Chapter Text
Amanda LaRusso loved take-out—guilty as charged by Lucille—but lately it seemed like every meal came out of a plastic tub. She and Anoush had pulled another late-nighter to get caught up, and things were starting to look up. Amanda’s desk was littered with containers, and they’d both eaten too much in the giddy atmosphere of their victory.
“Man,” she groaned. “How many pounds do you think we’ve put on the last few weeks?”
“Doesn’t matter. We wear our stress-eating well. So confident in that, I’ll update my dating app photo to an undershot of my face.”
“Very flattering,” she snickered. “Ooh, I almost forgot the most important part of the celebration.” She took out a bottle of champagne and did a little Price is Right model wave over it.
“Waaait a sec, Cristal for finishing up the metrics reports? That can’t be the only thing we’re celebrating.”
“No spoilers, but I should probably wait until you say yes.” She handed him a crisp sheet of paper, grinning from ear to ear. “Take your time.”
His mouth slowly fell open, his eyes soft and wide. “A…a proposal to make me General Manager?” The pay raise began to compute in his spinning head and he couldn’t help but gasp a little.
“This will make all our lives a little easier. Hell, I thought you deserved it after the year you put in with Louie—never mind now. It’s yours.”
He looked up at her with his eyelashes glistening. “God, I’m sorry,” he snickered at himself, rubbing his eye. “I’m just…a little emotional, I um,” he swallowed, clearing his damp throat. “I was the first in my family to go to college and my dad…he worked really hard for us, and never saw anything close to numbers like this. He’d be so proud. I really wish he was here.”
Amanda held up the champagne bottle with a wistful curl of her lips. “To Baba, then.”
Anoush nodded. “To Baba. And…yes. Hell yes. I’m in.” He sniffed and dragged a thumb under his eye.
Amanda hated to see him hurting, as much as it was laced with joy. It suddenly possessed her to pick up a chunk of chopped Cesear salad and hum it at his chest.
He looked down at the glob on his tie and wheezed out a laugh. “That was unexpected.”
“I’m sorry,” she giggled behind her hand. “You were crying and I was gonna start crying, and now we’re not. Levity achieved.” She blinked as he tossed a mayo-dripping sandwich in her lap. “Ohh, no. Now you’ve done it. You’re in dangerous territory now.”
“Let me guess. You were some sort of food fight champion of UCLA.” A smooshed deviled egg glopped against his cheek from across the desk. “Go Bruins,” he tried to say with a completely straight game face, and failed, snorting.
“Nope. I just like to win.at.everything.” They armed themselves again and the stare-down began. “Banzai!” Amanda cried.
It didn’t take long for their shots to get in such close range, they were smashing food in each other’s faces, in each other’s hair, howling with laughter...until Amanda slipped in the mess and Anoush caught her around the waist. “Whoa,” he swallowed, wondering how they’d gone from boss and employee to Baby and Johnny Castle in a whirl of carbs.
They looked at each other, chests rising and falling quickly. Wildfire green eyes on baby brown…a heavy blink. Cleared throats.
“I’m sorry. I’ll clean this up,” Anoush said quietly, drawing back as she found her footing again.
“No, please. Don’t apologize. We needed to let off some steam. This week was brutal.”
He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t.”
She took a napkin and wiped the egg off his face, but only the literal kind. “I know.”