The Barista

Four: Reiss Industries

It wasn't that Eren was ambitionless - in fact, it was quite the opposite. Eren was a hard worker when his heart was in it. Ivy just wasn't sure where his heart had gone since Grisha left.

"This is embarrassing." Eren grumbled, rolling up the sleeve of his white button down.

Ivy didn't say anything. She had tried to make herself presentable for the job fair, but her wardrobe didn't exactly anticipate business casual. At least Eren looked the part, but she still couldn't picture him at any of the jobs that had booths. They were mostly banks and credit unions and office work. Eren was more suited for hands-on things.

"Hey, don't they do engineering? Military stuff or something?" Ivy stopped, pointing to a blue booth and trying to make out the title and logo. 

"I don't recognize them."

"Reiss something. They made all those special suits for the military in the war with Marley. They do a lot of contracts for the military."

"Oh, yeah." Eren paused a little, perhaps garnering some confidence. He had thought about going into the military himself, but it turned out to be sort of a pipe dream. Leaving home and friends for so long didn't suit him, especially not right out of highschook. That was back when he and Ivy were still together. 

Eren adjusted his sleeve one more time before walking up to the booth. Ivy followed shortly behind, rummaging in her tote for Eren's folder of resumes.

"Hi there!" The tall brunette woman behind the booth smiled brightly, holding her hand out for a firm shake from both of them. "I'm Hange Zoë of Reiss Institute. This is my associate Levi Ackermann, former combat engineer." Hange gestured to her raven haired companion. Ivy locked eyes with him, suspended in vague familiarity.

"Eren Yeager. I had some questions about who you might be looking for, and what..uh, positions, you're looking to fill." It sounded a little rehearsed, but convincing enough.

"Sure! Why don't you come have a seat? We have plenty of positions ranging from..."

The woman's voice trailed off as she led Eren to the other side of the booth and behind a curtain, leaving Ivy alone with the combat engineer. She smiled shortly, a little awkwardly, and tucked Eren's resumes back in her tote. It looked like she wouldn't be needed much after all.

"My name is Ivy - hope it's not creepy, but I remember you from the café over on Point Street. I work there." She smiled shortly. Embarrassment filled her the more she thought about it, and she wondered if she shouldn't have reminded him of that watery tea after all. 

"Job hunting, huh? Engineering is a big step from food service." If it was a joke, it was hard to tell. Levi didn't smile.

"Oh, no. I'm just here to help Eren." Ivy laughed. "He's really good with his hands. I mean—he's worked as a mechanic for a while, just on cars and household things. So I imagine that sort of thing is interdisciplinary, he was good at it there.." Her face felt hotter by the second. Levi was so quiet, it was easy to just keep talking to fill the silence and embarrass herself. At the end of the speech he just nodded, eyeing her a little suspiciously.

"...Anyways, you have our number now!  Go ahead and give us a call, we'll see if we could work out a tour." Hange returned with Eren momentarily, diffusing the awkward silence that had formed between Ivy and Levi. Eren looked a little starry eyed. "Levi, Eren here has worked on those mustangs you like!"

"The 1969 boss, sir." Eren smiled a little.

Levi looked over from Ivy to nod. "Yes, I had one of those for a while. Did you have any more questions?" Ivy was surprised they'd picked Levi to be a representative. He might be good at his job, but his people skills were lacking. He clearly couldn't wait to be out of there.

"Where exactly are you based out of? Like...where do you go to work?" 

"Our Paradis headquarters are in Sina, but we have smaller workspaces all throughout Trost and Shiganshina. Most of our mechanics work on bases." Levi answered.

Hange threw her arm around Levi's neck, grinning. "Levi's being so humble though! He's been all over the place, we have headquarters all over the world! Stick with Reiss as long as he has and I'm sure you'll get around too!"

Levi looked a little irritated, and Ivy saw him shrug Hange's arm off his shoulder as they walked away. Eren was holding an armful of recruiter pamphlets and paperwork, and his face looked considerably lifted. He was walking Ivy towards the exit of the fair warehouse.

"We're leaving already?" Ivy slowed down a second, looking up to Eren.

"That was great, Ives, we don't even need to see anyone else! I mean, did you hear what she said? About the traveling? I could see the world and get paid, Ivy!"

Ivy couldn't help but laugh a little, if not out of joy of seeing Eren so happy, but she still had her reservations. "Don't you think it's good to grab a few backups just incase? Just to see what else is out there, incase this doesn't pan out?"

Eren slowed as they neared his car, smile faltering. "No. I know I could work that out. I mean, did you see how desperate they seemed? Hange was practically foaming. At first I could just work parts and fullfillment, and with some training I could be a real mechanic. Aren't you happy for me?"

"Yes, I'm happy." Ivy heaved a small sigh. Hange had been overly eager. Maybe she had just wanted to get rid of them. Eren had a history of false starts like this, and the crash when it failed was intense. Ivy was just glad she no longer lived with him to experience it.

"Thanks for coming with me." Eren opened the car door for Ivy as they arrived. "You know me, I probably wouldn't have gone if you hadn't told me about it."

Ivy wanted to tell Eren not to get used to it, but she restrained herself. By the time he got into his side of the car, her phone buzzed with a call.

"Hello?"

Eren shot her a glance.

"Hi, is this Ivy? This is Tomas with Omni-Motive Care."

"Oh, hi Tomas." Ivy's cheeks flushed red. Her car. She'd told Tomas days ago she'd make some calls to see about getting the $800 for the repairs, but it had sort of been a lie. Ivy didn't know anybody with money laying around like that.

"Yeah, just calling to follow up on your sedan. I can only keep it in the shop three more days, boss's rules."

"Sorry about that. I, um...I still have to come up with financing. But I swear, I'll call you back in three days, and if not, I'll come pick it up and you don't have to worry about it."

"Sure. It's a crazy storage fee per day if you go past these next three days, so call back by Wednesday, okay?"

"Okay. Sure thing. Sorry."

The whole week Ivy had been trying to buy time to come up with the money. Maybe it was more like she was putting off dealing with it. Between rent and utilities and phone bills and food, Ivy's café paycheck couldn't spare that. 

"Everything okay?" Eren glanced over at her again.

"Yeah. Just my car."

"Still in the shop?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, you know, I bet it would really relieve some of that if you crashed with me for a few months. Just to pay the car off, then you could go back and start renting again if you wanted."

Ivy stayed quiet, so Eren continued. "With this new job, I'm gonna get us out of here, Ivy. I promise. You're not going to have to worry about anything. Just give me a year."