Take Out
for angellwings, because she had a crap day and I wanted to make it better.
When Nate walked in the door to Ella's apartment, carrying the garment bags she'd asked for, he found her poring over, not swatches or sketches as was usual, but five different take-out menus. Confused, he drew silently closer and examined them over her shoulder. Two were Chinese—one proclaiming to be "authentic" and the other "New York style." One was for Tai, another for a pizza place, and one for "Big Jim's Southern Bar-B-Q."
"Hungry, Ella?" he asked. The girl squeaked and spun around, making her dark hair fly up into her face. She glared at him as he laid the garment bags across the arm of the couch and sat next to her.
"Maybe," she said, sticking her nose up in the air. "What's it to you, Ninja McGee?"
Nate snickered and plucked Big Jim's takeout menu from her hands. Looking at it, he saw that she had circled the biggest, meatiest items with a bright red pen. "Okay, even Shane's Uncle Brown can't eat that much meat in one sitting. What's going on?"
"If you must know—" Ella snapped as she snatched the menu back. "I'm having a rough day. Why don't you make yourself useful and fetch me the red folder in the kitchen?"
Nate held his hands up in surrender and walked out of the living room, leaving Ella to cool down. He still couldn't figure out what'd happened, but he wasn't about to ask twice. It took some searching—Ella hadn't told him that she stashed it in the same place she put her unopened cookbooks—but he found the red folder and walked back out to where Ella had finally decided on and calculated her order.
Without looking at him, she held out her hand. "Phone, please," she said. He spied it on the coffee table and handed it to her, also setting the red folder in her lap. She smiled up at him gratefully before she dialed. He listened as she ordered.
"Hey, is this Big J—oh, good. I need a number four, with extra sauce and—oh, it comes with steak fries? Good, some of those… A number eight with no onions or pickles and coleslaw instead of—yes, no fries. He'll steal some of mine." Nate perked up at that. She was ordering something for him, too? Ella shot him a look that dared him to reach for his wallet. She declined something to drink and threatened the man's life if the food didn't arrive within a half-hour of the order. It sounded like she meant it, too.
When she finally hit the end call button, Nate grinned. "So what's a number four? And a number eight for that matter?"
"You'll have to wait and see," Ella said. She tucked the five take-out menus into the back of the red folder and shuffled through the front until she came up with a paper that was offensively pink, with some lavender and white accents around the corners. Nate actually flinched when he saw it, for his eyes refused to focus on it. He wondered how Ella managed to read the black print.
"What in God's name—?" Nate cut himself off when Ella started to dial.
"Charlie?" she said when the other end picked up. Her voice was suddenly plaintive and Nate's eyes widened. He had never heard her sound so young, even at camp. "I need you."
Nate's eyebrows went up. What?
"…yes, that one; as much as you can stand to put on it. No, you know I don't like raspberries." She glanced over at Nate. "And a cup of your lemon—yes. No, with the choc—yes. Yes, you always know exactly what I need. Except for the raspberries. Can you give me the combo package? Nate hasn't tried it yet." She flushed. "Yes, that Nate. No, he is not! Yes, you can meet him. Only if you hurry, though."
She hung up and shuffled through her papers again, making sure that she put everything in the right place. Nate cleared his throat and he saw her tense.
"So…" he began, fighting a smirk. "Who's Charlie?"
Ella sighed and slumped back into the couch. "He's a friend of mine. He runs The Sweet Spot on the corner of Ninth and Rose."
"The one with the chocolate doughnuts that Jason gorges himself on every Sunday?"
"The very same. We go through this routine every month or so. He knows me just by my voice now."
Every… month? Oh. He understood now, but the information didn't do him any good. All he cared about was "Charlie."
"So, does he usually make the deliveries himself?" Nate asked carefully. Ella shot him a look.
"Not really. He made the delivery the… third? Maybe it was the fourth time. But I was huddled on the couch and crying and watching Titanic and he said I looked like I really needed the company. Ever since, he usually delivers himself and sits with me for a few hours." Ella shrugged. "He's funny and sweet. And he listens when I really need someone to talk to about… well; he's a good listener, anyway."
Nate frowned, but he didn't question her further. It bit a little that she didn't seem to think she could talk to him. He thought she came to him when she needed someone to talk to. Apparently, this wasn't so. Shifting uneasily, he brushed the garment bag behind him and remembered his original purpose for coming.
"Oh, right. What do you want me to do with the clothes for the Thursday show?"
Ella cocked her head in thought. "Um, could you hang them up in my work room? I'm going to pick out a movie."
"If I'm going to be having dinner here, can we please watch something without Hugh Grant in it?" he asked as he picked up the garment bags. Ella stuck her tongue out at him and got up from the couch to look through her movie rack.
Nate lifted the bags so they wouldn't drag on the floor and found the door to her work room open and his eyebrows rose when he saw the state it was in. The usual organized chaos of the room was gone. All of her fabrics were rolled up or neatly stacked along the backs of the counters. Her bead table was clear, with all of the beads in their boxes and drawers. He looked closer and even saw that the needles on the main table in the middle of the room were aligned neatly. He quickly hung the clothes on the rack that Ella had designated to himself and his bandmates.
"Ella, what's with your work room? It's clean," he said. He moved back out to the living room.
"Oh, I was just… in a cleaning mood last night," Ella said. She picked up a movie and frowned at it thoughtfully before she replaced it and pulled out another. "Couldn't sleep, you know the drill. How about Nick Cage? Does he satisfy your tastes?"
"If it's the Wicker Man, I'm walking out of here right now," Nate said. Ella snickered, but he didn't really care. He didn't do horror movies.
"The second National Treasure, dummy," she said. "I'm not heartless, you know."
"Says you," Nate muttered darkly. He sat down on the couch next to her again as she picked up the DVD remote and was surprised when she leaned into him and put her head on his shoulder. He recovered and put an arm hesitantly around her shoulders. "Do you want to start it now? Food's going to get here in a few minutes."
"Mmf," Ella said. "I forgot." She suddenly sat bolt upright in her seat. "Ohmygod. I'm in my jams!"
Nate looked at her and realized that she was, in fact, in her pajamas. It just didn't look like it at first, because most peoples' pajamas didn't have rhinestone decals on the front and sleeves, and the bottoms didn't usually have flattering, custom-made cuts that made their legs look really, really good. "And there's something wrong with this?" Nate asked, genuinely confused.
"There's everything wrong with it!" Ella proclaimed, jumping up and racing toward her room. "Charlie will roast me if I answer the door in my night clothes!"
Confusion gave way to concern. Who did Charlie think he was, telling Ella what to wear? Anger followed the concern. If this Charlie guy hurt her… But Ella flounced back into the room before Nate could finish the very graphic thought that had been forming in his mind, something involving mustard, a large, thick stick, and various spiky implements. Her pajama bottoms had been replaced with a pair of drawstring Capri pants. The top she had put on was a little big on her and he guessed it was a soft cotton shirt that Mitchie had forgotten here on her last visit. She'd pulled her hair back in a high ponytail and Nate grinned, because he loved seeing her face best.
"Does this look acceptable?" Ella asked, biting her lip as she slowly turned a circle.
"Why does it matter what you wear in front of Charlie?" Nate countered.
"Because last time he teased me mercilessly about my mis-matched kitty-cat pajama bottoms and Connect 3 t-shirt and I don't want to give him any more ammunition," Ella said simply. She was just about to sit down on the couch when the doorbell went off. Her eyes lit up and she bounded toward the door. "FOOD!"
Nate listened with interest as she greeted the delivery from Big Jim's ("FOOD! You have it?") and paid for it ("Here, just keep the change, food delivery guy!"), and pranced back into the living room, twirling a couple times as she went. When she finally stopped in front of the couch and saw Nate's amused smirk, she stuck her tongue out at him. "I love food, okay?"
"Did I say anything?" he said. Ella smacked him and began unpacking the bundle she'd accepted from the "food delivery guy." Two large Styrofoam containers were laid on the coffee table, followed by two Styrofoam bowls with covers. One of them was fogged and the other Ella opened so that she could smell the contents. She held it out to Nate the way one would hold out a scented candle to another.
"Their coleslaw is soooo yummy," she said, grinning wide. "They use vinegar and sugar and pineapple and cracked pepper. It's amazing." The combination didn't sound as appetizing to Nate as it did to Ella, but he tried a smile anyway. She glared. "I'm going to make you try it before you leave." The smile disappeared.
The containers on the coffee table had numbers written on them in Sharpie. Nate also realized that someone had written a note on the side of each of the containers. On his, it read, Break her and we break you. He flushed a dark red and looked over at Ella's, but she'd already turned it so he couldn't see.
"They know me pretty well there and they heard me say 'he' and the last time I ordered for a 'he' from there, I was still with Rich and—"
"It's okay, Ella," Nate said. "They just care about you. It's sweet, in a scary kind of way."
Ella smiled and opened their containers.
Nate let out a whisle.
For a second, he couldn't tell that his order was a sandwich. There was just so much meat on it that he had trouble figuring out what it was. Finally, he pulled it closer and saw that there was a bun—a soaking, looked-as-though-it-may've-been-toasted-at-one-point, bun that was stuffed beyond its capacity. There was melted cheese somewhere in there, and what may've been lettuce, but he couldn't be sure around the sheer amount of barbeque sauce. It was a man's sandwich. It was so macho, in fact, that he almost felt like he was growing chest hair just looking at it.
"Oh sweet Moses," he muttered, turning the container around and around.
"Yep," Ella said. "That's pulled pork there, drowned in Big Jim's finest homemade barbeque sauce."
"I'm afraid to eat it," Nate said. "It looks like it's too much man for me."
"Oh, shut up," Ella said, smacking him on the arm. She picked up her own sandwich, which was similar to his only in that it was covered in sauce. He could see that it was a different kind of meat, but after that he was completely at a loss. She caught Nate looking and grinned. "Beef," she said. "I had a huge craving for red meat."
He nodded and Ella fumbled in the delivery bag for napkins before she played the DVD and they set to. The movie was entertaining, the food was amazing, and the company was the best Nate could ask for. They laughed at all the same jokes, and looked at one another in all the same places, and once reached for the same napkin without realizing. Their barbeque-covered hands met and they jerked to attention, looking at one another. Ella flushed and picked the napkin up, wiping her fingers and her face of the sauce. Nate smiled a little and went back to the movie once he'd gotten a napkin of his own.
They had reached the half-way point in the movie and were nearing the end of their meals when someone knocked rhythmically on the door. Ella grinned and cleaned her face, pausing the movie. Nate did, too, remembering who was at the door, and hesitated when Ella stood up.
"Come on!" she said, grabbing his hand. "I want you to meet Charlie!"
Her excitement put an anxious knot in his gut. The last time she'd sounded that excited was when she introduced him to Rich. He followed reluctantly, trying not to drag on Ella's hand as she walked toward the door. It opened and suddenly, Nate understood everything. The worry and confusion gave way to profound relief.
Charlie stood in the doorway holding a stack of two boxes in one hand and a six-pack of bottled soda in another. His hair was a blonde, with bright pink high-lights, and he wore several rainbow bracelets on both arms. His shirt was a nice silk button down, yellow and patterned, and he wore a pair of jeans that would have made Nate's sister jealous. He was also wearing green mascara.
Ella squealed in greeting and gave Charlie a hug before she took his packages and ran with them to the living room. Charlie didn't follow her into the apartment, but stayed where he was and eyed Nate up and down. He smiled, finally, and held out his hand. "I'm Charlie! You must be the Nate Ella's always talking about."
"Please don't hold whatever she's said against me," Nate said, shaking Charlie's hand.
"Oh, a sense of humor," Charlie said. He shouted past Nate, "Ella, I like this one! Keep him around, yeah?"
"Oh, get out of here," Ella shouted back, smiling even as she blushed. She came back to the door and looked at him expectantly. "Are you going to come in or stand there like a Yankee?"
Charlie pouted. "I can't stay, Ellie. We're swamped today. I've got Dennis and Amanda running deliveries, too."
"Aww!" Ella said, her face forming an almost identical pout. "Well, I'll drop in on Sunday and bring you some of that gourmet coffee Mrs. Torres left here."
"Gods, I do love that woman's coffee," Charlie said. He gave Ella another hug and clapped Nate on the shoulder before he left. "Nate… break her, and I'll break you," he said very solemnly.
A wry smile twisted Nate's mouth. "You'll have to get in line behind the people at Big Jim's."
"Ohmygod I hate you both!" Ella yelled, taking off for the living room once again. Charlie and Nate shared a grin before he left.
Nate went back into the living room and saw that Ella was lying face down on the couch. She had set the two boxes on the coffee table and the six-pack of sodas on the floor. Nate crouched down next to the couch and put a hand on her shoulder. "Ella? Are you okay?"
She vaulted up from her position unexpectedly and Nate fell back on his rear end in shock. Ella laughed long and loud.
"Your face," she managed in between laughs. "Ohmygod, when you saw Charlie, I thought I was going to die. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen."
"It's not my fault that you didn't tell me he was gay!" Nate said, pulling himself up. Ella continued to laugh as he sat beside her once again.
"It's still hilarious," she told him. He stuck his tongue out at her.
Ella insisted that they wait on the dessert until they finished their sandwiches, which had grown slightly cold since they'd opened them. They were still delicious and Nate decided that he'd never order pulled pork from anywhere but Big Jim's ever again. When they'd finally cleaned the last of the barbeque sauce from their faces, Ella cut the ribbons on the boxes containing their desserts. Nate was rewarded for his patience by the most amazing visual he'd ever laid eyes on.
Ella had ordered a chocolate cheesecake for herself, with sour cream icing (not that he could tell by looking at it—Ella told him later) and chocolate drizzle. It looked absolutely amazing. She cut open his own box and he stared twice as long. Ella told him it was a lemon custard cake, with tangy sweet custard in the middle. It was topped with chocolate whipped cream and a bit of lemon zest.
"And this is the same place Jason gets his doughnuts from almost dirt cheap?" Nate asked.
"Yep," Ella said happily. "Charlie's gourmet desserts are a little steeper, but we have a deal worked out. I clothe his employees and help him surprise his husband with fancy lingerie every now and then, and I've got myself a chocolate cheesecake every month."
Nate suddenly looked at his dessert with new eyes. "Oh, man, did I just cost you a negligee?"
Ella laughed and didn't answer, choosing that moment to go fetch them some forks. They finished watching the movie in relative silence, demolishing their desserts as politely as possible. Ella made Nate try all of the gourmet sodas that Charlie's bakery stocked. This included chocolate (which he liked), and crème (which he thought was okay), strawberry lemonade (which he didn't like), cherry (which he nearly spit out in Ella's face because it tasted like cough medicine), diet root beer (which was no different from the diet root beer he drank normally), and finally… orange crème. Nate loved it from the moment he tried it and made Ella promise that she would find out where Charlie bought the soda from.
At the end of it all, including the movie, Nate finally turned to Ella and said, "So what did I walk in on today, exactly? I mean, I've known you for about eight years and I never knew that you had a routine like this."
"Well, it's not exactly a routine," Ella said. "Normally, I just call Charlie and order something obscenely sugary from the menu and he comes over and we talk and I cry about how hard it is to be a girl and he tells me it's not much easier being a guy and that's that."
"I feel a 'but' coming," Nate said.
"I was just having a really rotten day today," Ella said. "It's been a month since I broke up with Rich and I was trying to get up the nerve to call y—someone last night and I ended up staying up half the night cleaning my work room out of anxiety and I felt really horrible this morning and you were late with the clothes I needed and my mom called and we had a big fight and then you came in and… I don't know. It was just kind of sucky. And I usually feel better if I order a whole lot of food and pig out, so that's what I was doing when you came in."
"Ella…" Nate said softly. He reached for her and pulled her close in a comforting hug. "I'm sorry; if I'd known I would have come quicker and tried to interrupt you on the phone." He knew how horrible their fights could get and usually tried to step in and cut them off before they could get ugly. "What was it about?"
"I let slip that I liked a guy and she freaked out when she found out who he was," she said. "Not a big deal, really, but she brought up my dad and tried to get my brother involved and when he refused, she started talking about how he was so big-name that he'd probably never care about me anyway…"
"What?" Nate exclaimed. "Why would she say something like that?"
"She just doesn't want me dating 'one of those rock star types,'" Ella said. "Like I said, it's no big deal."
"It is a big deal!" Nate said. "Everyone cares about you, Ella, you know we do."
Ella rolled her eyes. "That's what I mean. I know that you care about me. My mom being a bitch about it doesn't mean I'm going to automatically believe her."
There was silence for a long moment as the menu screen for their DVD looped. Finally, Nate gave Ella a sly look.
"So who's this guy you like?" he asked. She blushed.
"Just a guy," she said. "I've known him for about eight years now, but I only just realized how much I need him when he broke up with his girlfriend a few months ago. I, ah, kinda broke up with Rich so I could try to see if we had a shot. But I haven't been able to ask him out yet. I haven't even told him how I feel."
"Do you think it might be possible he'd feel the same way?" Nate asked slowly. Ella flushed and turned to look at him.
Her eyes were full of hope as she asked, "So you think I have a shot with Jason?"
Nate's mouth fell open and Ella laughed. She lunged across the distance between them and kissed him full on the lips. Surprised, but not displeased, Nate quickly returned the affections. There were several minutes where the only sounds were the looping DVD menu and quiet sounds of kissing.
"You're too easy to tease," Ella said finally, smiling as she ran a finger across Nate's nose.
"You swing from mood to mood faster than Caitlyn when Jason lets her have too many Macchiatos," Nate said, tugging at her hair. Ella swatted him on the chest.
"Take that back!"
"Will not!"
"Take it back or I'm making you model Tony's negligee!"
a/n: So this ended up getting out of hand is 3283 words long. xD I just wanted to make Logan feel better and this resulted. A lot of the things Ella ordered for takeout had a base in reality. Red meat and chocolate really do make you feel better when you're on your period and there used to be a Big Jim's in my neighborhood. And everything else... well, that was just fluff'n'stuff. :)
Hope you enjoyed and leave a review on your way out!
Love!
Beth.