"Dammit, Summers, I told you to keep your dining room clean. Get out there and do your job before you lose it," Snyder said to Buffy under his breath, though he somehow managed to make it sound like a shout.
Buffy looked out at the empty tables and barely managed to keep from rolling her eyes at him. She forced a smile and tried to sound chipper, lest her tiny, angry manager found an actual reason to fire her. "Sorry, sir. I guess I forgot. I'm on it."
The truth was, Buffy hadn't forgotten, she was just distracted by her less-than-appropriate thoughts of a certain gorgeous regular. Faith visited the restaurant pretty much every night… Which had absolutely nothing to do with Buffy requesting to work dinner shifts… Okay, so maybe it had everything to do.
Buffy grabbed a bottle of table cleaner and a towel and walked toward the ocean of mostly empty tables. No customers meant no messes, but Buffy would dutifully pretend every single table in the joint was filthy if it meant getting away from Snyder for a while.
Tonight, Faith was sitting in a booth by herself, reading a comic book and listening to music through headphones. She was tapping her fingernails on the table to the beat of whatever she was listening to, occasionally taking breaks to pick up and munch on a fry. She was wearing typical ripped jean short-shorts and a red skin-tight cami that really reeaaalllly showed off how toned she was. Hence the less-than-appropriate nature of Buffy's thoughts.
Buffy had moved to the table across from Faith and suddenly realized she'd been staring at the girl. She quickly looked down at the table she was supposedly cleaning, swiping her towel at non-existent crumbs for added measure. When Buffy looked up again, she was surprised to find a pair of stunning brown eyes aimed at her and a pair of smirking red lips to match. Buffy self-consciously looked away and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, but by the time she looked back to meet those brown eyes again, they were already focused on something of apparent interest in the comic book sitting on the table.
"Stupid Buffy, she doesn't even know you exist. You're just another fast food guy to her," Buffy mentally reprimanded herself. She turned away and contemplated restocking the already full condiment stand just to drag out her time away from Snyder's nasty attitude and breath to match.
"Good idea," she decided. It was just a happy coincidence that the time-burning task would also let her subtly stare at a certain sole patron for a few more minutes.