“Somewhere away from here, I think. D’you have a favourite place, Steve? I don’t really go out a lot, so I don’t know as much of the city as I could.” A faint drawl filtered into her words. “I could really use a cider, personally. We can talk about something besides all this,” and Summer waved a hand behind her at the detritus.
“Honestly, it’s Tony who knows this city best. But I think there’s a nice little place just up ahead. Tea, hot chocolate, cider, coffee, you name it, they have it,” he explained, regaining a sense of cheer. “Does that work?”
“That suits me down to the ground. So tell me, Mr Rogers,” Summer winked at him, “What do you do when you’re not saving the world from evil aliens, mad mutants, and crazy scientists? Girlfriend, day job, independently wealthy?” She gave him a big smile to let him know she was teasing, and unlatched her armour to reveal a deep red undershirt.
“Girlfriend? Huh? Oh no… Dating isn’t really my area. It never was, to tell you the truth.” It was surprising how easy he opened up to Summer. “Day job, not exactly, but I am considering assisting at one of those downtown art class things. Not sure if I’d be much use however…” he added humbly.
“You draw? But that’s awesome! You should definitely do that, then. Even if you aren’t good at it yet, the more you work on it, you’ll get better. Maybe I could see some of your work sometime?” Summer knew she was babbling, just a bit, but Steve was … well, he was basically everything she’d heard of him. Open-hearted, kind, interesting and interested.
“Lead on to that coffee shop, sir! Maybe I’ll show you how to flirt with the waitresses.” She tacked on a wink to the end of that, but truth to tell, she was starting to be more interested in flirting with Steve. How would he react?