Shiny Demon

It Hurts to Start Dreaming

"Confluence?"

Genevieve turned to Seb as she stuck some shiny dangly thing in her ear. He resisted the urge to bump her hand away so he could kiss her neck, but she'd shooed him away twice already when he'd disrupted her makeup routine. "Yeah! What's wrong with that? Elladine said it's the most anticipated restaurant opening of the year."

"I didn't say anything was wrong with it."

She turned to him with a worried expression. "I'm sorry to spring it on you. Elladine didn't get a call about it until today and she had to give them an answer right away." She stepped closer and rested her arms on his shoulders, her face furrowed into a little pout. "Are you mad?"

"No, no, I'm not mad." He ran his hands over the taut black fabric on her hips as he answered her. "It just sounds a bit..." He mimed straightening an invisible tie and arched his brow in a teasing smirk. "Bougie."

She hooted a laugh and stepped away to continue getting ready. "Says the lad who just spent the summer on holiday in a Spanish Villa."

He held on to her as she slipped away, so his fingers could drag along her shape as long as possible. "I know, but..." He dropped his hands defeatedly when she was too far away to reach. "That's not my usual style."

"I thought you might say that so I bought you a present." She disappeared into her closet. A little flutter of excitement stirred in his head. They'd never exchanged gifts before. He never really got gifts from people, besides the occasional FireBall that Gabby snuck into the register to surprise him. A few seconds later, she reappeared with a flat blue box.

He opened it with a flourish and removed a layer of tissue paper. Underneath, there was a black dress shirt. He didn't know much about brands and designers, but based on the sleek packaging and expensive sheen of the fabric, he guessed it was fairly high end.

She gave him a pleased smile. "I thought you could wear it tonight!"

"Wow... Cheers!" he said, not sure how he felt. It certainly wasn't what he was expecting. He'd never had a girlfriend buy clothes for him before. But she'd clearly gone through a lot of effort for him. "You bought this today?"

"You were already on the train when Elladine called me about dinner, so I knew you wouldn't have time to shop." Her words were coming out in a nervous chatter. "And I figured you wouldn't have packed anything that was..." She drifted off and she gave a bashful smirk.

"Not a band shirt?" he said with a little smile.

She gave a muted laugh. "You know I think your band shirts are sexy. This place is just–"

He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close for a kiss. "I get it. It was really sweet of you to think of me and take time to go get this." He pulled the shirt from the box. "It's really sharp. And my favourite colour!"

Her lips relaxed into a more genuine smile. "Do you really like it? I know you're not big on, you know, nice things."

"That's not true. My nice things are just... different."

"Oh really?" she answered playfully as she turned away to go back to sorting her hair. "What are your nice things?"

"Well for one, the way your bum looks in that dress."

She made a quiet tutting sound as she stepped in front of her full-length mirror, smirking at his reflection. "Cheeky."

"Yes, I'd say your bum is quite cheeky." He tilted his head to better admire her curves. "That's what I like about it."