Chapter Text
Third round table down the furthest wall beneath the mounted ten-point White Tail deer head. That’s where Dell sat every Wednesday and Thursday after seven p.m. at Dave’s Steakhouse. The staff had long since stopped guiding him to the table and always had a beer waiting for him. On December 29th, there was no beer. Strange but he didn’t mind. He took his seat, glancing to the left when he saw Fred with a waiter he’d never seen before. Tall, muscular, military-cut mouse colored hair, standing with his arms folded. Not too bad of a looker in his opinion. Would look better if he smiled though. Well, if he liked men, that was. After Fred pointed at his table, the new face stomped towards him. Becoming a regular automatically signed you up to be the practice customer for new waiters, apparently.
The new waiter stopped with his heels together and jabbed the tri-fold menu into Dell’s hands. “This is Dave’s Steakhouse and I am Jane,” he proclaimed in a thunderous voice. “You will look through this list of edible things and select one of your choosing and eat it! What will you want, consumer?”
Sealing his lips tight and nodding, Dell kept in his laughter. Like he did with other new waiters, he unfolded the menu slightly then let the laminated paper drop on the table. “Honestly, don’t know what I want,” he said. “What all y’got that’s good here?” He always knew what he wanted when he walked in, but this was a common question and it gave new waiters the chance to realize how well they knew their restaurant.
“Food!”
Perhaps there was something humorously attractive about his bluntness or it was because Dell wanted to see how stupid this man was. Either way, he said, “well, then that’s what’ll take!”
“Yes sir!” Pulling out his order notepad and a pen, Jane wrote, F-O-O, then stopped and glared at Dell. “Do you think I’m stupid, tax payer?” He punched the table. “If you were in my unit, I’d beat your ass for undermining me!”
Salt and pepper spilt on the table as Dell slapped his hand down. “And if I were on a ranch, I’d hog-tie you down before you could blink!”Those steel blue eyes glared into him with a handsome fierceness. Silently, they stared each other down, until the strangest thing happened. Dell laughed, and stranger yet, Jane laughed too. Oh, and how handsome that man was when he smiled. Just to see more of it, Dell talked to him. About what, he couldn’t remember. All he remembers was that Jane radiated a certain beauty as he smiled and responded. Jane quickly became attractive. Well, Jane would be if he was gay. Neither of them noticed when Fred had given up on Jane or when the waiters prepared the steakhouse to close. He assumed that Jane only kept his job because Dave knew how talkative he was. That and Dave confessed that it was somehow his advice, not the waiter’s constant training, that improved Jane’s sociable skills.
Over the weeks, Dell began going to Dave’s nightly to see Jane. Of course he didn’t keep Jane longer than needed. Just enough to hear that rugged voice, to see that handsome smile, and to know more about him. Though he eagrly absorbed Jane’s gorgeous personality, he felt that he lacked any knowledge about his life. Grew up in the Midwest, served in the Army, went home, began working at Dave’s. That’s all that he knew. He wanted to know more about Jane, wanted to be around Jane more...he wanted Jane. That’s what he admitted to himself on February 3rd, shortly before deciding to ask Jane out.The simple plan failed when he learned that Jane traded shifts for that day. After he ate dinner and walked down the sidewalk to the parking garage, shivering as snowflakes assaulted his face, he bumped into a homeless man. He caught glimpse of his face. “Jane?” Those steel blue eyes simply looked into him. Leaning to his left, he looked into the alley and saw a sleeping bag unrolled next to a barrel that humbly served as a fireplace.
“Dave found my home a few weeks ago,” Jane admitted. “He gave me a job and said that I should live in a shelter. That’s all the way across town. Not that I need a damn shelter anyways. I’m fine out here.”
“Boy, it’s below freezing,” Dell exclaimed. “Come home with me and I’ll keep you warm!” It wasn’t until he felt something incredibly cold in his palm did he realize that he instinctively grabbed Jane’s hand. Between seeing Jane’s hand in his own and realizing how his words sounded, blood heated his cheeks. The correct thing would have been to clarify that he meant Jane should live with him until he could afford a place and that he had good heating in his house; but none of that clarity left his mind. He feared all that was going on behind those steel blue eyes until his hand was squeezed.