books and laptop and they headed to school.
“Listen, I can get a ride to work after classes. What I was wondering was… would you be a sweetheart and pick me up after my shift? Nobody at work lives on this end of town.”
“Sure, no problem.” He smiled. She gave him the address and time, and told him to come early if he wanted and she’d buy him dinner too.
School went quickly, with nobody lingering on a Friday and Ellie got a ride to work. She thought about what the specials had been today and decided to whip up something special for Luke. It wasn’t easy on a Friday night, it was pretty busy, but the regular clientèle dropped off quickly after dinner, knowing that the café closed at 8. A couple tables sported coffee sipping hipsters but for the most part the place had cleared out by then. Ellie had whipped up a little dish for them to share while she cleaned up the kitchen.
“Damn.” Came a voice through the little window. Jody, one of the servers had whispered loud enough to be heard. “He’s hot.” Ellie popped her head up and scanned where Jody was looking and saw look scanning back and forth. She grinned ear to ear.
“Back off, he’s already taken.” She said softly, but with a little edge of threat in her voice. He may not be taken yet, but she didn’t need any competition from the bubbly little server. “Can you sit him over at the chef’s table.
Jody chuckled. “Some chef’s table, it’s just the table nearest the kitchen door. What’s his name?”
“His name is Luke, and be nice, I have a large selection of cutlery at hand, and I know how to use it.”
Jody walked over and introduced herself. Saying that Ellie had told her she had a friend stopping by. “She said a dark eyed handsome stranger was coming to pick her up. I told her to snap out of it, Prince Charming isn’t real. Then you have to go and prove me wrong.” She smiled, and steered him over to the table against the wall near the kitchen, and fawned over him for a moment and got him a drink. Ellie made sure nothing was burning and wiped her hands on her apron and snuck out of the kitchen.
A smile spread across Luke’s face when he saw her, which warmed her heart. She walked over and he stood up, such a gentleman she thought. She couldn’t help herself and walked right up to him and kissed him softly. At first he seemed surprised but he didn’t take long to return it.
“Hi.” She said drawing it out. “Are you hungry?”
“You mentioned dinner, so I haven’t eaten since lunch.” He grinned.
“Good, park it, and I’ll go whip it up.” She winked at him and turned and wiggled back into the kitchen. Her ponytail danced back and forth as she peeked over her shoulder to make sure he was watching. She put herself into work mode and started pulling ingredients together. When in work mode Ellie was a sight to behold, like a kitchen ninja she got more done with fewer moves than anybody else in the café.
What seemed like only a few minutes later she walked out of the kitchen with two plates of seared scallops and linguine, setting one down in front of Luke and the other across from him.
“One second.” She said as she reached down and pulled the apron string sliding it off her waist. She unbuttoned the chef’s coat she wore and dodged back into the kitchen to hang them up.
She sat down and they began. Ellie peeking up to see if Luke was enjoying it. The speed with which he was eating told her what she wanted to know.
“I should have asked you if there was anything you didn’t like. I didn’t even think of that before hand. Seafood can be touchy for some people. Hell I didn’t even think to ask if you were allergic.” She said getting frustrated with herself.
“No, it’s delicious!” He was being completely genuine. He saw her getting upset and reached across the table to take her hand and rubbed the back of it with is thumb. “I love seafood. My family used to go out to the beach in the summer…” He trailed off, his expression softened.
It was Ellie’s turn to comfort, and she took his hand firmly in hers. “Tell me about it. I bet you had a blast.” Luke went on to tell her about a trip to the beach they’d taken years earlier and he and his dad had gone fishing and he caught a striper that nearly hauled him overboard. He went from excited to wistful. She knew he was thinking about his mother, his dad had told her the previous week, and sympathized with him.
“I baked a small batch of cookies when I got here. Want to try one? They’re sort of an experiment, but I think they came out pretty good.”
Never one to pass up a cookie he smiled and nodded.
“That’s what I love about working here. I get indulge my creativity, and if things work out sometimes it makes it on the specials board.” She said setting down the frosted lemon sugar cookies. They talked for a while longer and a loud scrape of a chair pulled them out of their reverie. Jody had been sweeping and Ellie noticed the time. They had closed nearly half an hour before.
“Oh my god. I’m sorry Jody. I lost track of time.” Ellie hopped up and started clearing the table.
“No worries hon. I can see why. You just need to clean up that and we’re out of here. I’d ask if you need a ride home, but I think I already know the answer to that.” She chuckled.
Ellie wiped down the table and Luke helped out by flipping the last few chairs up onto the tables so Jodie could finish sweeping. He waited in the front while the girls finished up in the back. He looked out the window at the darkened street, the old style street lamps lending small town charm to the night. They came out of the kitchen whispering between themselves.
“You’re sure you don’t need a ride? This one looks a little dangerous.” Jodi said laughing.
“I’m fine, besides he knows where I live, he’s my landlord.” Ellie grinned.
“I wasn’t talking to you, I’m worried for him.” They all got a chuckle out of that as they locked up and made their way to their cars. Luke opened up the door and held it for Ellie, these small gestures went over much bigger than he realized.
On the ride neither spoke when Luke felt Ellie’s hand lay on the back of his giving it a squeeze. “Thank you for saving my butt today.” He just looked over and shrugged.
“You would have done the same for me I’m sure.” He smiled at her for a moment and turned back to the road. He was honestly elated that her car hadn’t started.
Ellie sighed. “I hope it’s nothing major. My dad had the car gone over before I came back to school. I can’t afford anything big.” She looked out the window, the lights of town faded behind them as they entered the suburbs.
“Tomorrow’s Saturday, I can take a look at it if you want, if it’s something simple I can probably fix it.”
“Oh, would you?” She squeezed his hand harder. They got back to the house and Ellie reached over the seat to grab her bag. Luke watched her lean frame twist, and her rear end stick up, her jeans stretched over it nicely. He remembered just how nice it felt too and longed to hold it again. Ellie was no fool, she knew full well Luke was staring at her butt while she pretended to be looking for something in her bag. It didn’t hurt to pique his interest though. She sat back in the seat dragging the bag over with her.
“You coming up?” She asked smiling.
“I don’t know, you probably have stuff to do. You know school work or something?”
“I do have some reading to do, but I can do that later. I’m feeling a little restless and I can’t sit still and read when I’m like this.” Luke’s eyebrows went up a bit.
“You don’t have to. I mean if you want to come up and grab the car keys in the morning that’s fine too.” Her smile began to fade.
“Oh, I can get them now, that way you can sleep in if you want to.”
“Have something planned for tomorrow yet?” Ellie asked sweetly. Luke just grinned. “You’re not going to give me a hint? A girl needs to know how to prepare for a date you know.”
“Jeans will be fine, and bring a sweater or sweatshirt in case it gets cold. Oh, and walking shoes.”
“So something outdoors? Okay then.”
He wouldn’t give her any more information than that. He enjoyed keeping her guessing.
“Would you like to play a game? I found a box with my bucket of Jenga blocks while I was unpacking some stuff last night.” Luke nodded smiling and Ellie went and got the game. They sat on the couch and Ellie started stacking blocks and handed the bucket to Luke and directed him to keep stacking and she went to the bedroom and slipped off her jeans putting on lounge pants with some mall store logo down the leg and came back.
“That feels better. Do you want something to drink? I’ve got a bottle of wine, or something else maybe?” He agreed to what ever she wanted. She opened the bottle of wine and poured a couple glasses and brought it over to the table putting them out of the way of game.
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