tramitem_log | Guess I'm just a play date to you

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Guess I'm just a play date to you

Who: Harleen, Alec, and special secret ~~spies~~ guests
What: A blind date from Hell (because a demon set it up, get it)
When: Feb 14th, 8 PM
Where: Antonio's Restaurant
Warnings: None

Harleen never did work up the courage to text the number the Duane Reade demon gave her, and was seriously considering calling the whole thing off or at least pulling a no-show. But then her mother knocked on her door and looked deeply disappointed at hearing her daughter would be staying in on Valentine's, then strongly hinted that she'd been hoping Harleen would be out all evening so the parents could have a "very romantic, private sort of night."

So obviously Harleen could not be anywhere in a five mile radius of home with that cursed knowledge.

She put on a nice dress and jacket, nothing too flashy or that could lead to ... certain expectations, and headed out to meet her doom. Dinner. Her dinner date.

She arrived too early, as she usually did, and was seated at the table first. She ordered a glass of wine and promised herself that everything was going to be just fine. No date could be as bad as the one in her other self's memories.

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This was stupid. This was stupid. This was such a bloody bad idea that he couldn't even begin to think why he was doing it except to make his idiot of a cousin happy. It took all his nerve not to walk away from the restaurant and when he arrived and saw her it took even more nerve to walk up to her in a well tailored dark suit, save for a collared shirt with the top few buttons haphazardly undone and the trousers not so tight.

He pulled out his own chair and sat opposite her, palms sweating already and stared resolutely at the table. He swallowed and then after a moment:

"Hi."

Harleen did an actual, cartoonish double take as her mystery date sat down. She gaped for a long awkward moment before clearing her throat and smoothing her hands over her skirt.

"Glad to see you survived your jump off the bridge. How was the lobotomy?"

From somewhere across the room, strategically obscured by plants and their unfolded menus, Fell glared at Anthony over a piece of cake and some fine wine.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," he said in a whisper, glancing towards the table where Alec and the pretty blond were seated before turning his attention back to Anthony. "This is invasive. He's not going to like us when he catches on." This was not how he imagined spending Valentine's evening. Someone was going to have to make it up to him later.

"He's not going to catch on unless you stand up and tell him we are here... We have a great hiding place, I tipped extra for that."

It was invasive but Alec had pushed his way into their relationship, they were happy now, this seemed like fair turn around. Maybe Alec would end up happily with some one too.

"Besides this is Antonio's, best Italian food in New York. I know you haven't forgotten their cannoli?"

"Not good enough. I'm now considering murder." Of his cousin he means. "I can piss off if you want>

"He said you wanted to do this. He also said he was a demon, so, probably should have guessed he was full of shit."

She took a sip of wine to reinforce her nerves.

"You don't have to go, but I understand if you want to." She smirked a little and followed with a wry, "I'm getting good at being left alone at tables."

"He is." Full of shit and a liar. "I'd rather be anywhere else." But he wasn't going to leave her to sit by herself either. That wasn't fair.

"You could pretend I said something horrible and throw a drink in my face and storm out." No one would blame her and if Anthony was keeping tabs on this date, which Alec had no doubt he was, he'd know it was a disaster and that would be the end o fit.

Anywhere else. Ha. Ouch.

"If you hate being here so much why did you come in the first place?" Sure, she'd almost stood him up, but that was clearly different from being stood up. Besides, she couldn't just go home so it was here or wandering the streets for hours.

"Look, whatever, it was a dumb thing to agree to but I just ... Really needed a night out. If you're not into it then I can have dinner alone."

"Because I'm...not good with dates. Or seeing people. Or... anything like that. I think there's too much emphasis on it. Whenever there's a happy couple, one half of that couple wants to see anyone else they're attached to become attached themselves. He's hoping something will blossom from it, but look, you're miserable, I'm miserable, I can't make it up to you other than an attempt at very awkward small talk since I've already humiliated myself so it's... pointless. But I said I would try."

But it wasn't going very well.

"If you want, then you can sit there and talk and I'll listen because I'm good at that." Not so much feigning interest, but. "It won't be the best night out but the meal is on me." Somehow. "So there's that at least."

"Oh, for sure, you really suck at this so far."

She watched him carefully while she weighed her options.

"Okay, fuck it. Honestly, I don't want to be attached, so you're in the clear on that. I'm too recently unattached to get into anything new, but all my friends were his friends first, so now I don't know anybody I can talk to about how completely shitty this month has been. And I can either have dinner with a guy who would rather be anywhere else or go home and try to drown out the sound of my parents fucking. So. Congratulations! You're the better option, somehow."

She signaled for a waiter and ordered a bottle for the table. They were going to need it.

It only stung a little even though he knew that already.

"That is shit." He rested his chin on his fist and watched her. It wasn't the ideal solution but it was better than nothing. "I don't know anybody at all." Not really anyway. "So you can tell me about it if you want."

"A couple things first. One, is it Crowley or Alec? And two, can you please not say anything about my eyes?"

"Crowley." He'd never liked his name. His ears tgo a little red at the suggestion. "I won't say a word about your eyes or anything else."

"Crowley. Got it."

The waiter arrived with the winebottle and poured them both a glass before leaving them alone to enjoy their extremely romantic love match.

"God. I don't even know where to start, really." She picked up her wineglass just for something to do with her hands. "I guess ... Do you know much about recovered memory?"

He hesitated looking at the wine. He shouldn't. He knew he shouldn't. He knew that Anthony would have a fit if he drank it.

Spite won out and he took a sip, then sighed and gave her a wry look.

"You're Different as well." It wasn't exactly a question.

She froze and stared hard at him, trying to figure out if he was fucking with her. But that he even knows about the Different... And he wouldn't have said "as well" if he was about to tear into her for falling in with weird conspiracy cultists.

"Yeah."

"Sucks to be us." He saluted her with the wine glass before taking a drink. "Is it something that's going on here because of that or something... there."

"Both, I guess." She meets his salute with one of her own, and downs her glass in one go.

"The ... experience was. Very traumatic. I tried to talk to him about it and he didn't believe me, which. I mean, who would? But he wouldn't even talk about it, told me I was being crazy and dramatic. And it was like, 'why am I even with you?' So I walked out, cut off the engagement. Lost all my friends, the apartment, everything. Moved into my parents' basement."

"Well he wasn't doing shit for you anyway. If someone can't accept you through a crises, then they aren't worth your time. There's plenty of other people out there, and you seem like an intelligent woman. I'm sure you'll land on your feet." He finishes his own and refills their glasses since he's here.

"Are your parents the supportive kind or the kind that let you live in their basement but nag you every bloody day?"

"He was nice, at least until then. I guess when I wasn't playing my perfect wifey role right anymore he didn't know how to handle it."

She nodded in thanks for the refill and clinked their glasses together.

"Oh, daily nagging and overcharging on rent." She adopted a truly pitch-perfect imitation of her mother, not that he'd know, and said "Harleen, you're a doctor! It won't kill you to give your folks a couple extra bucks!"

She shook her head and scoffed. "I'm a research assistant, and barely even that."

"Tossers." He did not approve, but there was shit he could do about it anyway. "Parents shouldn't charge rent. They should at least have the decency to put you up somewhere. Maybe utilities if they were hard off. Maybe. But beyond that--" He shook his head. "Have you thought of looking around for a room mate?"

She shrugged. It didn't seem to bother her as much as it did him, but she'd had her entire life to get used to them.

"Wasn't enough time to shop around for a new place, the way I ended things. Anyway, it is true that I make more money than them, and even an overpriced basement in Bensonhurst is a lot more affordable than anything in Manhattan."

"Fair enough." Bloody overpriced city. He hated it here. If it weren't for Anty he wouldn't even be here. Of course if it weren't for Anty he wouldn't be anywhere so it was a blessing and a curse-- if this could be called a blessing.

"I know a couple Different that are living alone. One is an old man and one is a young man--" A shrug. "Can't say that either of them would be decent company but there it is."

"Man, what is with your family and trying to set me up with strange men? Are there cameras around? Do you both work on a prank show?"

The waiter returned to take their orders, which gave him a brief respite from the absolute terror of having a conversation with a pretty lady.

"And speaking of strange-- what the hell was up with you at the cafe?"

"I didn't tell you to date anyone did I?" Alec refrained from ordering any food because he wouldn't like any of it anyway. "It was just a suggestion and I don't know any single women. At least not in that way." Though her and Ellie would get on.

He sighed and leaned back.

"I don't know. Some drugged Valentine's sweets or something like that. I could not stop bloody eating them and it made me--" He gestured. "If it makes you feel any better I didn't actually mean any of it." Which was mostly a lie but for the better.

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feel free to ignore them, I'm just saying they're here, since...that's what they're apparently doing

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