The Collector’s Closet was fairly slow this afternoon, but Luca didn’t mind. They were never a bustling store, anyway. Every now and then he’d get a pack of teens, especially around the same time that Marvel released new movies, but for the most part his job was a quiet and slow one. He made sure that the comics were organized, rang up purchases, and helped customers if they wanted it. That last one didn’t happen often. Most of their clients were either on the quieter and shyer end of the spectrum, or they already knew exactly what they were looking for. Overall, it was an easy job, which Luca loved. It gave him a chance to surreptitiously pull out some of the newer comics and read them under the counter.
His boss had already told him, with a knowing smile, that Luca could read as much as he wanted, but if he damaged any of them, he’d have to pay for them. Luca wasn’t too worried about that, though. He was always careful with his comics. All monetary reasons aside, ripping or otherwise damaging pages made reading them harder, and ensured that they fell apart sooner, two things he was always desperate to avoid when it came to his comics. The more potent threat was that if he stopped paying attention to the customers in lieu of catching up on the new X-Men Legacy then his boss would have no problem firing him. He’d worked at The Collector’s Closet for other a year now, and he knew his boss was fairly lenient, but that didn’t mean Luca wanted to accidentally take advantage of that and end up losing his job. It was this or flipping burgers at some greasy fast food joint, and there really wasn’t any contest there. So, Luca was always careful not to get too sucked into whatever he was reading.
Today he was revisiting an old favorite- The first issue of Geoff John’s Green Lantern: Rebirth. Luca had always had a soft spot for the Green Lantern comics, but these were some of his favorites. Hal Jordan was one of his favorite heroes, despite his ugly fall from grace in other story lines. Hell, he’d ever stuck by Hal after that horrible move that had come out a few years prior (really, though, that hadn’t been Hal’s fault- it was like whoever had written the script read a couple pages of the first Green Lantern comic and then skipped out before all the character development). Maybe that’s why he loved John’s version of Hal Jordan, which gave the character redemption both in the comic book verse and in the reader’s eyes.
This time around, Luca was only halfway through when he heard the door jingle. He quickly stashed the comic under the counter and looked up to see a new customer entering the shop. She was on the shorter side, with darker eye and eyes. He was fairly certain he’d never seen her come in before, and Luca watched for a moment to see if she’d need any help. She seemed fine though, wandering into the store and picking up one of the comics from the new releases section to stare at it. He settled back into his chair and quietly pulled his book out again, somewhat disappointed that she had it covered. While girls in a comic book store were far more common than stereotypes held, this one was cute, and he wouldn’t have minded putting down Hal Jordan to talk to her. Luca tried to look at the cover of whatever she’d grabbed, but she put the comic back onto the stack before he had a chance to register it, and he let it go, settling back into his own comic.
A few minutes passed and she was still in the store, perusing the comics. That wasn’t too out of the ordinary. People were always lingering, mostly because they wanted to read the comics in the store and avoid having to pay for them. Those kinds of people tended to stick to one area though, and she wandered all over, eyes roving over shelf after shelf of comics without grabbing anything to buy or read. He looked up just in time to see her nearly tripping over one of the stands. “Careful!” he called out, trying to warn her. She recovered quickly without him though, going back to looking at the stands and shelves, still without any real intent or organization. After a moment, Luca stashed his Green Lantern comic under the desk to read later, and leaned over the counter towards the girl. “Is there anything I can help you with?” he said, with a smile.
