Pushing Daisies- Sonophobia
You had only been working at the Pie Hole for a few months. But in that time, you had developed a huge crush on your boss, Ned the Piemaker, and took every opportunity you had to sneak small glances at him. You were the Assistant Pastry Chef, baking the cookies, turnovers and ordering the weeks ingredients.
Ned was a shy man and not very fond of touch. When you had first gone in for a job interview, you had offered your hand to shake. He had stared at your hand as if it would grow sharp teeth and bite him. He had kept his hands clasped firmly behind his back and explained that he was a germaphobe.
Not that you weren’t without your own ‘quirks’, as the waitress Olive called them. You had a hard time making eye contact with anybody and you were extremely adverse to loud noises.
Which was the reason for your predicament at the present.
You were curled up in a corner in your closet, hands clapped over your ears trying to drown out the sound of heavy construction happening right outside your apartment. It had started early in the day, as you were getting ready for work. You had just finished putting on your clothes and were about to step into your sneakers when a loud crash and shook the building and shouts erupted from the street below. You didn’t know what had caused such racket. You were too busy folding in on yourself and having a panic attack.
You weren’t such how much time had passed by, but the noise level hadn’t gone down and you were still huddled on the floor inside your closet. Then the phone began to ring, the pulsing trill forcing a whimper out of you and you tried to press yourself through the wall. The phone rang twice more before falling silent, but the outside noise was still going strong.
It wasn’t until you heard someone knocking on your front door that it actually dawned on you that you were extremely late for work. Belatedly, you realized that it must have been Ned or Olive calling you.
Sure enough, the voice that called out through the front door belonged to your boss.
“Y/N? Y/N, it’s Ned. You didn’t come into work today, I was wondering if you weren’t feeling well. I did try calling.”
He had come to see you, thinking you were sick. Even with his germaphobe tendencies, he still came to check up on you.
“Y/N, I’m coming in.”
You heard the front door open and the sound of footsteps on the carpet.
“Y/N?”
“In here,” you squeaked out.
He appeared in the entry to your closet and his surprised face made you feel ashamed. “Y/N, what’s wrong?” He crouched down in front of you, his hands on his knees.
Someone shouted again outside and you flinched. “It-It’s too loud,” you whimpered.
Understanding dawned in his eyes and he nodded.
“I have just the thing,” he said.
He reached into his bag and pulled out large headphones. He placed them over your ears and suddenly all the noise in the world ceased. You looked up at him in amazement. He smiled his shy, crooked smile down at you and gave you a thumbs up. You returned the gesture and he stood up.
You made to follow, but your knees had cramped up from being curled up for so long on the hard floor and you staggered slightly. A large hand entered your vision and you followed it back up to Ned, who looked just as surprised as you felt at him volunteering human contact. Tentatively, you took his hand. His skin was calloused from working with a rolling pin and there was a burn on the side of his wrist that you remembered happening last week. His palm was warm against yours and when he pulled you up to your feet, it was with a surprising amount of strength that flexed the muscles of his arms enticingly.
You felt your mouth move and the vibrations in your throat felt like “Thank you.”
Ned smiled at you.
You left your apartment together, bypassing the construction that was noiseless to you. Ned kept his arm around your shoulders, guiding you around the site and through the crowd until you reached the Pie Hole. You took off the headphones and attempted to give them back to Ned, but he shook his head. “Keep them,” he said, hands once again clasped tightly behind his back.
That night, you both stayed late.
You keep glancing at him and then quickly back down to your work as you made more frosting from scratch and dyeing them.
“Hey, Y/N?” Ned called out suddenly.
“Hmm?”
“It’s okay for you to come over here,” he said shyly. “If you want to.”
You look up at him, making eye contact with him and you smile just as shyly as him and move the frosting over to the table, standing beside him. For the rest of the night, you stood side by side, sneaking looks and shy smiles at each other.