Work Text:
Working at the Amber Beach Museum is Shelby’s dream job.
Alright, well, working in the museum café isn’t, but all things have to start somewhere, and she figures that getting a job there while she’s still figuring out where she wants to go to school and how she’s going to afford it can’t hurt. Of course, when the interviewer asks, the café is absolutely her dream job, because that’s what you say to interviewers. She does want the job, even if it’s going to be a waitress gig. It’s a start, right?
She thinks it’s going pretty well, and this guy seems to like her okay. He’s asking some bizarre interview questions that are actually kind of fun to answer, like what sport she’d choose if she had to become a professional athlete, and what her first move would be during a zombie apocalypse. She’s having a good time answering, and then someone walking by the door stops abruptly and comes into the room.
“Chase,” the voice says exasperatedly as Shelby turns her head to look who it is, “Are you actually asking anything relevant to the job?”
Shelby is too mesmerized by the woman who has just interrupted her interview to listen to the interviewers answer. The most beautiful, sophisticated, authoritative goddess in glasses and a museum jumpsuit has just walked into the room, and she feels her mouth drop open a little.
Her vision bottlenecks down to this woman’s face, to the hair falling out of her ponytail, to the chapped lips and unbuttoned collar of her shirt, and before Shelby knows it she’s standing up and moving towards her.
She means to introduce herself, to spout some cheesy pickup line or bat her eyelashes, but instead her hand finds its way to the hip of the newest object of her affections, and she backs her into the wall, their faces inches apart, the look on the woman’s face surprised, lustful and maybe a little bit excited.
Shelby’s never done anything like this before, and she doesn’t know what it is making her act now. In fact, she’s only ever imagined--
“Shelby?” The woman whispers against her lips, and Shelby’s about to give in to it when the voice becomes more forceful, and something snaps. “Shelby, that is your name right?”
The vision shatters away.
Shelby is still sitting in her seat, her hands crossed in her laps, knuckles white, mouth hanging open as she comes back to herself. She has no idea what she’s just been asked or where she is, and she blinks a few times, dazed and confused.
She’s never imagined something that visceral before, and she finds herself both embarrassed and aroused as she realizes both her interviewer and the woman she’d been fantasizing about are staring at her with raised eyebrows.
“I’m sorry,” Shelby says slowly, trying to act like a normal human being, “What was the question?”
The woman scoffs, tossing her resume back down in front of her interviewer. “Real good, Chase. Yeah, hire this one, nice work,” she says, and her voice is dripping with sarcasm. She leaves the room before Shelby can even object or try to explain.
She lets her head fall down to the desk exasperatedly. “Great,” she says, sighing.
“Well,” her interviewer says, making Shelby look up miserably, “As far as I’m concerned you’ve got the job.”
Shelby double takes at him. “What?” She asks, surprised, “But she just said--”
“She just said to hire you,” he interrupts, smiling gleefully, “You heard it, I heard it. And if it means I don’t have to do anymore interviews, I say you’re hired!”
Despite the fact she knows she might get immediately fired, Shelby finds herself grinning along with him. “Really?”
“I’m Chase,” her interviewer says, offering a hand, “Welcome to the Café crew!”
“Is this going to backfire horribly and result in me being fired?” Shelby wonders, eyeing him as she shakes his hand.
“Well,” Chase shrugs noncommittally, “You might get fired if you don’t speed up that reaction time a little when pretty girls come into the café.”
Shelby feels her ears go hot. “Who was that, uh, woman who said to ‘hire’ me?”
Chase grins at her, like he knows exactly what she’s asking. “That’s Ms. Morgan,” he says, “She runs the museum.”
“She,” Shelby repeats, “Runs the whole museum?”
Chase nods.
The magnitude of that statement hits her all at once, and she realizes the first impression she’s just made on the one person who could keep her from achieving her dreams of actually working in the museum. She’s also the only person Shelby has ever desperately wanted to bang, so, there’s that too.
“And,” Chase says, getting up and going towards the door, motioning for her to follow, “She’s single!”
Despite it all, Shelby finds herself grinning.
It’s a start!