Lumen opened her eyes wide in mock wonder. “What gave me away? I thought I was really selling it.” The statement was subsequently followed by a roll of her eyes. Honestly, of course she wasn’t being earnest, nor was she trying to sell herself as such. It was rare that Lumen ever made the effort to soften her sharp edges and she certainly wasn’t about to do so for some no-name customer that she had just met. When her eyes met the other woman’s again, she caught the brunette giving her a once over. Lumen cocked her hip to the side in a pose, raising an eyebrow. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” She didn’t really understand why she was being looked at up and down, but she was well beyond the point of liking anything that the other woman did. If, by some miracle, she left her a substantial tip, Lumen would still scoff and find some reason to be pissed off about it.
Her irritation only increased – yes, it was still possible for her to become even more agitated at this point – when the brunette made it obvious that she didn’t care about anything Lumen had to say. She wanted meat? Then Lumen would make sure that she got plenty of meat and more than paid for it. It wasn’t like the woman had stopped to look at a menu and checked the price on anything. “Great. Got it.” She had just started to turn when the woman spoke to her again; someone needed to teach this lady when to stop. “The absolute brightest. And can’t you tell? I have a way with customers that management just can’t ignore.” Lumen didn’t make a habit of sharing what some would call her ‘sob story’ with other people, let alone customers that she couldn’t stand. There was no reason to explain that she had practically grown up in this diner or that she would die working at this diner, if she didn’t try to get out of Scarlet Oak. The last thing that Lumen wanted was anyone’s pity. So, she gave her customer one last sarcastic smile before turning to walk back to the kitchen to put in her order.
Normally she would have slid the ticket through the window to the cook and waited on the floor for the food to be ready, but a special order like this required a personal delivery to the kitchen. With the meat being rare, it would take no time for it to cook; so Lumen stood there and waited for the order to come up. Like hell she would know if someone fucked with her food. All she could think about was how much she wanted to show this woman and not once did it ever occur to her that there was a possibility that she had pissed off a were who could smell anything that was mixed into the meat. The second the plate was passed over into her hands, Lumen began to slowly heat it, making sure that it would burn anyone that wasn’t a fire elemental. She leaned over the plate and let a slow drop of spit fall out of her mouth and onto the hamburger steak. With a wicked grin on her face, she rubbed it into the meat; Lumen had to say, the steak wouldn’t have absorbed her spit so well had it not been rare. She met the eyes of the cook as she reached out for some of the discarded grill grease to work into the meat as well. “What? I’m just adding some flavor.” Lumen turned with a wink and headed back toward the floor with the fully prepared plate. She set the food down unceremoniously and without a warning that the plate was scalding hot. “Enjoy.” Cause I know I’m about to.