Emi the Deity Ch2

Emi the Deity
Ch1

Chapter 2: Back to Work

The restaurant was bustling. Carmike was humming along with the song playing over the speaker. Emi stared at the menu. His eyes glancing over the options, but not really processing them. Emi wasn’t sure what he wanted. He knew he was happy to be have something other than the hospital food. The food there was nice, but it just didn’t have that warm feeling food normally had to him.

“What can I get you gentlemen this evening?” The waitress appeared with a bright smile.

“The steak enchilada sounds good to me,” Carmike closed the menu. “I’ll have sweet tea to drink. Emi?”

Emi looked down at the menu. His eyes fell on quesadillas. “The veggie quesadilla for me please.”

“Anything to drink with that sug?”

Emi glanced up at the waitress. Only one woman called him that. A grin spread across his face. “Shelia!” He pulled the 30 something woman into a tight hug. “So this is your second job?”

“Yeah. I gotta buy my baby something nice for her birthday.” Shelia chuckled. “Now what will you have suga?”

“Water please.” Emi adjusted himself back in his seat.

Shelia wrote it down and was gone within a minute.

Carmike propped his head in his hand. “You know a woman with kids is a lot of commitment right?”

Emi felt his face heat up. “I don’t like her like that! Shelia works at the grocery store. I serve her and her kid every Friday at the café. We’re just good friends.”

“Good.” Carmike nodded. “You’re not ready for kids yet.”

“Carmike…” Emi growled.

“Here are those drinks,” Shelia placed the cups on the table.

Carmike tore off the end of the paper wrapping before sliding the paper off of the straw. He swirled the straw in his cup. “No need to be so embarrassed.”

Emi huffed as he grabbed his cup. He tilted the cup up only to find that a majority of the drink was ice. It was like it was just grabbed from the freezer. Emi glanced up at where Shelia. She wasn’t looking at him. Emi smiled as he shook his head. She must have wanted to play a prank on him. Now he knew where her son got it from.

The food came shortly and it was delicious. It was also piping hot as Emi found out. He took a bite and then spat it out as he stuck his burning tongue into his cup of ice water.

“Take your time, it’s not going anywhere,” Carmike laughed as he blew on his food.

“Gos sis.” Emi mumbled.

They finished their food and went home. Though Emi had to drag his uncle away from the hostess he was flirting with.

Emi was finally cleared to go to work the next week. He tied his converse shoes tightly to his feet as he pulled his hair up into a high ponytail. He wore a simple button up white shirt and black slacks. He wasn’t sure if he would be cosplaying at the café today or not. The only thing Emi wished was for his uncle to not come to work with him.

“I can’t let my nephew travel all the way to work by himself after being in a coma,” Carmike degreed as he forced the 19 year old into the passenger seat of his car.

The café was as busy as ever. The boss had told Emi to take it slow, so he didn’t have to cosplay for work today. Though it did feel weird being surrounded by a bunch of video game characters.

“Here’s your strawberry sundae, my lady,” Emi gave his best winning smile as he placed the food in front of the young high schooler. She blushed as she shyly grabbed her spoon. “And a chocolate latte for you, my lady.” He placed the drink in front of the girl next to other girl. The girl, Samantha, was a regular at the café.

“It’s been so long Emi.” She beamed as she picked up her latte. “Where have you been? I’ve missed you.”

“My apologizes my lady,” Emi bowed, “But I had some important matters to tend to. But I hope my comrades were able to give you good company.”

“It was, but not as good as yours.” Samantha sighed. “Will you be working again this weekend?”

“I believe so.” Emi smiled as he gave a quick bow. He quickly walked to the next table. Being a host was a hard job. All day the costumers kept asking him where he’d been. He didn’t feel like saying he was in the hospital, but he was sure most of them knew he wasn’t off handling ‘important matters’. The lie was so overused. Emi took a deep breath.

“Hey what kind of joke is this?” Shelly, a co-worker, exclaimed as she stared into the bucket. “How am I supposed to mop if the water is frozen?” She was a Chinese American woman of average height. She was dressed as a squirtle.

Tommy, who had handed her the bucket, looked back confused. “Frozen? That’s the hottest water I could get out of the tap mixed with Pine-Sol and bleach.” Tommy was dressed as King Dedede and around the same height as Shelly. Maybe an inch or two taller.

Emi and two other co-workers came to look.

“Really? Then why is it a block of ice?” Shelly nearly screamed.

Sure enough, it was a block of ice in the bucket. They all turned to look at Tommy.

“It wasn’t like that when I put it in,” Tommy was turning red from frustration and confusion as he looked into the bucket too. He seemed genuinely confused.

“Then how did it end up like this, Tommy?” Shelly propped her hands on her hips. Her foot tapping with loud clacks on the floor.

Tommy could only open and close his mouth like a fish.

“Maybe it was magic?” Everyone turned to stare at the boss. She gave a smile, her lips a ruby color. She looked like she walked out of a pop art piece. Her hair done up like a woman in a 50s ad. Her polka-dot, high collared shirt with no sleeves and high waist pint striped pants. She wore ruby shoes as if she was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. The boss was a vivacious woman. She leaned down over the bucket and nodded. “Yes. It was definitely magic. Magic that I haven’t seen in such a long time. Don’t be too mad at Tommy, dearie.” She patted Shelly’s shoulder. “He’s not the cause of this.” She picked up the bucket like it was nothing. “Now let’s go make another bucket. I doubt the magician will do the same thing twice.”

With that the whole situation was over. Swept under the rug. The boss was good at that. If she brushed it away, then most people would brush it under the rug.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. Emi smiled brightly as he clocked out. Dinner shift would begin in an hour and the boss had given him orders to go home for the day. She didn’t want him overworking himself. She even followed him to make sure he’d clocked out. As Emi turned around, he felt arms wrap tightly around him.

“I’m so glad you’re doing better!” the boss exclaimed.

“I’m doing a lot better.” Emi nodded.

“That’s good. I was so worried.” She held up his face to look at her. “You’re just so precious. And to think you wound up in a coma during your first modeling gig.” She pouted as she brushed his hair out of his face. “Has Joe shown you how the pictures came out?”

“No. Not yet.” Emi shook his head. “I think he emailed me copies, but I haven’t looked at them yet.”

“Well I’ve seen them and you look adorable.” She patted his head.

“Emi, there’s a guy here for you,” Tommy came into the back room. “What do you want me to tell him?”

The boss smiled as she turned to face Tommy. “That must be your uncle. You better get on before he comes back here looking for you.”

Emi nodded as he grabbed a juice from the fridge. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” Emi wasn’t sure what his hours were at the moment, but hopefully he would still be working.

“Yes. You’ll be on breakfast shift. So get plenty of rest,” the boss wagged her finger along with the order.

Symphia smiled as she watched the young raven hair man get into the car. She wasn’t sure what kind it was, but she knew it was expensive just by the looks of it. He hadn’t yet realized that he had been turned into a deity, but his powers were beginning to manifest. She entered the café during the ice bucket incident. That just had to be Emi. She couldn’t think of anyone.

“So his ability is to freeze things…” Symphia hummed.

“There’s probably more to it than that?” Grey appeared beside her.

Symphia jumped back as she looked at the deity of death. He really made a bad habit of popping up out of nowhere.

“What are you doing here?”

“Stalking the target like you.”

“I’m not stalking him!” Symphia jumped up.

“Sure you’re not,” Grey crossed his arms, “You keep telling yourself that.” Grey snapped his fingers and turned to dust again. The dust floated away and Symphia was left there glaring at the specs of dust that flew away from her.

“Grrr.” She stomped her foot before walking away. Her shift at the hospital started in about half an hour.

Chap3