'…Maybe I shouldn't have said they were on the house,' Angie thought as she watched the woman-whose name she still didn't know- work her way through another slice of pie.
Her sixth slice, to be exact.
Angie came from a large family and therefore had been the witness to many a messy meal but it wasn't something she usually witnessed outside of her home. Even the most uncouth of customers had some sort of decorum about them.
But this lady-and she was definitely a lady if the waitress had ever seen one: all witty words and smooth accent-this lady was eating like she hadn't seen food in decades. And yet somehow she managed to look absolutely adorable while she did it.
She'd shovel enough food into her mouth that at least one cheek bulged like she was a curly haired chipmunk before swallowing and repeating the process; through it all managing not to get a single speck anywhere on her outfit or cheeks.
Shaking off her amazement, Angie asked, "So are you ever gonna introduce yourself or will I have to settle for calling you 'English', English?"
She looked up from her pie-which, while made in a way that was different from her time, was still very delicious-and took in the "waitress" standing before the "booth" where She sat. 'So many new things to learn,' She mused distractedly as She pondered the shorter brunette's question.
The last time She had been on earth, humans were knowledgeable enough about Djinn (but still ignorant enough) to hardly be friends with one offhandedly.
Judging by what She has seen of the world today so far, it seems that knowledge has dwindled even more than She'd thought: even the man who had summoned her only succeeded because the book he possessed had step-by-step instructions even a child could have followed. Which he still managed to foul up, to her great fortune.
'Still,' She decided as she continued to chew her latest mouthful of pie, 'Best to play it safe until I know for certain how humans these days feel about Djinn. But what to do about my name…'
She had a name, of course, but like all Djinn She preferred it not to be easily known to humans: it was how they were able to summon and control them in the first place and She was very much done with all that nonsense.
Before She came up with anything though She found a hand being offered to her by Angie.
"Suppose it's only polite I go first. I'm Angela Martinelli but everyone besides my ma calls me Angie," she said with a smile that seemed to light the place up.
After only a moment's hesitation She took the hand and moved hers up and down as She'd seen others do previously in her meanderings about the city, presuming it was how humans greeted eachother nowadays.
"Pleasure to meet you Angie, I'm…uh…"
…
She froze.
She never froze.
She had been all set to give a false name, had even come up with a reasonable one based off the ones She'd overheard so far, but when She opened her mouth She simply blanked; her mind stuttering to a halt without so much as a single warning. That in and of itself was annoying: She prided herself on her intellect just as much as her physical prowess, if not more so. She'd never had this much trouble finding her words before. Except for that one time…
And to make matters worse, She had been silent long enough that Angie, after glancing at their still conjoined hands, tilted her head and asked with a bemused smirk, "You alright there, English? Cat got your tongue?"
Snapping out of her ruminations, She suddenly recalled exactly what had caused her floundering last time. And more importantly, what the two times had in common.
'Oh dear.'
'Well if that isn't a face that says, "I-am-in-trouble", I don't know what is,' Angie thought as several emotions fluttered over the older woman's face at once. Puzzlement, annoyance, puzzlement again, chagrin, and surprise all made themselves known in the space of a few seconds before the brunette's face seemed to settle on what Angie could only refer to as "dumbstruck".
'Angie, you have once again found yourself getting mixed up in something that may or may not be bad news for you. Swell.'
In her defense, Angie did not go looking for trouble. Usually. Most of the time.
But the waitress lived in a somewhat tough neighborhood and had been the witness to many a person making the exact same face the English lady was making right now.
It was a face that spoke of trouble and if Angie had any sense she would politely excuse herself and allow the dame to walk out of her life as quickly as she had walked in.
Too bad the members of the Martinelli clan tended to be lacking in this particular aspect.
Glancing around to be sure that the rest of her section was content, Angie plopped down across from her savior and folded her arms on the table, trying to act the picture of serous and sincere.
'Gotta be delicate about this,' she thought as the older brunette continued to look at her stunned, 'Don't wanna spook her.'
"You in some kind of trouble, English?"
She internally winced. 'Smooth, Martinelli, real smooth.'
Still, the question seemed to snap the other woman out of whatever stupor she'd been in as she cleared her throat and changed her face to one of nonchalance.
"No, not particularly. What makes you say that?" English replied coolly, though Angie still managed to see through her act.
"Honey, I'm a waitress, and besides being an expert at moving food from one place to another, I am also very good at spotting when someone is trying to hide for whatever reason. Usually when a lady is reluctant to give her name, it means she's afraid someone is gonna find her. Am I wrong?"
English made this adorable scrunched up face and responded, "Not…entirely."
Angie nodded, "Didn't think so. I take it I also not wrong in assuming it involves a fella you'd rather not see again?"
"…Correct," the woman sighed resignedly.
The waitress smirked, "That's all I need to know. You obviously don't what to talk about it and unlike some people I can think of, I don't feel the need to completely stick my nose into your business right off the bat."
English blinked before giving Angie a smile that caused her heart to skip a beat.
"Thank you, Angie."
'Hoo boy, that is one megawatt smile. Girl could really lose her head if she got that flashed her way every day.'
Shaking her head to refocus, Angie continued, "Not a prob, English. But we still gotta do something about a name for you; can't just keep calling you English, no matter how posh it sounds."
"Alright, then why don't you picked something," the older woman said almost daringly, leaning forward and mirroring Angie's crossed arms on the table.
"Oh you are gonna regret that, English," the waitress remarked, her eyes squinting mischievously.
'Oh I already am; what the bloody hell am I doing?' She thought as Angie leaned back and looked to the ceiling as if for inspiration.
No matter how She looked at it, becoming overly friendly with this human was a disaster waiting to happen. The woman obviously had a very keen sense of observation; how else would she be able to infer that She was attempting to avoid the man who had summoned her.
Then again she could have simply been guessing. It is not so outrageous to think that even after all these centuries human women still had problems with their male counterparts not giving them the peace they deserved.
Case in point: She met Angie in exactly such a situation.
Should they develop a closer relationship, the waitress may discover her acquaintance's true identity before she's ready, which undoubtedly will lead to trouble for the Djinni.
On the other hand, She needs to learn more about this world and how it's changed in the past millennia; her observations will only get her so far, so fast.
While weighing the pro and cons of either decision, She allowed her eyes to rove over Angie's features. The younger woman was still deep in her own thoughts, and evidently doing so caused her face to twitch and scrunch into the most endearing of expressions.
'She is indeed very pleasing to the eye. And I do need a companion if I am to navigate this world safely, even if it would only be temporary,' She mused before nodding decisively to herself and returning to her pie. She had come to a decision.
And with any luck She would not regret it.
'Need a name, need a name,' Angie chanted over and over to herself as she tried to pick out a posh one for the posh lady sitting before her.
'Okay, maybe not too posh of a name, since said lady did just demolish six slices of pie and looks game for more.'
Tapping her fingers against her arm, the waitress glanced about the automat, trying to find inspiration for her quest.
'Rose? Too flowery. Elizabeth? Nah, though she does feel like a queen. Hayley? Mm, close but not quite.'
A rustling sound to her left brought to her attention an older man sitting at the table next to theirs reading a newspaper.
Angie was about to move on when something on the back of the paper caught her eye.
It was an advertisement for some product or other, featuring a woman with curls like the one seated across from her, with a bubble next to her head declaring
"Peggy says Stark Industries technology makes life easy.
Do as Peggy says: Buy the future today!"
The slogan was kinda cheesy but the name…
"…Peggy…" Angie said aloud, trying it out.
"Pardon?" English asked, finishing off the remains of her desert.
The waitress' face split into a grin as she turned to the older brunette and declared,
"English, your name is Peggy!"