2019-12-01 - Post-Black-Friday Pizza

The terrible rush of Black Friday is over, though the shopping weekend isn't quite, and the shop is crowded with holiday shoppers looking for good deals on a variety of books. Elias oversees the holiday staff as they go about ringing up purchases and taking care of business. He's there to supervise and to jump in to fix things if they go horribly awry, but for the moment, he is perched behind the counter on top of a stool sipping a cup of coffee and merely looking drained.

Tyler walks into the book store, still wearing his khakis and tight blue Tshirt with the GHFD logo over one breast. He looks around, and then makes his way straight over to the counter where Elias is. He leans his elbow on the counter like he owns the place. "Pardon me. I was hoping you could help me find something I might like? I was thinking something a little quirky, not too old, with a bit of unexpected excitement?" Grin.

Elias glances up from his cup of coffee when Tyler comes in and strolls on over through the throng of shoppers. He smiles a little, lips quirking a bit in amusement and says, "I didn't think books were your thing, really. You sure you are in the right shop?" His tone is just a little bit teasing as he lifts his cup and takes another sip.

Tyler opens his mouth to respond, then pauses, and then looks a little confused. "Wait. What?" He stares a moment, "No, I didn't mean a book, I meant..." He huffs, and then the light in his head comes on, and he stands up straighter, "Oh." He rolls his eyes, "Maybe I should go to Walmart and just buy some lotion."

Elias watches as Tyler processes, both brows raised a little as he takes another sip from his cup. "You mean you weren't looking for a book?" he asks 'innocently'. He slips off of his stool and taps the girl at the register's shoulder. "I'm taking a break. I'll be back in a bit. Scream if you need anything." And with that he slips out from behind the counter and gives Tyler's shoulder a little squeeze. "Break room. It's too damned crowded in here." And with that he heads back toward the back of the store, toward where the employees have a break room that is considerably less claustrophobic than the holiday shopping crowd.

Tyler sighs, "No book," he responds, flatly. He watches Elias move past him, and he looks back at the girl at the register. "He's taking a break. Don't scream." Then he hurries off to catch up with Elias. "Busy day? Things were crazy for us. People burn their kitchens down trying to reheat leftovers. Yesterday we had a carport on fire from someone trying to deep fry a frozen turkey. People are dumb."

Elias raises a brow a little bit at that flat response, but then he shrugs and keeps going until they can chill in the break room. Flopping himself down in one of the chairs, he puts his feet up on the small coffee table in front of it and takes another sip from his coffee. "Black Friday, Ebon Saturday, Midnight Sunday, it's the never ending weekend of retail hell, Tyler. I'm just exhausted as fuck." He smiles a little wanly and then says, "Sorry it's been crazy. I am guessing there were a lot of turkey explosions this weekend."

Tyler nods as he approaches Elias' chair. He just saunters onto it, straddling Elias with one of his knees on each side of Elias' legs and sits in the man's lap, wrapping his arms lazily around Elias' neck. "Holidays are always burn fests on the job," he responds, staring into Elias' eyes. "Sorry you're so tired. Can I go get you anything? Coffee? Soda?" He smirks, "Tequila?"

Elias looks a little surprised when Tyler just settles right onto his lap, but he moves his coffee out of the way so that it doesn't spill and studies him curiously. "So I guess Christmas is probably going to be busy for you, too, hm? What about New Year's? Do people manage to light themselves on fire with fireworks?" He tilts his head a little to the side and then chuckles, "I'm about approaching Tequila levels of done with this weekend."

Tyler smiles, "I'm actually off Christmas because I did yesterday. Not that it matters, I don't really have any place to be for it. But yeah, it's usually busy, too. Not so much New Years, that's more of a domestic dispute holiday, honestly. The cops get that one." He tilts his head just a little, "Oh, I haven't told you... I was in a crazy Dream with a bunch of strangers a week ago. It was... bizarre. There were all these stairs and the room was all weird and stuff like those drawings by that one artist, the optical illusion guy..."

"Well that's good, at least, that you get a break. I figure it's toward January when people's dried out Christmas trees start catching fire because they haven't kept them watered enough?" Elias raises his brows when Tyler mentions the Dream and he asks, "What happened? Was everyone alright?" He glances over Tyler briefly, as though checking him for injuries.

Tyler laughs, "I'm fine," he assures him. "I was working out in my bedroom and suddenly I was in this like warehouse space, but the floors were the ceilings and the walls and stuff. There were like five of us. This old guy with a mullet, a super gothy chick, this cheerleader diva and then a middle aged lady I know I've seen before but couldn't place. Everyone that tried to walk started to float, and then this monster appeared and charged at the mullet guy."

"Good," Elias says when Tyler says that he's fine, "So the monster charged mullet guy? Then what happened? Was everyone just floating around? How did you get out?" He lifts his coffee and takes another sip, but even though he's exhausted, he does seem genuinely interested in listening to what Tyler has to say about the Dream that he'd found himself in. "I ended up in a couple recently, myself." But he doesn't interrupt the story to give any details on them just yet.

Tyler nods, "It was like this spiky glass insect monster thing. Six legs. Boogidy eyes and crazy wings." He shrugs, "I dunnow, it flew at mullet man and before it got to him, I was back in my house. Not sure what pulled me back out. What about yours? Did you open them up on your own like you were trying to do?"

Elias shakes his head and says, "No, I didn't open them up. They just sort of happened. One was like that movie, Pleasantville. Everything was black and white, and we were all dressed like we were straight out of the 50s. Then there was Men in Black, where we ended up fighting aliens. Then the last one was a strange Freaky Friday situation where Marius and I ended up swapping bodies." He looks Tyler over for a moment and says, "Walking around in a body built like that.. it feels like driving an SUV when you're used to riding a motorcycle. It was weird."

Tyler shrugs, "I don't know that one..." he notes, of Pleasantville. "Hrm. Or that one..." he mumbles about Men in Black. "Marius... Marius Andersson? I think I went to school with him. He was a year or two older than me, though. Big guy? Thinks he's related to Thor?" He tilts his head a little, "I'm not an SUV," he offers with a little smirk.

"Yeah, big, viking, with all the muscles," Elias says with a chuckle. "I was in his body and he was in mine. It was funny if there wasn't also a dead body in the room and we were trying to figure out if we needed to solve the murder or what in order to get out." He shrugs his shoulders then laughs at Tyler's comment. "I just meant that.. suddenly being six foot three and all muscles when you're used to being 5'11 leads to feeling like you're going to bump your head into literally everything."

Tyler smiles, "Sure. That makes sense." He laughs then, "Did you go to the bathroom while you were him? Was he big everywhere?" He's still chuckling, "First thing I do when I'm someone else. Check the package." This is apparently really amusing to him.

Elias smirks and says, "No, but Detective Quintanilla checking out his tits as Sparrow was entertaining.. and Sparrow as Quintanilla checking out her own ass." He then chuckles and says, "It was tough to just run off somewhere with all the cops and everything else there."

Tyler shrugs, "Oh well. It remains a mystery." He leans forward and kisses Elias, and then asks, "What are you doing after work? Well, maybe I should ask, when are you finished here? You owe me dinner, and I was thinking that grimy pizza place." He doesn't owe Tyler dinner.

"Missed opportunities," Elias chuckles. "Though now I wonder if he was wearing that kilt traditionally at the Halloween party." He honestly can't remember. Though when Tyler leans forward and kisses him, it seems to surprise him, and Elias is pulled back to the conversation at hand. "After work, I guess I'm going for pizza with you. Pizza actually sounds pretty good right now."

Tyler smiles, "Great! I'm going to go home and change and I'll be back in a bit." He crawls off Elias, letting his hand drift down his chest, then his stomach before he stands. "Don't let any of those nerdy reader folks put you in a bad mood while I'm gone." He turns to go.

"Alright," Elias says as Tyler crawls back off of him, watching the progress of his hand, one brow arched just a little bit. "I'm pretty sure that it's not the nerdy readers that are going to put me in a bad mood. It's the belligerent shoppers. But, come back when you're ready and I'll clock out."