C11 - New hire! First interaction with the Black Widow!
'Inner dialogue/thoughts'
"Normal dialogue"
[System]
[Diary entries]
(Word Count: 1,979)
~ A few hours later ~
Natasha strode into the café, donning the persona of a young lady who was nervously looking for a job. The warm scent of freshly brewed coffee enveloped her as she approached the counter where April was busy wiping down the expresso machine. "Hi, um, excuse me," Emily began tentatively, her voice barely above a whisper. "I saw the job advertisement outside. Are you still hiring?"
April, hearing Natasha's enquiry, looked up with a warm smile. "Yes, we are! Do you have your resume with you?" Natasha nodded, her hands trembling slightly as she handed over her resume. "Perfect. My name is April and I am the manager of the Peach Blossom Café. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." April introduced as she reached out a hand towards Natasha.
Grabbing the outreached hand, Natasha introduced herself in return, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well. And my name is Natasha. Natasha Romanoff." It may have seemed like a bad idea, however Natasha decided to be transparent with her name in order to not have any misunderstanding with Luke. Moreover, she reasoned that by using her real name, given her similar appearance to the Natasha in the parallel world, she wanted to see if Luke would recognize her and slip up, or if he was just faking the contents of the diary.
Glancing towards where Luke was lazily basking in the sun, April had a criminally brilliant idea to get back at Luke. "Great! You actually came at the perfect time. The café owner is around today so if you're ready now, I could set up your interview with him." April asked and received a nod. Walking towards the window table of the cafe, Natasha couldn't help but notice the location of which Luke was sitting in, clearly showcasing his abilities as an experienced agent.
Arriving at the table where Luke was, April began with the introductions. "Mr Sullivan, if I could have a moment of your time, you have a walk-in job interview to attend to. Ms Romanoff, this is Mr Luke Sullivan, the owner of the café and our boss. Mr Sullivan, this is Ms Natasha Romanoff, a walk-in candidate here to apply for the open position in the café." Seeing Luke's stunned expression upon seeing Natasha, April smirked as she placed the resume into Luke's hands. "Well, I will leave you to it then, boss". At April's words, Luke then recovered and snapped his head to see April walking away with a hop in her step, a betrayed expression displayed on his person in full view of the entire café. This had gotten some of the regular customers and the staff to chuckle at the antics of the manager and owner of the café once again.
To the untrained eye, the situation currently unfolding could be seen as a café owner being left to the wolves, or puppy in the case of the nervous persona Natasha was currently using, by his own employee. An employee who should have been the one to carry out said interview. However, Natasha understood differently. She had seen the flash of shock, recognition and nostalgia displayed in his eyes before it was swiftly replaced with amusement at his employee's actions, and of the miniscule movement he had made towards Natasha in a blink of an eye. 'It seems that there may be some truth behind the diary'. Natasha surmised. 'It also looks as though he is unaware that there are people who could read his diary. I guess we're going to be playing the game of who slips up first then. This is going to be fun.'
"Why do I even have a manager if she makes me do her job?" Luke thought aloud, earning a snicker from Natasha. Turning to face her, Luke was trying his best not to panic, 'Holy f*ck that simulated experience is truly not something to be taken lightly of. Knowing is one thing, but seeing is another. I knew of my experiences with Natasha from the simulated world, but I was not expecting the reaction of actually seeing her to be this strong. I almost rushed over to her to give her a hug. Thank God I had the bright idea to meditate and fully assimilate the memories and experiences I had during my time I spent in the simulation. But still, they sure do take their time to move. It was only a few days ago that I released my location, yet only now had she arrived, the Black Widow herself. I wonder what they had planned after knowing Tony would be kidnapped too. Would they let his destiny play out, or would they intervene. Decisions, decisions.'
"Ms Romanoff, it's nice to meet you. As April has mentioned. I'm Luke, the owner of this café." Luke started. "So, what makes you interested in working here?" Luke asked as he took a seat and gestured for Natasha to do the same.
Taking a deep breath, Natasha thought about what she should say. "Well, it's my first time in this café but already I am in love with the atmosphere that it brings. Also, I've had a previous experience working as a barista from my previous job."
"Oh? If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your previous job?" Luke asked.
"I don't mind at all Mr Sullivan. I recently just moved to L.A. a few days ago to take care of a relative of mine. It will only be for a few months, but I had to leave my previous job as I had come from New York City. In the meantime, I was hoping to secure a job for myself while I'm here, and that's when I saw the job advertisement by your entrance while walking along the streets of L.A." Natasha replied.
"I see, thanks for sharing and my apologies for asking such questions." Luke apologized, before he continued, "In any case, we're definitely looking for someone who's passionate about coffee and can handle a socially active environment. As you may have noticed, our staff here, especially April, are friendly and approachable. They are able to engage in mundane conversations with our customers, building up the atmosphere that you mentioned you enjoy."
Luke then adopted a serious expression, furrowing his eyebrows slightly, "Our customers are mostly young and aspiring office workers in the area, but sometimes we do get high profile visitors and also random people like yourself who come across our café while taking a stroll along the streets of L.A. I notice that you are a little nervous throughout the interview and also a little intimidated with speaking to strangers, though I may be wrong on that. Are you sure you would be able to work in an environment as socially demanding as ours?" Luke asked.
The purpose of this line of questioning was two-fold. The first was purely on the business prospect, as his café really did demand for his employees to be engaging and socially adept around people. Moreover, sometimes high-ranking employees from the Stark Industries Headquarters nearby would drop by the café to relax from their stress and just engage in mundane conversations with the staff and customers around, as although they have a lounge to rest in the headquarters, most people there still talked about their work.
The second was to see how Natasha would react. He had noticed that she decided to use the "shy but hardworking" persona, but he knew how her true character was. The life he had supposedly lived in the simulation could not be erased completely, therefore when he saw Natasha using a fake persona, he had felt a greatly saddened. She had been the one in the team who had truly longed and loved the team as a family, yet she was one of the first to lose her life. So, Luke wanted to at the very least ensure that she did not need to be fake around him and the staff in the café. Unfortunately, he failed to disguise his true feelings in his eyes when he had thought of this, causing Natasha to catch a glimpse of what she believed to be sorrow. He had hoped that since he pointed out her obvious mismatch for the position, that she would change to the more confident and outgoing Natasha that he knew of. And he was not disappointed by her response.
"Absolutely!" As if flipping a switch, Natasha's demeanour completely changed. "I was only nervous because I really needed this job, and I did not want to mess up the interview. But once I get the ball running, I'm like an over-caffeinated espresso that won't stop. You won't even have to worry about providing me training. As I've previously mentioned, I have almost 5 years of experience working as a barista. I am more than capable of getting things done from the get-go."
"That's fantastic!" Luke nodded approvingly at the choice Natasha made. "We'd be glad to have you on board with us. I'll go and prepare the documents for you to read through and sign. How soon can you begin?"
"As soon as possible!" Natasha replied, relieved that she had not failed the interview. For a moment, she thought she would have, thinking that Luke believed her persona would be wrong for his café. Thankfully, she was capable enough to adapt to situations like these on the spot.
"Alright, in the meantime," Luke started as he called over another of his staff, "Hey Crystal, could you come over and give the lady next to me a tour of the café and the facilities on the second floor? She's going to be a new hire and I'd appreciate it if someone could show her the ropes of how we do things around here." Luke then looked towards Natasha before adding, "No offense to your previous experiences, but here in the Peach Blossom Café, we do things differently. Just need to make sure you don't do anything you're not supposed to." Luke gave a mysterious smile to Natasha and winked before he walked towards his office to prepare the documents.
- End of Chapter 11 -
E/d note: And there it is! Luke's first meeting with an Avenger! The MTL had a long scene with Fury about how baffled he was as he could not find any trace of the money MC had gotten to buy the cafe. I just deleted that whole part since it's already been touched on. Also, the MTL just had Selene (MTL Version of my April) direct Natasha to Luke, and then they skipped the interaction and Natasha got hired TT. So here's how I thought the interaction should have happened! A little more screen time for the lovely April, who I'm not going to lie, is starting to grow on me alittle as the possible work bestie for Luke (come on, we all know we got that one work bestie different from our actual bestie xD). The chapters are taking more and more time and effort to write, considering how I keep changing the contents. But as long as I have the template and general direction, I think I can pull through writing the chapters with my own imagination xD Hope you enjoy and as always, COOKIEES :D!