Love is Patient, Love is Kind
As Jemma Simmons walked into the diner she had never been in before, she was uncomfortable. She didn't like trying anywhere knew just in case she hated the food but felt obligated to stay and have a full meal; she detested upsetting anyone in any way.
Her friend Skye had told her it was her favourite place to go as they did the best burgers in all of London, but she was still wary. A lot of advice she had received from Skye in the past hadn't worked out well in the end, from blind dates that ended horribly to skipping a lecture at university for the first time ever due to a hangover, leading her to end up missing a surprise talk from Tony Stark himself (she'd never stop kicking herself for that blunder).
It was her second year at university studying biology, and she loved it. She felt like the only person in the world who loved going to lectures and taking tests and exams; it gave her a thrill. Of course, her love of studying meant she didn't have too much of a social life and her only real friend was Skye, who was studying computer science and met Jemma by chance when they got talking in the line at the cafeteria. If Jemma wasn't at university or at her own small apartment studying, she'd be at Skye's apartment undertaking a minimal amount of social interaction.
However, Skye always had her heart in the right place, so when Jemma decided to get out of her apartment and see the city while Skye spent the day with her boyfriend, Lincoln, she followed Skye's advice to have dinner at May's Diner on Oxford Street.
As she sat down at a small but empty table, Jemma took a moment to take in the place. She had to admit that it certainly looked nice, and while it was very busy everyone seemed happy and the atmosphere was quite calm. She appreciated the quintessential Britishness of the diner, the red seating, white tables and blue walls creating a nice looking space. Huge windows showed everyone inside a taste of the busy city life London offered, another way of life Jemma had come to love over the years. Jemma eventually drew her attention to the menu that was already on her table, allowing her to peruse through it. The wide choices of food impressed her, leading her to think that perhaps Skye had made a good choice after all.
Promptly enough, a young man appeared at Jemma's table, wearing a very smart uniform; black shoes and trousers, a slim fit white shirt and a blue tie.
"Hi! I'm Leo and I'll be your server today. Sorry about the wait; we're absolutely packed today." The young man said with a smile in a very distinctive Scottish accent. Jemma smiled back at her waiter, finding comfort in how he presented himself.
"Oh, no problem. I haven't been waiting long at all." Jemma said, noting how exhausted he clearly was after a long shift. She appreciated that he must be a hard worker.
"Good. Can I take your order?" Leo asked.
"Oh, well my friend said the specialty burger was excellent, so I'll give that a go." Jemma said.
"Your friend is very wise. It's delicious. And I'm not just saying that because I work here." Leo said, making Jemma chuckle slightly. She smiled further at the sight of him clearly being pleased he made her laugh.
"Well, I can't wait. I've never been here before but it seems nice." Jemma said, for some reason finding herself wanting this social interaction to last a bit longer.
"I thought I hadn't seen you before. If I'd seen a beautiful girl like you in here before I'd have remembered." Leo said, his face growing red instantly as he processed what he'd just said. Jemma blushed slightly herself, but decided to brush it off to avoid him being embarrassed further.
"And can I get a coke with that?" She asked, acting like she hadn't heard what Leo had just said. He seemed like one of the nicer human beings she'd encountered outside of the university or her apartment walls. She found herself mesmerised by the crystal clear blue of his eyes.
"Oh, uh…yeah, sure." Leo said somewhat awkwardly before taking Jemma's menu off the table to clear some room for her.
"Thanks." Jemma said shyly.
"No problem. I'll, uh…be right back with your drink." Leo said kindly before walking off with a smile. He walked into the kitchen and pinned up the piece of paper with Jemma's order written on next to the pile of current orders for the cooks to prepare before leaning his head against the wall and groaning slightly.
"Embarrass yourself in front of someone again?" Mack, the head chef, asked as he fried some chicken nearby. Leo turned around to face him.
"Yep."
"You can't go one shift without doing that, can you?"
"Nope."
"Well, you're not covered in ketchup and mustard so it can't be as bad as last week." Mack chuckled to himself as he reminisced the situation. Leo could see lots of the other kitchen staff smirking themselves, holding back laughter as they remembered the incident.
"You guys seriously need to learn what sympathy is." Leo said, rolling his eyes and walking out, tutting as he heard the kitchen erupt into laughter the minute he closed the door behind him. He grabbed a glass of coke from the bar and headed back over to Jemma's table, where she was busy staring intently at her phone as he placed her glass down in front of her, causing her to look up at him with a smile.
"Thank you."
"No problem." Leo said, happy that she clearly hadn't judged him for his earlier embarrassing behaviour. She soon returned to looking at her phone, which Leo noticed wasn't actually turned on.
"Are…are you okay there?" Leo asked, hoping he wasn't prying too much.
"Oh, my phone does this sometimes. Occasionally it just doesn't want to turn on so I have to count my blessings when it eventually decides to work after hours of trying." Jemma said.
"Have you tried the reset button?" Leo asked.
"…There's a reset button?"
"There should be. My old phone had a similar problem but the reset button fixed it. May I?" Leo asked, offering his hand out for Jemma to hand him her phone. She smiled and gave it to him, leading him to gently take off the case and inspect it.
"Right there." Leo said, pointing to a hole in the corner of the case. He got a toothpick from the table and pushed it into the hole, after which the phone sprang into life, making Jemma's face light up.
"You did it! Wow, I had no idea about that. Thank you so much"" Jemma said happily as Leo gave her back the phone.
"My pleasure. I'm here to help; it says it on my badge." Leo said, making Jemma laugh again. He'd decided he liked her laugh quite a bit.
"Well, you're my hero." Jemma smiled, making Leo's face redden for a much nicer reason this time.
A while later, Leo was rushing around catering to five tables (and wishing they'd just hire someone to replace Nancy already!) when he spotted Jemma tucking into what remained of the burger in front of her. For some reason he couldn't help but smile at her. He'd seen customer after customer come in and devour May's Diner's famous burger, but the woman before him made it look elegant, something he'd never seen before. He could only hope she liked it enough to keep coming back.
He was impressed enough by how she'd practically eaten the plate alongside the food on it, but he was very surprised and delighted that she had stayed to have dessert as well. As he brought over a giant chocolate brownie with ice cream, he couldn't help but smile as he saw her smile herself at the sight of the food.
"There you go. Enjoy." Leo said.
"Oh, I will." Jemma chuckled.
"So your friend made a good recommendation with this place?" Leo asked.
"I'm never leaving." Jemma said as she put a huge spoonful of brownie in her mouth and started laughing at herself, knowing she'd overestimated how much was on the spoon. Leo laughed at her again. This girl was nothing short of adorable.
"How about I get you a napkin?" Leo smiled as Jemma nodded. He walked off, somehow remarkably less tired at the end of his 10 hour shift than he was at the start. By the time he returned with a napkin and the bill, Jemma had polished off her dessert and gave the empty plate before her a satisfied look.
"I've lived here two years, and only now have I discovered paradise. So many wasted days." Jemma said, making Leo smile again. He couldn't comprehend how someone could be so beautiful and charming.
"Well, you've found it now. That's all that matters. Luckily I found this place after about four months of living here and took my roommate here when she moved in a few years back." Leo explained.
"How long have you lived here?" Jemma asked, curious as to why she felt she needed to know so much more about a waiter she'd known for about an hour.
"Nearly five years now, I love it." Leo smiled.
"There is an appeal to it; it really has grown on me. I expect I'll be coming back here quite often." Jemma said as she reached into her bag for her purse and started gathering money and glanced at her bill.
"Glad to hear it." Leo said happily as Jemma placed the correct amount of money on the tray the bill was on and handed it to Leo.
"That was lovely, thank you." Jemma said as she stood up and got her things together.
"Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day." Leo said with a grin as he walked off and over to the register, putting the money away. He turned back to see Jemma wave at him as she walked out. He instantaneously waved back and smiled until she disappeared into the mass London crowds outside. He turned towards the kitchen to see Mack and the other kitchen staff staring at him before quickly returning to their work, pretending they weren't watching him. He rolled his eyes at them again before taking a sad look at the empty table Jemma was sat at moment ago.
"Holy crap! You must've been waiter of the year, Leo. She left you a ten pound note as a tip!" One of the waitresses, Bobbi, said as she walked by Leo back into the kitchen. Walking up to the table, Leo saw Bobbi was right as he picked up the note and grinned.
He'd never thought he'd ever say it, but scrubbing tables and sweating non-stop for half a day had at last been worth it. Rushing for the window, Leo looked through the crowd to see if he could spot Jemma so he could run out and thank her, but she was already gone.
...
"Why haven't you taken me there sooner? The food was AMAZING!" Jemma exclaimed as she sat on Skye's couch, where she was handed a glass of wine by her best friend as the two ladies sat together.
"Because I know you normally hate going to new places, but I think that'll be our new regular since you love it so much. Agreed?" Skye asked.
"Definitely! That place is heaven on earth." Jemma said as she sipped her wine.
"Good. Though we may have to be careful and make sure to only go there when my roommate isn't working." Skye smiled.
"Your roommate works there? Maybe I can FINALLY meet her!" Jemma said excitedly.
"Calm down; don't get too hooked on social interaction. It isn't your thing, remember?" Skye said.
"True, but I got along with my waiter there today really well. He was actually quite cute. I left him quite a big tip but he did fix my phone. And why is it that after two years I've NEVER met your roommate and you've NEVER told me a thing about her?" Jemma questioned.
"I have my reasons. Anyway, it's getting pretty late, huh?" Skye said, faking a yawn.
"…Are you trying to get me to leave? Why?" Jemma asked. At that moment, the women heard some keys unlocking the door.
"Ah man, that'll be him." Skye said with a sigh.
"Who, Lincoln?" Jemma asked.
"No…my roommate." Skye said reluctantly.
"Wait, HIM? HIM? As in, a male?"
"Yep."
"But you've always called your roommate a girl."
"Yeah, I say he's a girl, you just incorrectly interpreted that as his gender." Skye said.
"After two years you didn't tell me that? How come?" Jemma asked as the door opened and Skye's roommate stumbled in.
"Hey, Skye, you'll never guess what? I actually ENJOYED my shift today!" Came the loud, excited voice as he walked into the living room and stopped at the sight of Skye and Jemma sat on the couch.
It was Leo.
Jemma stood up in shock at the sight of him, her face wide with surprise. Leo had the same expression.
"…Oh, it's you." Leo said, smiling slightly.
"…Hello." Jemma said, still in shock.
"Well, since there's no avoiding it now…Jemma, this is my roommate Leo. Leo, this is my best friend Jemma. You've finally met. Anyway, it's getting late, right Jem?" Skye asked, giving Jemma a look as if to say you really need to go, like, now.
"I can't believe this…I…we…" Leo mumbled.
"I…I know." Jemma said softly.
Leo knew he couldn't embarrass himself in front of Jemma twice in one day. He was happy knowing he'd probably see her more often, but it turned out she was his roommates BEST FRIEND! He could have known her for years by now! He decided to just get a conversation going and ignore the look of dread on Skye's face.
"So, um…I…w-what are you guys talking about?" Leo asked.
Skye saw an opportunity to end this encounter before it could even begin by making things so awkward either Jemma had no choice but to leave or Leo would go straight to bed.
"Oh, nothing much, Jemma's just been telling me about how she found the waiter she had at your work today was REALLY cute." Skye said. Jemma's eyes widened and her face grew a deep red, as did Leo's.
"Oh…really?" Leo asked with a short smile he kept well hidden. Jemma hoped the building would collapse on her at any moment.
"Yeah, I'm thinking it was probably that Lance guy." Skye said.
She looked at the clear embarrassment on Jemma's face (which she expected) and also Leo's (which she hadn't) and it became horribly clear who Jemma's waiter had been.
"WELL THIS WAS NICE. GOOD TO MEET YOU. GOODNIGHT." Jemma said, rushing out of the door faster than a cheetah without looking back. Leo watched her go and had not yet decided if he should be embarrassed, flattered, pleased, scared, shocked or a mix of all of those emotions.
"…So that was Jemma." Skye said to break the silence.
"Why…why haven't we met until today?" Leo asked her.
"Coincidence? Or lack of?" Skye said. Leo knew when she was lying.
"You've been keeping us apart on purpose, haven't you? I'm glad I didn't tell you I switched shifts with Grant so I could work today." Leo said.
"You sound ridiculous. And I mean, even more than usual with that accent and what not." Skye said, heading for her room.
"Skye, I know you're lying. What would be so bad about introducing us? I mean, you've never told me a single thing about her no matter how much I've asked!" Leo exclaimed. Skye stayed silent for a moment.
"Goodnight, Leo." She said eventually and rushed into her room, locking her door behind her.
"Skye!"
...
As Skye sat on her bed, she felt a mix of emotions, ranging from regret and annoyance to full on anger and rage. She had her reasons for keeping her two closest friends apart, of course she had, but now her long-term plan had failed.
She'd moved in with Fitz a few months before meeting Jemma at university, so had gotten to know him very well. And from the moment she met Jemma, she knew that the two of them were perfect for each other. Soulmates, even. They liked the same things, had the same views on everything…they hadn't even met, but Skye felt like they were psychically linked or something.
There was however, one problem. Fitz was still an immature fool that had never had a relationship that lasted longer than a month and Jemma had the social skills of a panda that refused to mate. They were perfect for each other, but they weren't ready to be perfect for each other yet. So, Skye had taken it upon herself to change their ways for the better. She knew it would take a long time, years even, but she would train Leo to act a bit more mature and Jemma to embrace her more social side. While she had made a lot of progress, mainly with Leo, her two friends still weren't ready to meet yet, so she'd made sure they'd never met nor heard anything about one another that could taint their opinions of them.
But now they had met before she could be certain things would work out between them. Skye couldn't see it as anything else other than a disaster. Now they knew she'd been trying to keep them apart and Jemma was now going to be a regular at Leo's place of work, there was nothing she could do. She'd have to go with the flow and have faith.
As she finally drifted off to sleep, she prayed to anyone who would listen that her plan could still come together, however unlikely that may be.