Welcome to Gaia! ::

Levi Drummond was not put off by the empty little bakery/cafe - in fact, he preferred it most like this when there was no one but the employees hanging around.This late at night he knew there was only likely to be one person and as he pushed the door open and heard the little bell chime his entrance, he was pleased to see the girl with cotton-candy hair leaned onto the counter.

Prissy was the name he remembered from her nametag.

With only a small nod in her direction, the tall, lanky man folded himself into one of the booths and set his laptop down carefully (at least after he inspected the tabletop for residual stickiness). The device flared to life under his fingers and he only stopped to pick up their menu once he was sure his computer still recognized their wi-fi signal.

Then he leaned over to grab their menu, skimmed it a couple of times to make sure he hadn't missed anything new, and finally let it fall back to the table once he was sure he was just going to get the usual - a cupcake, a donut, and the biggest mocha caramel iced coffee Prissy would give him.

If she'd come over and get his order, of course.

He flashed acidic eyes back to the counter to see if she was still waiting for him to settle in, though the expression read 'sluggish' more than 'impatient'. He needed a sugar overload and pronto.

The pale tip of his finger pressed the power button of his laptop and he listened to the fans begin to whir, finding the same calm thrill in the sound of his machine springing to life that he always did. There hadn't been much time for him to really enjoy his electronics as of late, or video games in general. Life had been hopping from work to Negaverse duties to three hours of sleep before it was simply rinse, repeat.

There was a fluorescent glow across his pale skin as she finally approached, but he settled his attention on her immediately. Despite the impatience he still seemed pleased by her presence - even if it was simply because she funneled sugar and caffeine to him as often as he wanted it. She also seemed heavy handed on the syrup and sweet any time she made his coffee and for that he was especially glad.

"Raspberry filled donut, white chocolate cupcake and a large frozen mocha caramel coffee with extra caramel, please." His bright eyes swung up from his computer screen to the nameplate attached to the breast of her apron, then up to her eyes. There was never any attempt to hide his gluttonous sweet tooth. He glanced down at his email as it opened and began loading, trying not to look concerned as the 'unread' number ticked higher and higher with each downloaded fragment of data. Worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, he tossed her another glance before she had the chance to get started on his order.

"What time do you close tonight, Prissy?"

Nine.

Levi nodded his head as his eyes drifted back to his screen, not even noticing the way she was oh-so-casually looking it over herself. There were a few hours left before her official close and though he wanted to say that it was plenty of time, he also wasn't sure if it was. Of course, if it was left up to him, he would sit here all night without budging. That was the way his work seemed to consume him.

For a moment, he seemed to have forgotten she'd spoken, until he heard her ask what he was doing. He pulled his eyes up from an email discussing the statistics on boy bands vs DJs and the amount of effort each required, laughing softly under his breath.

"I'm married to my work. You probably shouldn't agree to stay late with me, or I'll keep your here all night." He smirked and leaned back into the brace of the boot behind him, letting both long arms sprawl along the top edge casually. "I promise that's much more boring than it sounds."

The playful tease made him smirk as his eyes trailed from her face to her shoulders as she turned, then down to the way she plucked at her apron trail on the walk back toward the display of goodies. She was an easy companion. Levi wasn't often one for working in places where interruptions were imminent but, despite it being in the mall, he had come to find that the little cafe had good atmosphere this time of night. Prissy often closed and she gave him just the right amount of interaction.

Content that she was working on his order, he dropped his gaze to his laptop and began typing out a reply to the email that he could forward to his superior. The statistics for both effort and return were higher than he had anticipated which was great news for his goals. He had even run across a little, peppy DJ he thought he could sell (if she was willing to team up with him) - his superior loved anything he could sell through sex appeal. It wasn't Levi's favorite tactic but it did sell.

He was in the process of linking Sidney's working facebook page in the response when he heard Prissy call out to him, disrupting his thoughts. He could have been annoyed, but instead he just laughed.

"One day it might, but right now I'm just trying to convince work that older doesn't always mean better." His fingers tapped lightly on his keyboard, drumming once in a fidget, though not hard enough to press the keys. "Us younger men have to fight twice as hard for half the attention." And, not to mention, adding his Negaverse duties back into the mix made it double as complicated, too.

"Honestly, Prissy, that cupcake is probably going to be the highlight of my day. Which, I guess, means that I'm just making you work to make myself feel better. So, sorry about that." He wasn't frowning though, just laughing softly to himself. There wasn't much chance that he actually felt bad about it - work paid bills and he would tip her well for her trouble.

That never hurt.

As Prissy trailed off back behind the counter, an amused chuckle followed her. It wasn't very often that people used the word friendly to describe him - pushy, committed, and maybe even focused but friendly? No. He knew the truth well enough to find the humor in it. She was much, much too kind.

While she began getting everything together for him, he let his attention fall back to his screen again. It never ceased to amaze him how quickly emails could pile up, though so many of them were ridiculous, mundane questions he had explained a thousand times over or unnecessary copies onto topics he didn't care about. In fact, there seemed to be a direct link between his position in the company and the number of emails he received - no wonder Martin had to hire an assistant. An assistant could also bring him coffee.

Speaking of which, his current favorite person in the world set his array of treats down on the table next to him and his hand immediately reached out for his overly sugary, caffeinated perfection. It was only after the first sip that he looked up to Prissy and smiled around the straw, his heart was an easy one to win, clearly.

"If you have things to do, please, don't let me keep you. My manager jumped down my throat every time I wasn't re-ordering the CD rack for maximum alphabetic perfection so.."

He trailed off and glanced back down at his screen, having finally flagged all of the audition videos and facebook links for possible acts to represent. The leads came in from all manners of people - some coworkers, others local talent reps, and even the constant few acts that somehow always got his contact information even if he'd never heard of them.

"If you're bored though, I could use a second opinion from someone under the age of 40." One long, pale hand turned his laptop a bit sideways, so that she could see it if she felt like sitting down. There was a youtube video buffering on the cafe wifi, titled: Slumdog Chillionaires. Levi wasn't hopeful.

Well, that hadn’t taken much convincing at all.

Levi smirked to himself while she settled in, taking the moment to pull his cupcake closer. As the woman with fairyfloss hair hit the play button and began to, unfortunately, subject herself to something the pale man already knew was absolutely wretched, he busied himself with meticulously peeling the paper cup away from his dessert dinner.

“We haven’t. I’ve got a good two dozen bands to review tonight but this one was sent to me with high priority. I thought it was going to be something worthwhile,” he took a bite of his cupcake, cutting himself off but settling his eyes on the horrified expression on her face. He swallowed it with a pleased sigh and leaned in for another as he spoke, “I suspect this is another case of parents with connections but not enough money to buy talent.”

As he chewed thoughtfully around his next bite of cupcake, he relaxed into the back of his booth and watched her as she surveyed the band. They were every bit as awful as their name had suggested but at least now he couldn’t be accused of favoritism - his focus group was absolutely appalled.

“I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t blind to some kind of hidden genius there. I’m sure I’m going to make someone’s Dad very, very upset with my boss.” The mossy-haired man leaned forward to look at his screen as the band on the video began to wind down. “There are some others in that spreadsheet if you want to take a look.”

Because he was definitely committing his next five minutes to his cupcake and the coffee he was using to wash it down.

Levi chuckled gently as Prissy's retort and settled back against the booth, slumping a little in a way that said 'hi I'm a teenager' more than it did 'grown adult up for a position on the board'. It was a sign of his comfort level that he let the guard slack a bit in her presence, though probably because she was sitting down looking at youtube videos while technically on shift.

The mossy haired young man was downing a mouthful of sugary icing with a delicious, refreshing gulp of his caffeinated concoction when he heard the song began to thrum through his laptop speakers. He dropped his eyes to the table as he gave them an honest listen, bobbing his head just enough that it was noticeable, keeping the beat like a soul in love with the sound.

Once it began to wind down, his eyes fluttered back up to meet her rosy ones, offering her a weak smile as he did. The best part of his job was that he did actually, sometimes, get to hear things that spoke right to his heart. He had gotten a lot of his success through sheer passion. He leaned forward again and glanced down at the act as they played their final notes, assessing how much damage there was.

"I really like the sound, A+. Maybe a B- for the appearance, much to normal." His hands reached out and gently pushed hers away from the track pad long enough to click back to his spreadsheet, matching the name to the one that had been printed above the video. With deft fingers, he selected the row and highlighted it, bright yellow.

"I'm definitely going to interview them."

He leaned back into his booth and went back to the delectable treat, though he was watching her over it now instead of diving in like a man starved for sugar.

"You have a good eye. What do you do, other than serve me enough sugar to rot my teeth out?"