Coffee and Books 1

Chapter 6

It's been a week since the tense incident at Stark Tower. Agent Williams escorted me out of the building and I have not seen Thor since, or any of the other Asgardians.
I have been thinking about it a lot. Asgard is destroyed and the remaining people of that world all came here. Tony Stark gave them food and shelter, so to speak. Thor, Loki, Heimdall and Lady Eir live at Stark Tower, the rest of them somewhere else in the city. For some reason Loki is treated differently from the others. For him to be released from somewhere, he had to be locked up first, right? But why would he be locked up? What did he do?

Of course I read about him in the mythology books, according to those stories he has magical abilities. He is the God of Lies, the Trickster, the God of Mischief, all names he got because of his actions. And now his actions caused him to be locked up and then get released on the condition of letting Tony Stark inject him with something. I just couldn't wrap my head around it. And on top of that, I actually feel sorry for Loki. I'm sure there was no need to humiliate him like that.

Lisa joins me in the small corridor in the back of the coffee shop and waves her hand before my face. "Come on, honey. Snap out of it. You have been solemn all week. You don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But we've got a room full of guests. And they want coffee. I'm sorry, but you just have to fake a smile for the moment."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I just got lost in thoughts."

Lisa squeezes my hand and then shoves me through the door to the coffeeshop. "Go get 'm, girl!"

I pull my shoulders back and fake a smile. And you know what, faking a smile tricks your body into thinking you're really happy. So after a little while I don't have to fake it anymore. After all, I really like my job. And I'm working a lot this week, as Thomas is on vacation and I'm filling in for him.
I'm carrying a tray full of chocolate cake over to a table when a jingling sound announces the presence of another customer. It's Chad. He has slung a camera bag over his shoulder and one of his cameras is hanging around his neck. He waits by the counter for me to finish my chocolate errand.
"Hello beautiful!" he says, when I'm walking over to the counter. Then he takes his camera and takes a picture.

"Please don't do that. I'm working."

"Ah come on, Ylva. Who doesn't love a picture of a beautiful girl?"

"What are you doing here, Chad?" I put down the tray and sigh. I'm getting tired of him showing up here to see me.

"Well, I came to tell you about my new job. I'm a real photographer now! Freelance. I've already sold some pics to magazines. Cool, huh?"

I hold back the urge to roll my eyes at him. When we were dating, Chad was always talking about becoming a photographer for a living. It's great he has pulled it off, but what does it have to do with me? We've broken up, surely he can live his life without me.
"Really cool. But what are you doing here? I don't think you can photograph anything interesting in a coffee shop."

"Well... two reasons. One, I wanted to ask if you were free tonight. Maybe we can get something to eat, grab a movie?"

"And two?" I ask, not reacting to his first question on purpose.

"And two... I hear that Thor is coming here every now and then. I even heard you know him. Maybe you can introduce us? A few pictures of him would really pay the bills this month."

"Oh my god. So you're a paparazzi for real now?" There's no holding back to the eye roll this time. "What made you think I would do that?" I tell him in a firm voice. "We broke up, Chad, you cheated on me. No, I don't want to go out with you again. You cheated! And I'm certainly not gonna let you bother our guests!"
Okay, I have to calm down. We're attracting way to much attention here. My voice was louder than I wanted it to be. I can see people looking at us, we're making a scene. "Please leave, Chad." I tell him as calm as possible.