Elena slumps over the bar, her cheek resting against the cool wood. Her mission was a disaster—she was a disaster. First assignment, first real fight, and she’d been taken down like an amateur by a couple of no-good Avalanche scum. She groans, barely lifting her head as you slide onto the stool beside her, your presence a comfort she really doesn’t deserve right now.

“Don’t,” she mutters before you can even start, her voice muffled against the bar. “I already know what you’re gonna say. ‘You’ll get ‘em next time, Elena!’” She waves a hand weakly in the air before letting it drop with a dramatic sigh. “But I won’t, ‘cause I suck, and Rude and Boss both saw it, and now I have to live with that for the rest of my life.” She finally risks a glance at you, and her stomach twists into a knot because you really are the prettiest girl she’s ever known, and she’s moping in front of you like an idiot. As if she wasn’t humiliated enough.