So, I really wanted to post this yesterday in its entirety, but it was my birthday and I just could not get the ending finished. That plus this being one of the most stressful weeks I've ever had, today's update of Inconceivable may not be posted before I leave for work at 3:30. It's 90% done, but I have a habit of over-editing. Fingers crossed it'll be done.

In the meantime I give you this little bit of silliness. This is for my work family, who make my actual job bearable. They're not too thinly veiled in here ;-) I love you guys!

SPOV

"He's here again." Annemarie whispered.

I spun around, "Where?" Panic and excitement flushing through me.

"He's at the hostess stand."

I smoothed my hand over my ponytail to see if it was still semi-neat, glancing in the big gilded mirror on the wall, I groaned. I looked exactly how I felt. Exhausted. I had been up studying all damn night. I had mid-terms all next week and while I loved my classes, taking Calculus 3, organic chemistry and physics all in the same semester might've been a mistake. Now I had huge bags under my eyes and I looked a little like a Walking Dead cast member. Would it have killed me to spend thirty seconds putting mascara on?

"Mary won't seat him in my station. She knows I can't talk to him." No joke, that "he" was so damn gorgeous I couldn't even muster up the guts to say hello. One time, he was being seated at a table as I hustled past with a heavily laden tray. Custom dictated that I at least nod in greeting, but I had glanced up just as we passed each other, my mouth was already open, my automatic salutation half-formed. The words died on my tongue when I realized it was him and I blushed to the roots of my hair, it took all of my concentration to keep my tray on my shoulder and not let it slide to the frigging floor.

I turned away as Mary approached him, menu in hand. Once he was sitting I would entertain myself for the duration of his meal with surreptitious glances in his direction.

I almost spilled the coffee I was pouring for table 54 when Annemarie bumped my hip with hers and murmured, "Uh-oh."

I bent and grabbed some little milks for the coffee, "What?"

"Guess where she put him?"

My stomach knotted. "If your next words are 'in your station', I'm leaving and you can have my tables."

She grinned, "Then I'm not going to tell you he's in your station."

Donna walked past and interjected, "If you don't want him, I'll take him." She was famous for trying to scam everyone else's tables, regardless of the attractiveness of the customers sitting there.

I looked down at the scalding hot coffee in my hand and debated the wisdom of throwing it at her.

Probably best not to get arrested today.

Kelly chose that moment to wander out of the kitchen and joined us. She looked at my face and out at my station. "Uh-oh, Steph. Eye-Candy's here and sitting at your table," she smirked.

"Thanks Kell, I had no idea." I muttered sarcastically, swallowing hard against the butterflies trying to surge up my esophagus.

I stiffened my spine, grabbed my table's coffee and brought it over to them. He was right there, sitting in the next booth. My Eye-Candy. He'd been coming in for early dinner twice a week for the last month, and I ogled him shamelessly every damn time… and now I had to put enough coherent words together to take his order.

This was going to be really embarrassing.

"Are you guys going to have dessert today?" I asked my regulars, Tony and Angela.

"No sweetheart, it's Andy's birthday, we're going over there for cake."

"It is?" I asked them stalling, I could feel Eye-Candy staring at me. "How old is he now?" Andy was their grandson and I'd been waiting on these two since before their daughter had even gotten married.

"He's seven," Angela replied.

"Wow already? Next time, bring him in, I'll buy him dessert."

"We will, he asks for you every time we go past the restaurant."

"Aw, I love that kid. He's going to be such a heartbreaker." They laughed and accepted the check I handed them.

I sucked in a deep breath and tried to will my heart beat down from the stratosphere. Turning, I plastered a smile on my face and shuffled the three feet to his table.

"Hello," I managed to get out, my eyes firmly on his clasped hands atop his menu. "How are you?" Unh, my face was probably bright red and my ears were definitely burning.

"I'm well," came his deep reply.

WHY? Why does he have to be this fucking gorgeous and use proper English?

The weirdest shit turned me on.

"And you?"

"I'm great." I squeaked.

Fuck!

I cleared my throat, if I just kept looking at his fingers and not his face, I might just get through this… his long fingers on his big hands, attached to perfectly muscled forearms, covered with gorgeous, deep olive-toned skin.

What was I doing? Drink! Ask him what he wants to drink!

I cleared my throat again and asked those hands, "What would you like to drink?"

"Chianti and water, please?" His voice was smooth and he sounded amused, but I didn't have the courage to look directly at him yet.

"Sure I'll get you some bread too." I took off for the kitchen like my ass was on fire.

Tugging my phone out of my apron, I sent Mary a quick text.

I thought we were friends? What the fuck? She was very well aware of how I felt about Eye-Candy. I can't believe she'd put him at my table.

I was slicing his bread when the phone buzzed in my pocket.

Right now I'm your manager. Suck it up buttercup. That was the only place I could put him with the reservations coming in. And stay off your phone, you're supposed to be working!

"Ugh!" I groaned disgustedly.

"Steph, just tell him you want to slob his knob already," Kelly said with her trademark cackle, propping her ass on the counter next to me. "He's not going to say no. Right, Danny?"

The chef nodded his agreement. "There's not a single guy I know that'll turn it down."

"Steph, seriously, I don't know why you just can't speak to him." Robin said as she filled her table's drinks, "I had him the other day and he was very nice, and if I didn't have my sexy husband at home, I'd fuck him in a heartbeat."

I couldn't help but laugh, we were a crass bunch, but I adored my work family. "Guys, I can't even look at his face, I don't think I'll be able to offer him a blowjob."

"Honey, please." Kelly said with a snort, "I'm positive you'd have no problem looking at his other head!" Everyone cracked up, but I had to agree with her. I had spent quite a bit of my rare free time thinking about him naked since first laying eyes on him. Some of that free time had involved BOB, my trusty vibrator… which, come to think of it, was probably why I couldn't look this total stranger in the eye.

"Alright, give her a break you guys," Annemarie chimed in, breezing through with salads. "We'll do this when he leaves." She chuckled her way out the door and I tried to get myself calm.

I never had confidence issues and I was never shy, but there was just something about this guy that inspired that in me.

He's just a guy. A gorgeous, tall, perfect guy, but just a guy.

I made the mistake of looking at him as soon as I walked out of the kitchen, immediately getting caught staring. I wrestled my eyes away from his and put his bread and water down, whispering, "I'll be right back." I walked weak-kneed to the bar, fighting the need to whimper in self-pity. Sarah granted me no reprieve, she had already poured his wine and it was waiting for me when I got there.

Fuck.

I trudged back over to his table, placing the glass on a napkin in front of him, I asked, "Have you decided?"

"Yes, what's your name?"

Oh no! Please don't let him be one of those people.

You know, they're the ones who then use your name incessantly, 'Stephanie, can I have more napkins?', 'Stephanie, can I have more bread?', 'Stephanie, this fra diavolo sauce is amazing!', 'Stephanie this, Stephanie that.' It gets old, quickly.

"Stephanie," I replied quietly. "What would you like to have?"

He cleared his throat and I automatically looked at him.

So beautiful.

"Hello Stephanie, I'd like a salad and the salmon." He smiled and I felt my 'server' smile fade and a real, albeit shy, smile take its place. Up close he was fucking dazzling. He was about my age, with thick black hair, cut short, large deep brown eyes framed by long, almost feminine lashes. His cheekbones and jaw were all sharp angles and his lips were so full and soft looking that I could feel my own pout slightly. That square jaw was covered in stubble that looked just long enough to tickle any skin he might kiss. He was dressed all in black, his shirt snug enough to display very impressive musculature and if his eyes weren't as amused as they were, he would be incredibly intimidating.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, in a daze. I clapped my hand to my forehead, "Sorry, I heard you. House and the salmon. I got it, I'll be right back."

I was so flustered it took me three tries to enter my server number into the computer and order his food. You wouldn't know I'd been doing this job since high school by how ridiculously I was acting.

"You okay?" Annemarie asked, wrapping her table's food.

I shook my head, "No one person should look like that. It's not fair to the rest of the human race."

"You ain't kidding, he's freaking hot," Kelly concurred.

I grabbed his salad from Chino, our salad guy, and brought it over, settling it in front of him. "Would you like some more?" I asked pointing to the now empty bread basket.

"Yes, please." Manners too!

The basket was on the far side of his table and when I leaned over to grab it, my right breast very slightly brushed against his shoulder.

Woops! Guess I was standing closer than I thought! But goddamn he smells good.

"You okay?" He asked reaching for it at the same time.

"Yes," I said taking the basket from him. "Why?"

"You made a noise like you were hurt."

Fuck, I thought that whimper had been in my head.

I nodded emphatically, "I'm fine." This time I walked away slowly, determined to show that he wasn't freaking me out. As I approached the kitchen I saw Kelly and Annemarie grinning widely, waiting for me to reach them before they practically ran into the kitchen after me. We were a subtle bunch weren't we?

"Ohhhhhh, Steph, he watched your ass all the way back here. It's a good thing you're wearing those pants today." Actually, these were my only clean work pants left. The constant studying hadn't left me with any laundry time. Wait, what?

I dismissed that as I grabbed my salad, "No he wasn't." Seriously, why would he be looking at my ass? They sighed heavily and exchanged long suffering looks. Fine, maybe I did have a bit of a confidence issue. I shrugged my shoulders and brought him more bread.

Shit, I did it again.

"Sorry," I whispered, completely mortified. He'd definitely noticed this time.

Well, the rest of me was embarrassed, but my right boob was ecstatic.

As I backed away, the edge of my apron snagged his knife, and it was all pure disaster from there, his knife spun and nudged the stem of his wine glass, his hand shot out to stop the glass from toppling and his elbow caught his water glass and it immediately tumbled over and splashed all over his pants and shirt.

"Fuuuucccckk," I breathed, "I'm so sorry." I stood there paralyzed, petrified that my crush might start yelling at me.

"It's okay, it was my fault. Do you have a towel?" He asked calmly, dabbing at himself with a napkin. I sped around the corner and grabbed the roll of paper towels. As if the situation wasn't mortifying enough, now my eyes were getting a bit swimmy. I hadn't spilled anything on anyone in years and this is the guy that I fuck up on?

I whipped off some towels from the roll and started blotting at him, he backed away slightly, grabbing my wrist. "Whoa, babe, you want to go there you're going to have to take me on a date first." I gaped at him and then looked at where my hand was just about to land, the hand that was still hovering about an inch from his crotch. I dropped the towel and finally backed away.

"Jesus, I'm so sorry." If I thought I was blushing before, it was nothing to now, my ears felt like they were actually on fire.

He was concentrating on drying his lap, thankfully not looking at me. "It's only water, not a big deal."

"I'll get you some more." I grabbed his cup, wiped the last of the spill from the table and disappeared through the kitchen doors again. I went straight to the hand sink in the corner and splashed some water on my face and tried not to let the embarrassed tears flow. In general, this was an incredibly high stress job, every one of us at one time or another had had a mini breakdown in here. I just couldn't remember the last time it had happened to me.

I got my shit together after a few sympathetic pats on the back from my girls and managed to get him through the rest of his meal without any further damage to his person. He was very nice about the whole thing, telling me to forget about it and to stop apologizing, that it was his fault to begin with. I just couldn't get over it.

He was even a good tipper, leaving me 25%. More than likely he pitied me for sucking at my job so badly and left me a big tip to make up for the shitty ones someone of my caliber would typically receive.

I sighed and leaned back against the counter of our server's station, watching him stand and throw his jacket on. Annemarie and Kelly flanking me. They sighed too. "You could really hang onto those shoulders couldn't you?" I asked them. Seriously, he had these really sexy, broad shoulders. Coupled with the rest of his strong looking body, I couldn't help but think that he'd have no problem holding me up against a wall.

"Uh-huh," they agreed.

He looked our way and caught us staring, we all promptly turned and pretended to be busy.

"Really, we could become spies, we're so fucking covert," I muttered.

At least we managed to laugh through the rest of our shift.

AN: I have about 8,000 more words of this written out. So, if there's any interest in what happens next, I could be convinced to post more tomorrow or Monday. At any rate, I really like this Stephanie, she's a lot stronger than she gives herself credit for.

I'm off to work on Inconceivable now, let me know what you thought of this. Hopefully it put a little smile on your face.

Thanks for reading,

Love,

EA xoxo