"Please? Pretty please? Pretty, pretty, please?"
Jemma couldn't fight those cute, puppy eyes aimed straight at her. Who could?
"I will, Thea, just give me a second," she promised, and stole a glance to her left, at the centre of the restaurant.
"But we've been here for an hour already." The little girl pouted, her ponytails swinging when she shook her head. "He will bring us dessert soon! Just ask him!"
"It's not so easy," Jemma murmured, and eyed the plates in front of them. Hers was almost empty, since she tended to eat while stressed, but the other one still had a lot of green stuff on it. "Eat your veggies," she pointed at them.
"They are not for eating, they are for decoration," Thea pleaded but Jemma only shook her head. "Just ask, he's nice, he won't shout at you," the girl mumbled staking a carrot with her fork.
Jemma sighed and eyed the waiter again.
They moved into this city two months ago, when Jemma got a new job in a local research facility. It was a huge step in her career, something she was hoping for for years. What she hadn't counted on, was that they would have to move in spring, so she had to put Thea in a new kindergarten in the middle of academic year, when kids knew each other well and it was hard for her to acclimate and form new relationships with others. If that was not enough, Jemma had so much work with getting to know her new workplace and starting her project that she didn't have as much time as she wished. That's why they tended to eat out, looking for a nice place with good food. They found Mack's Kitchen on their third week, when Thea was snivelling about being the last one to be picked for teams during PE. They went for dinner to a new place, ordered some soup and chicken with rice and she let the girl pick whatever she liked. Of course, what she liked turned out to be half of the dessert card, but they reached the compromise of pizza and two desserts. Still, Thea remained sad and Jemma had no idea what else she could do to cheer her up. Repeating that "kids are mean" didn't seem to help much and she couldn't let her eat anymore sweets. That was when The Waiter came in, calling Thea "Princess", telling jokes and funny stories about monkeys from the local zoo (that he recommended they visit) and if that wasn't enough, he brought her pizza with red pepper arranged to look like a princess with a crown of yellow peppers and little monkeys around her made of mushrooms. This, along with a big glass of coke they didn't order, finally made the girl laugh. The whole way home Thea was babbling about him, his nice voice with an accent and how much she liked the food, pleading to go to the zoo he mentioned and making Jemma wish that her companion was much older than five years old, so she could tell Thea a few things about the handsome Scot too. Next time they went there, Thea was telling him in detail what she'd seen last Sunday on their trip to the zoo, and he was not only patiently listening, but also smiling and asking questions until he was called back by his boss.
Jemma took Thea to this restaurant twice each week now, just after picking her up from school, and they always had a pleasant chat with the waiter. Somehow their desserts always ended with double whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, and her Greek salad always had so many more olives since she mentioned them being her favourites.
After all this time, all she knew about the waiter was his first name written on his nametag - Leo.
"He's coming, he's coming!" Thea hissed with excitement. "Ask him!"
Jemma shushed her, putting her hair behind her ear and trying to look occupied with her plate and watch him coming closer at the same time.
"Your desserts," he said in a nice, soft voice with his strong rolling "r".
After putting the plates with ice creams on the table he reached for her plate and her eyes became glued to his nice hands and the lean muscles of his forearms. Forcing herself to tear her eyes away and glance up a little bit, she saw Thea's nagging stare.
"Is everything all right?" he asked, and she nodded, trying to avoid their eyes and reaching for her spoon. She tried not to notice Thea's disappointment when he walked away.
"Maybe it's better," the little girl mumbled after a moment of silence. "He wouldn't want to anyway, nobody would want to." She pouted.
Jemma felt a sting of guilt and took a shaky breath. This wasn't about her. This was about Thea, and she should just grit her teeth and do it, even if it was slightly embarrassing.
"I'll be back in a moment," she said while putting her spoon down and rising from her chair.
A few determined steps and she was in the middle of the restaurant, standing in front of a surprised (and a little confused) Leo.
"How can I help you?" he asked immediately in nice voice.
"Well, uhm, I'm not really sure how to say it…" Jemma started uncertainly, putting some rebellious curls of hair behind her ear.
"There was something wrong with your order?" He furrowed his brows with sudden concern. "You didn't like the food?"
"No, no it was delicious," she assured him. "We really enjoyed it, and the meat was well baked and the vegetables are so fresh and this dressing, I really loved it-" She rambled, not able to stop, lost in the blue sky of his stare.
"Medium steak!" came a voice from behind the door that probably led to the kitchen.
"Oh, sorry," he apologised in a rush, taking a step away from her. "I have to go." He pointed at the door and she just nodded. "I'll come back to your table in a moment," he promised and walked away.
"Sure, it's , uhm, nothing important," she murmured. She couldn't bring herself to turn and face Thea though. What would she sayl? That they have to come here again because she, her legal guardian who was supposed to take care of her, couldn't ask a simple question? Again? Even though she promised she would, and spent an hour and a half trying to prepare, waiting for a perfect moment?
Looking back at the girl, Jemma felt sting of shame when she saw that Thea wasn't even looking at her anymore, just sitting there on her chair, head bowed down and spoon wandering aimlessly around her plate.
Jemma took a deep breath. Leo was cute and handsome and had a lovely voice, not to mention his incredible smile; that was all true. In normal circumstances she would just keep coming to this place two or more times a week, ordering a regular and trying to figure out how to flirt with him, wondering if he's really smiling at her or just at anothercustomer. Maybe after a few months she would bring herself to ask him a few vague questions, test the waters, hoping that something would somehow happen without her actually making a move and embarrassing herself. Maybe he would be the one to finally take a hint. But the circumstances weren't normal, and she promised a young girl that she would ask; she couldn't be a coward and disappoint her. Embarrassing or not, she would just ask. He would say "no" and think she's a creep and a weirdo and she would never ever ever show her face around this place again, but at least she wouldn't break her promise.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she looked around. Ok, first thing first, stop standing here, she told herself. Go after him and just ask. NOW. You've got two PhDs Jemma, you can do this.
The first step was always the hardest, they said, but for her each and every next one was just as hard. Come on, it's just a question, no big deal. Don't fret over it so much.
Another step and she was next to the door. Don't let the "personnel only" sign stop you now, she fought over her hesitation. Nobody stopped you yet, just do this.
Her hand was slightly trembling when she reached for the door knob, but before she managed to touch it the door swung open, her waiter standing there with a tray full of meals and drinks.
"Oh." He took a startled step back, plates and glasses clanging.
"I'm sorry, I have to ask." She tried to explain herself and kick herself at the same time. "It's important after all…"
Breath. It's fine. It's not like it's a first time for him, he won't be surprised, I bet he gets hit on daily with this lovely accent and scruff and eyes and stop checking him out already and use your words girl!
"Is that the double olives and chocolate sprinkle girl?" asked someone from inside the kitchen.
"Leave it Hunter!" Leo hissed into the room with a warning in his voice and looked at her with apologising eyes.
"What's your name?" She finally blurted her question.
"My name?" He asked in surprise and looked at his uniform with a silver nametag.
"Yes. I mean, full name," she added and furrowed her brows, noticing that it wasn't really an explanation. "I need it to put in-"
"You want to write a complaint?" He asked, terrified.
"What?! No, no, of course not!" She shook her head. Why is it so complicated? Why are you making it complicated Jemma? "No, it's about, uhm, Thea," She waved at the girl sitting by their table. "Her birthday is in two weeks and she… well, she really likes you, since you're really good with her. We, uhm, moved here not so long ago and she - it's been a little hard for her and she still doesn't have many friends here. Anyway, it's really important to her, and she wanted to invite you to her birthday party; it would be really nice if you could drop by." She stopped to take a breath and noticed his surprised expression. "B-but you really don't have to, that's understandable, of course, we're both aware that you have better things to do and… and more significant people to meet, but I still need your name to put on an invitation, she wants to give it to you and ask herself so…" she stopped her rambling, looking at him anxiously.
And here comes the part when he calls you a stalker and asks for restrain order…
"Yeah, okay," he said instead.
"Yeah?" She furrowed her brows not following completely.
"Yeah, I'd love to come."
"Oh," she whispered, surprised that he agreed so fast and didn't know what to say for a moment.
He apparently misread her reaction because now he started rambling.
"I mean not love exactly, but I couldn't say no to her… Not that I'd want to say no, it sounds like fun and she's a nice girl... kid I mean, nice kid and you're a nice girl and-" He finally noticed her smile and took a breath, combing his hand through his curly hair. "Yeah, I'd gladly come, is what I meant." He sighed.
"That's great." She beamed at him, still a little shocked with how easy it went. "That's really nice, but I still need your full name for the invitation."
"Oh. It's Fitz," he introduced himself, reaching his hand to her, demonstrating some really incredible balancing with the other one, that was still holding the tray. "Leopold Fitz, but call me Fitz, everyone does."
"Jemma Simmons," she shook his hand with a smile. "And over there sits Thea Hartley," she said, waving in the general direction of her table. "That I really shouldn't be leaving alone for so long," she added and took a step back, her hand slipping away from his.
He just nodded in understanding, putting his hand back on his tray.
"We will drop by with the invitation some time soon," she added.
"You know where to find me." He smiled.
Thea was so excited that she couldn't wait for their next standard visit in three days, and instead forced Jemma to take her to the restaurant the next day, just to give the invitation and ask if he would want to come.
Fitz smiled at her brightly, like he just heard he won the lottery and assured her that he couldn't wait.
A/N:
This is my Fitzsimmons Secret Santa Exchange gift for hawwkgirl. The prompt for this story was "You're the person that always serves me and my young kid's food and you always are so good with my kid and I'm really sorry and you don't have to accept but my kid wants to invite you to their birthday party". And me and hawwkgirl both agreed that Fitz should be the "serving" one. I had lots of fun with it, I hope the result brought you all joy as well ;)
Thanks to amandajbruce for beta reading!