Ryan and Nick - 2PM
The lunch rush at the LBJ district had gone well enough so far, affording Ryan only a couple minutes here and there to take a breather and have a lunch of his own. So when it became clear the crowds had died down, he took the opportunity to step out of the truck and get some fresh air. It was hot in Austin, if a little less humid than the Midwest, but it still felt like a relief compared to standing over the truck's grill.
They'd known that fresh food and water were scarce in Austin, but the intensity of the population's reaction to Burger, She Wrote was unprecedented. While Ryan liked to attribute this more to the quality of their cooking and less to the lack of other options, he was still realistic enough to know that once additional business came to town, they'd need to be in the best possible position with the people. Customer relationship building was especially important in these early stages.
With this in mind, once he saw a man approaching him -- a face he recognized vaguely from lunch a few hours ago -- Ryan turned to address him himself instead of asking Violet to come over for assistance. She was busy in the truck, anyway, and likely wouldn't appreciate the interruption just then.
"Hi. How's it going?"
With the lunch rush having slowed down by this point, Nick had thought now might be a good time to return to Burger, She Wrote and express just how extremely thrilled he was that the owners had taken the plunge in coming to Austin. Maybe it was a bit over the top to be so grateful for real food, but when they had been living like they had been for years, something as simple as a real meal was a big deal.
“Hey,” Nick returned the greeting with a smile. “Considering the fact that your food truck exists, I’d say things are going really good.” He added with a laugh, being extremely transparent with just how he felt about said food truck.
The laughter and the flattery brought a smile to Ryan's face, instantly relaxing him and making him more amenable to the conversation at hand. "You know, I keep hearing that. I'm glad everyone seems to like it so much."
“You’re offering real live not from a can food, I don’t know how people could not like it,” he replied, and then without missing a beat Nick continued. “How has business been for you guys out here?” And then he realized that this guy likely didn’t know that he was one of the three that had happily been on board with them bringing the food truck into the area. “Oh, shit, I’m Nick by the way. Or I guess you’d probably know me as paced from the freenet.” He held out his hand at that point, mentally commenting to himself that his mom would be horrified with his manners and how they had become sort of lax over the last few years.
"No problem," Ryan said, shaking his hand. "Small world, I guess." Although the phrase always rang a little more bittersweet nowadays, now that everything really had been condensed. Still, he was happy for the chance to put a face to a username. "Thanks for letting us come over. I'm hoping we can make it a regular thing."
Even with the new faces Austin did feel rather small still, though Nick wondered for how long that might last. “Really I don’t think any of us would have said “no” to a food truck,” Nick remarked, a friendly smile still gracing his features as he shoved his hands back into his pockets.
"Good," Ryan replied with a smile of his own. "We picked the right city." Ryan didn't feel bad about the fact that the lack of real, sustainable food options in Austin had been a driving force behind their wanting to move there, specifically, either. After all, they'd wanted to help.
Nick laughed. “You absolutely did,” he answered in agreement, taking a beat before adding. “For purely selfish reasons I hope you make it a regular thing to show up in our district.” He added with a laugh, unashamed to admit he was thrilled to have actual burgers back in Austin. “Are you hitting all the districts in Austin?” It still felt strange to refer to the various areas where there were shelters as districts, but Nick supposed it was something he would eventually get used to.