Their first meeting had been brief due to the fact that he was actually on his way to a briefing.
Ha. Wordplay.
He smiled at her joke and she smiled in return. He apologized again and she told him it was fine and they did that weird nod in acknowledgement thing people do before going on their merry way.
She might have been a bit jittery after that but Mindy will defend her right to be damn giddy that her boy came home mostly safe and sound.
Okay, not her boy. Possessive much Mindy? Earth's boy maybe? Being involved first hand with the Bring Mark Home Squad sometimes makes her forget the whole fiasco was basically Mark Watney's long distance relationship with earth.
Then she had to go back to work and had shelved that interaction in some part of her brain.
Luckily she has new interns helping her out. Female interns , thank the outer space gods. Her male co workers were okay but sometimes a girl just wants to complain about cramps out loud without immature noises of disgust.
Interns who have no problem telling her what they want when she decides to get some food.
To be fair she did offer, and they were stuck doing most of the boring work so whatever.
Susan, one of the interns who forbids anyone from making suburban mom jokes with her name but begrudgingly allows Narnia ones, is discussing the wizarding world of harry potter with her on her phone while on this bagel run
Mindy didn't expect to be discussing the possibilities of space travel and portkeys while being told to buy whole wheat bagels by interns but one can never be too sure with NASA.
"Would wizards even be interested in space travel though? You'd think Hermione would." Mindy says out loud because she has to carry food back to her interns she can do what she wants. She isn't an expert in Harry Potter lore but she didn't recall the study of planets and stars besides their future telling properties a subject in Hogwarts.
She tells Susan this and the girl sends her some sort of shrugging emoji at her before she replies but someone interrupts her before she can read it
"Considering the fact that they still use quills and scrolls when at least one muggle born has to have introduced them to a pen and notebook?" Mark Watney approaches her with a friendly smile on his face. "Probably not, makes no sense if you ask me."
Mindy pauses at that, because she honestly never thought she would bump into Mark Watney again, and also he has a point.
"Why didn't they ever just enchant a quill to write without dipping it with ink anyway?" She questions.
"Why not figure out a spell that lets them write with their wands on paper?" Mark replies good naturedly."I saw The Chamber of Secrets, I saw young teenage heart throb Voldemort write his name in the air."
Mindy can't help but laugh at that, Mark gives a shrug as if to say 'wizards, what can you do.'
They stare at each other for a bit but luckily Mark introduces himself before things can get too awkward and how weird is it that this is the first time they've been formally introduced since she started spying on him.
"I'm Mark Watney by the way," He says with a small smile. "You know, the guy that ruined NASA's budget by getting stranded on Mars."
He says it with an air of nonchalance but even Mindy can see how it doesn't reach his eyes. This man has been through hell.
"Mindy Park from SatCon , space paparazzi. " She offers in return. " I would say it's nice bumping into you again, but I learned my lesson and have kept both eyes on the road since."
She can't believe she just said that but he snorts anyway so maybe it wasn't too bad.
"Space Paparazzi," He quirks an eyebrow at her " Taking pictures of the Stars all day?"
She makes a face because ugh, she walked right into that one.
"Well you are kind of a star now yourself." She says"Not to sound like an angry hipster but I did it before it was cool." and okay maybe bringing up his new found fame isn't the best idea considering how he earned it. She wasn't sure how to deal with him in a way that wasn't staring at pictures all day.
He looks at her funny and oh, right he doesn't know. She keeps forgetting she knows more about him then he knows her and ugh why does that sound so creepy.
"I'm the person who kind of found out you were still alive." She probably should have led up to that better but it was too late now. "Just staring at the right picture at the right time really, you know Google Mars, always taking pics."
He keeps looking at her but not in the same way and honestly she doesn't know how to deal with that but luckily he breaks out of it and smiles.
"I hope you sold those pictures for good money." He says.
"Enough to pay my student loans with." She replies. If only that were true.
Mark can probably tell what the look on her face means because he proceeds to strike a pose.
"Go on," he says deadpan "This one is worth at least a good million."
They stare at each other for a good few seconds before breaking into laughter.