Seeing Eye to Eye (R,F)

Felicia had taken a long time to get cleaned up. So he took a quick rinse to get the saltwater off and waited. The last few hours felt like a whirlwind. The fact that Felicia had made a competition out of her date made sense. What happened afterwards didn’t. Was it just to get victory points from me? That would make sense, but she almost seemed more into it then he was. He wasn’t sure how many victory points what they’d done together was worth, but even if she’d gained twenty or thirty points that didn’t feel like it should turn her on that much.

After what felt like forever, she came out in the same jeans and a red shirt that she’d been wearing earlier before their contest. She’d worn that shirt plenty of times, but it hadn’t been a crop top before her boobs had demanded more of the fabric.

She saw his gaze gravitate down to her shirt and took the opportunity to call him out. “Even after all that, you’re still staring at my boobs? I thought I would've worn you out, but you really are a pervert.”

“I was just looking at the hem of your shirt.” He clarified.

She looked down, a bit disappointed. “Yeah, nothing from my wardrobe really covers me anymore except my scrubs. Ava gave me a hoodie, but I was kind of swimming in that thing.”

He smiled at her. “If it makes you feel better, that shirt still looks really good on you.”

She just rolled her eyes. “Of course you’d think that. If you can stop looking at my chest for a moment, is there anywhere you want to go to talk?”

Right. She’d asked to have a conversation with him. “Did you want to go to my new house?” He offered.

“I’d kind of like to get some food first. Is there anywhere private we’d be able to go for that?” She asked.

“There’s a couple of places in the forest we could visit together. There’s this dance hall that Hazel added that does sushi, and then a bar that Aubrey and I used to go to in college that she brought here.”

“Why don’t you show me the bar?” She suggested with a faint smile.

***

So he led her to Murphy’s. As they arrived, she hesitated when she saw the outside. “Dick, what the fuck is that?” She said, looking at the dingy bathroom with a neon sign.

“It’s Murphy’s?” He looked back at it before realizing the issue. “I know that it looks weird. Aubrey messed with the outside as a joke. I had the same reaction the first time, but it’s almost normal on the inside.”

“So it’s like the chameleon circuits in Professor How?”

“Exactly.” Her and Ava had introduced him to the show one weekend when Luna and Stella were gone together.

“Then show me in.” She went in after he opened the door for her. “You weren’t kidding about it being like in Professor How, this place is huge.”

He followed her in, himself a little surprised by what had changed. “It’s a bit bigger than it was last time. The pool table is back, that was missing the last time I was here.” He looked down at the closest table. “Are those menus?” On each table sat a laminated white menu. He leaned down and saw two more drinks and a salad added onto the pizza and cider that had been there last time.

“They look nicer than I’d expect for a dive bar.” Felicia commented.

“It’s not something the real one has. Normally whatever they’ve got available is on the chalkboard over there.” He pointed at the blank board behind the bar.

“Even if it’s not how it’s supposed to be, this is better.” She sat down at one of the small circular tables in the middle of the restaurant. “Is this a good place to talk then?”

He sat down with her. “I assume you wanted to talk about what we did at the beach?”

“Tangentially. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d understand if you said yes: Was my transformation why you finally said yes to me?”

He frowned. “What do you mean I finally said yes to you?”

“Before the show got started, you made it clear that you weren’t interested. I tried like three times before I gave up.”

“Felicia, I think I’d know if you’d asked me out.”

She rolled her eyes. “If you’re telling me the truth, then I know from experience that you wouldn’t.”

“When did you ask me out?”

“Do you remember when I asked you this summer if you wanted to teach me how to play tennis?”

“Yeah, you changed your mind pretty suddenly.” He commented. He’d thought it was strange at the time how quickly she’d lost interest.

“You invited your stepsister!”

“Helena’s way better at tennis than I am. She taught both Aubrey and me.”

“Maybe she is better, but I didn’t want her there for our first date.”

“That was supposed to be a date?”

“Yes!” She hissed

“Oh. What about the others?”

“Do you remember back in April when I asked you on a hike? You said you needed to do some reading for work. Surely there could’ve been other times for you to read, right?”

“I had a lot to do, but you also said you were asking me because Ava was out of town.”

“Right, the trail was near our building and I was hoping that we could stop by my place on our way back since she was out.”

He took a moment to think about what that meant. That’d been five months ago. It’s really not just for the show? “I took it to mean that I was replacing Ava.”

“Oh. No, I only planned the hike because she was off in Japan.” That surprised her. “What about the movie?”

“Which one?”

“You went with me to that The Beast reboot last October, and at the end you thanked me for taking you out after the breakup. Who brings up their ex on a date?”

He furrowed his brow. “Maybe I didn’t notice the hike or the tennis, but that movie definitely wasn’t a date.”

“Dick. A guy and a girl going to a horror movie together isn’t a date? Why did you think it was just the two of us going?”

He shrugged. “We’re the only ones in the group that can handle horror stuff.”

“Ava likes the horror genre.” Felicia pointed out.

“Yeah, and she almost got us kicked out of a haunted house the weekend before.”

She sighed. “So you’re saying you somehow didn’t notice me asking you out three times? What would it have taken for you to notice?”

“Using the phrase 'Would you like to go on a date with me' might’ve helped.” He pointed out.

“So you’re saying this is all my fault?”

“I’m certainly not saying it was mine.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

He wasn't bothered by her snapping at him. This was something back in his comfort zone with Felicia. “You already did a pretty good job of that yourself.”

“Shut up.” But she was blushing as she said that. We really just did that. “At least we got together eventually. All I needed to do was tell you to take your clothes off.”

“That was a pretty clear signal.” He was starting to smile now too. “Are you ready to have dinner?”

“Sure. I’ll get us a couple salads. Did you want the cider, or something else?” She asked.

“The cider, but I actually wanted to get the meat lover’s pizza.” He requested.

“Did you get that last time you were here?” She questioned him.

“Yeah?”

“Ava told me about your dinner last night. This’ll be your third time having red meat and we’re not halfway through the round. You need to watch your cholesterol, so you can have your pizza after you have some of the salad.”

“Fine.” Maybe there were some unforeseen consequences to being on a date with his doctor.

She brought the salads over from the bar. They both started eating. But as they ate, a worrying thought occurred to him. “Felicia?”

She put her fork down. “What is it?”

“You mentioned Aubrey earlier… getting the chance to ask me out isn’t why you were there for when the others talked to me, is it?”

She made eye contact with him. “No. I didn’t do it to steal you from her. I don’t like you asking that but if you really need to know, I helped because I didn’t think you two were good together.”

“Why not?” He hadn’t expected her to say yes, but he had needed to check. Now he was just curious about her answer.

“You’d sometimes come to Stella’s on Fridays talking about how you did something that made Aubrey upset. You never said that the two of you had an argument.”

“We never really fought. She was always very forgiving at the end of the day.”

“And that was my problem. Arguments aren’t usually fun, but they can be healthy. A good fight can help you be heard. I’m pretty sure Maeve would say something similar. Now can we change the subject?” She picked up the fork again.

“Sure, I’m sorry that I brought it up. Is there anything else that you wanted to do after dinner?” He asked.

“I’d kind of like to watch a horror movie tonight, if that’s alright with you.”

“Really?”

She grinned before laying down the challenge. “I mean, if you’re too much of a wimp we don't have to...”

“I just didn’t think you’d want to, given how our not-date turned out last time with a horror movie."

“Things might’ve moved a bit faster if I knew how much you were thinking with your dick.”

He didn’t have an easy response to that and chose to move on. “What movie did you have in mind? I haven’t been keeping track of what’s come out recently.”

She was done eating at this point, and she put her fork down. “I was actually thinking of an old classic. Have you ever seen The Tennessee Hatchet Slaughter?”

“No, but I’ve heard of it. There’s one problem though.”

“What’s that?” She asked.

“Will Genet let us watch something that’s not another season without you buying a movie theater or something? If I’m doing my math right, you'd need two BP and you used two at the beach and loaned one to Hazel. Would we have enough for you to do this?”

“Well actually, Hazel was able to-” As she was explaining she was interrupted by both of them getting a notification on their phones. Felicia fished her phone from the show out of her jeans to read what came in.

Don’t worry about the cost, you kids being able to webflix and chill is most of why I added televisions to the houses this season. I’ll have your little movie ready by the time you get to the Master’s cottage tonight. Good job on hitting the quarter mark by the way, that comes with two BP. Be sure to let the others know about the bonus, they’re eligible when they hit twenty-five the first time too. -Genet

Dr.Felicia Owens, +2BP (Quarter Bonus)

“Did you just get the same thing I did?” Richard asked her. “It looks like we don’t need to worry about you spending anything tonight.”

She noticed that he didn’t say anything about the second half of her text. It was probably just to her. She was thankful for the unexpected bonus, it meant she was back to being only a single bonus point away and she’d be able to get the transformation she’d been looking at from the tower once Hazel got back to her with the other one they’d agreed to. “That was nice of her. It feels a bit weird to be reminded that she’s watching us all the time though.”

Holy Hell. This is all part of the show. Richard remembered. The audience must’ve been watching everything we did on the beach. “Does thinking about the audience bother you?”

She thought about it carefully before answering. “Sometimes. I don’t know how to feel about how our first time was technically so public. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me after the first three times I clearly asked you out were ruined. And I don’t really have as much room to complain about them either, considering they ranked me first. I assume the thought of the audience is bothering you?”

“I’m used to being monitored at this point, between Hazel and being in Congress. But you all-”

“Hazel monitors you? I thought she was just your stepsister’s bodyguard.” Felicia interrupted.

“No, Hazel does a lot. Helena has wanted to make sure both of us were always safe with our family’s history of accidents. Our parents died in a car accident, they were in the backseat when we got rear-ended because I had just gotten my license and wanted to show off for them. Within two months after that three cousins and an aunt went down in their yacht together, and then my grandfather went missing. Thankfully we’ve been able to dodge the Turner curse so far.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” Felicia was never sure what to do about grief. “I take the car crash was the reason for the surgery I saw you had.”

“Yeah. Yeah it is.” A second consequence of going on a date with someone who had his medical records.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Maybe just something to distract me. It gets harder when I have to slow down and think.”

“Then let’s go back to your place for the movie. If you get too scared, you can always hold onto me.”