Thank you for your reviews! They made me more happy than you can probably realize. Anyway, here's chapter two - enjoy!
Oh...and don't kill me. It'll all make sense, soon enough. ;)
Chapter Two
Alice had met him on her fourth day of work.
Still adjusting to the chaotic atmosphere that dinner time inevitably brought, she hadn't taken notice of him until he called out, "Waitress!"
"Yeah, yeah I'm coming, hold up," she muttered, brows furrowed in concentration as she managed to balance three plates to table eight.
Turning around, she maneuvered her way until she was at his table and impatiently waiting for him to make his order. His head was bent over the menu, his hair a mess of dirty blonde strands. She saw a crescent shaped birth mark at the juncture his neck and was about to lean over to get a better look when he suddenly looked up.
It was attraction at first sight for Alice.
His soft lashes framed eyes that seemed to contain the entire sky, eyes that made Alice momentarily forget herself. He wore an apologetic smile and she was able to catch a glimpse of perfect white teeth.
Nice she faintly thought.
Still smiling that heart-stopping smile, he ruefully apologized, "I'm sorry; I hadn't noticed you were busy until my big mouth had already opened."
"No, it's cool," she laughed.
She inwardly winced at how immature she sounded.
They had chatted in that manner for the next few minutes, his tone light and his eyes kind. He had only recently moved into the neighborhood and he was, he admitted with a sheepish grin, an awful cook. Finally she took his order and moved away reluctantly to the kitchen. Once she passed through the doors, her trembling legs could hold her up no longer and she sank to the ground in a daze.
"Alice, are you alright?" Rosalie was by her side in a second, her lovely eyes narrowed in worry.
Alice shook her head.
"What's wrong?"
She could only utter out two words, "Mike Newton."
Since then, Alice had been his only server. The first three times had been purely coincidental, but after that it became unspoken that Mike was Alice's customer and hers only.
Every Saturday, whether it was the morning or the evening, he came without fail and every Saturday she would stop by his table with her faithful pitcher in hand to talk to him. It was evident to everybody but Mike himself that Alice had fallen for him – hard.
"Let me guess: you want the turkey and vegetable focaccia sandwich with cranberry juice?"
Mike grinned up at her, and she had to resist brushing away the misbehaving strands of hair that fell in his eyes. "You know me too well." Heart hammering, she rolled her eyes and mumbled, "You're just too predictable. You practically eat the same thing every time you come here."
"That's because Emmet is the God of sandwiches," he joked, his blue eyes twinkling.
"Better not let him hear that or else his ego will be too big to fit into the kitchen."
Mike chuckled then and Alice had to get away before it became too obvious that she was blushing, and not from the sun's warm rays. Ruffling his hair (she couldn't help herself, it was just so damn soft), she told him to hold tight while she went to go place his order. Walking into the café, she found both Rosalie and Jasper staring at her. Rosalie was shooting her a knowing smirk while Jasper stared determinedly at the ground, adorning a peculiar expression.
"Shut it Rose," Alice grumbled, rubbing her still flushed cheeks.
Rosalie laughed good naturedly and simply hooked arms with her, leading Alice into the kitchen. After Alice told Emmet Mike's order, conveniently leaving out the 'God' comment, she joined Rosalie in the corner and let out a groan.
"Rose, what am I going to do? He's so attractive."
Rosalie looked thoughtful for a moment before concluding, "You're doomed."
Head in hands, Alice peeked through her fingers at Rosalie's serious expression before shutting her eyes with a miserable moan of, "I know. I am so screwed."
"Well why don't you make a move? Ask him out!"
Alice let out a snort, "Please, I can't do that."
"And why not?"
"Because he only sees me as a friend, and you know it too."
"Well of course. Everyone can see that," Rosalie frankly stated.
"It's true," Victoria added.
Alice winced and dryly said, "Thanks guys."
Rosalie continued on as if Alice hadn't said anything, "But that's why you need to do something about it. You have nothing to lose."
"Except for my dignity."
"You pretty much lost all your dignity the day he showed up at the café. Make him see that you're a woman, and a sexy one at that."
The fierce tone in Rosalie's voice made Alice smile. Standing up abruptly, she placed her hands on her hips and nodded to herself. "You're absolutely right. I'm am fine and any guy would be lucky to have me."
Rosalie smiled. "Of course I'm right."
James gave a low whistle and a wink, mouthing to Alice, "Call me."
Alice laughed and bent down to hug Rosalie.
"Thanks Rose. For some strange reason you always know what to say," she whispered into Rosalie's ear.
"Alice, here's Mike's order," Emmet called from his spot in the kitchen, smirking at Alice when she grabbed the dish, "go easy on the poor boy."
Alice merely smiled and called over her shoulder, "Not making any promises."
Once she left the kitchen it was quiet until Emmet piped up, "Does anyone think she's actually going to get up the nerve to make a move?" All three spoke bluntly at once, "No."
Emmet shook his head and muttered to himself, "Thought as much."
Alice had been feeling rather confident in the kitchen, but as she began nearing Mike's table she could feel her heart beating faster and the palm of her hands beginning to sweat. Pausing before the door, she took a deep breath and murmured under her breath, "You can do this Mary Alice Brandon. You will go out there and you will blow him away with your womanly wiles." Now determined, she opened the door only to be greeted with the sight of Mike's amused face as he read from a worn comic book, laughing quietly to himself. His teeth were revealed in all their whiteness and Alice felt her knees weaken and her resolve wither away to nothing.
He suddenly looked up, and upon seeing Alice standing rooted near the doorway, his eyes lit up. Feeling her heart start up again, she scolded herself. Relax; he's probably excited about the sandwich. This, upon further inspection, was most likely true seeing as Mike had the appetite of a bull Alice mused sadly.
"That looks amazing," he licked his lips and Alice attempted not to notice the small flair of desire bloom within her stomach. Or the disappointment his words brought; told you so.
"Even I have to admit Emmet outdid himself this time. Must've been Victoria; she's feeling particularly vicious today," Alice said laughing.
Mike, biting into the sandwich, raised a confused brow in Alice's direction.
"I'm not sure why. Must have something to do with James," here both Alice and Mike rolled their eyes in unison and Alice couldn't help but giggle at the coincidence. Mike, who was in the middle of wiping his mouth, smiled into the napkin, the corner of his eyes crinkling in amusement. Suddenly Alice felt painfully nervous and, noticing that she had forgotten to get him his juice, ran off to do so.
"God, I'm so pathetic," she grumbled to herself as she took out a Snapple and began pouring it into a tall glass.
"Having trouble with Mike?"
Alice whirled around in surprise and saw Jasper standing right behind her.
She frowned and snapped, "Jesus, Jasper, make some noise once in awhile will you?"
He simply shrugged, giving Alice an inscrutable look that had her squirming uncomfortably. She quickly turned her attention back to the drink so that he wouldn't notice. Jasper could read a person's emotion with an accuracy that bordered on frightening at times.
Adding some lime juice, she stirred the drink before putting in three ice cubes; Mike held grudges against restaurants that served their customers drinks half-filled with ice.
"It's a cheap way of making the glass look fuller," he had heatedly argued.
Well Alice couldn't counter that. It was partially true after all. But seeing as she worked at a café, she had to loyally defend it against such claims. They kept arguing until both were red in the face and feeling painfully parched.
"Water?"
"Please." Such a gentleman even after they had practically chewed each other out. It almost made Alice feel bad for what she was about to do. Almost.
She had then returned with two glasses of water, one warm and the other cool and filled with ice cubes. Grinning at him, she held her cold glass up in a friendly salute and proceeded to gulping it down in one go. Mike pretended to enjoy his as well, but Alice could tell he only did so out of stubbornness. After all it was 91 degrees Fahrenheit out.
"What are you doing this evening?" Jasper's voice broke Alice out of her trance and she blinked before answering back smartly, "working the night shift with you."
Jasper heaved an impatient breath and his grey eyes narrowed at Alice's playful smile.
"I meant afterwards."
"Why – are you asking me out on a date Jasper?" Alice teased.
His lips momentarily quirked into a grin before he retorted, "We all know it'd only count as a date to you if it was Mike Newton asking."
The smile dropped off her face and she let out a mournful sigh.
"Like that's ever going to happen," she muttered.
"Quit mopping. You're the one that likes him, so you should ask him out," Jasper scolded.
Alice pouted. "Now you're beginning to sound like Rosalie." She crossed her arms and looked outside the window at Mike's figure before smiling softly. "I know that you're both right; I'm just a coward. But is it so selfish of me to want to enjoy our friendship a bit longer before I could possibly ruin it?"
Despite her smile, her eyes were a swirl of conflicting emotions that revealed her normally shielded vulnerability and he found himself unconsciously responding. Stopping himself mid-step, Jasper looked away and gruffly answered, "Yes. It's unfair to both you and him."
Looking away from the window, Alice gave Jasper one last rueful smile before perking up and adopting a more cheerful tone, "So, what were you asking me about before?"
Jasper almost wanted to shake her and to tell her to stop acting, not in front of him, but instead he repeated what Victoria had told him before, "Everyone wants to go clubbing later tonight. You in?"
She winced, "I don't think so. I have an article that I should really start writing."
"Oh yeah? What's it about?"
"Dunno," she shrugged. Grabbing the glass she began walking back towards Mike's table. Jasper laughed in disbelief before calling out, "Slacker!" She continued on unfazed and still chuckling Jasper returned to the kitchen to see if any of the orders he placed were finished.
"Here's your cranberry juice with extra lime and barely enough ice cubes to constitute as a proper drink," Alice informed Mike cheekily as soon as she reached his table.
Still eating his sandwich, he shook his head at her.
"I refuse to get into another argument with you about something so silly."
"Hey you started it."
He gave her a cool glare to which she simply responded haughtily, "It's true."
The corner of his lips twitched before he took a long sip of the drink and let out an obnoxiously loud sigh. "Just perfect," he grinned with satisfaction and Alice laughed at his smug expression.
"You're impossible."
"Only around you," he responded mischievously.
Taking a bite out of his sandwich, he saw her watching him and mistook it for hunger.
"Want some?"
"Close your mouth when you're eating."
"Sorry," he said sheepishly behind his hand. Alice tried to ignore how endearing the act was and instead stared at the sandwich with mock disgust, "You probably slobbered all over the sandwich." Grinning at his disgruntled look, she continued to tease him: "Besides, we'll end up giving each other cooties."
Suddenly Mike leaned forward on the small table and gave her an uncharacteristically naughty grin, "Maybe I want your cooties."
Alice blushed. Was Mike Newton, who had better manners than her own grandfather, flirting with her?
Before Alice could formulate a proper response, he had already sat back down in his seat and resumed eating his sandwich. "Your loss," he said lightly behind his hand.
My loss indeed she thought mournfully to herself.
Jasper's words suddenly floated in Alice's mind and she mentally steeled herself. It's now or never.
"Are you doing anything this afternoon?" Alice attempted nonchalance, but she could feel her stomach knotting tightly and she resisted a wince.
Mike looked momentarily surprised before answering, "Nope. Free as a bird."
Come on Alice, you've gotten this far! "Ah, well, I was wondering…do you want to hang out later then?"
This time she did wince; she felt and sounded like she was back in sixth grade when she was still terribly shy of the opposite sex. Mike smiled then and Alice felt the knots in her stomach intensify and for a moment all she could hear was the sound of her thumping heart. Oh God, maybe he likes me too? Maybe this whole time I've been blind and he's been secretly pin –
"Sounds good; is everyone else coming too?"
He was looking at her so innocently that Alice could feel herself blushing and she resisted grabbing the nearest chair and hitting him with it. Damn it, can't he make this a little easier on me?
Suddenly she saw 'everyone' in the corner of her eye. They were all pressed against the window, eagerly gazing at the two in front of them. Emmet was holding a thumbs-up while Rosalie was smiling encouragingly at Alice. Judging from the faces he was making, Alice was almost positive that James was making obscene noises and Victoria was clearly mouthing, "Go for it!" Jasper was the only one missing and Alice idly wondered where he was.
So far Mike hadn't taken notice of them and Alice was determined to keep it that way. Subtly scuffling tp a position that guaranteed that she was blocking his view of the window, she flicked them off behind her back. I'm going to fucking kill them later she thought darkly.
Looking back at Mike, she felt her heart plummet. He was gazing at her with an amused smile on his face and a hint of confusion, but that was it. There was no hidden meaning behind his quirked lips and his eyes were clear of troublesome emotions to hide the truth. He only saw her as a friend and she was ridiculous to have thought otherwise.
Alice was hit by the sudden urge to cry and she took a deep breath before continuing, "Actually, I'm writing this article for my school's newspaper and I was wondering whether you could help me."
It was, of course, total bullshit but Mike seemed to have fallen for it and his interest was clearly piqued.
"What's it about?"
Oh shit. What is it about?
"Err, it's about," Alice's desperate gaze landed on the comic book between them, "comic books."
"Comic books?"
Alice nodded her head vigorously, mindlessly going with the flow, "Oh absolutely. I've noticed that a lot of people at NYU are fans of comic books and I just wanted to see if there were any factors that made students less inclined to read a certain kind of comics, such as culture or sexual pairings."
Mike's eyes were wide now and Alice was unsure of whether that was a good or a bad thing. Suddenly he burst out laughing before shaking his head with a grin, "Sounds good. Although I hope you don't interrogate me as thoroughly as you're suggesting. I'm merely a humble fan."
Alice found herself smiling back, relieved that he had fallen for her lie.
Suddenly she found herself once again shy. Even though it wasn't a date she was still going to be alone with him and the idea both frightened and excited her.
"I get off at my shift at one so…"
He smiled warmly. "I'll be here waiting for you."
Those words echoed in her ears and traveled down her throat until they reached her throbbing chest.
It doesn't mean anything Alice, snap out of it.
This, of course, didn't stop her from grinning goofily at him before going back into the café. The moment she stepped through the door she was bombarded by questions from James and Victoria.
"Did you ask him out?"
"Did he ask you out?"
"I'm telling you, you should just march right up there and give him the hottest kiss of his life."
Only half-listening to them, she found herself beginning to look around the café. Strangely enough she found herself looking for Jasper, who was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Jasper?"
James answered with a shrug, "I think he's in the kitchen. Rosalie and Emmett went to go talk to him about something."
Alice mumbled her thanks before moving off towards the kitchen, completely missing the dark scowl Victoria shot James.
"What?" James asked defensively.
"I can't believe you just told her where they were. What if she over hears anything?" Victoria answered, her mouth curved in a displeased frown. James looked momentarily remorseful before scoffing, "Well good. Better that she finds out; the guy has been pathetically –"
"– pining over her ever since you first laid eyes!"
Jasper adopted a nonchalant pose, his arms crossed carelessly as he raised an eyebrow at the two standing in front of him.
"Hales don't pine."
Emmet let out an exasperated groan. Rosalie merely laughed before remarking condescendingly, "Oh really. So you looking like you're about to bite off Mike's head whenever you see him talking with Alice has nothing to do with the fact that you're insanely jealous?"
"Listen, I don't know just what exactly is going on in both of your heads but I do not like Alice. She's just a good friend of mine, and I don't want to see her get hurt alright? Now if you'll excuse me, I've got people to serve."
Ignoring their protests, Jasper walked between the two and headed towards the door, opening it only to collide into said friend. Alice blinked up at Jasper, before a relieved smile lit her features and she hugged him. Oblivious to the tension in his shoulders or the mocking laugh of Emmet in the background, Alice murmured into his chest, "Man, am I glad to see you right now."
"What's wrong?" The lilting drawl in his voice caused Alice to look up sharply at his face. Jasper never noticed himself, but whenever he was feeling upset she could always hear hints of a southern accent in his speech.
Feeling ashamed that she had only been thinking of herself, she shot him a cheerful grin, "Nothing that some hot tea can't remedy."
Her answer was a tight smile and Alice found herself even more worried. Finally taking note of Rosalie and Emmet standing in the kitchen, she frowned when she saw that the two were casting Jasper unnerving stares.
"Is everything alright?" she murmured, gazing at his face carefully through lashes.
His clipped "fine" suggested that everything was but.
"Right," she said, her raised brow belying her disbelief. Jasper took notice of the worried look in her eyes and forced himself to relax before ruffling her hair with a teasing smile, "What are you doing slacking off anyway? If you're not careful I might just take back my spot and start serving outside again."
"Do you want to?"
The seriousness with which she asked the question left Jasper staring at her in surprise before snorting.
"I'm fine."
"You're not. And I'm going to make you talk later, whether you like it or not."
"Alright alright," the amused tone made her bristle before he suddenly gave her an inexplicably sad smile, "although I really wish you wouldn't."
He had already walked away before Alice could question him. Blinking in confusion, Alice felt a heavy weight in her chest as she stared at the smooth planes of his back.
Rosalie shook her head, sighing as she leaned into Emmet's embrace.
"What a mess."
Indeed.
