Pushing Daisies [BUCKY BARNES]

2

This is it. 6:18, and the light was barely peeking over the horizon. A steaming mug of black coffee rested in my hands, and my huge black boots were up on the chair next to me. I had actually bothered with my appearance today, not knowing exactly who I would be meeting with.

"Are you sure they're even gonna show?" Julianne, my best friend and owner of this petite coffee shop, leaned on the counter, watching me with uncertain eyes.

"I would sure hope so." I raised an eyebrow, lifting the oversized mug to my lips.

Julianne just rolled her eyes, turning to the ancient radio that rested behind the counter. Popping open the cassette front, she slid in one of three cassettes her mother had left her before she died. "Music?"

I nodded absentmindedly, wondering which of the three mixtapes she would be playing today. When Redbone started playing, I knew exactly what it was. "Volume 1 again?"

"You bet. It's always Volume 1 or 2, the 3rd just isn't as genuine, I feel."

I just smiled in response, taking another sip of my coffee. "Hey nothing's the matter with your head baby find it, cmon and find it..."

"Hell, with it baby cause you're fine and you're mine and you look so divine and..."

"COME AND GET YOUR LOVE!" Julianne and I burst into song. I set my cup of coffee down and climbed up onto the chair, pointing at her and we hollered out the lyrics.

Both of us knew these tapes by heart, they had been one of the few things her mother had left to her. It's rumored that her brother had identical ones, but we don't talk about her brother.

As we danced around the coffee shop, using a wooden spoon and a ladle as microphones, all I could think about was us as teens. We had been next door neighbors when Julianne was moved to Brooklyn at the ripe young age of 16, and we bonded over our shared love of music. There were tons of pictures of us sitting on the floor with a walkman between us, both of us with a side of a set of headphones as we listened to Rupert Holmes, Marvin Gaye, Norman Greenbaum, Fleetwood Mac, and Jay & The Americans.

The jingle of the bell over the door stopped both of us, and we froze in our places on-top of the counter, our heads shooting over to look at the door. My interview had been completely forgotten.

And who would have thought, as Come A Little Bit Closer started to play, that Tony Stark would have walked into Julianne's Coffee Shop that day, looking for 'a Westley Powers?'

With a bit of a fright, I jumped off the counter, my thick soled boots thumping loudly as they hit the tile below. "This is she?"

"I was told to meet for an interview?"

He looked nervous, almost as though he wasn't expecting this himself. The famous Tony Stark, nervous? It seemed so.

"The archer meant you?" I asked incredulously, beckoning him over to sit at my previously abandoned table. "All I was told was that there was a cleaning spot open."

He sat down, starting to get cocky and rested his feet up on the table. "You could say that."

Julianne stormed over then, slamming a rolled up newspaper down on his legs. "I don't care who you are or how much money you have but don't you put your feet up on my tables, Stark."

I wolf-whistled at her attitude and the genuine southern accent that naturally rolled off her lips, something she often tried to hide. "You tell him, girl!"

Stark just rolled his eyes. "You want the position or not? Full time. You'd start on Monday, same time as now."

I pulled a face, but reached out a hand. "I got nothing better to do, so why the hell not?"

He shook too, before standing up and simply walking out. I was led to believe that the two of us girls in the coffee shop had shocked him, to say the least.

"I guess I got the job?"

Julianne shook her head nervously, "that was just weird. There's got to be something else going on behind this, it can't all be that simple."

I simply shrugged, bringing my coffee back to my lips. "At least I have something to do with my time now."

The chuckle from the brunette girl set a smile on my face. "Sure, super-soldier. We'll go with that."