บท 16: What? It's A Good Thing!

As Avery finished her ice cream, Christian broke his silence and met her eyes for the first time in a while. "Um…I know this was probably the worst date you've ever been on but do you maybe want to try again another day? I doubt we would get interrupted by a villain twice."

She laughed. "This isn't even close to the worst date I've ever been on. It would take a lot more than a villain to beat out this one I went on my first year of culinary school."

"Well, now I'm curious as to what could possibly be worse."

"Some of my classmates and I decided to go on a group date. Everyone had to bring their own date and I tried a dating site since I didn't have anyone to ask. The guy not only looked nothing like his picture but lied about his age. He was clearly over thirty while I was eighteen and had this awful combover…

"Anyway, as if that wasn't bad enough, he wouldn't even speak to me unless it was to answer direct questions. Even the worst dates at least reciprocate small talk questions, don't they? He couldn't be bothered.

"We were mini golfing and split into two groups of four. Since he would not talk to me at all, my classmate and her date took pity on me and included me in their conversation. Then afterward, when we went to get ice cream, the guy didn't even sit near me.

"It was the most horrendously awkward two hours of my life, made worse by the fact that my classmates teased me about picking such a dud for ages. And at the end of it, the guy had the nerve to say he had fun and we should do it again sometime. I still don't know what fantasyland he was living in," Avery finished with a disbelieving shake of her head.

This had been painless in comparison. She had actually been enjoying herself until Inferno struck and that hadn't been Christian's fault so she couldn't blame him for it.

He squinted at her in confusion. "…you really think that's worse than being attacked by a villain?"

"Yes because it was the one dark spot to an otherwise good date. Nothing could have salvaged that disaster. Nothing," Avery said with a shudder.

She may have learned more than she wanted to about her crush today but that might end up working out in her favor if she was careful. All in all, she would consider the night a success despite the fact that he unknowingly insulted her earlier.

Christian cracked a smile. "So can I take that as a yes to trying again?"

"Yes, you can."

"Great! What do Mondays look like for you?"

"I have Mondays off so my only plans at the moment are to sleep in and watch TV. If you want to do something after work, I'm down," Avery told him.

"I'll text you so we can set something up. Now that our ice cream is done, do you want to go home or should we walk around for a while? I'm cool with whatever as long as you are."

If Christian truly was Mercury, he probably had other people to fight tonight. She didn't want her time with him to end though. She wanted to figure him out. She knew he was a good person with a solid sense of humor but not much more than that.

She was already being selfish by allowing him to take her out again knowing they were enemies. She shouldn't venture further into real villain territory by keeping him from saving other people.

"I'm getting kind of tired. I'll take a raincheck on that walk," Avery said with a smile.

They walked back to his car chatting about random things she couldn't fully keep track of because she was starting to feel a faint stirring of guilt. Getting involved was a bad idea but she couldn't stop herself. Maybe she was more of a villain than she thought she was.

===

Avery had a hard time concentrating at work the next day. Her head was full of thoughts of Christian, Mercury, her duplicity, and the fact that she would most likely see him again tonight. This on top of worrying about her more-important-than-usual mission.

Vanessa noticed and called her out on it. "Girl, what's with you? Did you have a wild night on your date?"

"You could say that," she snorted. "It got crashed by that villain Inferno and I was rescued by Mercury for the second time while hiding in a bathroom."

That was the extremely condensed version of it. It hardly took any of her conflicted feelings into account. At the very least, her best friend should understand that she was spacey because Mercury had been involved.

As expected, Vanessa's eyes widened and she stopped kneading the dough she was working on. "Aves! You seriously ran into your celebrity crush when you were on a date? Did that ruin everything? What happened? Did Mercury manage to stop Inferno? I need details!"

She was the one who stopped Inferno but she couldn't say that so she had to lie. "He did. And no, it didn't ruin anything. My date and I went out for ice cream afterward and set up another date for Monday."

"…you were seriously so interested in this guy that even Mercury couldn't distract you from him? Who is he? All you said was that he's a customer here."

"His name is Christian and he's a lawyer who works upstairs."

Vanessa was skeptical of this. "You were more interested in a lawyer in the face of your hero crush that you're so obsessed with that you've watched every video of him on the internet at least twelve times and participate in multiple online fan clubs?"

Avery blushed. She never should have left her phone out when she was scrolling through one once and stopped to go to the bathroom. Her best friend saw and asked her about it afterwards.

It was worse than that. She was the admin of one of those fan clubs.

What else was she supposed to do when she was interested in a public figure that had no idea she existed despite the fact that they interacted regularly? She had to get her fix somehow since she wasn't ever able to talk to him for more than a few minutes once a week or less.

Yesterday changed everything. Apparently, Mercury did know she existed and returned her feelings. If she did end up dating Christian more seriously, she would have to quit all those fan pages because she would never be able to show her face in front of him again if he found out.

"Come on, Ness, I had to be a good date! It's not like I would ever have a chance with Mercury anyway," Avery lied.

Vanessa still wasn't convinced. "In all the time I've known you, you've never been interested in anyone but that hero. What sort of Adonis is this guy to make you willing to give him a chance?"

The hero in question. She couldn't say that though for a variety of reasons.

"He's a really nice person and has a good sense of humor."

Avery ended up telling her the subway falling story from the beginning to when he thanked her for the cake and asked her out. She hadn't mentioned that previously when she said she had a date on Friday.

Her friend let out a low whistle at the end of her explanation. "Well, that makes more sense. Is he cute?"

"Cute? He's gorgeous! He always comes in for lunch around noon on weekdays so you can see for yourself come Monday."

"Hmm. I'll keep that in mind. What does he look like? So I'll know it's him."

"He has dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and wears glasses. He's tall too. Probably about 6'5" if I had to guess," Avery said with a shrug.

Vanessa laughed. "Of course you'd be interested in him; he's nice, funny, and noticeably taller than you! That's a rare combination. Good for you finding someone that isn't a celebrity to crush on."

He was though. At least she was pretty sure he was. What happened yesterday involved too many coincidences to ignore. She would be very surprised if Christian didn't turn out to be Mercury after what she had seen.

"Thanks, Ness," she said dryly.

"What? It's a good thing!" Vanessa protested. "Anyway, keep me posted on any new developments. I expect to hear all about your second date on Tuesday."

"You got it."

Avery was less concerned with her second date at the moment than she was about tonight. Everything was going to go okay…wasn't it?