Sorry for taking so long! Work and school has been a lot lately, iâll try my best to finish up and post part 2 as soon as possible. I appreciate all the interactions with my post!! Iâm also open to requests and talking with you all :) pls donât be shy hehe
Summary: It was supposed to be another day at the diner, winding down after a long day at work. Until you saw an intriguing stranger across the room.
A/n: there's no maddy fics in tumblr for s3 & i'm starving so i decided to post one myself đ PLS SOMEONE POST MORE MADDY FICS
The coffee came freshly hot, and disgustingly bitter just how you like it. You had just finished a clientâs commission painting, about some weird fucking fetish that he was into. But you didnât mind, thatâs just how Hollywood is. You got into the industry right after finishing art school, having the opportunity to gain some traction from your roommate since heâs a son of a millionaire. You didnât ask what he did for work, to be honest you were scared to. Youâll always be grateful for Robbieâs help, or more like his nepotism doing favors for you.Â
As you take a sip of your coffee watching the sunset, sitting in the diner waiting for your pancakes to arrive; you received a call from Lexi. Youâve known Lexi since Robbie introduced you to the entertainment industry, easily making her a friend. You donât know about her much, just only that sheâs living alone and trying to make her dreams come true by being an assistant to an absolute shit-bag of a director. Youâve worked with her a couple of times, commissioning a few paintings for the set that they were filming on.
âLet me guess, you need me to paint some picnics and flowers again for the set?â You sighed, not waiting for her to greet you through the phone. You heard her chuckle through the phone, which confirmed your suspicions.
âWow, you know me so well. Sorry, I know itâs way past office hours. I gave the job to a friend of a friend, which she ended up painting a few penises for no fucking reason. Now I have to pay for the set delay and in need of an incredible talented painter to help me fix up her shit. Pleeeaasseeeee? I know you wonât disappoint me, Y/Nâ You chuckled at her enunciation.
Knowing Lexi, she didnât need to call you if she werenât in deep shit. The nature of your friendship with her is mostly helping each other out. Itâs true that you werenât close to her, but youâre always a shoulder to lean on when she wanted to vent out her feelings. It was mostly about her sister though, and her crush on some random television star, and in return you would complain about clientâs weird requests, and your busted up red wine 1969 Camaro.
âJust send me the details, Howard. I owe you one anyways,âÂ
âThank you! Seriously, I appreciate this a lot, Y/LN. Sending out the details soon,â You ended the call afterwards, sighing and taking another sip afterwards, mentally noting to list out the bunch of shit you need to finish soon.Â
Your job was no luxury. Sure, the pay is amazing but the process and the comments from clients can be a killer⌠Especially if itâs from some rando out-of-touch millionaire and micro influencers with so much to say, and with so little in their brains. You still appreciate your job and would continue doing it out of passion. Besides, itâs better than being a sugar baby with no sense of purpose in life anyways.
Youâve started sketching on your notebook after taking a bite out of your pancake, preferring to draft out what you paint and draw, before starting the actual process. âItâs just lesser brain fogs to handle in the future,â You thought.
Itâs been a few hours; youâve asked for your fourth cup of coffee. Itâs normal for you at this point. With the demand of your clients and having borderline insomnia, youâre used to sitting in the same diner for hours while you finish up some work. Your sight drifted into the moonlight, the signboard of the diner silently flickering occasionally and observing cars disappearing from the parking lot.Â
You like to people watch a lot too. It says a lot about a person without them realizing it. The waitress walking around is clearly exhausted, youâve seen her for the past few nights, probably took up extra shifts to support her son back home. The table further up was a man, youâve seen him a few times, and every time with a different woman. You donât know if his wife knows, since he brought her and their kids over a few weeks ago.
Your eyes shifted over to a new face, it was subtle, yet you couldnât take her eyes off her. She was talking to someone, a friend, you hoped, over some milkshakes and pancakes. She was definitely too dressed up for a diner. You looked away, slightly flustered at how a stranger can affect you so much, and at the same time you hoped she didnât catch you staring at her like a creep.
Meanwhile, Maddy had already seen you way before. The way your eyes focused on the notebook that youâre scribbling on, or how incredibly charming and friendly you were towards the waitress.  It didnât help that Rue caught her staring too.Â
âBut donât your blood boil just from looking at her? Like- What are you looking at, Perez?â She corked her eyebrow, watching Maddyâs eyes clearly distracted from something. âWhat? Nothing. Continue what you were saying, Rue.â She replied half-heartedly, forcing her eyes to focus on Rue instead of a mysterious stranger across the diner. Rue wasnât an idiot, ever since she was sober at least. Maddy caught you staring at her. She knew sheâs winning in this little game you both were playing. âJust go up and introduce yourself, dude. Stop playing eye-tag with that poor-â
âNope. I attract what I want. I attract, not chase. Theyâre coming up to me first, I can feel it.â
Itâs been a while since Maddy had gotten into any relationships, not after Nate. She told herself sheâs going to focus on her career, get her money up and prove everyone else wrong. You looked different though. Every guy or girl that came up to her just wanted to sleep with her, use her body, and probably try to run off the next morning. Maddy wasnât falling for it, she told them to fuck off, and ârebuke all negative energyâ in her life.  She kept trying to convince herself Nate didnât ruin her concept of love and soulmates. But she knew he did. She was afraid to love again, and to love âloveâ. After Cassie, she didnât think she could trust anyone again.Â
Meanwhile, you were trying to keep yourself occupied, scribbling on your notebook while accidentally peeking on the opposite side, already catching her staring at you, and then avoid her gaze for a few minutes until the whole cycle starts all over again.  You couldnât help but blush, âanyone will if someone so ethereal is staring at you across the roomâ, you thought.Â
Before you realized, you were sketching up a portrait. It didnât take you long to realize that you were drawing her unknowingly. Like, that must be a sign from the universe, right? Once the momentum got to you, you made sure to make every single line, shade, her eyes, to be perfect.Â
It's been long enough until you received a call from Robbie, asking where you were and if you could get him some chinese takeout on the way home. You told him about the stranger, and he just said to âgrow some balls and ask for her number thenâ. Your legs felt like jelly, youâd walk pass by her on the way out and you donât know how to feel. It didnât help when she kept looking your way, waiting for you to make a move, smirking at how flustered you looked. You were psyching yourself (and your legs) up to move towards the exit and where she was, but you were admittedly the biggest pussy in the entire world.
You knew you couldnât survive approaching her, it felt like your heart was going to jump out of your body soon with how hard itâs beating. You realized you hadnât paid your bill yet. Using the opportunity, you approached the cashier, hoping to pass her the piece of paper and relay the message thatâs clearly, âHey, I want you but Iâm too much of a pussy to talk to you and ask for your number.â  The waitress gave you a cheeky smile. You couldnât say anything else out of embarrassment, so you just looked down, afraid to look her in the eye as if youâre a kid that just stole a lollipop.
âIâve gotchaâ darlinâ, donât worry about it. Just walk out when Iâm distracting her, alright?â You wanted to hug her tightly for being able to read your mind so easily, but you sufficed in a thank you and waited for the moment she approached her.
âHey ladies, ready to pay your bill?â
âOh actually weâre not done-â
âGreat, hereâs the cheque. I just need both of yallâs signatures, front and back.  Sorry, new protocol.â
Rue and Maddy looked at each other, silently reading each otherâs minds. They both took it as sign to leave, since it was getting late anyways. Just as they were paying and signing separate receipts, the waitress pulled up a folded piece of paper and handed it to Maddy. Both Rue and Maddy looked at her strangely, but the waitress just gave them a shrug and said, âIâm just the messenger,â before thanking them for their stay and walked away.
Maddyâs eyes instinctively drifted towards the booth where you had been sitting, only to realize you had already left. She glanced out at the parking lot and spotted a red wine Camaro, already pulling the brakes and driving away.Â
âWell, I guess you have to chase her now.â
âShut up, Rue.â She unfolded the paper, hoping at least you were nice enough to leave your number on it. But all she saw was a drawing.Â
Of her.Â
Sitting in the diner.Â
It took her awhile to process the drawing before Rue leaned over and saw it too.
âHoly shit, thatâs kind of romantic, yâknow?â The quality of the drawing hadnât gone unnoticed by either of them. The care and detail put into the drawing was enough for Maddy to know that you drew this at least for a while.Â
The only clue to your identity was your signature tucked under the drawing, and that was enough for Maddy to figure out who you are.
Meanwhile, you sat in your car seat, sweating uncontrollably, convinced this had to be one of the most nerve-racking experiences of your life. You left it up to fate at this point. As the night faded away, you began to realize that forgetting those eyes anytime soon was going to be impossible.
a/n: it's pretty short, but I might write a part 2! and she better not die this season sam levinson is pissing me off