Desperate Measures
Pansy slid onto the barstool and grabbed the dirty martini Ginny slid her. “Cheers,” she said, taking a sip. “Just to warn you all, I won’t be able to stay long tonight, I have a date.”
Ginny gasped. “But it’s girl’s night!”
“Yes, and you all are getting it on the regular,” she said. “I’m not. Desperate times, all that.”
Ginny leaned over to take her martini back but Hermione knocked her hand out of the way. Ginny pouted but reached for her drink instead.
“Who’s the date with?” Hermione asked.
Pansy smirked. “Neville.”
Ginny choked on her cosmo. “What?! He finally asked you out?!”
“Not yet,” Pansy said, fishing the olive spear out of her drink and biting one off. “But he will.”
“Tonight?” Daphne asked, deadpan. “After all these weeks you’re suddenly convinced it’s going to happen tonight?”
Smirking, she opened up her text messages and set her phone proudly in the middle of the table.
Ginny, naturally, snatched the phone up first with a gasp. “That’s fucking hot.”
“I know,” Pansy said. “Sent 8:11 am, read 8:11 am. The little typing bubbles have been popping up all day.”
Daphne grinned. “Ronald would immediately call in sick if I sent that.”
Ginny snorted. “As if he needs an excuse to call in.”
Hermione’s eyebrows shot up towards her infamous hairline as she took the phone from Daphne. “Well, that’s certainly one way to get his attention.”
Pansy grabbed her phone back and slipped it into her purse. “Thanks for the drink but my date just got here early.”
“Is that why you picked this place tonight?” Hermione demanded.
Pansy simply smirked.
“You’re a traitor to feminism!” Ginny called as Pansy picked up her martini and hopped off her stool. “And you owe me a drink!”
Pansy sauntered over to the bar and leaned against it right as Neville lifted his stout. “Hey, Nev.”
He choked on the drink. Coughing and sputtering, he reached for a handful of cocktail napkins and tried to mop up the small mess. “Pansy!” he said. “Uhm, hi. How…how are you?” He was bright red and wouldn’t meet her gaze.
She sipped her martini, ignoring the way her heart pounded in her chest and praying her bravado didn’t fail her now. “It’s been a quieter day than I expected.”
His throat bobbed. “You, uhm…you sent me a picture today,” he said. “Was it…was it an accident?”
She glanced up at him over her drink. “Do you want it to have been an accident?”
His eyes widened. “I, uhm…”
“Because if you do want it to have been an accident, you have my sincerest apologies for the mistake and my promise you will never see anything like it again.”
The corner of his mouth rose in a small, disbelieving smile. “And if I want it to have been on purpose?”
She smirked up at him. “Then there’s a photo with the towel on the floor.”
For a moment, he looked too stunned to speak.
Pansy pulled out her phone while she waited for him to recover.
A chime from Neville’s pocket seemed to shock him out of his haze. “Was…was that you?”
She merely flashed him another smirk.
“Shit, Pansy,” he said. “At least let me take you out to dinner first.”
She beamed. “I’m free tonight.”
Finally, his face broke into his familiar giant grin. “Pansy, can I take you out to dinner?”
“Neville, I thought you’d never ask.”
He hesitated for a moment. “Is that a yes?”
A laugh escaped her. “Yes, Neville, I would love to go out to dinner with you.”
His grin was back, bigger than she’d ever seen it. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”
As she followed him out of the bar, she threw a glance back to her three girlfriends and blew them a kiss.
She’d catch them next week.