Chapter Text
“Ok Hollis-“
“My name is Laura.”
You try to smile sweetly but if you didn’t need this job you would have walked out the door five minutes ago.
“I put you on the quiet slot for your first day…it can get pretty hectic in here on a Friday night but you can always give me a shout if you need any help...I always take a special interest in supporting new members of the team.”
Ugh. What a creep.
“I think I should be able to manage, Mr Sherman-”
He touches your shoulder just a little too long
“Please, call me David. Anyway, I’ll come and see how you’re doing later.”
You watch him walk away your skin crawling a little then sit down on the plush office chair and fight the instinct to pick up your bag and just leave.
Half an hour later and you’re about ready to claw your own eyes out. He was right. You guess that most people prefer to rent movies on the weekend and you decide to sneak a read of theWyrd Sisters book that LaF lent you and you're so glad you decided to take it with you this morning.
You find the page you turned over last night and begin to read.
“Excuse me?”
You jump so hard you practically throw your book halfway across the room. You’re scrabbling for it when you realise you should be welcoming a potential customer.
“Oh…uh…hi! Welcome to Blockbuster! How can I help you today?”
You watch a dark eyebrow rise above deep brown eyes and just for a second your heart skips a beat.
“Sure thing cutie. Can you book this out for me?”
You try to answer her but your mouth feels incredibly dry.
Say something!
“Oh right…sure…I…I can do that.”
Really?
While you’re booking out the film you’re sure that your brain has melted. It could be the fact you are bored out of your mind but then again you feel like you have never seen anyone quite that attractive. The girl’s hair is dark and curls softly over her shoulders and her lips are quirked in permanent smirk. You swallow hard when you notice her stomach is bare and were those leather pants?
“Here you go,”
You hand the movie over, a professional smile plastered on your face that falters for a second when your fingers brush because it feels like your stomach just did a backflip.
“The return date is next Wednesday do you want me to print out a reminder?”
“Thanks creampuff but I think I’ll pass.”
And you watch her walk away a definite flush creeping up your face.
Goddammit Hollis! why didn’t you ask her name?
“Goddammit Hollis! Why didn’t you ask her name?! If you had bothered to check the system, you would have seen that that girl has four movies booked out, they are all three weeks overdue and she hasn’t paid any of the late fees.”
You want the ground to swallow you up.
“I’m sorry...I didn’t think-”
“Damn right you didn’t think! We went over the system protocol yesterday. You always check if they are on the system to see if they have an account with us, don’t just do a one off rental if you can help it. We need to boost our subscription sales.”
It feels like you’re fifteen and your father is giving you a dressing down about tidying your room. Only this time about ten other staff members on their coffee break are staring at you. He practically drags you back out to the checkout and pulls up a file on the computer screen.
“There. I’ve been trying to contact her for weeks from our office phone. See if you can get through to her and get those movies back. If this happens again I won’t be so lenient.”
He stalks off and you resist the temptation to flip him off behind his back.
You sit and read through the girl’s booking history.
Carmilla Karnstein
Contact No. : 415 -267-1698
Check outs:
Psycho
To Kill a Mockingbird
Some Like it Hot
The Wizard of Oz.
Returns: 0
Overdue: 4
Late Fee: $20.00
Well whoever she was she had a thing for classic movies. Even if they were a little random. You’re about to pick up the office phone when an idea creeps into your head. What if she knew the number? That was probably why she wasn’t answering when your douche canoe of a boss called. It would totally make more sense if a number she didn’t recognize called her up.
You pull out your phone.
“So how was work?” LaF asks you through a mouthful of Chinese takeout.
“Boss is a total creep. I fucked up because I didn’t check the system when this girl booked out a movie. Turns out that she’s blacklisted because she doesn’t pay her late fees or return movies.”
LaF winces sympathetically and pats your hand across the table.
“Hey come on, it was your first day. Everyone fucks up a little bit on their first day.”
“I have to call her up and track her down,” you poke listlessly at your sweet and sour tofu trying not to think about how pretty her hair was or the way her hips swung as she sauntered away.
LaF pauses, a forkful of noodles halfway to their mouth.
“You've got that dumb look on your face again.”
You frown, jabbing unnecessarily hard at a piece of broccoli.
“What look?”
“The Laura ‘there’s a really hot girl but I’m scared to talk to her’ look…is it blacklist? Is she cute? Did she hit on you?!”
You snort incredulously.
“Oh my god LaF, no, I mean…well she is kinda hot but she wasn’t flirting with me. At least I don’t think she was…”
LaF looks unimpressed.
“Girl the hell up Hollis and call her.”
You don’t call her until the following evening.
“Hello?”
Ohfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-
“Hello! Uh...I’m…I’m Laura Hollis and I was the-“
“The cute girl at Blockbuster. How did you get my number?”
How do you say this in a way that will make you not sound like a stalker?
“I got it off the system at work.”
Well done. 10 /10.
“Riiiiiight cus that’s not creepy at all-“
You screw up your face and before she can say another word you start to rant down the phone.
“You have four overdue films, you haven’t paid your late fees and I got yelled at by my boss and nearly lost my job because you didn’t tell me you were already on the system and-”
You swear you can hear that deliciously low voice snicker on the end of the line.
“It’s NOT funny!”
“Okay, okay! Look. If you do me a favour I promise I will bring in those precious movies if it stops your boss having an aneurysm. Wouldn’t want a death on my hands would I?”
You huff and try to make your voice sound as nonchalant as possible but your heart has just started to do very weird things in your chest.
“Depends on the favour, I guess.”
Carmilla chuckles and oh my god that voice should be illegal.
“Come out with me. Tomorrow evening.”
Annnnnd your brain goes blank. You open your mouth to answer. Nothing comes out.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine!” You manage to squeak but it’s like someone has wrapped an elastic band around your vocal chords.
“So, do you want to come out with me cutie?”
You take a deep breath.
“Yes. I…I’d like that.”
You agree to meet her at a bar that you’ve been to a couple of times with LaF. To be honest you don’t remember much about it (usually being fairly tipsy by the time you’ve got to this particular venue) but you know that they have live music and it’s got a nice atmosphere.
“Hey.”
You turn around slowly and you have to fight to keep your mouth shut. She is wearing those skin tight leather pants again, a red check shirt, leather boots and a leather jacket. You feel very dressed down in comparison in your plain old jeans and a decent blouse but at least your hair looks good.
“Hey…nice to see you again,” you force yourself to meet her eyes and smile.
Why did you have to start blushing right now? Why?
“Likewise, cutie. Come on, first drink is on me.”
You follow her into the bar feeling so dazed it’s like someone has slapped you round the face.
“What’s your poison?” She’s asks you leaning against the bar with the air of someone who feels at home.
“I’ll have a Malibu and coke, please.” You see that eyebrow rise a little but she says nothing getting a Jack Daniels on the rocks for herself. There’s a band playing on the stage and you recognise it as jazz. It’s not something you usually listen to but it’s not bad.
“I didn’t know they did Jazz nights here.”
She sips her drink slowly, her tongue catching a stray drop on the rim of the glass.
Was it just you or did it just get really hot in here?
“I come every week. I’m a music major and Jazz is my specialism”
You take a sip of your drink trying to look relaxed and mature when really you just want to run back home to LaF.
“I’m majoring in journalism at the moment-” She leans back in her chair and it feels like she’s x-raying you with that steady gaze, those eyes roaming over your body a little before settling on your face. It makes you feel like a snack and she’s trying to decide which bit of you to eat first.
“Journalism huh?” You nod still feeling a little uncomfortable under that penetrating look.
“My hero when I was kid was Lois Lane.”
She laughs at that. It’s a bright sort of sound that makes your chest feel light.
“Kinda lame huh?” you quip
She takes another sip of her drink. “Not in the slightest.”
Several more drinks into the evening and it feels like you’ve known her a lifetime. You find out you are both Harry Potter obsessed only she is a Slytherin to your Gryffindor and you also both have a thing for classic literature.
“You know we have this really great movie version of Wuthering Heights at work…I could book it out and we could…watch it together sometime.”
She reaches across the table and takes your hand. Her skin is cool despite how warm it is in the bar and your stomach feels like it’s doing cartwheels.
“I think I might like that very much.” You duck your head shyly, unable to stop the heat from rising in your cheeks.
Next thing you know there is a cry of triumph and a groan of defeat from the corner of the room.
“Hey, it looks like the pool table is free. Do you play?”
Other than a few very drunken disastrous attempts at trying to beat LaF, your experience with pool is practically zero.
“Um…not really.”
She stands up pulling on your hand until you join her.
“Come on, cupcake, you learn something new every day.”
You are really beginning to regret agreeing to play with her.
Carmilla has beaten you three times in a row. Once in straight sets. You’ve pocketed the 8 ball twice and the cue ball four times and could this really get any worse? Carmilla is racking up for the fourth time, a smirk on her face.
“I think I need to give you a little instruction in how to do this properly…”
She’s behind you now handing you the cue and guiding your hands to the table.
“You use too much force. Let the balls do the work for you.”
She’s leaning over you and you can feel her breasts pressed against your back and her breath is hot on your ear. Your heart is pounding in your chest, you’re not even paying attention to what she’s saying all you can think about is her bending you over like this somewhere private and her fingers doing sinful things between your legs.
She guides your hand back on the cue and you gasp when her thigh presses between your legs from behind and it takes all of your will power not to grind down.
Crack!
The balls split perfectly, three of them pocketing on the first stroke.
“See. Control is all that’s needed.”
Control be damned.
You drop the cue and turn around to face her.
She’s standing very close to you still, practically pinning you to the table with her hips. There is a heavy tension between you and when her eyes flick down to your lips your last bit of resolve breaks.
You kiss her.
And she’s kissing you back.
It’s hot and dirty and insistent, making you go weak at the knees.Her hands are on your waist and yours are sliding into her hair, pulling her flush against you. She tastes of whisky and something else you can’t put your finger on. All you know is that you want that taste to be in your mouth forever. You whimper as her teeth catch hold of your lower lip and bite, heat flaring up your body and you're contemplating whether to grab her ass when you remember where you are and pull away.
The bartender is staring at you.
In fact nearly the whole bar is staring at you.
Carmilla turns around when she sees your look of pure horror.
"Put your eyes back in your skulls dimwits or I’ll do it for you,” it’s said with a vicious snarl and honestly you shouldn’t find it quite that sexy.
She turns back to you that smirk back on her face and her eyes darker than ever before.
“What do you say we take this somewhere private?”