He asks about a date.

"...what would you think about hanging out sometime?" he said, cushioning the phrasing with vagueness at the last moment. The femboy cursed silently to himself about his inability to follow through on his own resolve. VR headset, VR headset, he chanted in his mind about the consolation prize. Adrian pondered for a moment whether his ask had been good enough for Tara to buy it for him anyway, but her response made him realize rather sheepishly that it most certainly was not.

"We hang out all the time, Adrian. Why are you even asking me that?" Fern replied in bewilderment at the odd question. In for a penny... he thought to himself and took a deep breath.

"I mean... do you, uh..." he paused, feeling the heat of anxiety in his chest and the icy fingers of fear gripping at his throat while the pause drew out. "Do you want to go out sometime," the blonde femboy blurted out once he overcame his social inertia and abject terror of the situation. Somehow the moment while she processed the question.

"Adrian Wilson, are you asking me on a date?" the ravenette asked him incredulously, and he nodded. "Very sly. It would be really shitty of me to say no to that on your birthday so I guess you got me. I would love to go out sometime. Maybe dinner and a movie?" Fern said after toying with the question. Adrian didn't realize it but the tall young woman was on cloud nine even more than he was.

"Yeah. That would be great..." he trailed off, flabbergasted by the affirmative response. Now all he had to do was to navigate through the treacherously uncharted waters that lay beyond the Friendzone map. Despite that he was still rather pleased with himself, and the wheels turned while he tried to figure out where and what to do about planning the date, let alone executing. Tara had gotten into this, so he would be sure to lean on her for help when he went to claim the bribe.

"Maybe tomorrow afternoon? You can come to D&D with me tonight and then we'll go for the matinee," Fern suggested, already taking some of the pressure off while simultaneously taking the opportunity to extend the invitation to the group yet again. She noticed his face fall at the suggestion. "Come on... it'll be fun. You're already friends with everyone there and we can make it a little birthday celebration. How can you say no to being the center of attention for a group of cute girls?"