Green-Eyed MonsterWritten by: Virginia R.
Green-Eyed Monster TOC Description: This is a "what if" story: What if there was no
Daily Planet? What if everyone worked in the service industry instead of the news business? What if Clark never made it to college? What if Clark was raised in Metropolis and Lois in Smallville? Other than that this is romantic comedy between Lois and Clark, set in another dimension (of course!), but
not alt-dimension.
Rating: Definitely PG-13 for language and situations (not for violence)
Length: This is a Work in Progress in so much that I have not yet completed the story (on paper). I estimate there will be approximately 20 parts. (Okay, it ended up being closer to 37 with an epilogue, and a sequel.
)
Gratitude: I would like to Lynn S.M.'s muse for graciously stepping into the role of Lois Lane's inner (passionate) thoughts after she completed her work on
With Apologies to Female Hawk . And for AntiKryptonite for letting me borrow her inspiration of Clark's discomfort with the smell of blood from
Four Scents Worth . I would also like to thank my Beta Readers, Lynn and Iolanthe, for their generous chuckles and LOLs. Your laughter has kept me going. Thank you.
***
Part 1Lois looked around. She felt like a tourist gawking at the thousands of books. This bookstore was taller than the courthouse, taller than the church steeple, taller than the tallest building in Smallville. Okay, she was starting to feel like a hick.
“This way,” said the young man giving her the tour.
She turned and followed him past rows and rows of bookshelves.
“History. Politics. Religion,” he said as they passed the different departments.
Lois wished she could remember his name. He was handsome for a kid. But he was definitely a kid; he couldn’t be more than twenty, twenty-one at the most. At least six or seven years younger than herself. Still full of hope and optimism that life hadn’t driven out of him. She swallowed her pride and asked him his name again.
“Oops,” he said pulling his name badge hanging from a string around his neck out from under his shirt. He smiled indulgently at her. “Jimmy.”
“Oh. Right. Thanks.” Lois felt embarrassed. How could she forget a name as easy as Jimmy?
“Health. Fitness. Reference. True Crime.”
As they passed this section, Lois saw the most handsome blond man she had ever laid her eyes on. Part Brad, part Keanu, part Leonardo and just a hint of Mel. Okay, maybe handsome wasn’t the correct term. Beautiful. Yes. He certainly took her breath away.
A buzzer sounded in the back of the store, causing Lois to pull her gaze away from the Adonis in True Crime. Jimmy was already a good ten feet ahead of her. Oh, gosh. How long had she been staring? Jimmy waved at her. “Got to go.”
A tall auburn haired woman, wearing a skin tight rainbow colored dress, pushed past Lois.
“Cat?” Jimmy stepped in front of her, blocking her path, and trying to dazzle her with a smile, but plainly failing. “Can you finish giving Lois the tour? She’s our new Periodicals Supervisor.”
Cat looked back at Lois with an expression of disdain and sighed. With a roll of her eyes, she walked back to where Lois stood. Lois felt almost dowdy next to this knock-out. Her hair was boring dark brown cut in a simple pageboy style, while Cat’s long auburn locks looked professionally styled. Lois could see every curve of Cat’s body – she must overflow with confidence to wear something that form-fitting and bright. Lois glanced down at her black pantsuit with sensible shoes and her blouse buttoned up to her throat.
The woman thrust her hand out to Lois. “Cat Grant. Romance, Make-Up and Beauty Supervisor.” She looked Lois up-and-down. “And you look like you could use all three.”
Lois ran her tongue over her teeth, her spine stiffening as she thought of a suitable retort. She placed a smile on her face and shook Cat’s hand, with an extra tight squeeze. “Lois Lane. Periodicals. Catty, was it?” Her brow rose as she spoke.
“Burn,” she heard Jimmy mumble with a chuckle.
Cat sneered at her. “I don’t have time to play tour guide to new recruits, Jimmy. Deliveries await.” She glanced at the golden God as he approached them and then murmured under her breath to Lois. “That one should come with a warning label.”
Lois couldn’t agree more.
“Claude,” said the dreamy man holding out his hand. He had some sort of accent, possibly French. “Travel and Reference.”
Cat turned her tail on them, pushing past Jimmy into the back room at the end of the aisle.
Lois could feel her heart beating in her chest as she placed her hand in Claude’s.
He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Ma chérie. Should you ever need anything, feel free to call on me.” He stepped closer. “Day or night.”
Her cheeks felt as if they were the bright as Cat’s dress. This gorgeous man couldn’t possibly be flirting with her? Men like him
never flirted with her.
“Thank you,” Lois stammered. “I’ll do that.” Oh, God. Had she really said that?
Claude grinned. “We should do dinner to celebrate your new…” He paused as if thinking of the correct word. “…
position with Daily Books.”
He didn’t? Had he just asked her out on a date? No! Lois swallowed. “I’d like that, Claude.”
Jimmy waved at her from the back room at the end of the aisle. She cleared her throat and gently pulled her hand out of Claude’s. “I’ve got to go.”
“We’ll talk later,
mon amie,” he murmured as he faded back down the aisle.
Lois exhaled and then jogged to catch up with Jimmy. Her mind was still spinning and she doubted it was from Claude’s cologne. A new job and a date. Her first week in Metropolis and things were certainly looking good.
The back room, for which Jimmy held the door open, was filled with boxes upon boxes upon boxes. “This is Receiving!” he announced. “This is where I work. This is where the magic happens.”
“So I see,” Lois replied. Her eyes had spotted Cat leaning seductively – well, at least, with her butt pointing out as she leaned against a stack of boxes. She was talking to a tall, dark haired man with glasses. He was wearing some sort of uniform – charcoal grey shorts with a matching button down shirt with a navy lightning bolt cutting across the front of it. Ah. A delivery man. So that was why Cat rushed to the back room when the buzzer sounded, she smelled fresh meat. Lois didn’t give him a second thought as she soaked in the amount of inventory that must come in and out of the store every week. More books than she had seen all together since college.
“Come on. You’ll want to meet CK. You two will be working closely together,” Jimmy told her, moving toward the freight elevator.
Lois looked around, but she didn’t see anyone else in the room beside Cat and the deliveryman. She continued to follow Jimmy nonetheless.
“Excuse me, please, Cat, but I cannot bring my deliveries in with you blocking the aisle,” the deliveryman said to the Romance supervisor.
Cat flipped over, this time leaning her back against the stack of boxes with her ample bosom pointed towards the ceiling. “Is that better?” she purred.
Lois chuckled at the deliveryman’s obvious annoyance at Cat still blocking the aisle. Luckily for Cat he seemed too polite to voice his thoughts.
The man’s eyes jumped to Lois’s and she noticed how the annoyance in them changed to delight. His eyes slightly rolled and Lois had to cover her mouth to stifle her guffaw. She had found a like-minded soul. As far as Cat was concerned, at least.
“CK,” Jimmy said as they approached. “Meet Lois. Perry put her in charge of magazines and newspapers.”
Oh, so the deliveryman was CK. Lois waved at him as his hands were holding onto the cart of boxes, keeping them from falling, as he waited patiently for Cat to move.
“Clark,” the man corrected with a smile and then he chuckled. “I hope you’re thick skinned.”
Lois’s tongue went over her teeth as her spine again went stiff. She turned her back on him as no snide retort came to her.
First Cat, now this guy. What is it with these city folks? Is a putdown considered a greeting here? So, he doesn’t think I’m tough enough for this job. Humph! I’ll show him.He was just a deliveryman, she reminded herself. At least Jimmy, Perry, and Claude had been nice to her. Calmer, she turned back to face them.
With pressed lips Cat glared at Lois and backed up two steps. “Clark,” she purred. “I have a box of returns for you.”
“Thanks, Cat. Just put them with the others,” Jimmy answered for the deliveryman. “CK will get them after he brings up everything else.”
“And I have a truckload of Miranda books for you,” Clark replied finally able to leave the freight elevator with his cart.
“Ooh.” Cat clapped with a bounce. “She’s coming in next week for a signing.” Only Cat seemed thrilled with this news.
“Cat.” Jimmy’s voice broke on her one syllable name. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Cat, I have filled up a whole v-cart with romance restock for you.” He held out his hand towards a corner filled with v-carts. The romance cart was the only one full.
Cat rolled her eyes and finally stepped completely away from the boxes by the freight elevator. “Thanks, Jimmy.” She gave him no encouragement whatsoever, which was probably for the best as she was clearly a good ten years his senior. She did wiggle her behind for Clark’s benefit though, on the way to get her cart. With a sneer at Jimmy, Cat grabbed her cart and headed for the exit. She turned back to them with a wave, “Later, Clark.” She had ignored Lois completely.
After Cat left, Jimmy turned to Clark. “Please, not a whole truckload of Miranda books.”
“Afraid so,” Clark replied. Then he turned to Lois with a smile. “I’ve got some boxes of magazines for you too.”
Lois’s lips were still pressed together. She hadn’t forgiven him for his earlier comment.
“Come on, Lois. We’ll ride down with CK and I’ll show you where your receiving room is,” Jimmy suggested.
She had her own delivery room? Lois didn’t like the sound of that.
***
Hours later, Lois was still wading through the stacks of upon stacks of magazines, trying to weed out the old issues. Her white blouse was streaked with dust and newsprint. She had at least four paper cuts, including a nasty one between her thumb and index finger. Now she understood Clark’s thick-skinned remark. Ha-ha, deliveryman. Very funny.
There was a knock on her door and she turned around to see Perry peering inside.
“No one had seen you in a couple of hours. I came by to make sure you weren’t buried alive.”
Lois placed a more hopeful smile on her face than she felt. “Not yet.”
“Why don’t you take a break? Even Elvis didn’t record a hit record on his first day.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Thanks.” A break. She could use one of those.
“When you come back, you should go out and straighten the racks. It looks like they got hit by a three-year-old tornado.”
Lois sighed. Lovely. If it wasn’t one mess, it was another.
***
At the end of her day Lois returned to her Periodicals receiving room – or ‘jail cell’ as she was starting to think of it due to its size -- to retrieve the jacket to her suit. Just inside the door were three new boxes of magazines. Sitting on top was a brand new first aid kit with an attached yellow sticky-note.
Welcome to the salt mines. Someone had written in slightly cluttered script.
A smile curved up on her lips for half a moment. Someone had noticed. Then she looked down at her disheveled appearance with horror. Someone had noticed!
Lois opened up the first aid kit and put a bandage on her latest paper cut with a sigh, then hung the kit up on the lone nail sticking out of the wall.
***
Lois couldn’t believe she was sitting in the dining room at the famed Carlton House restaurant. Across from her, his blond locks dangling deliciously in front of his eyes, sat Claude. Lois took a sip of her wine. Wine! She couldn’t remember the last time she had been able to afford a glass of good wine. She smiled over at Claude and sighed. He had been talking non-stop since they sat down, about his life in Metropolis and his career aspirations as an actor. He claimed to have two call-backs the following week.
Claude’s accent had completely disappeared. That first time it had been French. The next time British English. The next Australian. Then New Zealand. German. Spanish. Georgia Southern. Russian. He had just been practicing his acting voices. Too bad. That French accent had been nice. Lois was beginning to wonder if there was anything genuine about the guy. She bet she would notice his hair was dyed too, if she cared enough to look.
What was she doing? Lois scolded herself. She was out of her basement apartment. She was eating real food, having a real conversation – kind of – with another person. Why in the world was she nit-picking over every little detail?
Lois had been rehearsing all of her stories for the last two days, since he had officially asked her to dinner, but she had yet had a chance to dazzle him with them. Any of them. Where was she from? Smallville, Kansas. Had she gone to college? Yes, a small liberal arts college he probably never heard of. What had she studied? English literature. What were her career aspirations? (Since obviously the bookstore wasn’t it.) She wanted to write the great American novel. Once she had wanted to be a investigative reporter, but that career goal had just faded into the woodwork. Why had she moved to Metropolis? Because if a writer was supposed to write what she knew, she better start living her life, so she would have experiences to write about.
As Claude paused to take a sip of his wine, Lois took this as her cue to finally speak. “Thank you, again, for inviting me out to dinner. It feels nice to show my feminine side again.”
Claude had looked appreciatively of her feminine side when he had picked her up. Lois had spent over an hour preparing for her date. Between showering, buffing and painting her nails, and picking out her dress, that first hour simply disappeared. It felt like she spent a second hour curling her hair alone. She had chosen her black dress that swooped down low in the back with her black heels. Simple elegance, her mother would say. Like her mother had ever eaten someplace as nice as the Carlton House! Lois sighed. She didn’t want to think about her parents, especially not her mother.
As Lois gazed around the beautiful ambiance of the restaurant, an alarm bell went off in her head. How in the world could Claude afford to eat in such an elegant place while working at Daily Books? She pushed that thought down to the back of her mind. He wouldn’t have invited her here if he could not afford it. He must have personal or family money. Maybe he had had an acting gig that paid off. And if he would allow her another word in edgewise, she would ask him. She wouldn’t squander her next chance on another ploy for a compliment to which he hadn’t respond.
Taking another sip of wine, Lois placed a smile on her face. He really was quite beautiful. Too bad he didn’t have a personality to match. Well, she shrugged to herself, live and learn. She set down her wine glass and told herself to make sure she was drinking plenty of water. She didn’t need to get tipsy around Casanova Claude. He had already tried to make a move on her during their cab ride over to the restaurant.
“
Wanted to get their good-night kiss out of the way before the date started,” he had told her.
Hello? First date, Claude. She didn’t think so. One doesn’t paw one’s date the first time he took her out. She hardly knew the guy. Was that why he had asked her out? Because he thought she was easy pickings? Just a country bumpkin used to rolling about in the hay, because there wasn’t anything better to do? No, she told herself. She was rushing to judgment. She had a habit of doing that. Claude must like her somewhat to take her to a place like the Carlton House.
Their food arrived and Lois gazed down at her prawns in appreciation. Fresh seafood was a luxury in their small Bible-belt community even for a doctor’s family. Not that she had had it rough. Not at all. Lois could have steak, chicken, or pork any night of the week while at home. If her mother was sober. If her father showed up. Lois had moved back to Smallville after college and had gotten a job at the
Smallville Post writing human interest stories -- bragging and gossip column, she called it. She got tired of writing about others living their lives when it felt like she wasn’t living hers.
Lois was tired. Exhausted, really. Her new job was a lot more physically demanding than she expected. Taking a bite of her prawns, she practically moaned. They beat frozen microwave dinners any night of the week. Hands down.
Claude grinned at her over his steak. Oh, God! Had she actually moaned?
She smiled at him. “This is really good. How is yours?”
“Like butter,” he replied and held up a piece on his fork to feed her. “Try a bite?”
Uh. No. She didn’t think so. She moved her plate closer to his, indicating he should set it down there. Instead he shrugged and popped it into his mouth. O-kay.
Lois took another bite of her prawns while trying not to look at the bandages that covered her hands. She had spent all week cleaning out that ‘Periodical Receiving Room’ and every time she thought she had made some headway, three or six or nine new boxes of magazines would arrive. She was drowning in work and she could not see it improving any time soon. Most magazines changed over on a weekly or monthly basis, so no matter what she did, she would always be playing catch up.
“Thank you for the first aid kit,” she told Claude, the next time he took a sip, guzzle, of his wine. She held up her hands. “It has really come in handy.”
Claude laughed. “You’ve got a band-aid on every finger. Two on some.” He chortled.
Ha-Ha. Lois didn’t feel like laughing. “You don’t get much in the way of paper cuts in Travel?”
Claude looked at her like she was nuts. “The only person who looks like a mummy here is you.” He held up his perfect fingers and then reached over to her hands, giving them a squeeze.
Pain shot up her hands and she pulled away.
His lips pinched together.
“Sorry.” Lois smiled, weakly, before wondering why she was the one apologizing. She hadn’t wanted to hold his hand and it had hurt when he had squeezed hers. “They still hurt,” she explained.
Claude nodded, but he didn’t look like he accepted her explanation. They ate a few minutes in silence, Lois not really wanting to share her life story with him any longer.
He wiped his mouth with his napkin and leaned back in his chair with a smirk. What exactly had she had thought was so attractive about him again?
“Should we do dessert at your place or mine?” Claude was looking at her hungrily. She certainly didn’t want him inside her apartment. He didn’t seem the type of man to understand that ‘no’ meant ‘no.’
“I don’t think I have anything sweet to eat at my place except half a Double Fudge Crunch Bar,” Lois answered as if he had actually meant dessert. “Anyway, I have to be at the store at seven tomorrow morning.”
Claude sneered, leaning forward, and saying soft enough so that the neighboring tables could not hear him, “I don’t throw away good money on a date unless I get something in return.”
Lois’s eyes bore into his. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he replied, raising his eyebrows. “So?”
Lois looked at him like the piece of garbage he was. “No, thank you for your kind offer, Claude, but I’d rather be probed by an alien.” Oh, God! Where had
that come from?
Claude switched back to charming. “I’m sorry, Lois. That was rude of me. I shouldn’t have been so blunt with you.”
Lois set down her fork, her appetite gone. “No, you shouldn’t have.”
“Excuse me for a minute and then I’ll take you home,” he said, standing up with a smile.
“Thank you,” Lois replied. She was trying to be diplomatic about this as she still had to work with the man. What she really felt like doing was walking out on him.
***
One minute turned to five and then ten. The waiter returned and took their dishes and asked whether she wanted to see the dessert menu. Her stomach turned. Claude wasn’t coming back, Lois realized. She had been left at this super expensive restaurant with hardly a penny to pinch together holding the tab. The waiter returned after Claude had been absent for twenty minutes and gave her the check.
“Excuse me,” Lois said, hesitantly. “My date went to rest room and hasn’t returned. Is it possible for someone to check and make sure he’s all right?”
The waiter looked at her with pity. “Of course.” He knew as well as she did that her date was long gone.
After he left, Lois glanced down at the restaurant bill. All the color drained out of her face. Sixty-seven dollars? For two meals and a bottle of wine. They hadn’t had appetizers or dessert. And that didn’t even include the tip. Lois swallowed and cracked open her clutch purse. She currently had seventeen dollars to her name. She maxed out her credit card moving to Metropolis and paying the deposit on her apartment. She wouldn’t even get her first paycheck until the following Friday, which was when she was planning on signing up for a new checking account. So she didn’t even have any checks she could bounce to get out of there. That was one of the reasons she had jumped at this date so eagerly. She had seen ramen noodles coming up quickly in her future. Why, oh why, hadn’t she stayed in Smallville until she had had more money saved up?
At least the prawns had tasted good, but she doubted she would be able to eat them again without thinking of Claude. The waiter returned and let her know that ‘yes, indeed’ her date had bolted and left her with the bill. Tears welled up in Lois’s eyes, but she willed them not to fall. She wouldn’t use tears to get out of this. She had learned a valuable lesson and she wouldn’t allow herself any self-pity. Claude was a clod, but she should have never agreed to eat at such a restaurant without being able to pay her fair share.
Lois swallowed again, and gazed up at the waiter. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have enough money to pay for this check. Perhaps you should send for the manager.”
The waiter frowned and nodded at the inevitable.
The manager was sympathetic to Lois’s cause, but refused to let her go without some kind of compensation to cover the bill.
“I only have seventeen dollars,” Lois explained.
“We do take credit cards.”
“Maxed out,” she whispered.
“Although we don’t usually take personal checks, I could make an exception…”
Lois shook her head.
“Perhaps I should call the police,” the manager replied.
Lois pressed her lips together and took a deep breath. “And charge me with what exactly? Poor judgment when it comes to men?”
“Stealing.”
She blanched, finally allowing her pent up tears to fall. “Stealing?”
“Come on, Mr. Laderman,” said her waiter appearing out of nowhere. “Surely, we don’t have to call the police on the girl.”
“I’ll pay for the food, I promise. But I’m new in town and I don’t even get my first paycheck until next week,” Lois pleaded.
“Why should I trust you to come back?” replied the manager.
Lois sighed and looked down. Well, wasn’t that exactly what trust was… a leap of faith?
“Didn’t Jesus call in sick?”
She glanced up at the waiter and then over at the manager. Jesus?
The manager contemplated this information for a minute before replying, “I am short a dishwasher this evening…”
Lois jumped at this chance. “I can wash dishes.” How hard could it be? She gazed at him pleadingly. “Please, don’t call the police, Mr. Laderman.”
“This way,” said the manager waving for her to follow him.
***
Lois stumbled out of the Carlton House restaurant at quarter after midnight. Mr. Laderman had been nice, after all. He told her that if she ever needed a job to give him a call. Someone out there still appreciated a person who worked after agreeing to work. But she never wanted to work as a dishwasher again. Especially not in her formerly nice black dress and her heels.
Her feet were killing her and she didn’t even want to think what the steam had done to her face and hair. Or what she had spilled down the front of herself. Every one of her newly painted nails was chipped and all of her band-aids had fallen off. If nothing else, Claude’s stunt had made her appreciate her job at Daily Books. There
were worse jobs in the city than being ‘Periodicals Supervisor’ at the bookstore.
Rain had started to fall while she was in the restaurant. At first, it had felt good on her hot, tired skin. But the rain started falling heavier and heavier until she could almost swear there was someone floating above her with a never-ending bucket of water. Lois was soaked through and shivering when she finally made it to a covered bus stop. She didn’t know exactly which section of town she was in or which bus would take her back to her cave or how often it ran. She was tired, lost, and sopping wet; not to mention every one of her fingers hurt and she thought she might be developing a blister on each of her feet.
Lois studied the bus map and determined that it was a straight shot back to her apartment via Bus #23. Thank goodness. When the bus arrived some fifteen minutes later, she happily boarded it. After traveling a few blocks, Lois discovered she was riding it in the wrong direction. She explained her predicament with the bus driver and was able to convince him -- after some minutes of discussion – to give her a transfer. She had just enough cash left to last her the next few days, having tipped her waiter ten of the seventeen dollars in her purse. It hadn’t been Eduardo’s fault that her date had ditched her without paying.
She stepped off the bus and into a puddle formed by a clogged storm drain. Terrific. Lois shook her foot once firmly on the sidewalk, but in the torrential rain it was basically pointless. As she hobbled to the corner of this dark and deserted street, a dog came out of nowhere – attracted to whatever combination of smells she had spilled down the front of herself, she figured – and knocked her flat on her back, causing her to hit her head against the sidewalk.
She didn’t know from where, but Lois found the strength to push the dog off of her and pull herself to her feet. She ran down the rest of the block with the dog at her heels. At the corner her shoes slipped on the wet pavement, twisting her ankle, breaking the heel of her shoe and causing her to fall into the street. She looked up and saw a pair of headlights aimed right at her dark and invisible body. Lois screamed.
A flash of blue and a streak of red came out of nowhere and suddenly a pair of strong arms held her. She smelt smoke and felt the wind on her face, then she let the darkness take her.
***End of Part 1 *** Part 2 Comments
