Win a Date with Amber Rivers

chapter one

Since getting dumped by her longtime girlfriend a few months ago, Riley had gotten herself stuck in the same old, stock standard routine. She would wake up in her small studio apartment situated above a bakery with the usual smell of delicious fresh bread that was baking downstairs which would occasionally throw in the scent of burnt baked goods, make herself some easy breakfast (she loved to cook but barely had time to make anything of substance for herself in the morning so it was usually pop tarts, blueberry frosted ones to be be exact) and then she'd ride her bike to her crummy tech support job over at the Smart Mart department store a few streets away. At the age of twenty-four, she still didn't have a license but that was because her ex-girlfriend mostly used to drive her places and, at the time, seemed pretty happy to do so.

The past few months had been so rough on her that the routine had been good for her, reminding her that life was still going on and that she couldn't just stay in bed all day, even if she really, really wanted to.

On the way to work, she'd always stop by the bakery, Cake My Day, downstairs. Ms Paulson, the owner of the bakery, was also her landlord. Everyday, when Riley stopped in on her way to work, she would give her some of the off pieces of baking. It items like stuff that had been a little too burnt or anything that wasn't pretty enough to put in the cabinet (plus a separate bag of goodies that had been kept anyway from products with nuts, due to Riley's allergy to them). They were for Riley to take to work so she could share them with her co-workers.

Mrs Paulson had been a good landlord, someone she could trust and who looked out for her. When the breakup happened and Riley had to remove her ex from the tenant agreement, Mrs Paulson had made a snide comment about how she had never really liked Riley's ex.

The bike ride to work wasn't too long, only allowing her time to think about the tasks she had at hand for her day. She had to ride alongside traffic, hoping that the items from the bakery in her backpack will survive the trip otherwise her co-workers would be homicidal (when she had her old worn out backpack, the bag strap broke on the ride to work and all the baked goods splattered when they hit the ground, resulting in nobody talking to her for the rest of the day).

Once she got to the staff entrance of the Smart Mart building through the warehouse, she wheeled her bike alongside as she swerved around the forklifts moving through the rows of stock. She waved hello to a few of the processing workers in the area before parking up her bike along the wall near the door to go into the staff kitchen and headed on in.

Already waiting for her arrival in the staff kitchen were her best friends Mikey Myers and Pam Ruiz-Keating, who were in some heavy debate as they drank their morning coffees at a table. This was a pretty frequent situation; they always seemed to be arguing like siblings.

"You seriously believe that Quicksilver is faster than the Flash?" Pam asked. "Dude, I'm not even into comic books that much and I know that the Flash is faster. He can travel through the speed force to go back or forward in time and even through the multiverse. Can Quicksilver do that?" She paused for dramatic effect. "No, he barely could avoid bullets in Age of Ultron instead."

"But that's the Aaron-Taylor Johnson version, what about the Evan Peters version?" Mikey asked. "That kid can clearly slow down time to save an entire mansion of students!"

"But that isn't traveling through time, through to different parts of the multiverse." Pam said. She rolled her eyes, which ended up on Riley fossicking through her locker. "Riley! You're a comic book nerd. Where do you stand?"

Riley, despite knowing that Pam was absolutely true in her statement (and usually was whenever she was debating Mikey), vehemently despised getting dragged into their stupid little arguments. She always tries to change the subject or avoid it like the plague. She doesn't want to side with one or the other. Yes, she has known Pam longer as they met back in elementary school. Their relationship was at a point where she considered her to be like the sibling she never had. Mikey on the other hand has been someone she can nerd out with and discuss movies with for hours, even if he can be a total prick sometimes she tries to stay out of it. She loves them both.