A is for Amita's Birthday
Title: A is for Amita's Birthday
Characters/pairings: Amita, mentions Amita/Charlie
Genre: Gen/Hints of het
Rating: K
Spoilers: None
Summary: Amita drowns her sorrow in caramel macchiatos
A/N: I was planning on skipping writing for this year's Alpha Challenge...
Sometimes Amita Ramanujan wasn't sure what she wanted. (Plain or peanut?). Other times, she knew what she wanted, but wasn't sure if she could get it. (The Milton Prize!) Then there were times when she was sure of what she wanted, but was convinced that it was the worst possible thing for her. (That second iced caramel macchiato, for example.)
Charlie Eppes managed the intricate feat of being on all three of those lists. Well, Charlie was a genius. Doing difficult tasks, like the Eppes Convergence or Geographic Profiling, came easy for him. It was the simple things that he couldn't wrap his mind around.
For example, remembering her birthday.
She should have expected this. Hell, she had expected this. Men in general were bad about remembering these things. Charlie, in general, was the stereotypical absent-minded professor.
So why was she feeling so depressed about not having a bouquet of roses delivered to her apartment or her office? She didn't even like roses that much, carnations had a spicier scent.
She looked at her watch. It was early yet, she told herself. Charlie had plenty of time to come up with something… perhaps a romantic dinner for two, or tickets to a concert, or… she let her mind drift… a romantic getaway to Catalina.
She shook her head and contemplated at third iced caramel macchiato. "Maybe you'd better start grading papers, Dr. Ramanujan," she muttered to herself. The paper grading expedition was her excuse to retreat to the JadeWeb cybercafé. After all, her office was too small, too stuffy and too cluttered to promote the concentration that she needed.
Generally, she'd set up camp in Charlie's office, but he hadn't been there when she had dropped by. In a fit of pique, she'd retreated here, to her favorite watering hole.
The cybercafé was cool and quite. Unlike the Pie'n'Burger, the crowd was sparse. Amita had a booth all to herself, so she could spread her papers out and not feel like she was hogging a needed table or depriving the servers of their livelihood.
However, she would leave them a generous tip when she left. She always did. Amita supposed that's why they knew her by name. A grin blossomed on her face. Well, knew her by her first name. Most of the teens that worked here had a hard time with 'Ramanujan'.
"Can I get you something?" a freckle faced redhead asked.
Speaking of servers… Amita thought wistfully of the iced caramel macchiato. She decided that she should have some food to absorb some of that excess caffeine.
"What's the lunch special today?" she asked.
The redheaded server, Ron according to his nametag, brightened. "We have bangers and mash," he explained. "Just like a real English pub. We also have a cheese and fruit plate, our Fourth of July Burger Extravaganza, a Greek salad and our personal pizzas."
Amita hesitated. The cheese and Greek salad sounded the healthiest choice. Her mind rebelled at that. It was her birthday, dang it!
"What are the toppings for the pizza?"
"We have pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham & pineapple, spinach and artichoke, or meat lovers," Ron explained cheerfully.
"I'll take the spinach and artichoke," Amita said.
"Yes, Dr. Amita," Ron said. "Anything to drink with that?"
"I'll have some… lemonade," Amita said firmly.
She finished grading her Baby Stats (AKA Statistics 101) finals before the pizza arrived. Then she nibbled daintily while she graded the finals for her Combinatorics class.
She was very pleased with the fact that she only got a few grease stains on the papers, and that all of them could be covered with gold stars (exceptionally good work) or red dots for areas the students needed to study when they stepped up to the next class.
When she was finished, she once again began the debate about having that third caramel macchiato. This time, though, the debate was between the caramel macchiato and a slice of chocolate cheesecake.
She checked her watch; she'd been hiding out here for over two hours. It was time to stuff the tests into her backpack and get back to her office so she could tend to the luscious bouquet of carnations that Charlie had no doubt left for her.
Amita laughed at herself in an attempt to cover up her hurt feelings.
She gestured at Ron to bring her check. She dug through her purse for some money and looked at the total so she could calculate the tip.
She froze.
The bill was marked 'PAID'.
"Um, Ron?" She looked around for her waiter.
Moments later, Ron appeared at her table with a bouquet of pink striped white carnations. Smiling faintly, he handed her a pink envelope.
Stunned, Amita pulled the card out and read, "Happy Birthday, Amita! I hope this gets the day started right. Don't fill up on chocolate, there's a cake at home that literally has your name on it! ~ Love, Charlie."
Amita grinned and blinked back tears. She'd underestimated Charlie. Looked like she owed him an apology. She grinned when she thought about the form that apology would take.
She left a tip, just to make sure it had been included, slung her backpack over her shoulder and started back for her office. She stopped on the way out to order two macchiatos to go. Caramel for her and mocha for Charlie.
This was going to be a very good birthday, indeed!
Characters/pairings: Amita, mentions Amita/Charlie
Genre: Gen/Hints of het
Rating: K
Spoilers: None
Summary: Amita drowns her sorrow in caramel macchiatos
A/N: I was planning on skipping writing for this year's Alpha Challenge...
Sometimes Amita Ramanujan wasn't sure what she wanted. (Plain or peanut?). Other times, she knew what she wanted, but wasn't sure if she could get it. (The Milton Prize!) Then there were times when she was sure of what she wanted, but was convinced that it was the worst possible thing for her. (That second iced caramel macchiato, for example.)
Charlie Eppes managed the intricate feat of being on all three of those lists. Well, Charlie was a genius. Doing difficult tasks, like the Eppes Convergence or Geographic Profiling, came easy for him. It was the simple things that he couldn't wrap his mind around.
For example, remembering her birthday.
She should have expected this. Hell, she had expected this. Men in general were bad about remembering these things. Charlie, in general, was the stereotypical absent-minded professor.
So why was she feeling so depressed about not having a bouquet of roses delivered to her apartment or her office? She didn't even like roses that much, carnations had a spicier scent.
She looked at her watch. It was early yet, she told herself. Charlie had plenty of time to come up with something… perhaps a romantic dinner for two, or tickets to a concert, or… she let her mind drift… a romantic getaway to Catalina.
She shook her head and contemplated at third iced caramel macchiato. "Maybe you'd better start grading papers, Dr. Ramanujan," she muttered to herself. The paper grading expedition was her excuse to retreat to the JadeWeb cybercafé. After all, her office was too small, too stuffy and too cluttered to promote the concentration that she needed.
Generally, she'd set up camp in Charlie's office, but he hadn't been there when she had dropped by. In a fit of pique, she'd retreated here, to her favorite watering hole.
The cybercafé was cool and quite. Unlike the Pie'n'Burger, the crowd was sparse. Amita had a booth all to herself, so she could spread her papers out and not feel like she was hogging a needed table or depriving the servers of their livelihood.
However, she would leave them a generous tip when she left. She always did. Amita supposed that's why they knew her by name. A grin blossomed on her face. Well, knew her by her first name. Most of the teens that worked here had a hard time with 'Ramanujan'.
"Can I get you something?" a freckle faced redhead asked.
Speaking of servers… Amita thought wistfully of the iced caramel macchiato. She decided that she should have some food to absorb some of that excess caffeine.
"What's the lunch special today?" she asked.
The redheaded server, Ron according to his nametag, brightened. "We have bangers and mash," he explained. "Just like a real English pub. We also have a cheese and fruit plate, our Fourth of July Burger Extravaganza, a Greek salad and our personal pizzas."
Amita hesitated. The cheese and Greek salad sounded the healthiest choice. Her mind rebelled at that. It was her birthday, dang it!
"What are the toppings for the pizza?"
"We have pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham & pineapple, spinach and artichoke, or meat lovers," Ron explained cheerfully.
"I'll take the spinach and artichoke," Amita said.
"Yes, Dr. Amita," Ron said. "Anything to drink with that?"
"I'll have some… lemonade," Amita said firmly.
She finished grading her Baby Stats (AKA Statistics 101) finals before the pizza arrived. Then she nibbled daintily while she graded the finals for her Combinatorics class.
She was very pleased with the fact that she only got a few grease stains on the papers, and that all of them could be covered with gold stars (exceptionally good work) or red dots for areas the students needed to study when they stepped up to the next class.
When she was finished, she once again began the debate about having that third caramel macchiato. This time, though, the debate was between the caramel macchiato and a slice of chocolate cheesecake.
She checked her watch; she'd been hiding out here for over two hours. It was time to stuff the tests into her backpack and get back to her office so she could tend to the luscious bouquet of carnations that Charlie had no doubt left for her.
Amita laughed at herself in an attempt to cover up her hurt feelings.
She gestured at Ron to bring her check. She dug through her purse for some money and looked at the total so she could calculate the tip.
She froze.
The bill was marked 'PAID'.
"Um, Ron?" She looked around for her waiter.
Moments later, Ron appeared at her table with a bouquet of pink striped white carnations. Smiling faintly, he handed her a pink envelope.
Stunned, Amita pulled the card out and read, "Happy Birthday, Amita! I hope this gets the day started right. Don't fill up on chocolate, there's a cake at home that literally has your name on it! ~ Love, Charlie."
Amita grinned and blinked back tears. She'd underestimated Charlie. Looked like she owed him an apology. She grinned when she thought about the form that apology would take.
She left a tip, just to make sure it had been included, slung her backpack over her shoulder and started back for her office. She stopped on the way out to order two macchiatos to go. Caramel for her and mocha for Charlie.
This was going to be a very good birthday, indeed!