AN: Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. Here's your next installment. I am planning to post another one tomorrow, which is the last one that I currently have written. There may be more after that, we'll have to see.
At the chime, Sally looked up to see her favorite couple entering the diner. They came in at strange hours of the day or night and they were bickering, but then these two were always bickering. Well, almost always.
Tonya timidly approached the pair. She offered them each a menu. "Would you like to start with something to drink?"
They paused their argument and the man said, "We'll take our usual." Then he turned back to the argument.
"You have a usual?" Tonya asked hesitantly.
"Just tell Sally, she'll know."
As she moved away, the bickering began again.
"Sally, they said you'd know what their 'usual' was."
Sally took pity on the new waitress; it was only her second day. "Yep. They're in here several times a week. His name is Booth, and he calls her Bones." She listened to the sound of their voices. "When she's snippy with him, they've come for dinner. Otherwise, it's coffee and pie."
"Are they always like that?" Tonya asked.
"Pretty much. Sometimes their friends come in with them. Then they don't argue as much. Watch the next time someone is with them. It's like those two are the nucleus of an atom and the others are the electrons." Sally laughed. "Listen to me, babbling on about nothing. I guess that's what I get for helping my son with his science homework! He'll have a Coke and she drinks iced tea. I'll have their food ready in a few minutes."
As she cooked, she kept an eye on the bickering pair. Booth leaned across the table, making his point both physically and with words. Bones sat in her chair arms folded across her chest, clearly unimpressed. When he was done, she started speaking, slowly leaning closer and closer to him. He gradually shifted further back in his chair until he was sitting all the way back.
She assembled the burger on a plate and added the fries. Going to a back counter, she washed her hands and prepared a large salad.
"The salad is for her and the burger for him," she told Tonya.
Tonya glanced at the plates. "Can he really eat all that?"
Sally smiled. "Just watch."
Tonya set the plates on the table in front of the pair. "The Royal Salad for you ma'am. And a burger with extra fries."
The diner only had two other patrons, so Tonya wiped down the chairs, the worst chore. As she cleaned, she kept an eye on them.
Their arguing stopped when they started to eat. But then the entertainment began. The woman snitched a fry when his attention was on his burger. She did it several times.
"Bones, stop stealing my fries," he said, swatting at her hand. "If you want fries, order your own."
Her hand snaked across the table again, this time swiping some ketchup with the fry. "But Booth, yours always taste better than mine."
"You just like stealing my fries!"
As they ate, they continued to bicker about the fries, but he never really stopped her from eating them. By the time the plates were empty, they were both leaning over the table towards each other, heads only a few inches apart.
"What can I get for you for dessert?" Tonya asked as she cleared the plates.
"The usual," they chorused.
"They'll both have coffee and one piece of today's pie. Two forks." Sally always sent two forks. Booth always tried to get her to eat pie, and she subtly helped with his campaign.
"Two coffees and a slice of pie," Tonya announced. She set the cups on the table and poured the coffee.
"Bones, you have to try the pie. I'm telling you, the diner makes the best pie!"
Tonya set the pie down between them.
Booth grabbed a fork and took a bite without really looking at it.
"Booth, you know I don't like my fruit cooked."
As the flavor of chocolate exploded in his mouth, he glanced down at the pie in surprise. The diner always served fruit pies, but for some reason today they were serving French Silk.
He grabbed the second fork. "Bones, you have to try this pie. No fruit involved."
She looked at the piece on the fork and then opened her mouth. He carefully moved the fork into her mouth and she closed her teeth around it. She moaned as she swallowed.
"That was amazing." She pulled the plate toward her and grabbed the fork from his hand.
He stared at her, stunned.
By now, both Tonya and Sally had given up pretending to work to watch them.
He reached his fork across the table, but she swatted it away. "This is my pie."
He laughed and called, "Can I get some apple pie, please?" He turned back to his partner with a smug smile. "So, Bones, now do you believe me?"
"This is amazing," she mumbled through a bite. She swallowed. "You're right, the diner makes amazing pie."
The second piece of pie appeared and he took a large bite. "So, how about a bite of apple?"
She rolled her eyes at him in a 'don't push your luck' look.
"Come on, just one bite. If you don't like it, I promise I'll never bug you about it again."
He was giving her puppy dog eyes.
"Fine, just one bite." She took a piece, chewed it slowly and swallowed.
"For baked fruit, that was pretty good."
He leaned over the table until his forehead touched hers. "I wanted you to try it because I didn't want you to miss out on one of the good things in life."
"Well, maybe I should listen to you more often."
He smiled.
Sally had to strain to hear her next words.
"Is Sweets right? Is you trying to get me to eat pie a metaphor for seduction? Because if it is…"
He drained his coffee and tossed a few bills on the table. "Sweets is like, twelve, Bones."
They stood up and he slung his arm around her shoulder. "It means whatever we want it to mean, Bones."
Then the door closed behind them and the atmosphere of the diner when from electric back to normal.
"None of the staff can decide if they're together or not," Sally answered Tonya's unspoken question. "But they're never boring."