Bea, Ryan, and Violet
Ryan couldn't believe how well their opening night was going! They'd been worried about that doughnut shop, hoping it wouldn't be enough of a distraction to the limited number of patrons in Austin, but business was good so far. It helped that they had been trolling the city with Burger, She Wrote, he thought, and hopefully now that they had a real place -- one that didn't have zombies in it and a wall missing -- they'd be able to continue to build their business even further.
Now that curfew was getting closer, the crowd was starting to lessen and Ryan and Violet had a little bit of a break to get out and enjoy the fruits of their labor. A glass of wine now in hand, Ryan spotted a familiar face from the previous month.
"Hey, Bea, thanks for coming!" he said, grinning as he waved her over. "This is my best friend and co-owner of the restaurant, Violet."
Bea gave Ryan a huge grin as she walked over and gently clinked her beer against his wine glass in greeting. “Um, like, wow. This place is freaking amazing. Congratulations. And it’s really nice to meet you Violet,” she continued grinning, turning her gaze to the other woman.
“Nice to meet you too,” Violet said with an easy smile, more relaxed after their first night than she had been since moving to Austin. Having the restaurant in condition to open, and actually open with people eating their food, it was better than anything they'd managed to accomplish with their truck. She did love their truck, though, much more than she'd expected to.
“Did you enjoy your food? Whatever it was you had…”
“I had the salad that you recommended,” Bea said, grinning. “I’m the one you were talking to on the freenet and also the one who will never be mentioning canned vegetables again,” she continued, her grin getting wider, and that made Violet smile too. “You were totally right, though. It’s nice to take a break from meat. But I’m not so sure Ryan would agree.” A smirk passed over Bea’s lips as she glanced at the man in question as his eyebrows rose up at the innuendo, and Violet suppressed a snort of laughter.
"No," he said after a moment, unable to stop the blush from spreading on his face at the thought of the inadvertent declaration about his sexuality that he'd made in that massive group text. "I don't. Violet may, though." He put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing a little tighter than necessary.
Violet bit her lip to keep from saying ow but she did ever so subtly shift how she was standing to step on Ryan’s foot in return. “I'm glad you liked it,” she said, taking a sip of her beer. “And thank you, for not talking about canned vegetables anymore. I don't know how everyone here lasted so long on canned food - it makes me extra glad we were able to come down and bring you something more. Meat and otherwise.”
“It almost feels normal again. Going to restaurants and eating out… I mean, it would be cool if there was more than one restaurant in town, but I’m definitely not complaining that you guys are here. Did you two get to go to culinary school before the world got all crazy or was it something you learned after?” She asked, before another thought came to her, and she asked, “Are there even real colleges and universities up north?”
Ryan glanced at Violet briefly, knowing well enough to not make a snide remark about the Doughnut Hole in front of someone he didn't know. For all he was aware, Bea and the proprietress were even friends. Still, it was a slight ego boost to think that Bea didn't consider the shop to be real competition.
"We went to school in Chicago for this, yeah," he confirmed, nudging Violet ever so gently with an elbow. "And graduated before the zombies came. But there were still schools and colleges back there." Ryan nudged Violet again, then added, "Bea is from the Bay Area but lived through the whole apocalypse down here. She used to live in a high school full of teenagers."