Intermission - Diana and the girls (Part 3)

“Oliver is dangerous like that,” Grace said, smiling and taking a sip of her latte. “Spend some intimate time with him and he makes you believe he’s the perfect man.”

“Oh, so he’s not the perfect man, then,” Diana joked, crossing her arms. “And here I was getting my hopes up.”

“Yeah, he’s far from perfect,” Alice said, a big smile on her face. “He can be indecisive at times, for example.”

Milana nodded in agreement. “We kind of need to push him to do things or he’ll never do them out of fear of messing up. Most of the time he lacks assertiveness.”

“He’s easy to talk to, but sometimes he’s not easy to talk WITH,” Noelle said. “He’s a great listener, but you need to prompt him to say things or ask him questions. Otherwise he’ll be happy to stay quiet.”

“For all he’s achieved and all his talent, his self-confidence is pretty low,” Grace said with a sigh. “It can get annoying to hear him talk himself down.”

Diana was surprised to hear all that. Not that Oliver had his own issues, but that his girlfriends would voice them to her so openly. It seemed she wasn’t the only one, however, because she saw Sarah’s eyebrow twitch. The blonde scowled at her friends.

“Oh? Are the perfect girls complaining? Grace, you can be cruel and can have a total lack of empathy with people who aren’t close to you. Alice, you have a bad habit of hiding things you think will be trouble for others until they’re too big a problem to deal with. Noelle, you have a hard time talking about things that aren’t your own interests, too. Mila, you’re lazy, messy and irresponsible. And yes, I’m well aware I can have strong reactions when something bothers me.”

Alice’s and Noelle’s faces went red at their friend’s words, Milana smiled and laughed awkwardly and Grace crossed her arms and pouted.

“Okay, that’s all true, but you didn’t have to aim for the jugular…” the brunette grumbled. “Besides, we weren’t complaining.”

“You did call him annoying,” Milana pointed out.

Sarah sighed and turned to Diana. “Sorry, I went off a little hard there. Yeah, that’s all true. Oliver is a guy with plenty of weaknesses, but… Well, that only makes us love him more.”

“He works hard to overcome his weaknesses,” Alice said, smiling fondly. “Watching him is inspiring. And yes, what Sarah said about us is also true.” She giggled. “It’s part of what Oliver has to deal with on a daily basis.”

“He’s patient, caring and supportive,” Noelle said, looking down at her cup of mocha with eyes that saw past the drink and towards a memory. “I’d take double the flaws just for that alone.”

“Grace, Sarah and I were the firsts to… Well, make a move on him,” Milana said. Her smile, too, made Diana believe she was seeing a memory.

“...At the same time?” Diana asked.

“Well, yes and no,” Milana said, laughing. “These two are way more daring than I am, so they started flirting with him in front of me. I didn’t want to miss my chance, so I went and kissed him. Things… escalated from there.”

Sarah groaned and shook her head. “We kinda pushed him into a foursome with us. It was his first time.”

“Oh, we didn’t push him!” Grace argued. “I think you’re forgetting he’s the one who asked Thomas to lend us a room. He might lack assertiveness most of the time, but NEVER when it matters.”

“Yeah, that makes more sense to me. The Oliver I’ve gotten to know so far didn’t hesitate at all,” Diana told them.

Sarah chuckled. “That’s one of the many things he’s worked hard on. He used to be way more afraid of making his own moves. Then again, part of it might have been our fault.”

“How so?”

“We… didn’t make it clear what it was we wanted to have with him,” Grace said. “Three girls approaching him at the same time… Even if he didn’t have experience, no one could blame him for not understanding what was going on.”

“Hell, we weren’t sure, either,” Milana said. “We were just winging it and confusing Oliver even more. All we knew was that… we wanted to have a repeat of that night, at least. And to be fair, so did he.”

“It's a little hard to picture,” Noelle said, giggling. “Oliver actually made moves on you back then?”

“He did,” Sarah said. “He would…”

“Excuse me. Give me one second,” Diana said, interrupting Sarah and grabbing her own phone. She quickly texted Maria, asking her if their conversation could be overheard. She quickly got a reply that, no, the folding screen was working surprisingly well and only murmurs could be heard at best. “We’re not being overheard. Continue.”

“Thanks,” Sarah said. “Imagine we WERE being overheard. What would his fangirls think if they knew he was an anxious mess before they started paying attention to him.”

Diana’s eyebrows rose and she found herself smiling. “He was an anxious mess?”

“Oh, a terrible mess!” Milana said, laughing.

“Noelle and I have been friends with his sister since way before we started dating him,” Alice said. “He used to have such a bad case of social anxiety that he literally couldn’t speak to people.”

“So I’ve heard, but I still have a hard time believing it,” Diana said. “He seemed so confident to me. I don’t think things would’ve gone well between us if it had been up to me.”

“Part of it is that he’s been slowly getting used to stepping out of his comfort zone,” Sarah said. “But another part of it is that… Well, he has good reasons to be confident when it comes to women.”

“Yes he does.” Diana sighed, half dreamily and half frustrated at the memories. “So… About the ‘other’ things you do to even the score with him… Am I allowed to know?”

“Are you kidding?” Grace asked, grinning widely. “You being here already helps with that.”

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