A little character piece that came out of nowhere and which will probably go nowhere. Hope somebody gets a couple of chuckles out of this.
***
Truly Awful Taste
It has to be the salmon, mused the woman officially known as Elizabeth Peña, closing her eyes after taking another sip from her newest little vice to wash down another bite of her sandwich. Why Trevor Trengrove had been surprised by his company's failure to secure a position in the soft drinks market, she just couldn't fathom.
A
salty soft drink? With
turmeric?
It was no wonder that Funirade had done so horribly in the market, but for some reason the Funtelligence CEO clearly still had hang-ups about that failure. During their recent dinner, she had accidentally stepped on that mine and the man had instantly fallen into a funk.
She had only been able to direct the conversation towards more productive topics, after promising to drink a can of Pink Funirade (with extra salmon flavour!) that Trevor had promised to send her as soon as possible. He had said that he had kept a few as a memento, after production had stopped.
Considering that he had sent her a
pallet, that may have been an understatement. What did that say about him?
And what did it say about her that she had actually found herself enjoying the concoction?
She had known for a few years that she had absolutely awful taste in men, but she had never expected to have such an awful taste in drinks, too!
Fortunately, before she could walk any further down the well-trodden path towards self-flagellation, a convenient distraction showed up in the form of somebody sitting next to her. Mirage opened her eyes and glanced to the side.
Unfortunately, it was none other than Hego. His usual cheerfulness and devotion to the ideals of heroism were painful remainders of old mistakes at best, while his almost childish innocence was annoying most of the time.
Not that he was looking particularly cheerful at the moment. In fact, he looked unusually haggard and was giving the small bowl of pasta in front of him a thousand yard stare.
"I take it that you had a bad trip?" she asked, curious. Preparing her trip to California had kept her out of the loop in regards to some of the company's recent projects, but she knew that he had been earmarked for something that was supposed to be a journey of exploration. Clearly, things hadn't gone according to plan.
Hego startled, looked at her in confusion for a split second and then, after a flash of realization passed through his features, he started laughing. It started like a weak giggle, but it swiftly grew in volume and intensity, unitl the hero was roaring in laughter.
It took him perhaps a couple of minutes to regain his composure. When he did he was looking much closer to his usual self.
"Yes, miss Peña. You could say that I had a really bad trip!" he replied with a smile in his face. It was not his usual 'dazzlingly heroic' smile, but Mirage couldn't help but feel that this one seemed more honest. More attractive, too.
Realizing what she had just thought, Mirage groaned internally. She had truly awful taste, indeed.
***
Why did you do that, Disgust? He is cute!
We already went through this once and we are not doing it again. That's my job here!
Maybe we should give it a try? She has been getting better, but I still have too much work and...
No! Disgust is right. She could get hurt! It is too soon!
It has been years, Fear. She cannot live the rest of her life in the shadow of Buddy...
AAAAAAARGGHH!!!
Fire alarm! Fire alarm!! Where is the extinguisher!? 
