[OTA] Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

[headfollowheart]

She had been told, quietly and privately, to keep an eye out for activity on a few specific accounts. None of them had had any activity yet, which she reported to Katya daily. They were David's accounts, and after her conversation with Amy the day before - it had somehow managed to be more like a conversation than their usual confrontations - Zoe

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[somuchheart]

"Hey, Zoe." Just the girl Blythe was looking for. She'll reach out to loop her arm through Zoe's, smiling up at her. "I have a question for you regarding significant others. It's not prudent to celebrate any anniversaries before- well, the one-year mark, right?"

[headfollowheart]

Blythe has her blinking out of her reverie, and she smiles over at her. "Well, I didn't really do anything for my one year anniversary..." But then, Victor. Monty wasn't Victor. "It depends, I think. What's coming up? Oh, six months?"

[somuchheart]

"Yeah. It's... pretty ridiculous, actually. But I couldn't help thinking about it." She shrugs. "I just- wanted to ask, I guess."

[headfollowheart]

"Six months is pretty important, though." She laughs a little, ducking her head. "It took about that long to stop being secretly convinced that Victor would dump me like yesterday's newspaper if Elani looked in his direction."

[somuchheart]

“Is it, though? I mean, I feel like anniversaries only get really important as the number of years grow. Any couple can last six months, you know?” Blythe laughs quietly, squeezing Zoe slightly. “It’s still hard for me to realize sometimes that he actually likes me.”

[headfollowheart]

"I think the early ones are the most important. And then, you know, the milestones - twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five." Though, wow, any of them getting that far would be impressive. "But...it's early in the relationship that's the most work, you know? At least once you're out of the puppy love everything-we-do-is-magic stage."

[somuchheart]

"Hold on, there. Let's be a little more realistic, Zoe. Aiming at two years first. Though maybe even that's a little hopeful." She laughs. "Maybe it's more important to concentrate on each day this early in a relationship, rather than making any one day special."

[headfollowheart]

"It passes faster than you think." She wrinkles her nose and laughs. "Not that I'm near two years with Victor yet, but sometimes it's hard to believe it's been a year and some." She smiles, though, remembering back. Some of the early months had been magical. Last Halloween especially.

Of course, this Halloween had been it's own kind of special.

"You could always get him something, and if he asks why, just say you wanted to."

[somuchheart]

"That, I can agree with. I almost didn't believe it'd already been six months." She grins, looking down at her feet. "Yeah. I think I can do that, I guess."

[headfollowheart]

"Maybe you should do something, then. Nothing big - but something he'd like, even if it's like...dinner at Mike's. Something like that." That seems Monty's speed, and not like Blythe's making a big deal of it.

"Do you ever think you overthink things? With relationships?"

[somuchheart]

"... He'd like that. Especially if I honestly didn't have any work to do." She can work ahead. Come up with something. It shouldn't be too out of the ordinary. Just enough, in fact.

"Are you kidding me? It was terrible when we started going out. I overthought everything I did. And the worst part was when I'd tell him what I was thinking. I mean, I think back on it now, and some of it was so stupid, you know?"

[headfollowheart]

Delegate to Tens? Get an assistant? It should be doable, anyway, especially since the Hearts have a King now.

"I think I'm actually worse now," Zoe says. "When we first started going out...I didn't take it seriously, you know? I mean, he liked someone else, and it's not like we organized any dates. But like, my grandmother decided we needed to have a family dinner - with Victor - and I keep thinking of all the things that could possibly go wrong, even though the worst thing that could go wrong is probably if my cousin Dillon decides to instigate a biscuit battle with Sara."

Well, that was a lot of words.

[somuchheart]

"I used to forever agonize over the little things I did and kept on thinking up new reasons for him to break up with me or cheat on me. Things like that. It took a lot of convincing from him to make me feel better - which, of course, simultaneously made me feel worse. But the point is - you should really just talk to him. It makes things better instead of overthinking by yourself." These two are good at lots of words.

[headfollowheart]

"He'll think I'm being silly." Because, well, she was being silly. "But I'll have to tell him about it anyway. It's that or tell him we're going out to dinner and then ending up at the House."

Zoe's lips twitch a little. "Which would, admittedly, be kind of funny."

[somuchheart]

"He'll always think you're being silly. Him telling you you're being silly is what will usually make it better." A pause. No, she's not going to burst out into laughter. At least, she'll try not to. "Don't do that, Zoe. He'll, like, kill you."

[headfollowheart]

"Oh, I suppose." The problem, sometimes, with being with someone so much older - and so self-possessed - is Zoe felt like she had to...match him. Most of the time she did, but sometimes she just didn't.

Like how she found this idea completely hilarious. It really probably wasn't...to him. "Oh, I don't think I'd die. But there'd be a lot of death glares."