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@flufftober Prompt: "you've told your parents?"
Zeke’s palms were sweaty. His heart was racing. Suddenly, he thought about calling in sick, or even quitting outright. Anything to spare himself the judgement of Mr. Belcher who had been nice enough to give him a job in the first place. He hadn’t been this anxious this morning. That had come after talking to Tina, who had told him about telling her parents about their date that weekend.
“You told your parents?” Zeke’s voice had come out more strained than he would have liked, but anxiety squeezed his chest at the thought of Mr. Belcher’s disapproving frown. Zeke knew how the man had felt about boys and Tina, having heard enough criticisms of the boys Tina was interested in as they worked.
“Of course,” Tina had said, oblivious to Zeke’s internal panic, “Gene and Louise too.”
They had chatted briefly at lunch, the other Belcher siblings joining them. Gene and Louise had subjected him to exaggerated questions about his intentions with Tina and teased them about only realizing how they felt after working together after school, which culminated in Louise demanding the five dollars from their bet.
“I had five dollars on you two getting together in under six months,” Louise explained, pocketing the five.
“I thought you’d wait a year before one of you had finally decided to go away for college, only for the other to suddenly realize how you felt and race to the airport to declare your love,” Gene had fake-swooned onto the table as Louise rolled her eyes.
“You and mom were watching some corny Hallmark crap again, weren’t you?”
“It’s Mommy-Son-Rom-Com-Time and you’re just jealous!”
“As if,” Louise said, just as Tina had asked “how do I get invited?”
Louise and Gene’s bickering had made him feel better. He hadn’t realized that he was so worried about the younger Belcher’s reactions until that moment. This only made his nerves about facing their father even worse. Mr. Belcher had hired him only two months ago, after Zeke had dropped his resume off and explained his plans for a gap year. He had figured working at Bob’s Burgers would allow him time to figure out if he wanted to pursue culinary college over trade school. In his short time at the restaurant, Mr. Belcher had never pressured him into deciding anything before he was ready, only asking what Zeke wanted and taking the time to show him some skills Mr. Belcher had called training but definitely had nothing to do with making burgers.
In short, Zeke had great respect for the man, and didn’t want to disappoint him. It was why he had waited so long to ask Tina out, not wanting to seem like he had only wanted to work there to get her attention.
Now he stood at the door of the restaurant, cold sweat chilling his skin despite the June sun. Zeke had reached a hand to the door before snatching it back a few times, feeling anxiety bubble up with every attempt. It was when he saw the familiar figure of Mrs. Belcher coming out to the front with a plate of food for a customer did Zeke finally have the courage to open the door.
“Oh hi, sweetie, come on in,” her familiar greeting for Zeke called over her shoulder, “Bobby’s at the grill if you want to handle assembly, we got a bunch of UberSkips orders to fill.”
“It’s UberEATS, Lin,” Mr. Belcher’s voice corrected from the back, “and the help would be appreciated.”
After a brief greeting that told him nothing of Mr. Belcher’s feelings, Zeke fell happily into the rhythm of putting together various burgers and handling fries. He had been so busy, with the end of the to-go orders had come a dinner rush (courtesy of Gene’s flyer distribution strategy of busking at Wonder Wharf), that he had almost forgotten his nerves about facing Mr. Belcher.
“So, Zeke,” Mr. Belcher started, sounding almost too casual as he flipped a lone burger, “Tina tells me that you two are going on a date.”
His stomach flipped, and Zeke swallowed before answering to prevent anymore cracking. “Uh, yeah,” Zeke said to which Mr. Belcher only hummed in response. It was a neutral sound that could mean approval or frustration.
As the silence stretched, Zeke found himself growing restless, until finally he blurted, “but if that’s some kind of conflict of interest, or you disapprove, you can let me go and I’ll find some place else-”
Mr. Belcher’s laugh stopped him mid-sentence. “Zeke, I’m not going to fire you for dating my daughter. If anything, I’m happy she’s not pining after some random guy in tight pants this time.”
Mr. Belcher turned to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Zeke, I think you have a lot of potential, no matter what you decide to do after your gap year you’re always welcome here, either as a customer or cook.”
“Really mean that, Mr. B?” Relief flooded through him so fast he almost slipped up his tomato slices.
“Of course, he does, sweetie haven’t you seen the burger of the day yet?” Mrs. Belcher had popped her head through the serving window, “you just be nice to my Teeny-Tina.”
Zeke nodded and got back to work on the last few orders of the night. When it was time to close up, Zeke volunteered to clean and lock the place up, allowing the Belchers to head upstairs early. As he set to cleaning the front end of the restaurant after prepping the kitchen, Zeke finally noticed what the burger of the day was: the Zucchina Burger, comes with a zucchini and feta fritter.