Love Collector Ch. 2

Oliver thought things would progress as they usually did and that his partner would keep to herself as they supported each other throughout the day, but Mia surprised him early on. She felt a lot more chatty than he was used to, and it caught him off guard.

"You aren't looking so hot today," she spoke up. "That have anything to do with why you were running late?"

"Huh? Oh, uh..." Oliver was daydreaming about the next heroine on his list and was startled by Mia suddenly calling out to him. "Kind of. It's stupid."

"I'm not gonna judge." Mia's Big Yikes! pins added credence to her claim, as anyone into that shit probably wasn't a very judgmental person, but it wasn't as if Oliver could just tell his coworker that he got stoned out of his mind while playing a hentai game till two in the morning on a work night.

"I didn't sleep well and was a little hung over, honestly. A game came out that I was looking forward to, and-"

"Gotcha," Mia nodded in understanding. "My roommate is the same. She was up for six days straight when the last Eternalus Souls dropped."

"Jesus Christ, are you fucking kidding me?" Oliver let out an involuntary laugh. "I'm nowhere near that bad. That's straight up-"

"Unhealthy? Yeah, things were pretty grim until I stole her mini fridge. Turns out she's got no awareness of anything in her peripheral vision whenever she's in 'The Gamer Zone'. Dropped like a rock around two hours after I cut her off from her shitty energy drinks."

Oliver wasn't sure why Mia was in such a talkative mood, but he was totally into it. He didn't know she could be so funny, and he felt like punching himself when all he could think to say back was, "Wow. That's crazy."

"Nah. That's Zoe. So, what game were you talking about?"

"Huh?"

"The one you just got."

"Oh," Oliver fiddled with his broom, awkwardly pushing a bunch of crap over to Mia for her to sweep up. "Just some obscure indie thing. You probably haven't heard of it." After he said it, it occurred to Oliver that he might've just unintentionally sounded like a pretentious douchebag, and he was quick to course correct. "What about you? Do you play any games?"

"A couple RPGs here and there, but not much else. Don't really have the reaction time for anything else, and I like the cozy, repetitive nature of the genre. Farming sims are cool, too, actually."

"Cool, cool..." Oliver wanted to keep talking to Mia, but this was the most extended casual conversation he'd had with a girl since... ever, probably. He was treading new waters that were entirely outside of his depth. In an attempt to keep things going, he pivoted the conversation away from gaming and towards work. "Seriously, though. What is it with Tessa and Valentine's Day?"

"Not my department," Mia shrugged. "But if I had to guess, I'd say it has something to do with the fact that she probably hasn't had a hot date in well over a decade."

Oliver laughed, even though he couldn't suppress the irrational fear that Tessa could somehow hear them talking about her. "That'd do it, yeah. I'm just wondering why she felt the need to get on our cases like that. Is anyone who works here even hooking up, or what?"

Mia took a long time to respond, her silence as hard for him to interpret as ever.

"A girl can dream," she mumbled quietly enough that he couldn't hear it. "I mean- no, not as far as I know. What about you, Ollie? Do you buy into this Valentine's Day crap?"

Oliver blushed. He'd never liked being called Ollie, but he was apparently shallow enough that all it took was hearing it a single time from Mia's lips to reassess his distaste for it. "Not really? Tessa was right on the money. It's just a manufactured holiday to shove chocolate down people's throats or whatever. I, uh... I think it's a pretty cute event in a lot of anime, though. You know, like how the girls give the boys they like chocolate, and then there's the whole White Day thing later on? That's always fun."

He'd made a pretty ballsy gambit. Never before had Oliver attempted to talk about anime with a girl, and even though he knew Mia enjoyed the medium of Japanese animation, it still felt like a topic that inherently carried with it the risk of social suicide.

She didn't even pay it any mind, asking something out of left field instead. "So you're saying you don't have a date?"

He laughed off the notion. Oliver had his game lined up for tonight, and he knew better than to expect more out of his life than that. "Me? Are you kidding? No, I don't have a date... what, uh... what about you?"

"Nope..."

Mia's glasses shined as she looked up at him from below.

She was staring at him in silence, and not knowing what to do or say, Oliver stared back. It was a mutual moment of pure, unadulterated cringe shared between the two of them, but Mia was the one who pushed through it to make her point.

"I've never even had a boyfriend before."

The comment made him snap out of it and utter something stupid in thoughtless agreement. "Oh. Cool, me either."

Mia stared at him without blinking like a judgmental statue.

"...I meant to say girlfriend."

"I figured."

"Cool," Oliver nodded and busied himself by sweeping up more dirt and dust from the supermarket floor. "Cool, cool, cool..."

This wasn't going anywhere, and Mia was painfully aware of that fact. She debated trying to phrase things differently, only to sigh and sweep up the rubbish Oliver pushed her way, pausing briefly to set down her mini broom and rub her right wrist.

"Whatever. It's a stupid holiday, anyway..."

After that, the conversation died out for a while, and Oliver couldn't help feeling he'd said something wrong. It was a painful experience that couldn't be ignored, like having a pebble in his shoe. He could always ask directly if it was something he said, but that required more courage than he had in him.

Really, he was just proud of himself for carrying on such a long talk with Mia in the first place. If Oliver was still seeing his psychologist, what he accomplished today would've been heralded as the breakthrough of a lifetime.

It turned out they would have a little more to talk about after making their way through three more aisles and running into Stacy and her current partner, Jeff. The guy was a newer part-time hire, and Oliver wasn't very familiar with him. However, he was familiar with Stacy, which made what came next hard for him to sit through.

Jeff apparently had an infatuation with the pretty blonde and was openly hitting on her while they worked the shelves. Oliver and Mia were too far away to hear what he said, but they got the gist. Valentine's Day, asking if she had any plans, yadda yadda. Stacy wasn't impressed by a word of it. She had a look on her smug face that implied she was more amused than anything else, but Oliver knew from experience that was only a precursor to cruelty.

Sure enough, she started talking back to him as soon as Jeff finished his routine. They didn't need to hear her exact words to feel the sheer brutality with which Stacy ripped her coworker apart limb from limb. Whatever he said must've pissed her off enough that she didn't feel the need to hold back whatsoever, and Jeff was crying like a baby when she finally ceased her verbal lashing.

As the cherry on top, Stacy took a picture of Jeff with her phone and then showed him what he looked like. Seeing himself dragged down to such a sad, pathetic state was the last straw. Jeff ripped off his apron, red-faced and sobbing, and threw it to the ground while storming out the aisle. He yelled out his intention to quit before vacating the premises.

"Christ," Oliver remarked as they peeked over the corner. "Some people never change, I swear."

"How many dudes have quit after they tried hitting on her again?" Mia asked. "I've lost count."

"Pretty sure this makes lucky number five."

"She has to have some something on the boss lady. There's no other explanation for Stacy's continued employment."

"What about witchcraft?"

"Hm," Mia rubbed her chin with her left hand. "There is one other explanation for Stacy's continued employment, though it's unlikely compared to blackmail."

Speak of the devil, and she shall appear. Stacy glanced their way after hearing their mumbling from afar. Her bemused expression turned to one of general nastiness, and she called out, "Can I, like, help you or something, or are the two of you just going to stare at me from around the corner like a pair of fucking gremlins?"

"Stay perfectly still," Mia whispered. "Her vision is based on movement. It's an unfortunate side effect of having a tiny lizard brain where her people brain should be."

Rather than antagonize her or make snide remarks, Oliver chose the path of least resistance and walked out into the open. "Sorry, Stacy. We didn't want to get in the way while you guys were chatting, so we were waiting for you to do your thing. If you don't mind, we'll start sweeping, and you can-"

"Do whatever you want. Why would I care?" Stacy rolled her eyes and started walking away, pausing briefly to crouch and scoop up the discarded apron. Oliver mentally blocked out the pink thong he just saw poking out from her tight-fitting blue jeans because his distaste for Stacy was so strong he wouldn't allow himself to appreciate the unintentional glimpse on sheer principle of it being hers. "Just make sure you're quick about it and finish the fuck up by the time Tessa's done yelling at me. I'd hurry up if I were you. Jeff was flaky as shit, so I doubt I'm getting more than a slap on the wrist."

"The sheer audacity of this bitch." Mia clicked her tongue.

"Sorry, did you say something?" Stacy narrowed her eyes and glared down the aisle.

"I asked if you want us to polish your shoes while we're at it, your Majesty."

"Mia-" Oliver began sweating. Though Stacy was a far cry from how bad she used to be, he still expected the worst from her and went out of his way to never push her buttons. He didn't expect her to just let it go, and he especially didn't think she'd crack a smile at Mia.

"Hey, if you're offering..." Stacy joked and then left them to their devices.

Oliver stood there watching her go for a few seconds until Mia came out and waved a hand in front of his face. "You good, dude?"

"Yeah, yeah... just... not a big fan of playing with fire. Sorry." Oliver shook himself out of his momentary stupor. "I've been burned before."

Mia frowned in sympathy and understanding. "My bad. Should've been more thoughtful given your history with her, but sometimes, it's hard to stop myself from giving Stacy shit."

Oliver looked at her funny. It was an expression somewhere between existential fear and morbid embarrassment. "...Stacy told you?"

"Word gets around," Mia turned away in a hurry and then kneeled down with her dustpan ready to go. "It's not a big deal, Ollie."

"What all do you know?"

"I know that if you don't hurry up, Stacy's going to come back and bitch about us not being done yet."

Oliver wasn't actually all that interested in digging up the past, so he was more than happy to take her excuse and run with it. They went back to work as if the whole thing with Jeff had never happened and were done with the aisle before Stacy returned.

Oliver and Mia were done sweeping after two hours, and for the next six, they toiled away doing whatever Tessa told them to. She was highly disappointed over the sudden departure of their newest hire and made sure to work everyone twice as hard to make up for Jeff's absence.

Stacy did end up getting away with only a slap on the wrist, but she stayed on for an entire shift as an apology and didn't slack off for a single second. You could say many bad things about her, but she took her job as seriously as anyone else, and Oliver had to respect at least that much about her.

In the end, it turned out that Tessa was right.

Valentine's Day was just another day, and there wasn't anything special about it. Sure, Mia was more talkative than usual, putting Oliver in a good mood, but it didn't last. They slowly transitioned into their silent partner routine after the drama unfolded, and it was back to business as usual before he knew it, leaving him with nothing but his thoughts for the next six hours.