Supervillain Girlfriend!

Part Two, Chapter Four: Looking for Work

Beatrice met Lin at a fancy restaurant on top of the Boulevard Hotel at around noon. You could tell it was fancy because everything was either white or made of glass, and the plates on the tables were square and very small.

It was busy, every table filled with fancy people having fancy conversations and drinking fancy water stuffed with lemon slices and sprigs of mint.

Most of the people seemed too wrapped up in their own conversations to notice her walk in, something she was thankful for. She was getting noticed more and more every day, and most of the time, it was bad enough that she wouldn't leave the apartment. She had never considered how hard it was for famous people just to go down to a gas station to get more bags of barbeque chips until it happened to her.

Lin waved to her from a booth at the very back and she walked over to him, offering him a small wave back.

He seemed excited, probably to see her leaving the apartment, she thought. He always worried too much about her.

"Hey, B!" He said happily.

"Hey." She said as she sat down.

"Do you want me to go ahead and put in your order for your lunch?" He asked, gesturing to the touch screen on the side of the wall.

I won't have to talk to someone. She thought to herself. What a relief.

"Sure." Beatrice said, beginning to rummage through her bag. "I'll just have one of those gross looking plant waters."

"Uh, okay-" he said. She didn't have to look up at him. She could tell from his voice that he was confused.

"I'm on a diet." She said without looking up.

"Wait, wh-why?"

Beatrice ignored him and pulled a stack of papers out from her bag and spilled them sloppily all over the table.

"Uh-"

"Okay, so-" Beatrice said. "These are all of the agents that have been emailing me ever since I was in the hospital."

"Um, okay, uh-" he said, blinking slowly as he glanced over the sea of papers.

"You have a lot more experience with this than me, so I need you to help me figure out which ones to respond to."

Linton looked at her, dumbfounded for a moment.

"You mean like, as your agent? To represent you? As a... hero?"

Beatrice nodded, her eyebrows knitted together as though that should have been obvious. What else could she have possibly meant?

"Wait a second." Linton sighed and shook his head. "You're saying that you want to get into the business?"

"Well, yeah?" Beatrice said.

"Why?" Linton asked.

"Uhm, because I need money, Lin!" She said. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm unemployed."

"But isn't your girlfriend a millionaire? Yoh live in a penthouse apartment with her, right?"

"Yeah, but that's her money, Lin. Not mine." Beatrice said.

"Well, technically it's not her's either. It's her dad's." Lin said.

"That's not the point!" Beatrice said. "I dont want to just sit around and have her support me for the rest of my life."

It makes me feel like I'm a burden.

"Why not?" Lin said. "Plenty of people do that. In fact, a good number of people daydream about that at their office desks all day long."

"Well, what if Charlie figures out that I'm the most neurotic individual on the face of the earth, and decides to leave me!" Beatrice said. "I won't have any way to support myself!"

Linton blinked slowly at her.

"Are you trying to imply that she doesn't already know you're neurotic? Because I'm sure she knows."

Beatrice huffed and fell back in her chair, crossing her arms glowering at him.

He sighed, and ran his hand across his face.

"B, why cant you just go to college or something?" He said. "I'll help you with that. You can earn money that way."

"You dont think I'm strong enough to do it." she accused.

"No, it's not that!" He said softly. "I just... I just worry about you getting hurt again, okay?"

"I'm not a kid, Lin." She said. "I can take care of myself. I can do this."

"B..." He gave her one last desperate look.

"I'm a mutant, Lin. I was, quite literally, born to do this. What, am I supposed to use my powers to just, I don't know, close doors without having to stand up for the test of my life?"

"Fine." He said with a sigh. "I'll help you out."

He reached out, and started to organize the papers into a stack, and flip through them. As she watched him look over them, her phone buzzed in her pocket and she fished it out.

It was an email.

In fact, it was the same email she had gotten on the night of the gala, just forwarded back to her again.

She frowned and typed a simple message back.

What do you want?

"Oh." Linton said.

Beatrice looked up from her phone to see him holding up one of the papers, and staring at it with scrutiny.

"Hm? What is it?" She asked.

"Alice Williamson." He said. "That's my agent. I didn't know she was going to reach out to you. I thought that might be something she would tell me about..."

Beatrice shrugged and put her phone back into her pocket.

"She probably thought I wouldn't respond."

"Still..." Lin grumbled.

"Sooo... this means we get to be agent buddies?" Beatrice said.

"Well, I'm not going to be happy about it, but sure."

"Great!" Beatrice said. "Let's get started then!"

Hope everyone is doing okay!! I've been working more hours ever since the pandemic because my field of work is an essential service. There's going to be another update either later today or tomorrow so look forward to it!