A/N: Hello, my dear ones. You make me smile so much.
"There's a little boy at table seven."
Bella didn't need to hear anything else. She dropped what she was doing - filling a bowl with the soup of the day - and hurried out onto the floor. When she saw Benjamin sitting in the booth, she exhaled in a gust, relief making her her bones feel spongy.
After the boy disappeared the day before, Bella had spent the whole rest of the evening worrying. Had it been the right thing just to let the boy eat his pie? He was safe in the cafe, bothering no one. When he'd disappeared during a rush, how could Bella help but imagine what had become of him. Had he wandered off into the unknown? Had someone taken him - someone without good intentions?
She couldn't help but wonder if she'd done the right thing not calling the police immediately. Little boys should not be left on their own. Anything could have happened to him.
"Hey, little man." Bella couldn't help but reach over and ruffle the boy's hair.
He ducked away from her hand, but smiled when he saw her. "Hello," he said with a grin.
"Bella," Mike called from the counter. He gave her a pointed look. The cafe was horrendously busy, and she had customers waiting.
She turned quickly back to the little boy and smiled. "You want another milk?"
"Can I have apple juice today?"
"Sure. No problem." She took a step away before she paused. "Don't take off, okay?"
There was that slightly exasperated expression again. "I know."
Bella chuckled to herself as she went to attend to her other tables. She came back a minute or so later with his juice and a tuna sandwich. Benjamin eyed the sandwich warily. "I didn't order that."
"Do you like tuna?"
"Yes."
"Well, are you hungry?"
"Yes. But I also want pie, and I don't have enough for both."
"How much do you have?"
Benjamin dug the money out of his backpack and counted. "Ten dollars."
"That's enough for the sandwich, the pie, and the apple juice." This wasn't strictly true. By her reckoning, his total for that meal would come out to around eleven dollars, but she wanted to see what he would say.
He gave her another one of his by now patented impatient looks. "But then I can't give you a tip."
She had to smile, having figured that was the reason. "It's okay. I don't need a tip from you."
His eyebrows furrowed. "But don't you need it to live?"
"Who told you that?"
Benjamin shifted so he was sitting up on his knees, leaning at the table so he could talk to her. "Daddy said everyone has a job. He has a job so he has a house so I can have my own room and dinner on the table. He said being a waiter is one of the worst jobs and you don't get paid butt-kiss." He paused and then clapped his hand over his mouth, giggling with abandon.
Bella smirked. "Do you mean bupkis?" she guessed.
He nodded. "So Daddy said to always remember to say please and thank you to a waiter and even though we don't have a lot, we probably have more than you. So I should leave a big tip."
"That's very sweet." She looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, Mike was giving her the evil eye again. "I'll tell you what. The sandwich is on the house. How's that?"
He looked down at the plate and up at her. "I think it's on the table."
Bella blinked, but then he grinned at her and burst into a fresh round of giggles. "I'm just joshing. I know what on the house means. Thank you very much!"
"You're welcome. I'll be back with your pie in a bit."
Just like the day before, Benjamin set about eating while he laid out his homework. Today, rather than his game, he pulled out a sketchbook. He was doodling so intently, he didn't seem to notice when Bella came by to clear his dishes away, and he was obviously distracted when she tried to engage him in conversation.
Once again, sometime during the rush, Bella looked up and the little boy was gone.
"Who was that kid?" Tanya asked when they all had time to breathe.
"I wish I knew," Bella said with a frustrated sigh.
~0~
"Bella, you have a table."
The way Eric's eyes were dancing made it abundantly clear who was in Bella's section. "The boys?" she asked anyway.
"Yes!" He bounced a little in place. "They look like they've been working hard today. Unf."
Chuckling, Bella wiped her hands on her apron and surreptitiously smoothed her hair back. No reason to be nervous, she told herself.
She approached the table, her heart pounding - ridiculous but no less true. She saw instantly what Eric meant. They were all slightly more disheveled just a little dirtier than usual. Unf indeed.
She cleared her throat and smiled as she stepped over to the table. "Hello there," she said brightly.
The big one, Emmett, looked up at her first. "Hello there." He was all toothy grins and dimples. "They finally set the newbie on us, huh?"
"Hey, yeah. I've seen you in here a couple of times," Bella said nonchalantly. "You always sit in someone else's section. I was beginning to think you just didn't like the looks of me."
The blond one, Jasper, snorted. "Oh yeah, sugar. You look ten different kinds of horrible. You just reek of bad service."
Bella pretended to smell herself. "Occupational hazard. When the special of the day is salmon, sometimes you're going to reek of fish."
Emmett snickered, looking across the table at the other two. "I know a couple of other occupations with the same problem."
Edward shook his head and looked to her. "Ignore this classless asshat, Miss..."
"Bella," Bella supplied, feeling her lips turn up in response to his smile.
"Hey, I was talking about fishmongers," Emmett said, holding his hands up. "Now who's classless? Assume much?"
There was a grease smudge on Edward's face. It was distracting Bella. A lot. When she realized they were all looking back at her expectantly, she started a bit. "How about some drinks?"
"Shot of Jameson," Jasper drawled.
"I'll take a tequila sunrise and Mr. meterosexual over there will have a mojito," Emmett supplied, pointing at Edward.
"Oh, we don't-"
"They know you don't serve drinks," Edward said with a chuckle.
Bella felt her cheeks heat. Of course they would know. They came here at least once a week and on top of that, they were still on the clock. "Right. Lukewarm tap water for these two, and what will you have, good sir?"
Edward's grin spread. "An Arnold Palmer, please."
"I'll be back," Bella said, beginning to stride away.
"Hey, wait. What about us?" Jasper called.
Bella turned mid-stride. "Lukewarm tap water," she retorted.
Of course, when she came back with Edward's Arnold Palmer to take the rest of their order, she did let the other two get drinks. Luckily, they were in good spirits about the whole encounter. Under normal circumstances, Bella never would have joked like that with a customer. There was just something about the trio that left her defenses down.
It seemed to work in her favor. They were friendly toward her - teasing. They didn't feel like customers at all but good friends who made her laugh.
Charming, the others had said. They weren't lying. Bella was charmed.
And more than a little obsessed with that smudge of grease on Edward's cheek.
So much so that when she came to bring them their check, as they bantered with her, she distractedly pulled a napkin out of her apron pocket, dabbing it at the stain.
Realizing quickly what she had done, Bella took a step back. "I'm so sorry," she murmured, abruptly horrified at her action. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks. Again. With gusto.
Edward's look of mild shock faded to one of gentle amusement. His lips curled up on one side, and he reached up to rub his thumb over his cheek. "Occupational hazard," he echoed her words from before. "Thanks, but uh... grease is..." He looked up from under his eyelashes, and though Bella was positive she had to be mistaken, it seemed in the moment there was something mischievous, something deliciously darker, about the glint in his eyes. "Sticky," he finished.
And Bella had forgotten what he was talking about. Especially the next second where he reached up, brushing his hand across her shoulder. "Breadcrumbs," he explained when she stared at him. "Now we're even."
Suddenly, Bella found that her throat was tight, and it was difficult to speak. She coughed into her hand and forced a smile. "Can I get you boys anything else?"
"Three slices of apple pie to go," Emmett ordered. He looked endlessly amused about something. "We gotta get back, kids."
"Right. I'll bring those and your check," Bella said quickly.
When she was safely in the kitchen behind closed doors, Bella leaned up against the wall. It was completely insane that her heart was racing, and she felt a little dizzy. She couldn't believe she'd been so mindless.
"Damn, newbie," Tanya said with a cluck. "The boys did a number on you."
Jessica smiled at her, and patted her shoulder. "Your cheeks are practically radioactive," she said cheerfully.
Bella grimaced. That certainly didn't make her feel better.
"Was it Emmett?" Eric asked. "I told you. Boy is a shameless flirt. He knows how to get anyone tongue tied and twitterpated." He sighed wistfully.
Tongue tied and twitterpated. Well, that was as good a description as any.
"They're fun," she said simply, pushing off the wall to fill their order and close out their tab.
~0~
The rest of that week was horrendously busy.
Each day, shortly after three, Benjamin would appear just minutes before the afternoon rush. He always sat at table seven without waiting to be seated. In fact, that third day, Bella stopped Jessica from seating another couple there, wanting to make sure the boy's favorite table was available, and that she would be the one to serve him.
"I don't know what to do," she confided to Jessica on Thursday. "It can't be right. He's always here alone."
Jessica seemed torn. "Well, I don't know, honey. I feel you, but I don't know if we really want to start trouble where there isn't trouble to be had. He has money every day. He obviously goes to school. He's well kempt." She smirked, looking over at the child and his unruly hair. "Relatively."
Bella frowned. Jessica was right. The kid seemed healthy, happy, and well cared for. He was very well behaved - causing absolutely no trouble. He always had enough money to pay for what he bought, and he was polite. He'd disappeared every day when Bella's back was turned, but the fact he returned the next day - homework in hand - indicated wherever he went at night, he was perfectly fine.
And every day that week, before she could think about it for more than a minute at a time, there were always customers demanding attention, food to be served, bills to be closed out. Benjamin would disappear before she could come to any kind of conclusion.
She did get to talk to him a bit more that week. She offered once to call his Mommy or Daddy only to be met with those slightly impatient, perplexed green eyes. "Why?" he asked, and then he paled slightly. "Am I in trouble?"
"Of course not," Bella said gently.
He looked uncertain. "In school, when kids are bad in class, they have to call their parents."
"You're not bad at all," she assured. "I just thought maybe they should know you're here."
"Oh." Benjamin was comforted by this. "Daddy knows," he said easily, turning his head back to his sketchbook.
When he was drawing in that book, there was no reaching him. The boy was gone into his own world.
The week came and went. Bella worried all that weekend, wondering if she was doing the right thing, not calling the police. The others seemed to think the boy - with his big tips and frank attitude - was charming. They didn't seem to think there was anything wrong, and it was no big deal for a young child to be sitting in a restaurant on his own.
Bella's father had always taught her that she should follow her conscience. People had a tendency to look the other way when they shouldn't, so following others' examples wasn't always the best thing to do.
In the year and a half she'd been away from home, she'd learned more than once that all the life lessons her parents taught her that had seemed so obvious at the time weren't at all clear in reality. This boy wasn't being abused. She wasn't sure she could say he was being neglected. How much danger was he in tucked into a booth in a tame cafe for about an hour every afternoon?
Bella decided the best thing to do was to get to the bottom of who the kid belonged to - see what the situation was for herself. She would ask the others to cover for her, and she would sit with him - get a few answers, or at least be there when he decided to take off.
Resolved, Bella slept easier on Sunday night.
But Monday afternoon came and went with no sign of Benjamin.
A/N: Uh oh. Where'd he go?
Many thanks to barburella and jessypt.
Here's a rec for you guys that I'm really enjoying: Something True by BelieveItOrNot. Everyone is so... human. And flawed. And they mess up, and sometimes they deserve to be forgiven and sometimes they don't. Just a very thought provoking read thusly.
Speaking of thoughts, can I have yours?
Someone asked about a posting schedule. Honestly, I have no idea. Right now I'm very much in a "write whatever comes to mind" mood. I've written an original novel, and a novella, and the first 1/4 of a second novel. Everything needs to be edited and worked on and my 8-5 job has to be squeezed in somewhere and... Yeah. My brain is a mess. LOL. But I always finish my stories, and I don't typically leave ya hanging for long, so that much I can tell you.
