“We need to defrost the freezer,” Steve tells Eddie when he walks out carrying a tub of ice cream.
Eddie sighs, head resting on his hands while he overlooks the empty shop. “I wish someone would defrost my will to live.”
Steve finds it funny. In a guilty snort sort of way, because Eddie’s jokes are kinda dark and he isn’t sure if he’s supposed to laugh. But yeah, working at Scoops is a drag at times, and Steve understands it at some level.
It escalates from there.
Steve will tell Eddie they’re out of hazelnut ice cream, and Eddie will get a look on his face that doesn’t promise anything good.
“I’ll hazel your nuts.” Eddie cocks his head, staring at him in that ridiculous sailor uniform with mischief painted on his face.
“What the hell does that even mean?”
Steve tries to pretend he’s weirded out, but when Eddie laughs at him like that, Steve can’t help but crack up as well.
But that’s the normal stuff — because sometimes Eddie’s comments are hard to play off, and Steve doesn’t really know whether he’s joking at all.
“Morrison really fucked us over with the new schedule.” Steve frowns at the paper on the wall because they got like four evening shifts that week, including Friday and Saturday, and it’s messing with his dating life — even though that’s barely hanging on by a thread right now.
“I wish you’d fuck me over,” Eddie says as he cleans the glass display window with lazy motions.
It makes Steve stop in his tracks; makes his mouth run dry and his heart rate pick up. But Eddie just stares at him, same smile as always, waiting for Steve to shoot something back.
“Maybe I should.” The words are out before he knows it and Steve feels a little mortified by how much he meant it. When he looks over at Eddie, his lips are slightly parted, cheeks a little red, and the hand cleaning the window has stopped in its tracks.
Steve thinks that maybe Eddie meant his words as well.
