Time skip 2 weeks

Time in my new home seemed to pass me by in a horrendously boring blur of eat, work, sleep, repeat. It wasn't anything like what I had been hoping for when I had moved to the big city. Yes the change of scenery was wonderful, and the people were very eclectic, and I'll admit fun to people watch, but I hadn't had a chance to explore on my own yet. It was causing me lots of frustration, especially when every once in a while, I could feel one of my Soul Mark's tingle or heat up, or do both sensations at once. I always make sure to drop what I'm doing and look around quickly, but no matter how quickly I looked around, I can never see anyone reacting to their own Soul Mark.

Everyday at exactly 4:30 am on the dot, the alarm on my phone would wake me up and tell me to get my ass out of bed by blaring "Eye of the Tiger," so I could get ready for my day of manual labor aka work. As always I would take a steaming hot shower and use the usual Aussie Volume shampoo and conditioner. It wasn't like my hair wasn't thick enough already I thought, but I loved how it gave my hair an extra bounce as I walked. And let's be honest, I really liked it for its name and those cute commercials they used to do for it too.

Have you ever intentionally frozen yourself? I do, every morning just to wake up. I enjoy the steamyness of the shower for as long as I can time wise, before turning the water all the way to the right so that the freezing cold water can shock me awake. After that unpleasant but necessary 30 seconds of Hell, I'd dry off with my mint green towel, not white, but mint green. My mom always had everything white around the house and I hated it. She said it made everything match and go together, while I would rather have a rainbow of colors surrounding me. Color makes life beautiful and worth living, without color we would be living in a sad gray world. I know some people are color blind and that's how they see the world, but color is everything to me at least. It's a mood, food, how you coordinate things, its life balled up into one word.

Next on my agenda, was the beast that I call my hair. Don't get me wrong I love my dark blonde hair but when its wet, that's when it fights me back, and I don't even have curls! Anyone with long hair knows that if you don't get all the conditioner out of your hair, or rub it into your hair just right, you'll regret it. Well this morning, turns out, I regretted it. Quickly, I forced a brush through my hair and pulled it up into a ponytail to airdry so I didn't have to use a hair dryer and end up looking like a poodle with mad cow disease. Never had I met anyone else who couldn't use a hair dryer on their hair, but alas I could not. Whenever I even tried my hair started to poof out and get staticky, while at the same time staying flat in some places. It wasn't a pretty sight, and so came the end of my relationship with hair dryers.

With my black jeans, black T-shirt, and black non-slip shoes on, I was ready to head downstairs and start my day, all by 5:30.

When I made it downstairs there was already a line forming at the till, fresh baked goods needing to fill the display case up front, and my manager/landlord Leon already looked like he was about to have a coronary. Leon was a nice man in his mid 40's who owned a few cafe's around Midtown with his Wife and Soulmate Julia. The day I moved in, they made me dinner and promised to help me with anything I needed. Julia was 4 months pregnant and had a heart of gold so I promised myself that I would help them however I could.

Even though my shift wasn't supposed to start until 6:30 and I had planned on grabbing some tea and a muffin for breakfast, I grabbed my apron and firmly but gently took the tray of burnt baked goods from Leon's hands.

"I'll remake these, why don't you grab a quick cup of coffee and sit down?"

"Do you even know what those are?" He asked me skeptically as he followed me into the kitchen as he raked a hand through his black hair in frustration that wasn't directed at me, but by how badly his morning had so obviously been going so far.

"Of course I do! These are obviously our triple chocolate muffins. I get one everyday." I laughed as I threw the burnt food into the trash. "Now go and sit for a minute. I'll make these and when I'm done I'll work the counter with who ever comes in."

With a resigned nod but a relieved smile on his face, he did as I said and went to have some coffee. I thanked every deity I knew that I loved baking and was good at it as I mixed and measured different ingredients until I had not only finished the Triple Chocolate muffins, but our Multigrain Muffins, Blueberry Muffins, and Razzleberry Muffins. Those were in the oven and the timer was set and I totally wasn't going to keep baking. Leon had a Baker after all, and it was still his job to do the baking, I was just helping him get caught up.

As soon as the timer went off, I took the different trays one by one up front and loaded up our display case with the delicious smelling goodies. By now my stomach was grumbling and my mouth was watering from the look and smell of these delicious looking treats, and all I wanted to do was snatch one and run to a corner and eat my treasure. I had a Triple Chocolate Muffin in my hand and I was ready to make a break for it figuratively speaking, when I heard the bell above the door ring.

I'd lost track of time as I was baking, but the line was down to nonexistent at the moment, and who ever my co worker is wasn't anywhere in sight. So with a sigh, I sadly put back the delicious piece of heavenly chocolate goodness and walked up to the register to meet the tall gorgeous red head who had just walked in.

"Good morning, how can I help you today?" I asked the woman with a smile on my face as I waited for an order from her to put into the computer, but there was no response. Worried I leaned a little closer to her and I repeated my question.

"Good morning ma'am, how can I help you today?" This was said louder than the first time.

That seemed to snap her out of whatever funk she was in, because she let out a quiet startled sounding laugh and looked me in the eyes as she told me her order. Though her wide eyes did keep glancing down to the Mating Mark's on my arm I noticed.

"Yes, can I have a large coffee with two cream and two sugars please, and what would you recommend as something to eat?" She asked me as she watched me move around behind the counter as I fixed her coffee to her liking.

"Well the Razzleberry muffins are delicious if you want something fruity, but if you were going for something decadent, then the Triple Chocolate Muffin is definitely for you. Though I've found they also taste surprisingly good together. The berry's and the chocolate compliment each other wonderfully." I said with a large smile as I set the coffee down. "And as a bonus, they all just came out of the oven so they are fresh baked." I gestured to the case with my hands making her smile get bigger.

"I was hoping you'd sell me on one treat not two!" She laughed, "but I'll take one of each of the muffins you told me about."

"Coming right up," I said, while punching her total into the cash register and taking the 20 dollar bill she handed me and giving her back her change. Smoothly I walked over to our display case to get her muffins and I noticed she had grabbed her coffee and was now standing in front of the case watching me. This wasn't uncommon so I paid it no mind until she began to speak.

"I don't mean to pry, but I noticed that you have three Soul Mark's on your arm." I didn't respond because this is when the teasing, taunting, and name calling usually began. "Its just I know three people who also have the same soul mark, and I believe I know the man that that Red Rose belongs to quite well."

"Wait what?!?" I said shocked as I stood and looked at her in disbelief while almost dropping her muffins. Quickly I set them down and went around the corner so I could be standing closer to her.

She was looking at me with a huge grin on her face. "They've been looking for you."

"I've been looking for them." A simple statement, but true and one that revealed my emotions down to my core as my hands began to shake lightly.

"My names Virginia Potts, but my friends call me Pepper." She said as we shook hands.

"My names Stella Monroe, and my friends call me Stella because I don't have a cool nickname like you," I said trying to calm my racing heart down.

"Well Stella, how about I meet you here after your shift tonight and I can introduce you to your Soulmates?"

"I would love that! But how can I know you're telling the truth? No offense, it's just that we just met?" I said.

"No problem, but you'll just have to take a leap of faith on this one. I promise you won't regret it. Either way you'll get to tour an amazing building, what do you say?"

"Which building?"

With a sly grin she looked at me and said, "Avengers tower of course, how else are you going to meet the owner of the Red Rose? Tony has been going crazy trying to find the Gold to his Red for ages."

"I'm sorry Tony?"

"Of course, Tony Stark."