open up my eager eyes

Before he could crumple it up to toss in the recycle bin, the photo they had chosen caught his eye. Front and center with her signature curled lip sneer was none other than Espa. Just looking at her brought back a flurry of questions. Who was she? Who was Umbra? Where did those awful powers come from? 

Their first few encounters had ended with her getting away after putting his mind through an agonizing blender. No other villain had gotten as close to killing him as she had. He knew she had been holding back to spare him but wasn’t sure why. The last few meetings had been far more enjoyable. If he had known from the jump how much friendlier she was bent over, he’d have - 

“Hello?”

It took a great amount of effort to sneak up on him. His head snapped back instantly as battle sense kicked in to assess the threat. Rather than facing anyone on his growing roster of enemies, a woman was standing at the front with a perplexed look on her face. Her lips were moving but none of the words were coming through clearly over the sound of his heart beating. 

She was stunning. He lacked the resolve to pry his eyes away from her. It was the kind of striking beauty that seemed entirely reserved for old Hollywood starlets. Her dark hair tumbled down her shoulders and framed her soft, ashen face. That stark contrast accentuated the lightness of her eyes. Why would he want to look away in the first place? 

A lot of attractive women worked or lived in the building, but there was no way he would have forgotten ever seeing her before, which meant she was clearly lost to wind up in the mailroom.

“- And it looks like this,” she explained in a slow, confused tone. She was holding up a stack of mail he had yet to sort as an example. When he still couldn’t reply to her, she switched gears entirely. “Oh, ¿Prefieres español? Buscando mi correo.”

“Er, um, sorry. Only English and some Cherokee,” he admitted, having finally snapped back to reality, “But I’m sure you’re doubting that right now.”

“I am, but I don’t know any Cherokee so I can’t quiz you.”

“Ha! That’s.. You were.. That’s good,” he stammered, wagging the pen in his hand at her. It was immediately tucked back into his shirt pocket to prevent him from doing that idiotic gesture again. The fact she hadn’t run out was promising.

“I know you’re busy but I’ve got a client insisting they sent a check in earlier this week. It hasn’t been in any of our deliveries yet and I just want to make sure it’s not here today before I start cracking skulls.” 

“Ah - mad as a hornet business owner?”

“Worse - bloodsucking accountant. Don’t hold it against me.” Her feigned plea was accompanied by both hands extended out in front of her.

“I might have to. It’s not personal, though.”

“I guess I’ll let it slide.”

Even though he had stared and smiled for another moment too long, he reeled himself back down to earth to ask for the company name and even managed a joke about being on floor 14 meaning she must be important. His misfortune quickly reared back up as her biggest laugh of the conversation came from him turning back and knocking over the previously organized stacks set to head out with the postal service this morning. 

A few nights ago he had grappled with Umbra, shot down seven of Android’s drones, and flipped his way across rooftops while tailing Seraphire down. All of that stellar coordination was nowhere to be found this morning. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll fire the idiot who put that there.” 

He pointed at himself before she could ask about the mystery employee. Despite her attempts to stifle her snickering, it seemed amplified behind him. Those piercing eyes were burning holes into his back as he began sifting through the intake bins. 

Let’s see if Adonis still insists that you’ve got game after hearing about this. 

“So you’re alone down here all day? That sounds amazing.”

“Not all the time. My buddy owns the startup on 6. He comes down here to annoy me sometimes - and on slow days, I go up there to do all the handiwork.”

“But your real passion is mail..?” “No, but the building has reduced rent for employees.”

“A self sufficient handyman. Your wife must be thrilled to have you around.”

.He let out something between a laugh and a snort. Neither sounded particularly pleasant.

“Oh, I’m not.. No. There’s no wife. There’s nobody.”

Managing to tell a gorgeous woman that you’re underemployed, broke, and pathetically single in less than ten seconds had to be a new, saddest world record. There was no salvaging this. If he had any self esteem left, he’d have told her that she’d need to wait until normal delivery time and go bang his head against the wall in the backroom. 

“I’m sure if you ever decided to advertise your skills, they’d be put to good use.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “I mean, my friend has an apartment on the 21st and her sink has been leaking for weeks. She may try to steal you for some of her home improvement jobs, though. You’re probably safer down here.”

“For a luxury space, the maintenance team doesn’t seem to do a whole lot,” he laughed. 

Apollo and Rawley were decent kids, but he’d been stuck letting them in the building and explaining basic fixes to them on more than one occasion. “So the degree didn’t work out?” 

The non sequitur caught him off guard. Upon turning back to pry into how she’d figured that out, he found that she had hopped up on the counter and was making her way through the trinkets on his desk. She tapped at the frame in her hands, adding that the woman beside him didn’t ‘look like nobody’. 

“That’s my mama,” he snapped, crossing the room to take the frame back, “And I’m fixin' to do something with it. Eventually. Are you always this cozy with strangers?”

“No, I’m usually pretty mean.”

There was no sign of jest in her expression. Something about her candor left him humorously bewildered. What a strange woman. 

“I guess an accountant can get away with being blunt.”

“Most people have a fake customer service persona. I don’t want to do that. It must be exhausting having to wear a mask all day like that,” she shrugged.

Honey, you have no idea. The mask was the easy part. Kanati was the best of him and everything he couldn’t be. It was just being Embry that was so damn tiring. If only she could have met him under another circumstance. She’d probably find him far more endearing. The brooding, confident athlete usually garnered a positive response. 

“So.. I’m not seeing anything but I have a few more bins to go through. Can the beatdown wait until this afternoon?”

“If it must. As long as I can do it before the end of the day and give them the weekend to get over it, I’ll allow it.” 

“You’ll have your answer well before then, I promise.”

“Could I get an informed delivery text? Just so I can know to head to the door..”

“Oh, I really should get something like that set up but it’s a mess of a one man operation here. The only tech they gave me was the laptop. But I’m sure my friend could figure out some way to get texting from it to work eventually,” he explained.

She laughed at his response and he wasn’t sure what she found so funny. 

“I’ll just have to tell Anya to let me know once you’ve stopped by.”

She gracefully slid off the counter, with her heels clicking softly against the floor. Knowing he was starting to lose touch again as he watched her smooth her skirt down from the bunched position at her upper thighs, he blurted out the only thing he was certain he couldn’t butcher right now.

“I’m Embry. I’m sorry I didn’t have the good sense to ask your name earlier.”

“Scout.”

This was when Adonis would usually kiss the woman’s hand and tell her that the pleasure of meeting was all his. It was a move that drove Embry nuts but seemed to work every time. He had leaned over the counter to give her a handshake and he wasn’t about to try and press his luck. Their hands separately all too quickly but she kept their eyes locked with a warm smile. Maybe he was selling himself too short. If he had been that awful, she would have left. She wouldn’t still be here smiling at him. It felt like they were the only two people in the world. The silence was so comfortable that he didn't feel the need to start rambling like usual. Maybe now was the time to be bold and make a move.