Insomnia is starting to kick in right about now. I have my first appointment with the high risk specialist I'll be delivering with in about six hours. Needless to say, I need SOMETHING to get my mind off of the bad news he's waiting to tell me. What better than writing another chapter? Enjoy guys. I'll try to make it good(:
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter… Or the songs I use to write to tone for my chapters… Or a nice car… I do, however, own a pretty nice new baby stroller:D Shits expensive.
XOX
Draco and Aly sat at a small table in the back of the restaurant. A plate of fries sat between them as she passed a small notebook over to him.
"Waiting tables is easy. Don't worry. You'll catch on in no time." She delicately put a fry in her mouth before pulling one of her pens out of her bun and passing it to him. "If you ever don't know the answer to a question that a customer asks about the menu, just tell them you'll pull some strings and the cook can make it however they want. They eat that shit up. Gets you loads of tips." Aly paused to study his face. Draco refrained from squirming under her scrutinizing look. Something about her unnerved him.
"What're you looking at?" He glared back at her, pushing the menu he was studying away.
"You have a cute face. It'll get you a lot of tips with the younger customers." She said simply, tilting her head to look at him from a different angle.
"Is looks all it takes then? Is that why you live in such shitty conditions?" He asked, grabbing a fry for himself. She surprised him by giggling and handing him the black folder to keep his small notebook in.
"You have so much to learn." Aly said mysteriously and brushed her bangs out of her face and watched as the hostess sat a group of elderly couples in Draco's established section. She glanced at her watch and smirked. "Right on time."
She stood and motioned for Draco to follow her.
"They're regulars. They come at half till noon every other day. Always get the same thing. Decent tippers. Just make sure you smile at them." She explained as she led Draco over to their table.
"Aly!" The table greeted her fondly. Her smile stretched across her face and she tucked her notebook into the small apron she wore around her waist.
"Hey everyone! Right on time!" She greeted back and moved to the side to pull Draco up to the table. "This is Draco. It's his first day so go easy on him." Winking at them, she motioned for him to start taking their orders. When all orders were placed she quickly showed him where to pick up the food orders when they were done and to continuously check to make sure their drinks were filled.
"I feel like a fucking house elf." Draco mumbled, ringing up their order on the register and pulling out their change, preparing to take it to them at the table.
"What was that?" Aly asked, coming around the corner, smiling her toothy grin at him. Without answering, Draco quickly walked back to the table. He didn't want to stick around and see if she had heard him speak of elves. The last thing he needed was for her to think he was homeless AND insane.
"Thank you, son." One of the elderly men said gratefully as he took the change that Draco handed to him. He could feel Aly come up behind him and felt an unusual feeling in the pit of his stomach when she linked her arm with his and smiled at the table of people.
"So how'd he do for you?"
"He did pretty well for his first day." One of the women smiled at Draco.
"Needs to work on that smile though." Another of the men joked as he pulled a few notes out of his wallet and placed them on the table. Draco grimaced. They were going to force him to be nice to muggles one way or another. Aly smiled and squeezed Draco's arm lightly.
"We'll definitely work on that." She glanced up into Draco's grey eyes. Humor danced in her expression before she looked back to the customers and said goodbye with a hug to each one.
When they were gone, she picked up the notes they left on the table and pressed them into Draco's hand.
"Good job Rookie. You earned that." She winked at him and went back to get the food for her own table of customers.
Draco stared at the notes in his hand. This must be muggle money.
'How…. Flimsy.' He thought to himself, examining the money. He shoved it into his pocket and looked up to the next couple being sat in his section. Sighing, he pulled out the notebook and made his way over to their table.
Four Hours Later…
The lunch rush was kicking Draco Malfoy's ass. Aly had popped into his section to help him as much as she could but he knew he was on a sinking ship. He couldn't bring himself to smile at the muggles. The mere thought of it churned his insides. Though every time he caught Aly checking up on him from across the room he let a small smile tilt the corner of his lips up in hopes to tell her that he was fine.
He was not fine.
Draco had already spilled water on people from three different tables and took the wrong order of food to the wrong table twice. He hadn't even noticed one group sitting in his section until they had already been waiting almost 20 minutes and already fuming by the time he got to them. He overcharged one bill and undercharged another. The tips they left him were getting smaller and smaller until some tables left without leaving anything.
Draco rushed into the kitchen to grab one of his food orders without realizing how hot the plates were that he grabbed.
"FUCK!" He roared, dropping the plates and watching helplessly as the plates shattered and food flew across the floor. Aly rushed in as customers tried to sneak a peek at what was happening in the kitchen.
"Draco!" She grabbed his hands, seeing the redness from the heat. "Those plates are hot you know." She couldn't help but tease as she led him over to the sink. Draco could already feel the tension in his shoulders relax as she gently pulled his hands into the stream of cold water. He rolled his eyes at her and let her move his hands in the water for him.
"I realized that, thank you." He stated, sarcastically.
"Look, I know lunch can be overwhelming. Louis wants to try you somewhere else. Somewhere… Not in the view of customers." Aly said slowly, turning off the water and carefully inspecting the damage done to Draco's hands. They seemed so much bigger compared to her little ones that touched the red skin gingerly.
"So much for having the right looks, yeah?" Draco mumbled. He did not like the feeling that he was failing at a muggle task. One that Aly seemed to have perfected so easily. He casually pulled his hands away from the slim girl and wiped them on his pants. What he wouldn't give to have his magic back to deal with this.
Aly placed a comforting hand on his forearm.
"While some of us find your constant scowl to be adorable, the customers aren't finding it quite as endearing."
Draco glanced up at her grinning face.
"Adorable, huh?" He asked, feeling that familiar Malfoy cockiness seep back into his demeanor. Aly's grin widened but she crinkled her nose at him.
"Don't get a big head."
She grabbed a balled up piece of material and leaned so close to Draco that her auburn hair tickled his cheek. For a moment it felt as if he had stopped his breathing altogether. Her scent was overpowering. A mix of cinnamon and apples. He fought the urge to close his eyes and bury himself in the crook of her neck to get a better whiff of that smell. When she pulled away, he had to resist following her to keep their close proximity.
"There." She placed her hands on her slim waist and smiled proudly at him. Draco looked down and saw that she had tied a different apron around him. This one was white and covered his entire front instead of just wrapping around his waist like the other waiters had.
"What the fuck?" Draco glared at the apron and then back at the smirking girl in front of him.
"Welcome to the kitchen, Draco!" She clapped her hands in mock excitement as a large man with caramel colored skin came up behind her and placed a beefy hand protectively on her shoulder.
"This is the new guy, yeah?" He asked, his voice a deep bass. Aly turned and smiled at the man.
"Draco, this is Allen. He's our head cook. He'll be teaching you everything you need to know."
Draco glanced up at the man before him. The guy was huge. He was built like an ox and stood a full head and a half over Draco. Draco was by no means small but this mountain of a man made him look like a schoolgirl.
"You're in good hands, I promise." Aly breezed past Draco, gently brushing his arm on her way by as she headed back out to take over Draco's section as well as her own.
"Come on Cinderella. We have work to do." Allen said, walking over to a food prep station.
'Who the fuck is Cinderella?' Draco thought, following the man.
XOX
By the end of the week, Draco had learned the entire menu. He knew how to cook each entrée that was written on an order and how to properly prep the food each day. Allen had taken to calling him his apprentice, saying that Draco had talent many of the studious cooks there simply did not possess. Who knew.
The thought of actually possessing a talent that only muggles needed made Draco scoff. Only six months of this and he would be home free and with his magic again. A thought tugged at the edge of his brain. Six more months and he'd be in the wizarding world again. Without Aly.
Aly.
It would suffice to say that the muggle girl got under his skin. They had established a bit of a routine by the end of the week. They'd fight over the shower each morning, both saying that the other took up too much of the hot water and constantly bicker on their way to the restaurant. For some reason, this caused elderly couples to give them knowing looks as they passed. This drove Draco crazy. It was like they knew something that he didn't and that simply frustrated him to no end. At the restaurant, Draco would head into the kitchen with Allen while Aly quickly got ready for incoming customers.
Witty remarks would be thrown across the kitchen at each other, both intent on winning their little verbal battles. She was a smart ass. And that alone caused Draco to challenge her on everything. If anything, he just liked ruffling her feathers. Riling her up and watching her simmer. He would be lying if he said that she didn't know the exact things to say to do the same to him.
After the shift they'd go home to the small apartment, Draco now familiar with each quirk that came with living in that godforsaken deathtrap. Jiggle the handle on the toilet or it won't flush properly the first time. Don't use the overhead fan in the living room; it was loose and any amount of spinning it'd do would surely cause it to come crashing to the ground. The oven was broken and if anything needed to be cooked in it, the neighbor down the hall graciously agreed to let them use theirs. Doors got jammed shut and locked innocent victims in rooms until a good shoulder shove could open it or until the other occupant of the house noticed and could unscrew the hinges to let them out. Running the kitchen sink and using the outlet in the bathroom caused the lights to flicker and so on. Nothing seemed to be working properly. Just enough to get by. It surprised Draco how quickly he was able to adapt to these conditions. Especially to the girl he shared them with.
Sometimes after their shift, she'd go out with the other employees to some dance club. She'd dress inappropriately and come home completely inebriated. Draco never went. He didn't want to enjoy the activities of muggles. He wanted to finish up his sentence and get back to living his old life. His real life.
He told himself that he didn't wait up for Aly to get home from these outings. He just simply couldn't sleep. He told himself he didn't like the way her drunken state caused her to slump outside the front door and beg him to let her in after failing to complete the "secret fucking code" that was her lock. And he told himself that he definitely didn't like the way she'd come home in such a state that Draco would have to carry her to her room, Romeo bounding around his ankles to sniff his lady. The way her nose would tuck into his neck as she already drifted to sleep from the muggle alcohol. How he had to pry her arms from around his neck because once he laid her in bed, she still would not relent on her grip around his neck. The way she snuggled deeper into the bed and let his name roll off her tongue. "Draco.."
No. No, he definitely did not like that at all. And he especially didn't wait up for it.
Nightmares would cause him to lie awake each night, listening for the sounds of her shifting in her bed and Romeo moving to accommodate her. She'd wake up in the morning and the routine would start all over again.
XOX
So not as much happened in this chapter as I hoped but it seemed like a good place to end it. The next chapter will have more. I promise. I'm not leading you on, I swear :x But Draco has to slowly realize his muggle-love somehow!
Review please(: