Timing is Everything

“Hi, I’m Ellie. I’ll be your waitress today. Can I start you off with something to drink?” I waitress at a somewhat higher-class restaurant just a couple of blocks away from my apartment. I could have worked at a restaurant that was more fun or perhaps a diner that had a pool table and football games playing on the television, but I chose to work here. Higher class meant bigger paycheck and bigger tips.
The couple I was serving tonight looked like another teenage date that occasionally would come in.
“I’ll have an iced tea,” the boy said. The girl was staring at me oddly.
“Wait a minute… Aren’t you EllieEccentric from the Internet?” the girl asked, referring to me by my Internet name.
“Guilty as charged,” I smirked with a small shrug.
“I am such a huge fan! I watch all of your videos! I knew you worked at a restaurant around here, but I didn’t know you worked at this one!”
“Yeah, I never deemed it appropriate to say exactly where I worked,” I laughed.
“So then I guess you wouldn’t want me to take a picture with you,” she said, slightly disappointed.
“No, that’s fine!” I said and
put my order pad down so I could take a picture with her.
“Great! I promise I won’t tell the whole Internet where you work!”
“It’s okay. I’m sure some people already know. As long as I don’t just come out and say it in a video, then I’m sure I’m safe,” I smiled as she stood up so her date could take a picture of us.
Out of all my customers that night, they tipped me the best. I also made sure to give them some extra mints with their check since she was so nice to me.

When I got home, I planned on making a video about my experience with meeting a fan and work, but when I got into my apartment, Luke was already there.
“I missed you,” he said sweetly before kissing me.
“I missed you too,” I said then went to sit on my sofa with him. “Did you finish editing all your videos today?”
“I finished my introduction to my second channel, edited the channel, put the intro video up, and started editing my first real video for that channel,” he said, proud of himself.
“Sounds like you had a busy day.”
“Worked my butt off,” he smiled his adorable smile that even after three and a half years, still gave me butterflies. “How was work?”
“Pretty good actually. I met a fan that I was serving,” I said.
“Really? That’s great, Ellie! Was she like the others you met where she didn’t know you for sure, or did she know who you were?”
“She seemed to know me. Said she watched all my videos and asked for a picture.”
“Wonderful, babe,” he kissed the top of my head. “You’re getting out there. It won’t be long until you’re one of the most searched people on the Internet.”
“I doubt that much,” I chuckled. “But it’s not like we can’t dream.” I rested my head on his shoulder. “Are you spending the night?”
“Yep. Just have to take a shower then I’m ready for bed.”
“Same here,” I smiled at him.

“Babe!” I yelled the next morning.
“What?” he asked as he walked towards me in the living room from the bedroom.
“Have you seen Louis’s new video on his side channel?” I asked.
“No. I didn’t know he posted it yet,” he said then sat next to me.
“Come watch,” I said then replayed the video.
It started off with Louis doing an introduction to the new channel, and the he decided to do a short ‘Day in the Life,’ which was odd since his day didn’t start until well after noon. His video included me cooking, him talking a lot about how Luke would probably be in the videos often, and how I might be too.
“Are you upset by the video?” he asked me skeptically.
“No, it’s just that people have never seen me like that before,” I said.
“Like what?”
“Well, normal, I guess.”
“Babe, we’re never normal,” he smirked. “But I know what you mean. And this is a good thing. People will see you more, like you more, and subscribe to you more. You do want more subscribers don’t you?” I nodded. “Then let them see the real you. No scripts planned out or anything. Just you being you on any normal day.”
“Makes sense,” I shrugged.
“So, what’s up for today?” he asked as he pushed my hair back from my shoulder.
“Work at two, and I need to start planning my next video.”
“What are you thinking for this video?”
“I actually wanted to do the boyfriend tag,” I said. He looked at me suspiciously; we hardly made many videos together. “My viewers are always asking about you, so I thought we should do it. It kind of seems like a lot of them only watch me for you.”
“I doubt that. Remember that girl at work last night? She definitely doesn’t watch your videos for me. And why would anyone? You’re more than interesting enough for them to only want to watch you.” I smiled slightly. “So, what’s this boyfriend tag look like?”
I pulled up the file on my computer that had all the questions in it. It was mainly questions to see how well he knew me, but I thought it looked like fun. He skimmed over the questions a bit.
“Is there a girlfriend tag?” he asked.
“I’m sure there is. Why?”
“We should do both,” he smiled. I smiled back. He never really showed that much of me on his channel. It would be nice to be on it more.
“That would be fun,” I said. “When should we do them?”
“We’ve got about three hours before you have to go to work. Want to film them now?” he asked.
“Okay,” I said.
I pulled my camera out and set everything up so we could start. Luke was going to answer my questions first.
“Hey everyone! Today Luke and I decided to do the Boyfriend/Girlfriend Tag! You’ll see this one now, and you can see me answer his questions in the Girlfriend Tag on his channel, so let’s get right into it! The first question is when and where did we meet.”
“We met a few years ago at a party a friend of ours was having,” Luke smiled.
“Yep. Next question is when did you meet my parents?”
“Not long after the party. We started hanging out a lot after that, and I was just always over.”
“What is one thing you wish I didn’t do?”
He thought for a moment. “I wish you didn’t have to work in a restaurant so you could spend more time with me and doing other things you want to do with your time.”
“Awe, that’s sweet,” I smiled. “Where was our first date?”
“Ugh, that’s tough. How do you know what classifies as a date? I-I’m not sure.”
“You don’t remember?” I asked.
“No, you do?”
“That day at the beach. When it was just the two of us. You don’t remember that?”
“Yeah, I remember that! I just never knew you thought of that as our first real date.”
“Well, it was the first time we hung out together alone, and you were being all flirty, so I always thought that was our first date.”
“Then that was our first date!” he laughed. I smiled with him. I wasn’t actually surprised that he didn’t know. We never really talked about dates.
“What eye color do you wish I had?”
“I like your eye color. They’re the perfect green.”
“What TV show am I always watching?”
“Friends. She has watched every episode at least twenty times!” he said excitedly.
“Not twenty times!”
“Close to!”
“Close to,” I agreed quietly. “What salad dressing do I use?”
“Ranch. Ranch on everything!”
I nodded in agreement. “What’s one food I don’t like?”
“Mushrooms, mustard, mayonnaise, anything that starts with an ‘M’ basically.”
“ONE thing! And not everything that starts with an ‘M’ at all. I like macaroni. What drink do I not like?”
“Anything lemon-lime.”
“What is my favorite drink?”
“Orange soda.”
“What is my shoe size?”
“Oi… is it a seven? Seven and a half?”
“Seven and a half normally. Good job. What do I collect?”
“You don’t really collect anything,” he said.
“No, I don’t. What’s my favorite sandwich?”
“Grilled cheese.”
“Yes. What would I eat everyday if I could?”
“Grilled cheese.”
“No.”
“I know,” he laughed. “French fries.”
“Probably. What’s my favorite cereal?”
“You eat a lot of cereal. I would have to say Cocoa Pebbles.”
“It’s one of my favorites. I don’t think I have a one favorite. What music do I like?”
“Anything you can dance to.”
“Pretty much. My favorite sports team?”
“You don’t like sports.”
“Not really. What hair color was I born with?”
“You were born with the blondest hair ever! Then it started turning colors! It turned a light red and you dye it bright red.”
“True. Who is my best friend?”
“Me.”
“Besides you.”
“Jamie?”
“Yeah. Hi, Jamie! What heritage do I have?”
“Your dad’s British. And your mom has a lot of Italian and Irish in her.”
“That’s right. What is my favorite cake?”
“Red velvet.”
“Did I ever play sports?”
“No.”
“Never. What would I spend hours doing?”
“Shopping.”
“Possibly. What is a talent of mine that you love?”
“She is awesome at playing piano. And making me happy.”
I smiled and kissed him lightly. “When and where was our first kiss?”
“It was right before I asked you out. We were outside your parents’ house right before you moved out.”
“Yeah. Who said ‘I love you’ first?”
“I did.”
“Yep. And who wears the pants in the relationship?”
“You do.”
“Ya darn right, I do,” I laughed. We don’t really believe in ‘wearing the pants.’ It just seemed like a stupid thing. We were both mutual.