Scorpius took a deep breath as he looked into the mirror. He was wearing a pair of black jeans with a white shirt under his maroon cardigan, a pair of sport shoes, with his hair flat atop his head, a fringe over his right eye. Or was it left, it was right, he confirmed recognizing his right hand, mirrors always did confused him with sides. He looked good, or at least that's what he thought as he stared at his reflection. Hopefully, Albus would think the same way. Of course he wouldn't, he was so attractive himself, why on earth would he find Scorpius attractive?
Scorpius shook his head, no, no self-deprecating thoughts before dates, that was the rule. Or that had been the rule, two years ago, the last time he'd been on a date. God, had it really been two years? No wonder his mum was worried about him.
But, did the rule even apply when he wasn't sure that it was a date?
Was it a date?
Or was it a meeting?
It was a meeting , Scorpius decided. Because if it wasn't, if he considered it as anything other than that, then he would have a tough time tonight. He wouldn't be able to talk, make good conversation and would probably embarrass himself more than ten times in the first half hour. Whenever this happened on his dates, which was almost always, there usually wouldn't be a second date, no one wanted to date a dork with low self esteem. But that wouldn't happen tonight, no, tonight was a meeting, and he would be in his element, pretending to be just as sophisticated as the media thought he was. He wasn't going to make a fool of himself tonight, not in front of Albus.
Scorpius shook himself, no, he couldn't give Albus that much importance, for him it was just a job, an odd one, but a job none the less, nothing more, nothing less.
Albus was pacing around his room, it was 6:30pm, he still had an hour and a half left till he saw Scorpius. He knew he should leave soon, the place was pretty far from James' house and he didn't want to be, considering the traffic. He went downstairs to see that the living room was empty, but heard voices from the kitchen. Inside the kitchen was a freshly showered James who was trying to sprinkle water from his wet hair onto an exasperated Kate by shaking his head who was trying to make grilled chicken.
"I knew I was right," Albus said, "you really are a dog".
"Albus" Kate exclaimed, "You look nice". She said, taking in his light black jeans and green shirt. He heard James groan.
"Can you not do that?" He asked Kate gesturing to her and Albus, who frowned.
"Why baby, are you jealous?"
"Yes, no complementing my brother, I'm the more attractive". James said, strangely reminding Albus of proud peacock.
"Whatever you say, ginger". Albus quipped up, not being able to help himself, while Kate's blue eyes shifted between the two brothers.
"Oy! The red hair is attractive".
"Yeah, if you're a girl".
"Oh shut it Potter".
"Besides, I'm the one who got grandmum's eyes. The only one."
"Yes, go ahead and boast about the only good feature you have".
"Uh huh, I have attractive eyes, don't I Kate?"
"If you two want a good, classic English breakfast tomorrow, you can stop this weird competition, or you can continue, and we can all have those diet cornflakes James hates."
"So...where you heading little brother? Hot date?" James asked looking scared and turned towards Albus.
"Something like that." Albus said, trying to evade the obvious question that was about to come up.
"Really, Albus? Why do you keep doing it?" Huh, he didn't think James was intelligent enough to catch on that early.
"I don't have to explain my life choices to you James".
"No, but you could let me help you. If you just talked to dad-"
"No, I'm not talking to him. I know exactly how important I am to him".
"No, you don't. Look, he made a mistake-"
"Yeah, me! You don't have to remind me of that, he did it enough!"
There was silence in the kitchen, as James took in his words. It was, however, Kate who broke the silence.
"Look Albus, I'm not going to defend Harry, nor do I understand what you're going through. But he's your father, and the only mistake he made was not believing you, which I'm sure he wants to rectify".
"It doesn't matter Kate, it's too late now". Albus turned on his heel, to leave. "I'll be back by eleven". He said as he walked to the door and out. He rode the elevator downstairs, wishing James hadn't brought up the topic of his strained relationship with his father, it was always something difficult to talk about and now, he was bound to be in a bad mood while meeting Scorpius. Which wasn't good. He wanted to be focused on what he was doing, he wanted to help Scorpius and not just because he was getting paid a lot, but-
Albus put a hold to his thoughts, he was an escort, and there was no way Scorpius was going to like him, he had a job and he needed to focus on that, the only thing having any kinds of feelings for Scorpius would lead to, was humiliation, in some way or another.
Scorpius was clenching his hands as he waited for Albus to show up. His left knee was bouncing even as he attempted to control its movement. He had been thinking of what this dinner would go like since the past two hours, last night really. He had decided that this wasn't going to be a date, that he wasn't going to get himself embarrassed in front of Scorpius, but it seemed like his mission, along with his determination to complete it, was now going to hell in a hand basket.
He saw the familiar dark brown hair before he saw the man, and Scorpius could swear that in the three or so days since they had met for the first time, Albus had become even more attractive. Albus gave him an easy smile when he spotted him and Scorpius willed his body to relax.
"Hi."
"Hey, Albus." Scorpius decided he liked the way Albus' name rolled off his tongue.
"How are you, Scorpius?" He asked taking the seat opposite him.
"I'm fine." Albus raised an eyebrow.
"Just a little nervous?" He provided.
"Is it that obvious?" Great, he had barely said anything and already a blush was spreading up his neck. He was sure he was going to humiliate himself, some way or the other.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty nervous myself. I don't think I've ever met a guy who wants to take me away to Scotland for a week." Scorpius now felt like a predator whisking Albus away from civilization for a week to get things done for himself. Oh God, he was turning into Christian Grey, a very gay, a very British Christian Grey. Minus the whole B.D.S.M thing, well...to a certain extent.
"Scorpius?"
"What? Oh- I'm so sorry, I was just thinking about something. Work related. Definitely not about Christian Grey."
"O...kay". Albus said skeptically, looking both confused and amused. Great, Embarrassment - 2, Scorpius - 0. he was pulled out of his unusually worse self deprecating thoughts by the arrival of their server.
"Can I get you anything to drink?" He asked after having introduced himself.
"I'll have a beer." Scorpius said.
"I think I'll have one as well".
"What are you planning to order?" Scorpius asked, after their server left.
"I'm not sure. So...what is it like? Running a multi million dollar company?"
"It's cooler in the movies."
"And the books, I believe." Albus said with a wide smile, looking as if he was ready to burst into laughter.
"In my defense, Christian Grey had a multi billion company."
"Of course."
"But seriously, it's a headache. You have to go to board meetings and constantly worry about share prices, not to mention being gay doesn't 'restore investor confidence.'" Albus shook his head.
"Trust me, that happens everywhere. There was a fire at my apartment earlier this week-"
"Were you okay?" Scorpius asked, before he could stop himself.
"Yeah, no, I was fine, I was in college when it happened. But my landlord tried to correlate the fire with me being gay." Scorpius tried and failed to hold back his laughter.
"How did he justify that one?"
"Yeah, apparently straight guys don't use hair dryers."
"Oh God. That - I've never heard anything like that before. That is literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"I know right". The two of them sat in silence till their waiter arrived with their beers and asked them if they were ready to order.
"Could you give us a minute? We haven't decided yet". Albus said catching the deer in headlights look on Scorpius' face.
"Of course", the waiter replied and moved away.
"So, what are you going to take Albus?"
"I think I'll take the Shrimp with Lobster sauce, have you decided?"
"I don't know, I think I'll stick with Kung Pao Chicken, maybe".
"Alright". They both ordered when their waiter got back.
"Scorpius, what exactly have you told your family about your 'boyfriend'?"
"Not a lot, just that I have one, I told my mum about two months ago, and have been evading her since, until she showed up at my office this week".
"Alright, so we need to come up with a story of how we met. So, how about we stick to the classic 'met in a bar' story?"
"That won't work for me". Scorpius said. "I don't really do...bars". Scorpius said, rubbing the back of his neck. Three for embarrassment, Scorpius still zero.
"Makes sense. You probably don't have the time. Besides, clubbing is overrated". Albus said giving the flustered and embarrassed looking Scorpius a kind look. In return, Scorpius gave the other man a grateful smile.
"So, where else?"
"Who told you about me?" Albus asked suddenly.
"My secretary, Anna Zabini".
"Oh, Anna! Well, that's perfect. She set us up on a blind date and then, we just clicked."
"Yes, it does sound like something Anna would do. The only problem is that whenever she does this, I don't go".
"So, how about she lied to you? Told you it was a business meeting, so that you'd show up. And when you did, told you it was a date?"
"Well, I think that would work. And I'm not the kind of guy who would stand you up".
"Nice to know". Albus said. "Alright, so when is your birthday?"
"It's on 9th September, when is yours?"
"29th January. And... ah, which school did you attend?"
"Hogwarts, it's a boarding school-"
"In Scotland. Yeah, I know, I went there too."
"You did?" Scorpius asked incredulously.
"Yup. Oh God! Now I know why your name is so familiar. It's on 5 of the trophies in the trophy room!"
"Oh, uh...those are my fathers, not mine".
"I'm sorry, what was the name...Draco Malfoy, right?"
"Yes, you're right. So you were a first year when I was in my last." They spent time till their server came with their food, and spoke about Hogwarts and all the teachers they shared.
"This is delicious". Scorpius said after taking the first bite.
"So is this, you should try it".
"Okay". Scorpius reached over and took a bite while pushing his plate over to Albus, who took the hint.
"So, it's settled then", Albus said, "we were at up on a blind date by Anna, you didn't wanna go, and I thought you would be arrogant, but when we met, we clicked and decided to go on another date".
"And the rest, is history". Scorpius completed.
Satisfied, that their story was formulated, they went on discussing more about each other. Monday couldn't come fast enough for either of them.