Emmett McCarty seemed to show up more and more in her life after hanging out with him at the fair, which made sense if he was trying to score a date with her. She worked at a diner in town as a waitress on weekends during the school year and added weekdays during the summer to earn a bit more cash. The number of times Emmett ate at that diner, and subsequently in her section, grew to at least twice a week. Sometimes more depending on…something. His schedule, probably.
But without fail, Rachel could always count on him to show up for early morning breakfast or late dinner with Travis and Ethan, another friend of his, twice a week. And without fail, Rachel could always count on Emmett asking her on a date at the end of the meal. He had probably come to expect her answer as well, a non-committal, 'I'll think about it' and a wink.
She really didn't mind the group stopping by so often. All three boys were very polite, cleaned up after themselves, and tipped pretty well. Of course, Emmett tipped the best, which felt a little weird considering their…potential future relationship. But they were good customers and she enjoyed bantering with them. Emmett only got cuter as the days went on, her stupid heart slowly succumbing to those darn dimples.
If they were going to date though, she needed to nip something in the bud.
As she brought their checks for the second time that week, she stopped Em before he could finish getting his wallet out. "I'm going to need you to stop tipping me."
His eyes shot up to hers, a confused little furrow in his brow that was actually quite adorable. "Stop tipping you?" The words came out uncertain, probably thinking he'd misheard her.
"Yeah," She nodded. "Stop tipping me. It's weird. It feels weird."
He chuckled at her, leaning back in the booth to listen to her explanation. The dimples were in full force as she once again intrigued him, or he found her funny. "Oh?"
"Yeah. I feel like I'm just some girl you come to when you're cheating on your actual girlfriend-"
The table erupted in shocked laughter; Emmett's eyes blown wide. He leaned forward on the table running a hand through his hair, "Oh my God, Rachel!"
"- because you tip me and just leave, and I don't see ya again 'til you want something from me. And I know we're like-" Rachel gestured between the two of them, lowering her voice so she didn't disturb other patrons, "feeling things out, so it's weird."
"Rachel!" Emmett hissed, tossing his head back to loudly laugh at her words.
Travis placed the sleeve with his cash and receipt inside on the table, "Well this is the best dinner I have had in my life. Five starts on Yelp, Rachel. I expect you to embarrass the shit out of McCarty like this every time we're here from now on, yeah?" He slid out of the booth, patting her on the back a couple times.
She scrunched her face up at his touch, not entirely sure how she felt about the physical contact. Emmett was still stuck in his spot, Ethan beside him. He looked at his bill and shook his head, clearly bewildered at the turn the night took. Rachel cleared their plates, stacking them up in her arms. "Just saying, feels a little strange to receive a large tip from your half-ass, maybe-kind of, potential boyfriend." She gave him a final shrug and bid the remaining boy good night before heading back off to the kitchen.
When she had returned to collect their payments, she noticed that Emmett had left nothing as a tip, seemingly having at least a little bit of sense in him. Ethan, however, tipped far more than normal. Rachel rolled her eyes as she entered the slips into the till. As if she wouldn't notice.
He came back for Saturday morning breakfast. It wasn't often that Rachel worked Saturdays, especially if she worked Monday through Friday, but she had taken the prior Monday off to recoup after a girl's trip. Since she didn't normally work the weekend, she was a little surprised to see Emmett in her section. She was even more surprised to see him alone.
"Morning, McCarty. Flying solo today?" Rachel placed a menu in front of him, more out of habit than anything. As soon as she finished writing his usual order on the ticket, she tossed it in front of him. "How's it look?"
Emmett picked the slip up and read it, "Looks like I'm too predictable. I won't change it up this time because you already wrote this out, but next time I gotta get something different. Throw you off."
His cheeky smirk caused her to roll her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Didn't answer my question. Your girlfriends coming today?"
The cup of water paused its ascent as he chuckled, "Just me this morning. Well, unless you'd like to join me."
Rachel rose an eyebrow at him, leaning on her back foot while crossing her arms, "And exactly how do you expect me to do that when I'm working?"
He gestured around the diner, "It's slow. You can't sit with customers when it's slow?"
"No." She lied just to be sassy. Truthfully her boss would let her sit with customers even when it was busy as long as she didn't have anything to do. But she wasn't going to tell him that and have it become an expectation.
Setting down his water, he peeked up at her and shot her another dimpled smile. That one was more innocent, and she swore she saw him bat his eyelashes a couple times. "Well, maybe you can join me tomorrow then. Not here, of course. I know waitresses don't like to stop in the places they work on their days off, but maybe at Connie's?"
Rachel went to open her mouth, only to be cut off by Emmett, "You said yesterday I was a potential boyfriend." He shrugged all innocent like, "Thought maybe we could work on removing the potential from that phrase and-"
"And make it so you're not even a consideration. Got it." Rachel cut him off with a cheeky grin.
Emmett playfully narrowed his eyes, "Funny, Rachel. Quite hilarious, you are. But no. I was thinking the opposite, actually. It's been a month since our fair date. Figured it's time for another one, right?"
A month? Rachel glanced over at the calendar up at the front counter and she rose her eyebrows. Sure enough, the days had been crossed out through nearly the entire month, only a few days left in it. "Dang." She whispered.
Emmett nodded, "I know. Almost the fourth of July fair. You going?"
Rachel shrugged, "Probably. There're only so many events to get bubble waffles at, you know."
"Exactly." He agreed with a wink. "So, what do you say, Rae Rae? Breakfast? Bubble waffle date?"
Rachel picked up the ticket and menu from the table, rolling her eyes as she scoffed, "Sure."
"Wait, really?" Emmett perked up considerably, more than Rachel had really thought possible. His expression was one more of surprise than anything and she almost felt guilty. She'd been so focused on the jokes and the banter between her and all three of the guys, that she really hadn't realized exactly how much Emmett had wanted to go on a date with her. She thought he was cute and funny…but she honestly had considered it one of his short-term things that wouldn't last. Maybe she had been way off.
"Uh, yeah." She took a quick breath and nodded more surely. "Yes. I'll see you tomorrow morning for breakfast. 8:30?"
Emmett nodded hastily, "Yeah, yeah. 8:30 is great."
"Okay. I'll go put your order in? Unless…." Rachel hesitated, looking down at the ticket before meeting his eye again, "I mean, I feel like you only come in here to try and ask me out and now that I agreed…."
He laughed lightly at her expense, waiting until she finished rambling to save her. Jerk. "Breakfast would still be appreciated. My visits are dual purpose."
She narrowed her eyes at him in mock annoyance. Just because she was awkward and dumb didn't mean he had to point it out. "I'll go put this in and you'll be lucky if I don't spit in it on its way out, okay?"
"Yes ma'am." Emmett snickered, picking up the newspaper beside him to flip through.
Rachel threw the ticket up in the window before moving on to grab drink orders from her next table. As she grabbed a couple sodas, she also took out the milk and poured a tall glass. Emmett hadn't asked for one, but she knew he drank one anytime he had breakfast at the restaurant.
She set the sodas on the table for the young couple – how they could have that with breakfast, Rachel wasn't sure, but she wasn't about to openly judge – before placing Emmett's milk next to him at his table. He had still been reading the paper, eyes glancing up to shoot her a boyish grin before returning to his article. She smiled back, not a single sassy word popping into her brain. Instead, it was far too focused on those damn dimples.
Her eyes kept dancing over to his table as she worked, checking on the glass of milk to ensure he didn't need a refill or anything else from her. Finally, when Chad rang the bell, she picked up Em's food and brought it over.
"You're lucky, McCarty. No spit this time. Decided to let you off the hook." Rachel teased as she set down the two plates. "Anything else you need from me?"
He thought for a moment, adjusting the plate with the toast so it was a little closer. "I suppose not. Not right now anyway. I'll be sure to pester you soon, though. Thank you."
"I dread it." Rachel sassed, hurriedly heading back to the kitchen before Emmett could see the stupid grin on her face. So much for not getting attached.
She avoided his table until absolutely necessary and even then, she tried to keep things short and simple. Her eyes weren't allowed to drift to his lips when she dropped off the milk and her heart certainly hadn't been allowed to race that fast when the bill was passed between them and her fingers grazed his warm ones.
"See ya tomorrow, Rae Rae. 8:30!"
"Sure, sure." Rachel tried to play it cool, horribly failing it seemed when Emmett chuckled at her.
Failure hit her once again as she debated for far too long what she should wear the next morning, and again as her stomach filled with nervous jitters while she parked and spotted Emmett's truck just a few spaces away. He had just shut the vehicle door when she pulled in, making it easy for him to wait by the café door as she stepped out.
He wore his signature half-smile, one dimple popping out adorably. His blue shirt brought out the same color of his eyes, and contrasted nicely with his tanned skin, giving the baby blues a bright, almost piercing look. The smile on his face only grew as she got closer and by the time she had reached him, he had the door open for her. "Good morning, Rachel. You look lovely this morning."
"Laying it on a bit thick already this morning, aren't you?" She teased but her bright cheeks probably gave her away.
Emmett leaned down as he followed her inside, his voice low and smooth in her ear, "If you think this is laying it on thick you haven't seen anything yet, Sweetheart."
Mind. Out. Of. Gutter.
Holy shit. If Rachel had thought she'd be able to hide the blush on her cheeks before, that went completely out the window at Emmett's words. To make things worse, he placed a big, warm hand on the small of her back in order to guide her through the crowd and up to the hostess stand. Rachel tried to briefly cover her face as she let out a soft cough, not trusting herself to sound natural when speaking to the girl anyway.
Thankfully, Emmett was either oblivious to Rachel's plight and expecting to speak for them or completely aware and taking charge to save her. He held up two fingers, speaking the number to the host as well. Despite the number of people in the restaurant, they had a table right away and Emmett gestured for Rachel to follow first. More time to cool her flaming face that way.
…at least until Rachel noticed a few girls from her class staring and pointing. No doubt they were frenzied by the idea of Rachel and Emmett out on what was obviously a date. Sometimes Rachel hated Gatlinburg. The date hadn't even begun and everyone in town would know about it.
Rachel quickly slid into the booth, trying to avoid eye contact with Makenna and Kayla. Emmett followed Rachel's eyes as he sat down too. Unlike Rachel, who was staring with her lips pressed together, Emmett broke out into a large grin, finger waving. Rachel's head snapped to look at him, an unfightable smile crossing her face. "Emmett!"
He chuckled too, turning back to her, "What? Thought I should say hi."
"You're terrible." Rachel shook her head. She picked up the menu and reviewed her breakfast options, trying to use it to hide her newly-returned blush.
Em followed suit, picking up the menu, but not before captivating her eyes again with a little smirk. "Hey, if they're going to stare, you might as well give them a show."