And here is the next one. Please read, enjoy and Review

~o~

Against everything I said, I ended up at the restaurant, swearing I'd only be there for a moment, just to check on things. It was the middle of dinner rush. Marie was greeting a couple at the door, both servers were there, the new bus boy was doing a good job at keeping tables clean. If only it ran like this when I was here. Heading back to the kitchens, Sarah was doing the hourly taste-test, and it was a full staff tonight, everyone holding out spoons. Our new saucier was the first to notice me and gave a bland, 'good evening Chef.' I tasted his spoon for myself. I commented on the addition of garlic and trailed after Sarah, tasting behind her and getting a 'good evening Chef' from all the staff.

Sarah looked a little concerned when she finally noticed me, "everything okay Chef?"

"Fine, fine, just out and about, figured I'd come check on things."

"Chef Tim called you about lunch shift right?"

"Yeah, thank you for coming in early, Chef Tim actually left right? He's not lurking around?"

"No, he left around three—well, I had to kick him out, but yeah. Oh, and Sherry took a two hour lunch, she should be back soon, wasn't here all day yesterday, with how smooth everything went she left once dinner sift showed up, but she decided to stay when Kelly didn't show up. Tim made her take lunch, but she swore she'd be back."

"I'm just glad to see everything doing so well today and yesterday, Thursday was a nightmare."

"Tim was telling me about, said a certain celebrity YouTuber gave a helping hand," she teased and winked at me.

I blushed a little, "yeah."

"Marie wouldn't shut up about it. I think someone is jealous."

I chuckle, "wait until she sees his new video. We went to the carnival yesterday together."

"It's already up," calls one of the line cooks. "I watched it on my break."

"Hmm, the expo must not be a busy as he thought yet, wonder if he'll be coming over early?" I ponder mostly to myself.

"'Coming over' huh?" Sarah teases.

"You're seeing Markiplier?" another line chef close by asks.

I shrug, a light blush trying to fight its way to my cheeks, "he's only here for the month, it's nothing serious."

"That's not what it sounds like," Sarah says. "I've been here almost from the start and I don't think I have ever seen you smile like that."

The blush broke through this time, "aren't you in the middle of a dinner rush? What are you doing standing around talking?"

"No one stopped working to talk to you," the line cook says, poking at a chicken breast on the grill. "Tell us about your birthday date at the carnival with Markiplier!"

I giggled like a little girl, "it's not a big deal guys, really." More shouts of harassment, "okay, okay. We went to the carnival, we rode rides, talked to fans, had hotdogs for dinner then went to the bar for my birthday party."

"You make it sound like the most boring day of your life," Sarah says.

"It wasn't it was the most fun birthday I have ever had. He won this really big ram plushie for me and made me wear this goofy hat. We got stupid drunk with Willow and Sal, that was great then we went home."

"Together?"

"Yes—but he slept on the couch!" I say loudly over all the 'ooo's.

"You're so cute Charlie," Sarah says with a big gushy smile. "It's nice to see you so happy."

I was fully flushed over at that point with the random comments shouted at me across the kitchen and Sarah giving me that mushy look. "Stop it guys, I didn't come for you to harass me. I came to harass you guys."

"How did you not expect us to harass you when ten million people know you went to the carnival with Markiplier?"

"I'm leaving now." I say with a pout, "Jerks."

It took another thirty minutes for me to leave. I got in my car slightly embarrassed and quite curious to see the new video on Mark's page. How many people would really put together that Mark and I were together at the carnival?

At home I made a bee-line for my laptop and went straight for Mark's page. There it was at the top. Clicking on it I found it had a couple thousand views already and plenty of comments. I watched first. It opened with me, then eight minutes of fans, then the moment at the top of the Farris wheel. I looked so goofy with that big ram shoved between me and the protection bar, biggest smile on my face. And it was no surprise that there was tons of accusatory posts about the two of us: 'is that your new girlfriend?', 'finally hanging out with girls huh?', 'thought you would have chosen someone prettier than that!', 'is she older than you?', 'didn't know you were into cougars Mark.' It made me mad and almost sad. Going back to the end of the video I paused. I really did look older than Mark. I wondered how much older I really was. I was only 28. I had my long black hair pulled up by that time of the night, a few pieces hanging in my face. My bright green eyes wide and filled with silly happiness. The big smile on my face wrinkled my cheeks. I wasn't bad looking, better than mediocre as far as I was concerned. I definitely didn't look like a cougar…right? I scrolled through the comments again. Clearly I only picked out the bad ones the first time because there were plenty of god ones: 'so glad to see you so happy Mark!', 'look at her wonderful smile!', 'you guys look so happy together!', 'she's beautiful Mark.' But more than the ones about me there were so many about how awesome Mark was and how they love the fan videos.

There was a knock on the door to snap me out of these frightening thoughts. I peer at the clock on the stove. It was ten already. I went to the door, peeking out—of course it was Mark. I let him in.

~o~

There you have it. hope you all have been enjoying it. Please please Review *for my sanity*

"And i'll see you in the next (one) Bye-bye"

Charlie-Chan