Characters: Malcolm Brown and Jamie Dodderidge
Setting: The Leaky Cauldron, Saturday afternoon.
Summary: Malcolm’s a bit hungry for some Jamie :X
Rating/Status: PG / Finished log.
Malcolm pushed his finished bowl of soup away, setting his spoon on the side and sitting back in the chair, glancing over at the real reason he was here. He wasn’t a bad cook – much, much better than Harper or Whit, but he’d been eating lunch and dinner here for the past week, just to see him. The cute blond that was deftly making his way between the tables, serving people their orders and smiling at the customers. Malcolm had come in here earlier in the week with some of the guys from his latest job, and saw the blond - Jamie was his name, as he’d introduced himself before taking the order.
It was ridiculous, because Jamie was probably only eighteen and had no clue what plan was forming in Malcolm’s mind, but he was cute and intrigued him in just the right way. It was a delicate thing, asking someone out – especially someone you didn’t know and couldn’t exactly tell that they could like boys. Because if he asked and Jamie wasn’t and Malcolm asked, then there would be a scene, and Malcolm hated scenes. That’s why he generally stuck to Muggles, but those were harder to explain to his brothers – not that Oscar, Whit and Stephen had been explicitly told that Malcolm really didn’t like women as much as they did. The older ones all thought he was hiding some girlfriend (and thought her really ugly), only Harper and his girlfriend Psyke knew the real truth.
Which was headed back this way to clear his table. Malcolm took a deep breath to steady his nerves and smiled at Jamie when he approached. “It was really tasty,” he said in a quiet tone.
"I'll let the cook know you thought so," Jamie replied with a friendly smile as he picked up the bowl. "Care for any afters or anything else? We've got apple crumble for today's special, and it's really good. I had some on break," he confessed with a sheepish grin.
“If it’s as good as you say, then I’ll have that,” Malcolm replied, smiling a little wider at Jamie’s confession. This should have been easy but Malcolm was quite nervous – it had been quite some time since he’d been this silly over someone. “When you come back, you should join me. You look like you could use another break,” he offered, motioning to the chair across from him at the table. It wasn’t the smoothest invite ever, but, what the heck he was just being friendly, right?
"Brilliant! I'll bring you a piece right away," Jamie said, flashing another smile. He turned to go but stopped as Malcolm continued to speak. He bit his lip and glanced around before looking back at the man.
"I'm sorry, I can't," he said apologetically. And he was sorry, but not deeply so. After all, he didn't really know this customer except that he came in every day this past week. Jamie could tell you everything he'd had in that week, but, other than that, he didn't really know him. And while he doubted he'd get fired for taking a break to have a chat, he really couldn't take a break just then. He nodded toward the rest of the pub. "I got tables that are only part way through their meals, and it doesn't do to just piss off when they might need something," he explained.
Malcolm couldn’t say he wasn’t disappointed in that answer, because he really was, but he could understand why Jamie couldn’t… it made a lot of sense, of course, the bloke was at work and here was Malcolm, trying to disrupt it. He nodded and gave Jamie a smile, trying to keep from sounding put out or sad. He would try again another time, when the dining room didn’t have so many customers. “Maybe later? Or another time. You shouldn’t work so hard, you know?” Malcolm suggested with a slightly flirty smile.
Jamie wanted to say he didn't work all that hard, but he also didn't want to argue with a customer, even if it wasn't really an argument. Instead, he nodded a bit, saying, "Yeah, another time. Shall I get you that crumble now?"
Only slightly defeated, Malcolm nodded, putting his elbow on the table and resting his temple on it, “Yes please.”
He would have to think about this – how to get Jamie to go out with him, without scaring the guy off – a little bit more. It did occur to Malcolm that Jamie might not be gay… but what was the harm in asking? Maybe he should just come out and ask him – but not when there were people around. Hmm… maybe for conversation, so he could find out more about him.
Jamie nodded, furrowing his brow slightly at Malcolm. But he shook his head slightly and turned, heading toward the kitchen to fetch the man his piece of apple crumble.
