Work Text:
Rose has breakfast with Pepper, and hangs out with Tony. She reminds Tony that he’s got a lunch with his Science Bro, the conveniently asks Torri to lunch at the dog cafe. Rose meets Torri and puts her service vest and leash on her. Just for fun, Rose’s shirt has a heart dog tag shape on the front that says ‘If Found Return to Torri at Stark Tower.’ She has her red and gold sunglasses on and her jean jacket, and she and Torri go out to the cafe.
Beth rolls her shoulders, trying to convince her body to feel less tired, while her hands keep moving pouring coffees for the customers. This has already been a long shift and it isn’t over yet. She has just finished handing the current batch of coffees and food over when the door opens, letting in a young woman and a corgi, who is wearing a red service jacket and a blue collar. Beth smiles and grabs a couple of menus before following Rose to her usual table.
“Rose! Torri! I haven’t seen you for a while. Here are your menus. We have some nice fresh fish in today which Torri might like,“ greets Beth.
Rose is setting Torri’s dishes up, attached to the table. “What do you think, Torri? Up for fresh fish?” she asks the corgi.
Torri yips and Rose gives her skritches.
"I think that’s a yes. Have you got anything new on special today?" she asks the waitress while pushing her sunglasses up and opening the menu, half reading as she pours Torri some fresh water.
"Well, we have salmon, cod and mackerel in the fish. Roy has been playing with souffle and cupcakes today, some of which are quite… interesting." Beth smiles at her.
"How about cod and salmon for Torri? She does seem to love fish. Um. What is a souffle?"
"Um… I think it’s a puffy egg and cheese kind of thing, sort of light and fluffy and baked and they seem to fall flat if the chef gets the slightest thing wrong… At least, that’s what I’ve learnt about them today." Beth notes Torri’s order.
"Hm. I’m not big on eggs…. how about the grilled chicken breast with mixed vegetables and cheese mashed potatoes?"
"Done and done. Any drinks?"
"She’ll have water. Do you have any raspberry iced tea in? Or blackberry?" Rose asks.
"Blackberry today." Beth notes the order on her pad and repeats it back to double check.
"Perfect, thank you very much."
Rose neatly puts the menus back together and holds them out to Beth, glancing around the cafe to see who’s around.
Tucking the menus back with the others at the counter Beth takes the order through to the kitchen rather than just passing it through the hatch as usual.
"Hey, Roy. Feeling bored and under-utilized?" she asks the owner and head chef for the cafe.
Roy looks up from decorating cup-cakes and gives her a mock glare. "What does it look like I’m doing? Chopping liver?"
Beth blinks and moves over to look at the cupcakes. "Um… are they muppets?"
"Oh, so you have seen some television," he teases her.
"Well, I do have brothers and I did watch Saturday morning cartoons. Just because I don’t spend all my spare time glued to a TV set."
While they continue to banter Beth hands over the order sheet. Roy looks it over and frowns.
"I thought you were bringing me something challenging?" he protests.
"Well… I thought you might have fun doing something artistic with the cod and salmon," Beth says defensively.
"Why? I doubt the dog is going to care." He gives her a sharp look. "Ooooo, it’s that girl you’re sweet on, isn’t it?"
Beth blushes and Roy laughs.
"If it’s too much trouble," Beth mumbles.
"Nah, no trouble. Might be fun. Hey, maybe when you give it to her you should ask her out."
Beth blushes a bit more and shakes her head. "Just don’t take too long with it."
"I know my job, now shoo," Roy says, waving her away.
Beth’s cheeks still feel red hot as she hurries over to the drinks counter to pour Rose and Torri’s drinks. Looking over she sees that Rose is feeding her corgi a treat and hasn't noticed Beth's blushes, thankfully.
"Thank you," Rose says, putting her straw in her glass and taking a taste. "That is fabulous. I love the bits of blackberries in there."
"They add to the flavor and stuff. I’ll bring your food when it’s ready," Beth comments as she retreats before making any more obvious statements, mentally kicking herself for acting like a clutz. What’s wrong with her today? She usually deals much better than this.
While waiting for Rose's order to be ready Beth occupies herself with clearing tables and seeing to other customers. Hoping to avoid making more of a fool of herself today. Unable to help glancing over while she works Beth notices Rose playing Angry Birds on her phone, with 'help' from the corgi. Beth smiles as Rose gives Torri skritches and carries on a conversation as she always does, they're very cute.
It feels like Roy is taking ages but eventually he rings the kitchen bell and Beth picks up Rose and Torri’s plates. Roy has done a brilliant job with the fish, it has a swirling arrangement of the pieces of white and orange fleshed fish, punctuated with the brown of small potatoes boiled in their skins. In the middle of which he has slivered some of the fish and arranged it to form a small corgi face, with little drops of dog-chocolate for the eyes Beth grins and reminds herself to lavish Roy with praise for his artistry. She’s still grinning as she lays the dishes down in front of Rose and Torri with a flourish.
"Your lunches. Enjoy."
Rose laughs and places Torri’s dish where she can get a picture of the Corgi and her lunch.
"Oh that’s lovely! Smile for a picture, Torri!" Rose takes a picture of the scene with her StarkPhone, and giggling madly, sends a copy to Clint. She loves the way Torri seems very pleased.
Almost bouncing from how well that worked Beth ducks her head into the kitchen to grin at Roy and give him a thumbs up before returning to looking after the rest of her customers… Although she can’t help looking over to see how Rose and Torri are going. Rose tastes a little bit of everything, then assured that her senses are pleased, she begins to eat in her very methodical way. Mixed vegetables first, then the chicken and then the potatoes. She watches Torri eat and drink, and sips her tea. She laughs at the way Torri is carefully eating her lunch, as if saving the Corgi face.
Seeing that Rose’s glass is empty Beth takes the excuse to head over there.
"Would you like more iced tea?" she asks. She notices how Torri is eating and looks puzzled for a moment before smiling at Rose again "Yes, thank you."
Rose sees her watching Torri and quickly explains, "Corgis are rarely used for service dogs because they’re ‘too smart’. Instead of stopping at opening the door for a human, the Corgis use the new skill to skip their classes and go play outside."
Beth laughs. "Oh, that’s too cool." She looks down at the dog plate again. "Do you think she’s going to eat that all now or do you want me to get Roy to box it up for her?"
"I think she might need a doggie bag," Rose giggles at her pun. "Hey, do you have anything for puppies just starting on solids?"
"I’m sure we do. I’ll just check with Roy. How many and what age? Are they corgis like Torri?"
"Four of them. Three week old Corgi puppies," explains Rose, the proud corgi-auntie.
Beth grins. "Oh, that’s gotta be cute. I’ll just check with Roy."
She ducks off into the kitchen. "Hey Roy, do you have anything that would be for four corgi pups, just starting solids at three weeks old? Takeaway."
"For your friend with the corgi, I assume?" Roy's tease is only mild with his thoughts obviously already considering the contents of his larder. "Sure, I can manage something. How did she like the fish?"
"They loved it. In fact the corgi loved it so much that she wants to take the picture home, do you have a flat container we could slip it into for a doggie bag?"
Roy gives her a slanted look and Beth shrugs.
"Well she is a service dog, maybe she’s been trained not to eat pictures," she suggests, following an odd gut reaction that's telling her to protect the pretty girl and her dog from curiosity.
"Whatever, bring it back and I’ll pack it up neatly so they can take it home. Give me a few to get the puppy chow together," he instructs, already getting things out of the chiller.
Waving thanks Beth heads back out and returns to Rose’s table.
"Roy is putting together something for the puppies. Would you like me to take the rest of the fish out now for him to pack that up for you?"
"That’d be fabulous, thanks. And of course, I need to restock my supply of treats. Six dogs back home. No, seven. Not including the puppies."
"Okay, I’ll get Roy to make you up seven lots of your usual treats then? Anything else? It’ll take him a little while to get all of that done. I could get you a refill of the blackberry for while you wait."
"That’d be great, thank you." Rose looks at Torri and comments, "I swear. Stuff for the critters and bookstores. Good thing my apartment is a job perk."
Beth laughs. "Critters can be like that. That’s why I don’t have one at the moment." She looks sad for a moment then shakes her head sharply. "Let me just get these."
She takes away their plates, dropping the plates and takeaway order off in the kitchen. Then she brings Rose her refill before quickly dealing with the other customers that she feels guilty about having neglected.
When everything is ready she brings a bag of packages, one carefully-held-flat container and the check to the table. Rose takes out her wallet and gives Beth her credit card, plus $30 in cash for the tip. "Thank you."
Beth blinks at the generous amount. "That’s, um… thanks." She gives Rose a shy smile and covers the awkward by helping with the parcels. "Make sure you keep that flat."
"I will." Rose smiles a bit as she gathers the rest of Torri’s lunch. Plus bonus treats and puppy food.
"I hope the puppies like the food. Oh, you’ll have to bring photos in sometime, we can add them to the wall." "Beth's smile is back to usual brightness, at least usual for her smiling at Rose.
"Oh gosh! They are adorable. I’ll check with their parents humans."
"That would be great. Bring them in to see us when they’re old enough."
Beth, suspects she shouldn’t be smiling this much but figures most of her workmates are already going to be teasing her anyway, besides, she wants to smile.
"Yolanda wants to meet them, too. Oh gosh… nine Corgis. That’s a LOT of Corgis. Corgyn? Passl? No. Still dogs. Pack of Corgis?"
Beth laughs and bows Rose out of the door with a flourish. She turns back to her other customers with an infectious smile and a head full of a laughing young woman with spiky blonde hair.
Rose is bouncing on her toes as she heads back to the tower with Torri, her head full of puppies and treats.
The rest of Beth’s shift flies by and she ducks into the kitchen before getting changed.
"Hey, Roy, I’m just heading out. Just wanted to pass you some of the tip for your corgi face," Beth says, getting ten dollars out of her pocket.
Roy shakes his head and waves her hand away. "It’s your tip, girl. I had fun making it and I know you need the money for school."
"But you did the extra work."
"And you are the one that the pretty girl gave the tip to," Roy counters.
Beth pulls a face at him and retreats. In the break room she slips the ten bucks into his pocket with a grin and pokes out her tongue in the direction of the kitchen. With her work clothes in a backpack and her GrammaViola in hand Beth heads off to do some busking.