Author's note: Today is soccercop day of Beth Childs Appreciation Week on tumblr, so I wrote this little fic based on an AU I came up with when I was out for dinner the other week and a server's name was Beth. Enjoy!
Beth kind of hated her job at Work of Art Café. It was one of the only sit down restaurants in town with good food and killer desserts, and the walls were covered different, famous art pieces from all over the centuries. (The owner's name was Art. He thought he was really funny. Beth also thought he was really funny, but she would never tell him that.)
Waiting tables for rude people on dates who were inconsiderate tippers was not her ideal gig, but hey, a job's a job, and she needed to save money for college. She worked every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, dealing with assholes, bringing them food, and trying not to spit in it before she got it to the table.
The only night she liked was Friday night, which, yes, was the busiest night at the restaurant, which meant Beth was always twice as tired once she got off work at 11. But it was also the night of Alison and Donnie's weekly date night, and they always came to the restaurant, and somehow, every single week without fail, Beth got stuck waiting their table.
Alison and Donnie were an interesting couple to say the least. They had been together a year and a half, and everyone in town was convinced they were going to get married one day. But after going to school with them for three years and after spending over a month waiting their table and seeing them out and together, Beth couldn't understand how Alison could waste her time on a lump like Donnie.
This observation had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Beth had had an enormous crush on Alison since freshman year. They were two completely unrelated subjects.
It just had to do with the fact that Donnie was, to put it plainly, kind of a jerk. Alison was pretty and sweet and considerate, and she always laughed when Beth made stupid puns. She deserved so much better than Donnie.
Donnie never laughed at Beth's jokes. He made excessive rude comments about her service, and glared whenever Beth approached them as their server for seven weeks in a row. Not to mention the fact that he always tried to skimp on her tip. Two dollar tip for a fifty dollar check? Asshole.
The worst part, though, was the way he treated Alison. Any other onlooker would only see the façade of the happy couple, but Beth knew better. Beth was good at reading people and that's how she noticed. Alison was miserable. Her laughs were fake and her smile was forced and she didn't look at him with that light in her eyes that Beth thought people in love should have. Donnie always talked down to her, like she wasn't as smart when she was clearly much more intelligent than her boyfriend. Which is something that Donnie would notice if he actually listened to Alison, which he didn't. And he always treated Alison like he owned her, like she was his.
It infuriated Beth.
But Alison's smile made up for it. The reason Fridays were Beth's favorite night to work was because of the way Alison's eyes would light up whenever she approached their table, the way her genuine laugh rang in her ears whenever Beth told one of her jokes, the way she would always grab Beth's hand and thank her for her service, and the way she would always try to sneak a couple extra dollars into the abysmal tip Donnie had left.
And so, for the eighth week in a row, Beth found herself approaching the table occupied by Alison and Donnie. She set down a drink in front of Alison, and then turned to Donnie. "Can I get you anything to drink?" she asked.
Alison blinked, staring at the cup in front of her. "Um, I haven't ordered a drink yet," she said.
Beth smiled at her. "I know, but you always order the iced tea."
"Well what if I was going to get something different this week?" Alison challenged.
"You weren't going to get something different," Donnie huffed from the other side of the table. "You always get the same thing. Can I get a Pepsi?"
"We only have Coke," Beth said, for the eighth time. For some reason, Donnie insisted on asking every single week, like they would have changed their menu just for him in the span of a week.
Donnie sighed. "I'll get a root beer then."
Beth nodded and pretended to write it down on her notepad, but she was actually just drawing a very unflattering picture of Donnie. "I'll be right back with that, and then I'll come take your order." She shot Alison a quick smile before walking away.
A few minutes later, she went back to the table and took their orders. About ten minutes after that, she returned with Alison's food, spaghetti and meatballs.
Alison watched Beth set the plate down in front of her with a very confused expression. "How did you prepare my food that fast?"
"Sometimes it pays off to always order the same thing," Beth said with a wink. "I had the chef working on it before you ordered."
Alison smiled. "Thanks."
"When am I gonna get my food?" Donnie grumbled.
Beth rolled her eyes and then turned to face him. "You'll get your food when it's done." She turned back to Alison. "You should eat that before it gets cold," she added.
Alison nodded and smiled as Beth walked away from the table.
When Beth returned another ten minutes later, Alison's food was almost gone and Donnie looked very annoyed. The sight made Beth oddly happy. "One chicken pot pie," Beth said, setting down the plate in front of Donnie. "Is there anything else I can get for you?"
"Better service?" Donnie asked bitterly. Beth had to keep the polite smile on her face, because she was working after all, but Alison shot him a glare across the table.
"Donnie, that was rude," she said.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Beth said. "I don't mind. Let's just put it in the past-a." She gestured to the spaghetti on Alison's plate and grinned.
Alison started at her for a moment, but then she started chuckling, and it just made Beth smile even more. "That was a good one," Alison said.
"Anyway," Beth said. "Let me know if you need anything else."
As she turned to walk away, Beth felt Donnie's glare boring into the back of her head and she wished she had spit in his food.
Before Beth went to go check on their table again, she decided to take a quick bathroom break. She walked in and ran into Alison, cleaning up her makeup in the mirror after she had obviously been crying.
"Alison?" Beth said. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, Beth!" Alison quickly jumped away and shook her head furiously. "Nothing! Nothing's wrong, I'm fine."
Beth cocked her head to the side and frowned. "You've got some mascara…" She pointed to a spot on her own cheek where the mascara was running on Alison's face.
Alison blushed and turned back to the mirror to wipe the spot away.
"Are you sure you're ok?"
Alison frowned and then shook her head. "It's just Donnie." She rolled her eyes. "He's so stupid! And rude! And I don't think I even care anymore!"
"About him?" Beth asked.
"I don't know," Alison sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, I'm just dumping this on you and you don't even care."
"No, no, I do care," Beth reassured her with a small smile. "That's why I asked."
Alison returned the smile. "Well, I should get back out to Donnie," she said. "And I should let you get back to work."
And with that, Alison walked out of the bathroom, brushing Beth's shoulder as she walked past.
After Beth used the restroom and washed her hands, she returned to Donnie and Alison's table. "What'll you get for dessert?" she asked.
"Nothing," Donnie said. "We'll just take the check, please."
Beth raised an eyebrow. Alison and Donnie always got dessert. But it wasn't her place to prod, so she just flipped her notebook closed, said, "Alrighty then," and walked off.
But when Beth returned a few minutes later with the check, she also brought along a small slice of chocolate cake and placed it in front of Alison. "This is on the house," she said. "And here's your check," she said, handing the bill to Donnie.
When Beth came back to the table, the couple was gone, and money was on the table. She counted it out to be exact change, not even a penny for a tip. That was a new low for Donnie. Beth groaned and started to clean up plates.
Suddenly, Alison approached the table again, this time by herself. "Beth!" she said, surprised.
"Alison, what are you doing back here?" Beth asked.
"Oh, well, I, uhh," she stuttered. "I told Donnie that I forgot my sweater."
"You weren't wearing a sweater?"
Alison smiled. "I know. I wanted to leave you this," she said, and held up a ten dollar bill. "I know he didn't leave a tip, and you deserve something for your excellent service."
"Whoa, Alison, the bill was only thirty bucks, that is way too generous," Beth said.
"Well so were you," Alison replied. She shoved the money into Beth's hands. "Here, take it." She jumped away before Beth could hand it back. "I'll see you around," she said, and left the restaurant.
Beth smiled to herself as she finished cleaning up the table, and the smile remained on her face for the rest of her night working.
When the weekend ended, along with Beth's work week, Beth wished that she had classes with Alison, or even that they had the same lunch period. Unfortunately, they didn't share any classes, and Beth felt she was lucky if she caught so much as a glimpse of the other girl when they were at school. But on the rare occasion they did cross paths, Alison always smiled at Beth and said hello.
The week slowly progressed without any sight of Alison at school, and Beth figured she probably wouldn't see her again until she arrived at Work of Art with Donnie on Friday night.
But then, Friday night came along and the couple was nowhere to be found. Alison and Donnie had never missed a date night before, and Beth was concerned. But mostly she was upset because she had been looking forward to seeing Alison after a week. And now, seeing as they weren't there, it would probably be another week before she saw her again.
To top it all off, she was yelled at by a customer, dropped a plate, and the restaurant was filled with shit tippers that night. By the time Beth got home that night, she was exhausted.
Beth went through another week at school without even a tiny glimpse of Alison. It wasn't until Thursday morning that they passed by each other on their way to class and barely had time to smile at each other.
Beth arrived at work after school, ready for an easy night; Thursdays were usually slow. However, she was surprised when she caught Alison's face entering the restaurant later in the evening. A few minutes later, Beth was approaching her table. Alison wasn't with Donnie tonight, but instead was accompanied by her friend Aynsley.
"I wasn't expecting to see you here tonight, Alison," Beth said as she approached the table. "Where's Donnie?"
"He—oh, um, we broke up," Alison replied, looking down.
"Oh, god, I'm so sorry, I didn't—"
"Beth, it's fine," she said. "I'm actually kind of relieved."
"Now now, Ali," Aynsley cut in. "I know you're just saying that. That's why I wanted to treat you to dinner tonight, to get your mind off of things."
"You wanted to get her mind off of Donnie by taking her to dinner at the restaurant she had weekly date nights at with Donnie?" Beth asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's quite sound logic." She smiled so Aynsley would know she was joking.
"Okay, maybe it wasn't the best plan," Aynsley admitted. "But I wanted to do something!"
Alison reached across the table to touch Aynsley's hand. "I know, and I really appreciate it," she said, "but it's really not necessary. I said I'm fine."
"Well, since you two are here, can I get you ladies something to drink?" Beth asked.
"Just water is fine for me," Aynsley said.
"And I'll have—"
"An iced tea, I know," Beth interrupted Alison and threw in a wink. Hey, now that she was single there was nothing to stop her from flirting.
She returned with their drinks and took their orders, and after she wrote them down, Alison asked, "What, you're not going to bring my food ten minutes early tonight? Don't I always order the same thing?" She said it teasingly and smiled at Beth.
"Hey, you weren't supposed to be here tonight," Beth said. "Your presence has totally thrown me off. If I had known you were coming I would've had your entire meal prepared for you by the time you arrived, and maybe even thrown some flowers on the table." Alison blushed. "Now if you'd like your food sometime tonight, I'm gonna go. Holler if you need anything."
It was a few minutes later when Alison flagged her down as she walked by. "Beth!" Alison said. "Can we get more bread?"
"More bread?"
"Yeah, I kind of ate it all. Donnie used to only let me have one piece, he said bread makes you fat," she admitted. "But not tonight." Alison grinned up at Beth. "So…bread?"
"Coming right up."
Beth arrived later with a new basket of bread and set it down on the table.
"You'd better save some room for your dinner," Beth warned jokingly. "Don't gorge yourselves on bread! Although it is very good bread. It's the bread-st." Alison didn't even try to hide her snort of laughter at Beth's pun. Beth laughed at Alison's amusement. "Dude that one wasn't even good."
"Well I liked it!" Alison defended, still laughing.
Beth couldn't contain her splitting grin the rest of the night when she approached the other tables that she was serving and when she brought Alison and Aynsley their food. Alison kept smiling at her and laughing with her and that only encouraged Beth to keep flirting.
It wasn't until the end of their meal when she brought the check over that her smile began to falter.
"If you and Donnie broke up, I guess I won't be seeing you around here as much anymore," Beth said to Alison as she handed over the check.
Alison frowned. "I suppose not."
"Well," Beth continued, "I hope you enjoyed your meal. Have a good night."
"Thanks Beth!" Aynsley said.
Beth smiled at her. "It was my pleasure."
Beth gave Alison one last look before turning around and walking away from their table.
When she came back a few minutes later, Alison and Aynsley were gone. She sighed and opened the check to find enough to cover their meals, and another very generous tip from Alison. But the money wasn't all that was in there.
There was also a napkin with Alison's name scrawled on it, and ten digits—Alison's phone number.
Suddenly Beth's grin was back as she slipped the napkin into her pocket. She skipped around the restaurant for the rest of the night.
Beth didn't want to seem too eager, so she waited until after school the next day, before starting work, to call Alison. She dialed the number and it rang twice before Alison picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hi, my name is Beth and I'll be your server this afternoon, may I take your order?" Beth said.
"Beth?" Alison giggled.
"What can I get for you today?" Beth joked, enjoying the sound of Alison's laughter in her ears.
"Hmm," Alison said, pretending to think hard. "I think I'll have a date, with a side of Beth." Beth laughed. She hadn't expected Alison to play along with the joke.
"Just on the side?" Beth asked, with a loud, fake gasp. "I am offended. I thought I was going to be, like, the main dish."
"Slow down there tiger," Alison replied. "At least take me to dinner first."
"Alright," Beth agreed, grinning. "How's tomorrow night?"
Alison sighed, and Beth swore she could hear the smile in her voice when she said, "Tomorrow night would be perfect."
After they hung up a few minutes later, Beth rushed to work so she could beg Art for the day off tomorrow.