When It Mattered Most

What was THAT?

After Fischbach left, there was a moment of silence and curiosity got the better of him, "What's he doing?"

Amy swallowed a bite of her eggs, "His job. He has meetings on his computer and talks a lot. I've learned to ignore him." At Mark's questioning look she added, "He yells a lot."

Mark wasn't sure why Fischbach would yell a lot during a meeting, but elected to dismiss the fact, "I'm guessing that you guys can't tell me anything about the future?"

She looked genuinely sorry, and Mark found himself liking her, "Yeah, paradoxes and all that."

A moment more of silence, where Amy finished her eggs, and he asked her, "You don't happen to have an iPhone Four charger, do you?"

Amy quirked her head for a moment, "We might, actually."

She turned around and rifled through one of the drawers behind her. It looked to be full of various knickknacks, change, paperclips, and cords. After a few moments she turned to him, holding one of the cords up, "Is this it?"

Examining it, Mark smiled, "Yeah, thanks."

She waved it off, "No problem. But I've got to ask you not to look anything up about the future."

Mark hummed, plugging his phone into the wall of the kitchen, "Of course, I don't wanna cheat at life, where's the fun in that?"

If he were honest with himself, Mark really wanted to know what was going to happen in his life. Although, he doubted he'd find much of it on the Internet. A thought came to Mark's mind, "Do you work online too, or...?"

Amy smiled, putting her own plate in the sink, "Yeah I do." She gestured to a laptop on a coffee table in the next room, and put her mask on, "I doubt it would make much of a difference if you knew what my job is; I'm a graphic designer."

"Oh, that's cool. I can barely operate Photoshop myself. I'm trying to learn, but you know."

Amy looked as though she was considering something, "Well- Hm. I'd offer to help you learn, it's probably not a good idea, all considering."

"Yeah, future knowledge and all that. Besides, your version of Photoshop is probably different from mine."

"Yeah, probably." Mark stood in the alcove; Amy was on the other side. Mark decided to check what his phone was at, more to do something than in an actual interest. The phone turned on as it usually did after it died, but for the barest moment his screen was bright blue before showing his lock screen image.

Noticing his surprise Amy asked, "What is it?"

Mark flipped his screen around in his view blinking incredulously, the screen did not change back, however. "I- uh... N-Nothing...."

Humming, Amy narrowed her eyes at Mark, "If you say so."

"Aaanyway. If there's nothing else to do, are there any movies you like that you can watch?" Amy looked curious.

Mark nodded, thinking. "Do you think I could watch Iron Man?"

After a moment Amy conceded, "Sure, so long as the volume's not too loud."

"Of course, that'd just be rude of me."

Amy laughed. "Here, I think we have the Blu Ray around here somewhere."

She began searching the cabinet next to the big flat screen TV, Mark was about to join her and help, but she stopped him. "No offence, but I don't think you want to spoil any movie releases for yourself." Mark agreed and decidedly just sat on the couch and waited a moment before she found it.

Amy put the movie in the reader and lowered the volume before handing the controller to Mark. She grabbed her laptop from the other room before sitting next to him on the couch. Amy worked on her projects while Mark watched the movie.

Occasionally, the screen would flash a color, only ever blue, red, green, or yellow. Amy never seemed to see it, even when she took a break to watch with him.

Mark at first thought that he was imagining it completely, but then it kept happening. But Amy never seemed to see it, or maybe she did notice and chose not to comment on it. But if it was normal to the TV, why did he see it on his phone? He couldn't have been here for more than a few hours, what was going on?

As the climax of the movie drew closer however, the strange flashes left Mark's mind. He loved this part.

After the movie finished, and they were waiting for the end credit scene, Mark heard a shout from a room farther in the house. He looked at Amy, "Was that work related?"

Not looking up from her laptop, Amy nodded, "Oh yeah. He gets pretty passionate sometimes. Don't worry about it."

Mark slowly nodded, "Okay then...."

When the movie had finished, Amy asked, "Do you want some lunch?"

"Uh, sure."

They both got up, Amy saving her work and then closing the computer. They walked to the kitchen.

"How do ham sandwiches sound?"

"They sound wonderful." As Amy started getting ingredients out, Mark added, "Can I help in some way?"

Looking up at him, Amy responded, "Oh, sure! Thanks."

"Of course," Mark started putting mayonnaise on slices of bread, according to her instruction.

Soon enough a bountiful lunch was put together and they both sat down at the table, took off their masks, and ate their sandwiches.

Oh, this is heavenly, Mark thought. And he thought the eggs were good! Man, he really had to start eating at home more often, he missed this.

After they finished, Amy left the table and took the final sandwich to Fischbach and left Mark with instructions on feeding Chica and Amy's dog, Henry.

He could get used to this.