Demons [Eddie Brock] Venom

10. Work

Rory waltz into work, slipping around the desk and propping herself into it. Checking emails and replying to voicemails took up most of her morning, answering phone calls through that as well slowed her down, but nothing seemed to dampen her spirits. Even as her break started, she was so swept up in her work and her own thoughts that she didn't even notice.

"Hey, Rory, aren't you off for fifteen?" her co-worker Alana asked.

"Wow, is it eleven thirty already?" Rory was shocked, but pleased. "Today is a good day."

Alana raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, Alana, wait, do you want to head down to Starbucks for a coffee? I'm sick of that gross office machine that's never been washed and tastes like thirty different kinds of coffee." Rory made a face to accent just how much she didn't like it -she didn't really need more coffee, not after her multiple cups that morning, and the fact her heart rate was still raised due to Eddie.

"Since when you do say more than one sentence to anyone here?" Alana asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Rory flushed, embarrassed. "Sorry, I don't open up easily... And I thought this job wouldn't... I didn't think I'd be here long."

"And yet you've almost been here a year," Alana said with an echo of her own want to leave this place.

"So, what do you say?" Rory asked.

"Why the hell not?" Alana replied, and together they headed down to the street, crossing the busy road and entering the Starbucks, joining the masses of people staring at their cellphones. Usually on her break, Rory slipped into the break room, grabbed her lunch and a molasses-thick coffee, then slunk back to her desk and didn't talk to anyone. Sometimes, if she was feeling up to it, she would doodle or read.

"Listen, you don't want to get stuck in this job," Alana told her after they talked about work politics for a moment.

"Of course I don't, but it pays the bills right now and the work is steady," Rory replied. She thought of Eddie and wondered how he was going to keep affording rent and wine.

"You got a degree?" she asked.

"In art," Rory told her. "Hard world to make it."

"Do you really try? If you were really wanting to sell..."

"Paintings, I paint."

"Sell paintings, then. If you really wanted to, you'd be out there pushing your work. Art galleries, a blog, website, something to get yourself out there. So what are you doing stuck at a dead end job as a secretary?"