Peter enters the Coffee Bean with a lump in his throat, he had sworn to himself he would not get so weighed down by anxiety, but his body, his soul, was set to betray him
As soon as he saw her turn around to greet him at the counter, he gulped hard, hoping the lump would go away. He'd have no truck with that.
Nervously, he put the printed paper he'd been carrying, full of his notes on what to say and do, back in his jacket pocket. He had to speak from his heart.
"Hi, my name's Peter Parker, there's something important I have to tell you, something only someone like you can understand"
"Hold on a sec" Michelle said as she cranked up the volume on the television, the news was covering the recent battle that had occurred at the Statue of Liberty.
"Spider-Man's made the news again?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, he and his gang really did a number on the lady" Michelle replied.
"His gang? He was trying to stop them" Peter said defensively.
"Relax, I'm kidding, the guy does too much good to be considered a bad apple"
"I'm glad you have faith in him, from my perspective he can screw up a lot"
"You on Jameson's side"? Michelle asked. Peter shook his head.
"No, it's just...sometimes he makes mistakes, he does a good thing, a simple thing, and then there's so many complications...take the fight over at F.E.A.S.T for example, Spidey had them all held up in there and it got out of control...and, someone died"
Michelle could tell from the ache in Peter's voice that he felt this loss.
"I'm sorry, was she important to you?"
"Yeah, she was my Aunt"
Michelle bit her lip, struggling to come up with words of comfort for this man she felt she should know more about.
"Look, you're bound to have seen me on the news, I was the one Spider-Man saved on Liberty Island? I bragged about it for weeks, Ned got so jealous, Flash Thompson tried to write a memoir about our life in high school about it too, not many pages to fill about me, so it was 90% all him. I don't know why I was there, I just knew it was...right somehow, that I was determined to be there for him somehow. I fell from a great height and he caught me, I looked into his eyes and there was such emotion in his expression. We had an unspoken connection. I felt everything he did. A sense of loss, and then, almost miraculously, a sense of completion, as if saving me redeemed him for a past mistake"
Peter was left mesmerised by Michelle's recollection. Could there be hope for her after all?
"Listen, the point I'm getting at is that maybe Spider-Man is like all of us, he makes mistakes, pays the price, and allows doubt to creep in, before ultimately he strives to do better"
Peter smiled faintly, even though who she was to him was but an old coat, she still 'fit' him.
"Listen, do you want to talk more about it?" Michelle proposed.
"I really need to get going" Peter said.
"You should go somewhere to clear your head a little, might I make a recommendation?"
"Sure, name it"
"Try the top of the Empire State Building"
"Where'd you get the recommendation?" Peter asked
"Through Spider-Man, again. Man I can't recall much of that, were there two of them that day?"
"You saw double? Four Spideys?" Peter quipped, Michelle laughed at the lame Simpsons reference.
"Hey, you never said what the thing was"
"I'm sorry?"
"The thing only someone like me could understand"
"Oh, it was just a coffee request. Never mind, it wouldn't stand a chance keeping warm in this weather anyway"
"You assume because I work behind a counter that I only understand how to serve coffee?" Michelle asked, raising an eyebrow.
Pete looked at her nervously. Michelle just laughed again.
"You're weird Peter Parker"
Peter turned and headed out the door.
"Word of advice MJ? Don't be a stranger" Peter replied, and walked outside into the chilled air.
"Yes, my Spider-Lord" Michelle said, under her breath, before realizing what she said and wondering just where that came from, as well as one other thing.
She never told Peter her name let alone her initials.