At Midnight

Thor

...you have no idea who you are dealing with...

When I spoke, Mara had a habit of intently watching and listening to my every move.

look productive, Mara and I stayed standing at our cash registers. I busied myself by playing with the display drink cups, stacking and unstacking them. It was more to distract my hands from shaking. Mara had a habit of intently watching and listening to my every move when I spoke.

When I spoke, Mara had a habit of intently watching and listening to my every move. As I spoke, I was forced to play with the display drink cups, stacking and unstacking them. It was more to distract my hands from trembling. Her eyes-- no, her everything made me nervous.

"So, Magneto is their dad, but he's not really their dad?" she asked.

"Precisely. Contract dispute," I said. Thoughtfully, I added, "He could have been helpful in Age of Ultron. At the same time, it would have been over in about an hour, so I guess that's a good thing."

"Who's next?" she asked.

"Thor is the giant, buff, non-Earthling. He has a hammer, Mjolnir, and he's the only person who can use it, since you have to be worthy to hold the hammer. There's an inscription on the side of it. If we've got time, I can quote it--"

"Jannick," a voice snapped from behind me, our sour manager. "May I speak with you in private?"

Mara was forced to keep the polite smile on her face, as she was facing Cameron. (When asked why she didn't alert me to his presence earlier, she said, "I was really concentrating on that cute face of yours." Obviously, I let her off the hook.)

Inhaling a breath, I sent Mara a nervous look, before I changed my face to neutral and hopped the counter.

A reasonable distance from the stand, Cameron faced me. "Did Carrow ask to be here back with you just to be distraction?"

"Not that I know of," I said.

"What are you two doing back there?"

"Working, when there are customers."

"What do you do when there aren't?"

"We make small talk."

"I was watching you for a while," Cameron said with no shame. "You two talk when you are serving customers. They are your main priority, Jannick."

"And by taking me away from the counter, aren't you making the customers wait longer?"

Cameron stared at me with no emotion for a few awkward seconds, where I was mentally preparing him to fire me for talking back.

"If you weren't so good at your job, I'd fire you, Clifford."

Coming out of the bathroom near me, Jason watched Cameron walk away. "What was that about?"

Mara ran to us, shoving money into Jason's hands. "Buy me tickets to Civil War. 12:01."

"Why?" Jason asked, glancing between us and the money, which was clearly enough for two people.

"Jason," Mara said sternly.

Jason narrowed his eyes at her, before he closed his fingers around the money. "Give me a second," he said.

The three of us retreated to our work stations.

"I mean, there were a few times where your face clearly showed you were scared, but other than that, good job not cracking," Mara said proudly.