Chapter Text
“This is absolutely ridiculous! I have been waiting in line for over ten minutes!” The man in front of her register is fuming, though Marinette has no idea why. On a premiere night, waiting in the concession line for ten minutes isn’t too bad of a wait.
“I’m sorry, sir. We are extremely busy tonight, and our system went down,” Marinette says calmly. “I assure you, we are working as fast as we can.” The popcorn machine starts to beep behind her, so Marinette whips around to dump the popcorn quickly before it burns. No need to bring the wrath of Chloe, one of her managers, down on her for making the whole theater atrium smell of burnt popcorn. She’s only been here a few weeks, and she has already learned to stay on Chloe’s good side whenever possible. She turns back to the customer.
“This simply will not do,” he says, crossing his arms, and Marinette knows exactly what is coming. “I already had to send my wife and kids into the theater because we got here late,” and yet you’re complaining to me about having to wait in line on a premiere night, “and I know I already missed the beginning of the movie,” then stop complaining and tell me what you freaking want, “and I am very displeased with this theater’s service,” just keep smiling Mari… Stop imagining 100 different ways to kill him… Stop that… “So I would like to speak with a manager instead of complaining at you.”
“Understood sir,” she nods her head. “I’ll call her over right now.” She presses the button on her radio earpiece and speaks into the small microphone, “Alya. I have a customer in concession that would like to speak with you.”
A couple of the ushers make “ooo-ing” sounds into the radio before Alya responds.
“I’m gonna be a minute here,” her voice crackles over the radio. “Dealing with a ticket refund up at guest services.” Marinette glances over at the guest services desk, and sure enough, Alya also has an annoyed customer in front of her, a woman with her arms crossed and a tapping foot. Alya glances up and meets Marinette’s eye across the atrium, and yeah, she looks in about the same state as Marinette is in at this point.
“My manager is going to be few minutes,” Marinette tells her customer, who only grimaces. “In the meantime, I could get your order started…”
“No,” he interrupts her. “I want to speak to a manager. Now.”
Marinette’s fingers grip the register for a second, and she is very thankful that she has the “customer smile” down-pat, even though her face is starting to hurt. She’s been working since nine in the morning, and she really doesn’t want to have to be dealing with this shit right now. Hell, it’s been non-stop for the last two and a half hours, and the ever-growing line shows no intent of stopping.
“Is there an available manager that can come back here and help this guest?” Marinette says calmly into the radio, though just flatly enough to convey exactly what kind of customer this is.
“I’m on my way,” she hears through the radio. Adrien. Great. Marinette’s cheeks flush a little. Of course, it had to be the cute manager that she’s totally crushing on.
“Thank you,” she responds into the comm. “He’ll be here in a moment,” she tells the customer.
“Good,” he nods his head. “This is the absolute worst service I have ever had here. I can’t believe how long I had to wait in that line. It took you five minutes to ring up that man ahead of me, and all he had was a water bottle. And the fact that I had to send my family in… Absolutely ridiculous…” why don’t you just tell me your order so I don’t have to listen to you complaining please please please. The door into the concession area slams closed, and she looks over to see Adrien speed-walking her way. Marinette turns away from the customer enough that he won’t see the very subtle eye-roll she does, a certain look that anyone in retail understands immediately. Adrien seems to get it, because his eyebrow raises slightly in acknowledgement before stepping up behind her.
“Hello, sir. My name is Adrien. What can I do for you?” Adrien says, lightly placing his hand on Marinette’s shoulder, a friendly gesture that makes Marinette’s cheeks flush.
“Finally!” the customer exclaims. “I just wanted to tell you about how disappointed I am with my experience here. But meanwhile,” he glances at Marinette, “I would like a large popcorn.” It takes Marinette a moment to process the customer’s request (his hand is on my shoulder his hand is on my shoulder) before she jumps back to attention and nods her head, whipping around to the popcorn machine and grabbing a flattened, large popcorn bag out of the designated cubby-hole. Nino is just finishing scooping some popcorn into a small bag, and he glances at her customer before raising an eyebrow at her. She just rolls her eyes, that same “retail understanding” gesture that makes him smirk as he heads back to his register.
She faintly listens to her customer’s complaining as she pops the bag open and fills it, making sure to put in as little popcorn as is acceptable. Normally, she over-fills the bag, especially for nice customers. But this man, she will not go out of her way for. The whole time, he’s telling Adrien exactly what he told Marinette: that he had to wait in line for ten whole minutes (oh boohoo there are people that will wait in that line for twenty minutes because of you asshole) and that this slow of service is unacceptable when he has to pay this much (our tickets are the cheapest in town jerk you don’t have to buy popcorn) and that he is going to give our theater a bad review (it’s a premiere night what do you expect???). Marinette sighs, plastering back on the smile before turning back to the customer, popcorn in hand. She carefully sets it on the counter.
“Well sir, I’m sorry that you are having such an unenjoyable experience at our theater,” Adrien says, and Marinette notices he looks about as strained as she does. This customer is completely oblivious, fiddling with his wallet and taking his credit card out. “I’m afraid there is not much we can do, however. As you can see, we are extremely busy at the moment, and corporate is updating our rewards program, so the system is going in and out. I am sorry for your displeasure, though.” The customer hands Marinette his card, and she reaches in front of Adrien a bit to enter the large popcorn into her register.
“Well,” the customer says innocently, his whole demeanor shifting. “I might be less likely to leave a bad review if you… comp my popcorn.”
Marinette barely stops her jaw from dropping. This guy can’t be serious. He held up her line, complained about something that couldn’t be helped, and then has the audacity to ask for his stupid popcorn to be free. She glances up at Adrien, and he’s having the same reaction; she can tell. You don’t have to work in retail for long to understand the subtle facial expressions that any worker has, the ones that outsiders never understand. It’s small things, like the quirk of an eyebrow or a small twitch or that forced, fake smile that simply looks “polite” to customers.
Marinette is still holding the man’s credit card, watching Adrien and waiting to see what he’s going to do. He could comp this man’s popcorn; it’s not out of his authority. He’s a manager, so he can do it. It’s just a couple of extra key-strokes.
But then his head quirks just slightly to the side, and one corner of his lips quirks ever-so-slightly higher, the smile so fake Marinette almost has to laugh.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m not allowed to do that.” He looks down at Marinette, stepping slightly away from the register to give her access, and she swipes the man’s card, completing the transaction. She hands him his card back, and the man humphs at her, snatching his card and his popcorn and stomping away before she can offer him the receipt, mumbling about bad reviews and horrible service all the way across the atrium. “Have an amazing day,” Adrien calls after him, the phrase drilled into employees’ heads and used more ironically than seriously anymore.
Marinette snorts, and she looks up to see Adrien rolling his eyes as the man leaves. He pats her back lightly, reassuringly, before turning and heading back out of concession to do whatever-it-is that managers do. She shakes her head and motions at the queue line.
“I can help the next guest over here!”
Concession has closed, and she’s wiping down the front counters when she sees Adrien heading in her direction from the customer service desk. Her cheeks heat up a bit, and she wipes the counter a bit more rigorously.
“That guy from earlier was an asshole,” he says, leaning forward onto the counter she’s wiping down and looking at her, a small, ironic smile on his lips. She stops wiping the counter and puts the rag down, smiling.
“Yeah, he was,” she agrees.
“No way in hell I was gonna give him a free popcorn,” Adrien shakes his head, strands of his blond hair poking out from under his theater cap waving across his forehead. “Ridiculous.”
“I completely agree,” she says, chuckling. “I was seriously hoping you wouldn’t give it to him. I almost burst out laughing when you pretended like you couldn’t.”
“Glad I could make you almost laugh,” he smiles at her, and yeah, he’s gorgeous, especially when he smiles at her like that. She glances down, feeling her cheeks get even warmer, her fingers fidgeting in front of her. She needs to get this crush under control, especially considering this is just a summer job, and she’s going to be heading back to college in a month or two...
“I was gonna go sit in on one of the ‘Miraculous’ showings,” he says, and she looks back up to meet his eyes. He points behind him. “You know, since I’m stuck here until one in the morning anyways since I’m closing manager. You wanna…” his cheeks flush, and he looks down at the counter, hands hidden behind his back. Marinette is thrown for a loop, wondering if he could possibly… No, there’s no way he could possibly…
“I—” she stammers. She wants to say yes, oh God she wants to say yes. He’s basically inviting her to see a movie with him! She wants to scream yes. “I can’t. S-Sorry.” She motions at the concession area behind her, indicating that she still has some work to do. “I think Nino would kill me if I left him alone to stock candy and clean the popcorn poppers.
“Right, right,” Adrien shakes his head. “I completely spaced. You’re right.” He rubs the back of his neck, not looking at her, his cheeks getting even redder. She giggles.
“I mean, I’d be willing to come watch a movie instead assuming I get to log the time as work hours,” she jokes, and he laughs, finally meeting her eyes again. So green…
“I think Chloe would have my head if she found out,” he chuckles.
“Nah,” Marinette shakes her head. “She likes you too much. Plus, she knows better than to kill her best manager.”
“I’m telling Alya she’s not your favorite!” Nino yells from the back room.
“Shut up, Nino!” she yells back. Adrien laughs.
“I’ll leave you to it,” he chuckles, stepping away from the counter. “You probably wanna finish up so you can get home.”
“Yeah,” she agrees, though she doesn’t want him to go. “But I’ll take a rain-check on that movie.” He pauses, his whole face lighting up. It’s adorable, she’s not going to lie.
“You’re not working tomorrow, right?” he asks, grinning so wide his face must be about to split into two. “No, you’re not. I made the schedule. Of course you’re not scheduled tomorrow. I know that. Nathaniel and Ivan are on concession tomorrow, not you. Duh.” He’s rambling, and it makes her heart flutter in her chest.
“Tomorrow sounds great,” she says. “I’ll meet you here, then? For the six o’clock showing?”
“Yeah, sure. Sounds great.” He smiles, almost in relief. “I’ll pay for the movie, you pay for dinner.”
“We get into the movies free, you goof!” she laughs.
“Which is exactly why I’ll pay for it!”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I try,” he smirks.
“Marinette!” Nino hollers from the back. “Stop flirting with the manager, get your ass back here, and help me stock this candy! You know I hate doing this crap!”
“Better watch out, Nino,” Adrien calls back. “I could still fire you!”
“As if,” Nino yells. “Who else are you planning on sending in to clean the bathrooms?”
Adrien chuckles, shaking his heading and turning to walk through the atrium, towards one of the theaters. He looks over his shoulder at Marinette, still smiling.
“Tomorrow at six, then?” he asks.
“Tomorrow at six,” she confirms.
“I’ll see you then.” He turns back, heading into the theater.
She manages to hold in her scream of excitement until she’s in her car, halfway home.