Please take Our Short Two-Minute Survey
"You've got to be friendlier to the customers, Cloud."
It was a familiar refrain. Zack wasn't the Electronics Department Manager for a reason. Cloud couldn't even make Head Cashier. Probably the only reason they kept him at all was, well, he was simply too smart about their products.
That didn't stop Zack from giving him shit.
He wished he could be more like Zack, he really did. He watched Zack every day, smiling, joking with the customers as he upsold them to whatever product the company wanted to offload that week (calling Cloud over whenever the customers had the NERVE to ask something actually technical). He'd ring them up with a laugh, always ending with the mandatory, "And don't forget, please take out short two-minute survey!"
Every time Cloud had to force those words out in a monotone, he lowkey wanted to puke.
But that was all part of life working at SingleTarget™. Even though the smaller stores were gradually being eclipsed by the much larger new concept megastore, MultiTarget™. Which sold groceries, gardening items, a wider selection of baby items, hell actual BABIES for all he knew. Every day he wondered why he was even here, but he had to pay for school somehow, and what else was he supposed to do, wait tables somewhere? Converse with people? Bullshit.
He should just quit, really he should. But he couldn't deny the real reason he was still here.
Her.
She worked sometimes in Returns and Exchanges with Zack's girlfriend, Aerith, a thankless job that even Zack might have been hard-pressed to stay cheery through. But somehow Aerith tolerated all the bullshit complaints, people buying five sizes too small and complaining the fit was made wrong, sheets out of the package with sweat stains that the customer insisted were like that when they bought them, toys with chew marks (child or dog, who cares) that they "simply changed their mind about". Aerith would smile, maybe give them a little bubbly sass, and send them off with the eternal "Please take our short two-minute survey!"
But she… mostly she worked in the affiliated coffee shop, Stargazerbucks™. Not enough that there was one on every fucking corner, now the masses couldn't even make it through an hour in the store without their Flappycinnos and Ultima Lattes (pumpkin spice). But she smiled demurely as she barista'ed for the crowd, then leaving for the day before he could even catch her name.
"So what's her name, really?" asked Cloud one day.
Zack looked up from where they were marking down the latest batch of PlayPosition4 games, in preparation for the latest influx for the PlayPosition5™. (Nevermind that they couldn't get any actual PlayPosition5's, hadn't been able too for months, and there was no solution in sight.) "You're really asking me that?" he said. "Like, dude, she's only worked here for six months."
"Still," Cloud protested.
"You know, you could just go into the 'Bucks and ask her," Zack suggested, returning to stamping on the colorful clearance labels. "Not even. Just read her name tag."
"But… wouldn't I have to introduce myself?" Cloud freaked.
Zack sighed. "They ask you for your name when you order," he told Cloud. "You don't even need to bother introducing yourselves. The coffee does it for you."
"I don't drink coffee," Cloud asked, bewildered.
"Drink a damn tea. Get one of those egg bites or a brownie to go with it. Damn it, Cloud, when were you last on a date?"
They both knew the answer. Too long. Not since Jessie. That had been an ugly breakup, and he'd been glad she'd gotten fired from the toy department. Something about pushing high-tech toys to children way below the age group. He'd never gotten the straight of it.
He spent the next several days trying to figure out how to approach her… until finally she came to him.
"Hi," came a voice above him as he was shelving the latest accessories for the FFPhoneXVI™. As he caught a glimpse of her, he was so thoroughly startled that his head whipped up, bonkling the boxes above and sending them flying to the floor all around him.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she told him, squatting down to collect the boxes of chargers, car transmitters, car chargers, from where they now littered the floor.
"It's no problem," Cloud forced out. "Needed to look busy somehow, anyways."
They just stared at each other for a long moment. "I like your shirt," he told her. "The red matches your eyes."
She looked perplexed. "You're wearing the same one."
Erm. Efforts at flirting were clearly going nowhere. Instead, he switched to the fallback of professionalism. "Um, is there any way I can help you?"
The last of the boxes returned to the shelf, they stood together. "Um, actually," she blushed. "I was sort of looking to buy a video game. Wondering what's new in fighting games."
Cloud's heart sank. "For, uh, your boyfriend?" he asked.
She blushed even more thoroughly. "Well, actually," she said, embarrassed, "It's, uh, for me." She looked around as if anyone was within fifty feet to hear her. It was 2pm on a Tuesday; the place was empty. "I, uh, am, well, really good at them."
"What's your favorite?" Cloud asked.
"Lately I've been playing a lot of Critical Crush Bros," she told him. "But I'm in the mood to try something new."
"Well, there's Dissidia, if you haven't played it," he told her. "It's the characters from the Last Legendary™ series. Do you know that one?"
"Oh, yeah!" she explained. Tifa, he finally noted the nametag on her shirt. "I've played a little of that. You?"
He decided to be honest. "It's one of my favorites," he said. "6 was the best, though. 7 was shit."
"Isn't that the one they remade?" wondered Tifa.
"Even worse," Cloud told her. "People think they're somehow going to change the original. That now the hero will end up with the other girl, the one who's the last of her race or something."
Tifa puzzled. "Didn't she die in the original?"
Cloud pouted. "That doesn't stop some people." He walked her towards the games display. "Dissidia… well… it's like a bunch of the characters get transported to another world… sounds kind of lame, I know. But it's actually pretty fun."
He picked up the box; Tifa looked it over. "You know, there's actually a cell phone version, too. Less fighting. More strategy. I forget what it's called. Ultimate Ubiquitous. Something like that. DLLUU."
"I feel like I've heard of that," she asked. "Is it a free game?"
"More than most," he told her. "Like VOTW. Or LLEXBE."
"What do any of those mean?" she asked.
"I'm not actually sure myself," Cloud said.
The quiet of the department was suddenly disrupted – well, not really disrupted, since the two new arrivals were as quiet as mice – by the passing through of Reno and Rude. "Loss prevention experts", they always made their laps of the store together, even though company policy was for each to circulate on their own. Passing through Electronics, they swept their gaze over Cloud and Tifa, before moving on towards Toys and Babies, which, weirdly enough, was where most thefts occurred.
Cloud and Tifa remained still until they passed on. "They give me the shivers," Tifa finally admitted. "Creepy guys. The way Rude never takes off his sunglasses, even indoors…"
"And the way they take smoke breaks with Tseng and Elena," Cloud added. "Always the four of them together. Never anyone else."
"Do you smoke?" asked Tifa.
Did she? It would give him a chance to take a little "break" with her… but he had to admit the truth. "No," he told her. "Those things make me puke."
Her smile brightened. "Good. Because I hate cigarettes."
Cloud nearly laughed. "How do you deal with going up to Cid's office, then?" Cid was one of the store managers; his office was a notorious chimney plume.
"Ugghhh." Tifa made a face. "I avoid that as much as possible. I swear, five minutes in that office, and I can't get the smell out of my hair for the rest of the day."
"Hey there, lovebirds." Cloud groaned at the sound of Zack's voice. What a time to interrupt… and embarrass him… just when he was actually making some progress on having a conversation with this girl.
His buddy joined his side, unusually serious. "Gotta get back to work, guys. The District Manager is coming today."
"Rufus?" asked Tifa, worried. No one ever looked forward to a visit from him.
"Yeah, Rufus," Zack told her. "So everything's gotta be up to spec, you know? We gotta clean up the aisles, shelve everything properly…" He looked wiltingly at the pile of video games still lying on the ground. As one, Cloud and Tifa took the hint and started cleaning up; Tifa silently handed each one by one for Cloud to neatly shelve in the correct location.
"Is he going to bring that damn dog he always claims is a 'service dog'?" asked Cloud.
"Probably," said Zack.
"What 'disability' is that monster supposed to serve?" wondered Tifa.
"Being an asshole," Cloud replied.
The joking covered up their worry. They hadn't needed the store meeting led by Barret to tell them sales were slipping. Nowadays, most of the sales were being taken over by the larger MultiTarget™ concept stores, which included a grocery store, a garden center, maybe a rocket outside the building for all Cloud knew. But the one stop shopping concept was appealing, leaving the employees of the SingleTarget™ worried about layoffs and their jobs.
Cloud was in school. He couldn't afford to lose his job when he was just making ends meet as is.
"Look, I gotta go," Tifa finally said. "My break is almost over."
"Oh," was all Cloud could think of to say.
"Say, why don't you come by the Stargazerbucks™ later? I'll make you something special," she suggested.
"Um… I don't really drink coffee," Cloud replied. Zack gave Cloud a hard poke in the back.
"No. Something off menu. Not another damn Flappycino™," she laughed, before swirling to go. Cloud noticed something he hadn't before. Company policy required long hair to be tied back… but she had cheekily circumvented the rule by tying her long, long hair in a dolphin's tail at the very bottom. It was a look he appreciated.
He was still staring after her when Zack finally cleared his throat. "Dude," Zack told him. "She just asked you out on a date."
"She just offered to make me a beverage," Cloud protested.
Zack facepalmed. "That's code for 'date', Cloud. Remember dates? It's been too long. Hell, if Rufus and his monstrosity don't make an appearance, I'll even let you go on break a few minutes early. You can't miss this chance."
Author's Note: No idea where I'm going with this. Needed a little silly break from writing Exponential (TM). More to be posted as ideas hit!