Fic : Eat Me 1/? (Pinto, NC17)
Title : Eat Me
Fandom : Pinto
Rating : Eventually NC17, this part, G
Word Count : 1397
Summary : Zach owns a smoothie bar in Silverlake, but a new arrival in town might trouble his business, and his pants.
Zach liked the whirr of the blender. The whirr of the blender said that he had just made five dollars, and although money wasn’t his number one concern it took him one step closer to his break even point of 45 smoothies per day which would keep the store running and keep him from having to get a real job where he couldn’t play his Cho Kee Ra CD or call his customers ‘bro’.
“Thanks bro, that’ll be five dollars” he grinned, sliding the lime and ginger with a brain boost shot over to his customer. Cha-ching, another great day in decidedly non-corporate America.
He strolled over to the noticeboard to straighten a poster for the anti-racism gig and take down some of the old flyers. It was slightly bothersome that he had time to do this at 9.15 but he wasn’t going to let it worry him. Maybe he would have a promotion soon or...something. Whatever.
“Sorry I’m late, there was a crazy lady on the bus and she wouldn’t let anyone get off until she’d finished her song.” Eliza, his loosely termed sales assistant didn’t look to be in much of a hurry. She didn’t bustle, she never rushed. She was late every day. But hey, the government paid her wages so what did he care? Her parole officer didn’t need to know.
“So has he been in yet? How’s my hair?”
“You have feathers in it.”
Eliza smiled, licking at her lip ring. “I know right? They’re my new thing because I feel like I have a real connection to birds. I’m getting a new tattoo tomorrow of like, a raven. So has he?”
Zach shook his head. “He doesn’t get here til 9.30 usually, I figure he runs in the morning. He looks like a runner.”
‘He’ was their flavour of the week. They had a few regular customers but they soon got bored of lusting after them after the wedding ring appeared or they picked up a strawberry kebab for their girlfriend one morning and moved onto the next tasty morsel. The current one had actually lasted for two weeks and in Zach’s head stories they had already had their first date and he had sucked him off in the back room of the store surrounded by crates of mango and banana. In reality, he didn’t know anything about the guy other than he had movie star looks and the most gorgeous, shining green eyes.
“Cool, I’ll start washing the grapes for when he gets here. It’s my turn to flirt today, right? Monday.”
“Your turn, make me proud.” Zach stretched and eyed a delivery truck across the street. They’d been coming pretty regularly since the empty store next door was finally marked as sold, but the whole operation had been very secretive, the windows replaced and then immediately covered in plastic so that no nosy neighbourhood smoothie sellers could peep in and see what was happening. On their block was a copy place, a bicycle shop and until recently, a furniture store. When Mr Young had finally retired Zach had been curious as to what was going to be installed next door but he had at least managed to glean one nugget from the name on a delivery mistakenly made to his door one morning - it was another furniture store, nothing to worry about.
The bell on the door jingled and Zach looked up, expecting Him. “Grape and prune?”
“Uhm, I dunno, do I look like a prune guy?”
It wasn’t Him.
“Sorry...” Zach blushed as the guy took off his shades and flashed him a smile. “I was expecting a regular customer.”
“No wonder he’s regular if he has prunes every day.”
Zach laughed weakly and gripped the counter. This guy was cute, actually. Browny blonde hair, blue eyes, shirt all tucked into his jeans like he was on The OC. “So what can I get you?”
Blue Eyes surveyed the chalked up menu,squinting a little. “Wow, you have a lot of...information up there.”
“Yeah, we have a great deal of choice, maybe I can recommend something.”
He bounced his eyebrows. “You recommend stuff?”
“Of course, what kind of fruit do you like?”
Zach waited uncomfortably as the guy seemed to ponder this for a long time. Eventually Blue Eyes shifted and sighed. “I don’t really eat a lot of fruit if I’m honest. What tastes good?”
“How about raspberry and kiwi fruit with a shot of brain booster so you can finish your crossword?” Zach gestured to the folded up New York Times under his arm and Blue Eyes blushed.
“Sure. Nice place you have here. You get a lot of business?”
Zach busied himself with making the smoothie, noticing Eliza huddled in the back room with her thumbs up like the guy was already naked and spread on the counter. “It’s okay, between 9 and 10 we get a rush.”
Blue Eyes looked around him, then at his watch. “What now? This is a rush?”
“Well, someone just left before you got here, and I’m expecting a regular, like I said...” He felt uneasy, like he was having to explain himself. “It’s Monday, so you know...”
“I would have thought your busiest time would be around 8, you know, the pre-work crowd. People getting their morning smoothie, drinking it on the way to the office?” He studied the menu again and Zach bristled.
“We only open at nine actually....”
Blue Eyes was staring at him. Then he nodded and smiled like you do when someone has said something really dumb and you can’t be bothered to challenge them about it. “Sure, sure...How much do I owe you?”
Zach slid the drink over. “Five dollars please.”
Another look. “Five dollars? That’s a large though, right?”
Zach spluttered “There’s a lot of fruit in there, trust me, when you taste it it’ll be worth it!”
Laughing, Blue Eyes pushed his five across the counter. “For five dollars I was expecting a cup the size of an espresso, I’ll be working on this til lunchtime!”
“We aim to please.” Zach forced his smile this time. Who was this guy? Donald Trump?
Blue Eyes took his smoothie and took a long draw, his eyes rolling back as he gulped it. “Mmmm! That is gorgeous! That is the best smoothie I have ever had.”
Warming with pride, Zach went into flirt mode. Why not? The guy was a little strange but he was hot in a Ken doll kind of way. “Well I hope we’ll be seeing more of you, I have lots of other treats I’d like you to try.”
“I bet you have. Well, I just bought the place next door, so I guess I’ll be in here every day until we open.”
“Oh wow! Nice to meet you,welcome to the neighbourhood.” Zach stuck out his hand and gave him an extra squeezy shake. This one could become a long term project. “I’m Zach Quinto.”
“Chris. Great to meet you. And thanks for the recommendation, you really got me down.” He raised his cup and made his way out as Eliza darted in from the back.
“He’s cute, he’s really cute.”
“Yeah, he’s okay. He bought the place next door.”
Eliza went to the window to scope him as he walked down the street. “No way, he does the New York Times crossword but he gave his store such a corny name? I mean seriously, who calls a furniture store Mr Pine?”
-----------------
Chris stowed his smoothie in the cup holder of his Chrysler and stared at the door of Quinto Smoothie. They opened at nine and three customers constituted a rush? He sniggered and called his business partner, taking another swig of the smoothie, which was actually first class. “Karl? Hey, I just met our nearest competitor. No, nothing to worry about. I’d be surprised if he’s still there in six months. Okay, talk to you later.”
He hung up and looked back at the store. Zach was hot, but he had no business sense. He’d been a little concerned that the hipster neighbourhood might be in the pocket of the smoothie place but having seen the morning ‘rush’ with his own eyes, Chris was no longer worried. The first LA branch of Meat Me Burger Kitchen was going to own this block.
On to part 2
Fandom : Pinto
Rating : Eventually NC17, this part, G
Word Count : 1397
Summary : Zach owns a smoothie bar in Silverlake, but a new arrival in town might trouble his business, and his pants.
Zach liked the whirr of the blender. The whirr of the blender said that he had just made five dollars, and although money wasn’t his number one concern it took him one step closer to his break even point of 45 smoothies per day which would keep the store running and keep him from having to get a real job where he couldn’t play his Cho Kee Ra CD or call his customers ‘bro’.
“Thanks bro, that’ll be five dollars” he grinned, sliding the lime and ginger with a brain boost shot over to his customer. Cha-ching, another great day in decidedly non-corporate America.
He strolled over to the noticeboard to straighten a poster for the anti-racism gig and take down some of the old flyers. It was slightly bothersome that he had time to do this at 9.15 but he wasn’t going to let it worry him. Maybe he would have a promotion soon or...something. Whatever.
“Sorry I’m late, there was a crazy lady on the bus and she wouldn’t let anyone get off until she’d finished her song.” Eliza, his loosely termed sales assistant didn’t look to be in much of a hurry. She didn’t bustle, she never rushed. She was late every day. But hey, the government paid her wages so what did he care? Her parole officer didn’t need to know.
“So has he been in yet? How’s my hair?”
“You have feathers in it.”
Eliza smiled, licking at her lip ring. “I know right? They’re my new thing because I feel like I have a real connection to birds. I’m getting a new tattoo tomorrow of like, a raven. So has he?”
Zach shook his head. “He doesn’t get here til 9.30 usually, I figure he runs in the morning. He looks like a runner.”
‘He’ was their flavour of the week. They had a few regular customers but they soon got bored of lusting after them after the wedding ring appeared or they picked up a strawberry kebab for their girlfriend one morning and moved onto the next tasty morsel. The current one had actually lasted for two weeks and in Zach’s head stories they had already had their first date and he had sucked him off in the back room of the store surrounded by crates of mango and banana. In reality, he didn’t know anything about the guy other than he had movie star looks and the most gorgeous, shining green eyes.
“Cool, I’ll start washing the grapes for when he gets here. It’s my turn to flirt today, right? Monday.”
“Your turn, make me proud.” Zach stretched and eyed a delivery truck across the street. They’d been coming pretty regularly since the empty store next door was finally marked as sold, but the whole operation had been very secretive, the windows replaced and then immediately covered in plastic so that no nosy neighbourhood smoothie sellers could peep in and see what was happening. On their block was a copy place, a bicycle shop and until recently, a furniture store. When Mr Young had finally retired Zach had been curious as to what was going to be installed next door but he had at least managed to glean one nugget from the name on a delivery mistakenly made to his door one morning - it was another furniture store, nothing to worry about.
The bell on the door jingled and Zach looked up, expecting Him. “Grape and prune?”
“Uhm, I dunno, do I look like a prune guy?”
It wasn’t Him.
“Sorry...” Zach blushed as the guy took off his shades and flashed him a smile. “I was expecting a regular customer.”
“No wonder he’s regular if he has prunes every day.”
Zach laughed weakly and gripped the counter. This guy was cute, actually. Browny blonde hair, blue eyes, shirt all tucked into his jeans like he was on The OC. “So what can I get you?”
Blue Eyes surveyed the chalked up menu,squinting a little. “Wow, you have a lot of...information up there.”
“Yeah, we have a great deal of choice, maybe I can recommend something.”
He bounced his eyebrows. “You recommend stuff?”
“Of course, what kind of fruit do you like?”
Zach waited uncomfortably as the guy seemed to ponder this for a long time. Eventually Blue Eyes shifted and sighed. “I don’t really eat a lot of fruit if I’m honest. What tastes good?”
“How about raspberry and kiwi fruit with a shot of brain booster so you can finish your crossword?” Zach gestured to the folded up New York Times under his arm and Blue Eyes blushed.
“Sure. Nice place you have here. You get a lot of business?”
Zach busied himself with making the smoothie, noticing Eliza huddled in the back room with her thumbs up like the guy was already naked and spread on the counter. “It’s okay, between 9 and 10 we get a rush.”
Blue Eyes looked around him, then at his watch. “What now? This is a rush?”
“Well, someone just left before you got here, and I’m expecting a regular, like I said...” He felt uneasy, like he was having to explain himself. “It’s Monday, so you know...”
“I would have thought your busiest time would be around 8, you know, the pre-work crowd. People getting their morning smoothie, drinking it on the way to the office?” He studied the menu again and Zach bristled.
“We only open at nine actually....”
Blue Eyes was staring at him. Then he nodded and smiled like you do when someone has said something really dumb and you can’t be bothered to challenge them about it. “Sure, sure...How much do I owe you?”
Zach slid the drink over. “Five dollars please.”
Another look. “Five dollars? That’s a large though, right?”
Zach spluttered “There’s a lot of fruit in there, trust me, when you taste it it’ll be worth it!”
Laughing, Blue Eyes pushed his five across the counter. “For five dollars I was expecting a cup the size of an espresso, I’ll be working on this til lunchtime!”
“We aim to please.” Zach forced his smile this time. Who was this guy? Donald Trump?
Blue Eyes took his smoothie and took a long draw, his eyes rolling back as he gulped it. “Mmmm! That is gorgeous! That is the best smoothie I have ever had.”
Warming with pride, Zach went into flirt mode. Why not? The guy was a little strange but he was hot in a Ken doll kind of way. “Well I hope we’ll be seeing more of you, I have lots of other treats I’d like you to try.”
“I bet you have. Well, I just bought the place next door, so I guess I’ll be in here every day until we open.”
“Oh wow! Nice to meet you,welcome to the neighbourhood.” Zach stuck out his hand and gave him an extra squeezy shake. This one could become a long term project. “I’m Zach Quinto.”
“Chris. Great to meet you. And thanks for the recommendation, you really got me down.” He raised his cup and made his way out as Eliza darted in from the back.
“He’s cute, he’s really cute.”
“Yeah, he’s okay. He bought the place next door.”
Eliza went to the window to scope him as he walked down the street. “No way, he does the New York Times crossword but he gave his store such a corny name? I mean seriously, who calls a furniture store Mr Pine?”
-----------------
Chris stowed his smoothie in the cup holder of his Chrysler and stared at the door of Quinto Smoothie. They opened at nine and three customers constituted a rush? He sniggered and called his business partner, taking another swig of the smoothie, which was actually first class. “Karl? Hey, I just met our nearest competitor. No, nothing to worry about. I’d be surprised if he’s still there in six months. Okay, talk to you later.”
He hung up and looked back at the store. Zach was hot, but he had no business sense. He’d been a little concerned that the hipster neighbourhood might be in the pocket of the smoothie place but having seen the morning ‘rush’ with his own eyes, Chris was no longer worried. The first LA branch of Meat Me Burger Kitchen was going to own this block.
On to part 2