Arranged Affair

Chapter One :Decision

"Listen, smile, agree, and then do whatever the fuck you were gonna do anyway"- Robert Downey Jr. on Inside The Actors Studio, quoting Judd Nelson, 2006-07-09
Description: She is tired of waiting,waiting for home to fuck the line and be spontaneous like he always is ,but he is not like that with her,he keeps his distance too fucked up and scared of crossing it...

Tired and frustrated She choses someone else...

Tony gets devastated...even tho he keeps quiet but for how long?

this idea popped up in my mind after seeing some movie rom-com
and well here goes nothing....

It all started on the 23rd of December at the annual Stark Industries Christmas party. Many important people gathered at the formal event held at the company's headquarters that evening.

Pepper thought that she'd been the best choice after all. Tony Stark didn't trust many people, but he trusted her and that was enough. She ran his company for about five years - indirectly, of course, but Tony was a careless man. He thought that the meetings were boring and unimportant for a person who is much more important than anything else in the universe.

Tony... well, he was supposed to come at the party, but there was no sign of him so far.

The three men were completely casual about everything. They didn't ask her much and they were polite. They were in the middle of a discussion about the arc reactor development when she excused herself and told them that she was supposed to give a speech within the next minutes.

The speech was about how people should celebrate Christmas with their family and how these holidays were meant to be enjoyed by everyone.

By the time she finished her speech Tony made his appearance followed by a small group of horny females whom he'd slept with before Afghanistan. They didn't let him breathe until Happy, his bodyguard and chauffeur showed up and got rid of them.

His eyes found hers and she swallowed hard a bit when he reached her.

"How's my favorite CEO doing?" He asked and sat up on a stool at the bar.

Pepper smiled. He always teased her like that, but she liked it. It was their usual banter anyway.

"I'm doing great. How about you? " She replied and sat on another stool.

"Fine." He replied in a rush and clenched his jaw. "Do you want something to drink?"

She blinked at him, surprised by his question, but she nodded a little.

She turned her attention towards the dance floor and saw a few couples dancing. It reminded her of the night they both shared an uncomfortable dance, full of lingering glances and hungry touches...

Her eyes caught another pair boring straight into hers from the other end of the hall. Pepper frowned deeply and tried to figure out if she had seen that pair of honey brown eyes before, but she couldn't. The man kept her gaze for another few seconds before she lowered hers to the martini glass in front of her.

She blinked hard, fighting a shiver. She recognized those eyes because she'd seen them before. She had met that man somewhere. She just couldn't put her fingers on it.

"Is this what you've asked me to bring you, Pepper?" Tony's voice shot through the haze she was currently in.

"Excuse me, what?" She looked at him with unfocused eyes and then back at the drink.

It was indeed a very dry vodka martini with three olives. She looked down at it in bewilderment and tried to focus on what Tony was saying.

"Pepper, are you okay?" She'd better answer him because dammit, he sounds pretty worried.