*The mysterious Carlton Drake has made contact with Vivi Strauss. What are his motives and why does he seem interested with her?*

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For the past week, Vivi Strauss has been with a new acquaintance after work.

His name was Carlton Drake. He was a kind man, an exceptional scholar, and best of all, he was interested in science! Outside of Eddie and Max, she was happy to have another guy friend to talk to. Peter was always busy with school and his photography job to come by the library anymore. Carlton dropped by almost every day and chatted with her while she worked. He even helped her with putting away books, filing, and any other meager task that Aliana had her do. She found herself relieved to have him around to help her out. He was great for those top shelves.

Aliana started getting suspicious. This man had been coming here a lot to help out that mousy girl she called a employee. Surely no one would be interested in that lazy bookworm. She spied on the two to see what was going on between them. Vivi couldn't be having this man be her boyfriend! She admitted he looked cute, but he was way out of her league. Her eyes narrowed as she heard him tell her a funny joke before making her laugh. Fuming, the boss walked over to them with a glared look on her face.

"Excuse me," She said rather rudely interrupting their conversation. "My worker needs to do her job. Kindly exit the premises before I kick you out."

Vivi rolled her eyes and was about to retort when Carlton beat her to it. "Pardon me ma'am, but I thought anyone could be in this building. I am not being too loud or disruptive. I am merely helping your worker, who has been nothing but helpful and patience with you, do her hard jobs. I notice a lack of ladders for a lady of her stature and other equipment that could help with her job. If you want more cooperative employees, I suggest you treat them with more respect."

Aliana fumed at him, her face turning red. "Who are you to say that my employees don't respect me? I am their boss, they should respect me regardless! You are just some upstart that doesn't know when to quit!" She pointed to the door. "Now leave before I call security to kick you out!"

"Just go Carlton. I don't want you to get screeched at by her royal highness here." Vivi whispered, placing the stack of books on the table.

Carlton gave her a worried look before giving Aliana a scowl. "You better be glad that she told me to leave. Otherwise, this conversation would've gone a little differently." He shot Vivi a smile. "I'll catch you after work okay? Then maybe I can finish telling that story to you."

Vivi waved at him as he left through the library door. She groaned as she turned to see Aliana smirking at her as if she just won the lottery. The heinous witch pointed to the stack of papers on the main desk and then pointed to her.

"I need these filed by time you leave today otherwise you can kiss that date with your boyfriend goodbye." She said snarkily, flipping her hair as she walked away. "And fyi, he's totally out of your league so I wouldn't bother messing with him."

Oh I wish I was in control! Then I could give her a few choice words of my own. Ravage growled, making Vivi frown as well.

Yeah, and then we can kiss our plans for a bigger apartment goodbye. If we can earn a couple more paychecks and get my book published, then we can kiss this place and that chick goodbye. Vivi thought, going through the stack of papers. And if I did let you get her, what would you do?

Probably give her a scare. I do have morals, you know?

Unbeknownst to them, Carlton had not left the premises and was in the rafters watching Vivi work and talk to Ravage. It seemed that she was more connected to her symbiote than the company thought. He was going to file Vivi and Ravage in a report to the boss, but after spending more time with her, he found himself falling for the smart redhead. Maybe it was because she was incredibly attractive and an awesome writer. Or the fact that it was his job to spy on her and get closer to her. But that boss of hers was becoming a nuisance. When she wasn't around, he found himself groaning inwardly as she openly flirted with him. First she would go and maybe he would grab Vivi and her partner.

You feel it too huh? She's connected to that Venom symbiote that the boss lost too. Riot snarled in his mind. The symbiote, like Anti-Venom and Carnage, had a vendetta against Venom. When they were in the labs together, they would get into scuffles and Venom would always win. This bitter rivalry made Riot want to have an advantage on Venom. Taking his girlfriend should be the perfect revenge.

"All in due time partner. For now, let's get rid of that pesky woman that she works with."

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Eddie looked up as he watched Vivi cook the pasta for dinner that night. He was looking at the pictures he had taken for his reporter job to see which ones were good for the paper. Andrea was doing homework at the table too, struggling to gain the concepts of Algebra. Max was reading one of the various books that were scattered around the house. The house was peaceful that night, nothing eventful going on for the family.

"You've been in a happy mood lately Vivi. Did something happen at work?" Eddie asked her, gaining a squeak from the woman. She nearly spilled the boiling water on herself as she drained the pasta. Andrea lazily looked up to see the blush on her face.

"Uncle Eddie just asked you a question. What's going on?" The girl inquired, her interest piqued.

"Well...I made a new friend who's been coming into the library for awhile." Vivi said, stirring the sauce to add the spices. "He's really kind and smart and makes work worth coming to."

Max sniggered from his book. "Oh he's a male huh? Surely you aren't falling-" He stopped when Eddie shot him a glare, making him go back to the book.

"If you are implying that I am falling for my new male friend, you are mistaken. I'm just glad to have some company that defends me from my horrible boss! Just today she rudely interrupted our conversation and kicked him out for pointing out the truth! I was applauding him the whole time too."

Eddie grunted, getting a bit jealous. "He sounds like a perfect guy. Why not invite him for dinner one night?"

Not catching on the sarcasm, Vivi nodded. "Oh that's a great idea! That way, you and him can meet up finally! I talk about you all the time when the conversation calls for it."

Max chuckled again getting swatted on the head by a symbiote covered arm. Andrea rolled her eyes at his antics and drew back her arm.

"Fine, but he better not make moves on you or else I'll bite off his head." Eddie said, Venom mentally agreeing.

Vivi sighed and plated the spaghetti. "Eddie....you promised that you would stop with that threat."

"Oh this time I mean it. No one takes my girl away from me." Eddie pointed his fork at her. "You are mine and this punk won't dare hurt or harm you in any way."

"You tell him Uncle." Andrea said, getting her plate. "I'll help too."

Vivi gave her a look. "Oh really? How's that boy you've been talking to at school? MJ told me you are getting close to that Flash Thompson boy."

Andrea shot her a hateful glare as Max couldn't contain his laughter and sprayed everyone with spaghetti sauce.