Aveline de Grandpré (liberatrice) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-02-22 00:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, aveline de grandpre, peter parker (spider-man) |
Who: Aveline de Grandpré and Peter Parker
What: Basically a date?
When: 2/17 or so, before this log
Where: A tiny hole-in-the-wall coffeehouse in south Los Angeles
Rating: PG
Status: Complete
Aveline was nervous - she only had an hour or so between now and going to work, but she’d wanted to get coffee with Peter. She liked him; he seemed a good sort and she wanted to know more about what he did. She just hoped that he didn’t ask about what she did to make money.
She’d gotten off the bus near the corner he’d said the coffee shop was on, and was now walking in, looking around. Hopefully he’d be on time.
He was running late, but he was used to running late and running like a maniac to get there on time. He ran in a moment later, and leaned on the door to catch his breath. "Bus..ran late..." He really did need that coffee now! He grinned at Aveline. "Waiting long?"
“You must have gotten the one right after me.” She had to laugh. “No, not waiting long. It’s nice to see you. And this is a nice place.” It was refreshingly not Starbucks. “How did you find it?”
“Or the opposite direction,” he said. “I missed my bus one day and was stuck waiting for an hour, so I came in here and discovered holy crap coffee.” It was a technical term.
“Holy crap coffee?” Aveline echoed, amused. “Now I’m excited. I admit being a coffee snob. I mean, we are Haitian. We are near Jamaica, after all. We get the good stuff.”
“Yeah. ‘Holy crap this coffee is great!’” He gestured to a seat. “Yeah? So you’re a cheater. A dirty rotten cheater.”
“How am I a cheater?” She smiled, sitting across from him. “Being Haitian? It’s an accident of birth, I promise.”
“I’m going to shut up before I stick my foot in my mouth,” Peter joked. “But I was thinking more proximity. Now, I can tell you some of the best pizza ever. New York Deep Dish.”
“New York deep dish?” Aveline echoed, cocking her head to one side. “I thought that Chicago had the deep dish. Clearly I’m not educated about the pizza situation here.”
“Chicago are the pretenders,” he assured her, knowingly.
“Really.” Aveline chuckled. “Such insider knowledge! Are you from New York? Or just an honest preference for one over the other?”
“I was in New York for the first half of my life,” He admitted. “I lost the accent. I’m a disgrace, I know.”
“Ah, really. What made you leave?” Aveline was curious. She liked learning about other people. “I know you have done some traveling; I read the network and saw you were in Japan?”
“My aunt and uncle lived out here, they’re my closest living relatives,” he replied. There was still some pain there, but he could say it without wincing. “Yeah, I was doing work over there. Thought I might have ended up living there but the project ended.”
She could hear some pain when he mentioned them - she guessed his parents were gone or somehow not in the picture. Still, Peter didn’t seem to want to dwell on it, so she didn’t. “I’ve never been to New York, I confess. Miami, New Orleans and now Orange County are the only places I’ve been in this country.”
"You should try it. It's a beautiful city if you can ignore the smell of piss and the random muggings," he replied, a little cheerfully.
“Oh, that’s Miami anyway.” Aveline chucked. “I think it’s every city. Clearly you’ve never been to Port-au-Prince.” She loved Haiti, but the capital itself had been in very bad shape even before the earthquake a few years back. “But New York, yes. One day I think I shall be a tourist.”
"Half of New York is tourists and they don't even know it." Peter got up. "What kind would you like anyway? My treat."
“Oh, thank you. Just a dark roast, with cream.” Aveline smiled. “Simple is usually best.”
He nodded getting himself a drink that as a lot more complicated but getting Aveline's drink to order. He also got a couple of scones for them to share. Hey. Peter Parker. Big spender. Impress the lady.
Aveline appreciated the thoughtfulness, and said so when he got back. “Mèsi, Peter. Thank you.” She smiled. “It smells delicious.”
"It's vanilla scones," he said, proudly. As though that were something special he'd noticed when he'd really just thought it looked delicious. "...uh hope you like vanilla."
“I do.” Aveline smiled, looking almost shy. He was rather cute when he looked embarrassed, to be honest. “Thank you. I hope it’s good; I like finding these little holes in the walls. Wall.”
“It barely qualifies to be a wall,” Pete replied. He sat back down and slid a scone over to her. He might be blushing a little bit. “More like a half-wall.”
“Still.” Aveline chuckled. “It’s cute, and I work down in this area, so if it’s good, I will be close.” Why had she talked about work? She didn’t want to talk about work. He’d suddenly not be interested in her if they talked about work.
“What do you do?” He asked, oblivious. She obviously had some idea of where he worked, and he was curious.
“I bartend.” The lie just slipped off her tongue, and she hated herself for it, but she just couldn’t tell the truth. Not right now. She’d been raised to think that nice boys didn’t want a girl who stripped, or who might be a dancer or any other sex trade job. And she did kind of like Peter, damn it. At least she wanted a little more time before he made an excuse to run away.
“Cool! I knew a bartender once, but he was built like a brick house and liked to wear high heels on the weekends.” Peter didn’t pick up the lie, and he probably wouldn’t have cared. Been tempted to visit, but not cared. Okay maybe he would be too embarrassed to go.
“Oh, I’ve known a few of those. Lucille looked excellent in an evening gown.” Aveline grinned. That was actually true. “Little Haiti is near the strip with all the drag clubs.”
He nodded again. “I’ve had to go through some interesting neighborhoods to get home. You kind of get used to it after awhile and nothing surprises me much anymore. Whatever makes someone happy, right?”
“I would think in New York you saw a lot of it.” Aveline sipped her coffee, blinking. “Mm. That is good. It’s very rich. Just the way they drink it in the Caribbean, if you’ve never been.” She smiled broadly at him.
“Never been. Until this current job I was barely making ends meet. Poor college student in every sense of the word.” Most of the money he squirreled away or gave to his aunt and uncle, though. He preferred to live simple. Not poor anymore, hella not. But like a human being. That was nice.
“I know the feeling, I promise.” Aveline laughed. “I was on scholarship at university, and now I’m paying my way through my masters’ degree. Not a penny to spare.”
“Tips any good? If I ever blow up the lab I might need to start slinging drinks or something,” he replied, laughing. “I used to date a bartender, actually. Well she wasn’t bartending at the time but she used to. She taught me a couple of things. Makes for good party tricks.”
The other party tricks that Kitty had taught him weren’t generally for public consumption.
“Tips are quite good, actually.” Damn, another little lie. But it was only half a lie, at least; the couple of bartenders she knew had never complained about their income. “I don’t know any of the fancy moves, unfortunately. I do know someone who’s good at slinging the bottles around like Tom Cruise in that film.”
"That's pretty cool. Maybe I'll come in sometime." He grinned at her.
Dear God, please no. “Maybe!” Aveline just smiled, taking another drink. “Really, this is good. My hat is off to you for finding it, or it would be if I had one.”
"I'll take the invisible hat," he assured her. He was enjoying himself and not tripping over his words. Maybe he was better with girls than he thought he was.
Aveline chuckled, sipping more coffee. “So, you are from New York. You like dice games. Is there anything else you like to do for fun?”
“Playstation and computer games,” He admitted, a little sheepishly. Like that was somehow dorkier than D&D. “And making stuff. Science. I really like doing sciencey stuff.”
It was cute, how he looked awkward. “I was never interested in science, but I really do think it’s because my science teachers never cared much about what they were doing,” Aveline said, smiling a little and hoping he didn’t think she was an idiot. “Seriously. So many of them were just ‘read this for the test’. If school sciences were more like Mythbusters, I think more kids would enjoy it.”
“That’s part of the problem. If you have a great teacher it can make all the difference in the world, but a lot of them don’t care, or they don’t usually have the resources to do it.” He shrugged a shoulder. “That would be awesome…”
“I was more into math in primary school, but that’s only one bit of becoming a fancy scientist, I bet.” Aveline winked. “Urban planning involves math, but then also a lot of sociology and anthropology.”
“It’s a big bit, actually,” He assured her. “But a lot less of human studies. Which is probably a bad thing in the long run.”
“Maybe. It’s always a risk, to maybe start thinking of people as numbers or test subjects or little ants.” Aveline smiled a little. “We must keep the human side.” She took a bite of the scone, making a pleased noise and wiping her mouth.
Nnn….that was a nice sound and Peter scolded himself, covering by taking a sip of his coffee. “Yeah. Definitely need the human side.”
Aveline smiled, finishing off her coffee and looking at her phone. “Mierda, I have to get going. I’m so sorry. I have ten minutes to get to work. Will you forgive me? I’d like to see you again sometime.”
"Can I walk you there?" He asked. Sure he was a scrawny guy but ...okay he was a scrawny guy. Still it was polite to ask and he meant it earnestly. "I mean, I'm sure you can handle yourself and all."
“Oh! No, thank you.” Hopefully he didn’t press. “I appreciate it, but it’s only a couple blocks away.” She smiled nervously.
“All right.” He knew when not to press. “Walk safe. It was really nice seeing you again.” Didn’t want to seem desperate!
“Likewise.” Aveline made sure she had everything, but before she left, figured she’d better be clear. “I’d love to hear from you again. Or maybe I call you.” She smiled.
Peter grinned at her. “I’ll wait with baited breath. You know. When I’m not drowning in my amazing social life.”
“You can talk science to me.” Aveline teased before waving and heading off.