Chapter 13 One Dance

Dinner one evening is going pretty well...

But after doing well for so long, Lincoln can't hold it anymore and pees himself. 

Chaos ensues pretty quickly. Ti accuses Gregory of taking too long in the bathroom, Gregory retorts that at least he doesn't spend twenty minutes moulding his hair into dumb pigtails! 

Aliens come to take Guy away from this madness. 

He stumbles into the house again at 3 AM, exhausted. He passes out on the couch immediately. 

He wakes up at 6 and waters his plants ASAP. Otherwise, they stay dry and withered the entire day. 

Tina and Tammi stand annoyingly close the entire time. Guy has to scoot around them, barely avoiding spilling water on them as he goes. 

"What are you looking at?" Tammi snaps at Ti. 

"What am I looking at? You tell me," Ti retorts. 

"That doesn't make sense!" 

"You don't make sense!" Wow, sick burn there. 

***

When Guy comes home that evening, he's happy to see that the snow has melted. He goes to the pond to work on his fishing skill. 

"Ahem," his boss clears her throat behind him. 

"Oh! Noel! What are you doing here?"

"Uh, you invited me here...?" 

Guy thinks back. This morning. Can I drop by sometime? I'm really curious about where you live. 

Sure whenever, he had replied. 

Tonight? 

Uh huh, sure! 

Not one to be rude, Guy invites Noel inside. She insists on a pillow-fight. 

After Guy shuffles out, Noel smiles to herself. She's young, single... no reason being a widow has to get her down! She thinks about her date tomorrow with a sigh. Getting into dating after her husband's death has been tough... but it's getting a bit less awkward. 

Well, looks like it's Tina's turn to be abducted. 

Noel wanders around the house in the meantime. She runs into Gregory, who wastes no time launching into a rant about the latest Freezer Bunny game. 

"A lady like yourself looks like someone who would appreciate such fine things," Gregory says with what he hopes is a seductive smile. 

"Well, give me your number. We could talk about it sometime," Noel says, matching his grin. She's gotta live a little, right? 

"Do you want to go out sometime? Flying V makes pretty good coffee," she decides to be direct. Her date tomorrow could go either way. 

Gregory blanches. "Oh...uh..." 

She frowns. "Oh I get it. You're not really interested." Some guys seem to like flirting with her, but never follow up. One of her greatest frustrations with dating! 

Long after Noel has left the room, Gregory mocks her with a hand-puppet. Pfffft, he's just...testing the waters! Yeah! 

Though she's exhausted, she's pulled into conversation by Jinenji over here. 

"I think Guy likes you," he whispers. 

Noel smiles widely and laughs. "Whaaaat? No way! I thought he liked Florence!" 

"Oh, you know about that?" 

Noel rolls her eyes. "Anyone with eyes would, hon. They think they're being subtle, but they get all wrapped up in each other even when other people are in the room!" 

Jinenji shakes his head. "No, I think...that's done." 

Some of her levity dissipates. "He's my subordinate. I shouldn't. Every workplace manual says that it's pretty much forbidden." 

Jinenji frowns. "Oh..." he's not sure what to say. 

So he just excuses himself to the bathroom. Naturally, he can't actually shower. 

Despite Noel's concern, it looks like Guy won't be her subdordinate for long. He's very close to level 9 of his career now- robot-fish crossbreeder. 

When he comes back from work that day, it's official. 

Guy has fulfilled his lifetime wish. 

He celebrates by getting them a proper living room set up. 

-----------------------

AN: Woo, challenge complete! There will be an epilogue chapter, I couldn't just leave things like this haha. 

The title comes from one of my favourite songs! It really captured the emotional energy I felt the closer the challenge got to complete- all bouncy and happy, but a bit nostalgic since I started this challenge years ago.