Something Beautiful
Chapter Seven: Dinner Non-Date

Harmony nibbled her lip, studying the row of make-up before her. Blue or pink eye shadow? Pink would bring out her eyes, but she was wearing a pink top… Or maybe she should wear the white shirt, it would look professional, give her some distance, but it she looked way hot in it.

She got up, riffling through her closet for the white shirt, pale blue jeans and her pink, stiletto boots.

"Right," she said firmly, sliding into the jeans and reaching down to pull her boots on. She pulled on the shirt, seated herself back at her vanity table and applied her make-up in record time, smiling at her reflection the whole time. She brushed her hair back and gave herself a liberal spritz of perfume.

She stood up, backing away to the opposite end of the room so that her entire body fitted into the mirror.

"Wesley Wyndham-Pryce," she murmured through shiny pink lips. "Here I come. Get ready to meet your destiny…"

"…Yes, I know, but I really don't have any spare time to work in the lab with you today, Fred. I could drop by tomorrow."

"Really?" Fred grinned, pushing her hair back with relief. "It's just gonna take a while and it would be easier if you were there. So, the lab, at about nine tomorrow?"

"It's a date then," Wes nodded, giving her a smile as she left.

Harmony hesitated a few steps away. A date?

"You know she's going out with Knox, right?" she said bluntly.

"Good morning, Wesley. How are you this morning?" he said, turning slowly to look at her. "Very well, thank you so much for asking. Quite relaxed actually after a good night out. And yes, I know about Fred and Knox and I'm fine about it. How was your evening?" he blinked, as though suddenly noticing her. "You look different," he narrowed his eyes. "Who are you after now? Hopefully someone more suitable than Scott Harper."

"Suitable?" Harmony raised her eyebrows. "Didn't suitability cause us a whole heap of trouble only a couple of weeks ago?"

"Ah, yes," he nodded, moving to her side as they walked over to her desk. "Mlips are sealed on that score."

"Good," Harmony nodded. "And what do you mean I look different?"

"Less pink and frilly," he said, glancing at the ruffled edges of her shirt. "Well, less pink anyway."

She smirked, settling into her chair and stretching out one long, lean, skin-tight denim clad leg and nudged his shin with the pointy toe of her boot.

"Still pink," she said.

"You wouldn't be you if there were no pink," he grinned, his gaze slanting to the unicorns on her desk. "And no glitter and unicorns. I'll see you later."

She watched him go, tapping her fingers.

"Wesley!"

He peered back round the wall, eyebrows raised in question.

"Yes?"

"It's my birthday," she blurted out.

"It is?"

Actually, her birthday had been a couple of months back. The closest she had to a birthday coming up was the anniversary of her turning, but that wasn't for a few months, neatly coinciding with Graduation Day. But, as she had never really acknowledged it before and her real birthday had long gone, she figured this was as good a cover story as any.

"Well, not my actual birthday. It's the fifth anniversary of my turning and now you've removed the main disadvantage of being a vampire, I've got cause to celebrate, which gives me an excuse to dress up. But, I'll need someone to come along. So – you, me, dinner, tomorrow at eight."

"I'll ask Fred to come too, I know you two get along," Wes said. "What should I say if she wants to bring Knox?"

"Nothing!" Harmony yelped. "I mean, it's my treat, I'm paying. I can only afford you and me. I've told Fred, we're going to go out shopping this evening instead."

Wes nodded and disappeared. Harmony slumped in her seat.

"I've got nothing to wear!"

Fred hugged the pile of files to her chest with one arm, sucking the dregs of her strawberry milkshake through a straw.

"Fred!"

Fred jumped, choking on her milkshake as the shriek echoed down the corridor. She heard the thud of boots on the carpet and then felt the manicured grip dig into her arm.

"Thank God I found you!" Harmony cried, wheeling Fred round.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked, eyes suddenly widening in alarm. "Is it Wesley? Angel? What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing like that," Harmony replied, waving her hand. "I need your help."

"Help? Help with what?" Fred narrowed her eyes.

"Wes and I are going out to dinner tomorrow – oh and if he asks, you knew about this dinner, but you and I are going shopping instead because it's like a birthday, only of the day I was turned – so I need something to wear. You know him, I need your help to find something that'll blow his socks off. And I need you to help me this evening."

Fred blinked, slowly processing Harmony's garbled speech.

"I think I can do that," she said, nodding slowly. "But, is this, like, a date? I thought you didn't like him?"

"I'm a woman, Fred," Harmony sighed, rolling her eyes. "You know as well as I do when I say no, I mean yes."

"So you do like Wesley?"

"Haven't you been listening?"

"And this is your first date?"

"Uh-huh," Harmony clasped her hands and grinned. "But don't tell him."

"I hear you and Harmony are going shopping tonight," Wes said, leaning against the counter in the middle of lab.

"What?" Fred asked, shooting him a startled glance. "I mean, yes. It's for Harmony's birthday – or turning day or whatever. She wants to treat herself."

"It's good," Wes said, nodding firmly. "It's good you two are getting along so well," he paused, looking slightly uncomfortable and lowered his gaze as he continued. "I know… I know it must have been hard for you after Cordelia… Y'know, not having a girl friend around. I'm sorry I haven't been more supportive."

"It wasn't your fault," Fred replied quietly, focusing on the bubbling solution in front of her. "You and the guys were dealing," she turned to grin at him. "But I know what you mean. It's nice to have a girl friend. It kinda feels like things are settling down, the gang are getting back together, you know? We're dropping in on each other now for other than work purposes and you and the guys went out last night. Things are looking up."

"Yes," Wes mused. "I suppose you could say our group is reforming, albeit without – ah, I mean, with the additions of Harmony… and Knox, of course."

He raised an eyebrow at her and Fred found herself blushing and giggling girlishly.

"You know?"

"It's headline news around here," Wes smiled. "I suppose you really like him?"

"I really like him," Fred confirmed.

"Well, then it's all worked out well," he pushed away from the counter. "I'll be going then. Have a good time with Harmony."

"I will," Fred paused, watching Wes as he started to leave. "Wes?" he turned, waiting for her to speak. "You, uh, you know what you said about things working out well? You think you and Harmony might work out well? I mean, you know? You're close, you're going to dinner tomorrow, you both had that thing over each others prospective partners…"

"It's just dinner," Wes said. "I went to dinner with Cordy and had countless takeaways with you and we're just friends. Just like Harmony and I."

Fred nibbled her lip as she watched him leave.

"Uh-oh."

Having waved aside Fred's doubts, Harmony had thoroughly enjoyed herself over the next couple of days. She had managed to show Fred the true meaning of shopping 'til you dropped, although it had been Fred that dropped, rather than Harmony. The following day had been spent in nervous anticipation. It had always been Harmony's favourite part of a date, the waiting, the feeling that you were gonna look great, he was gonna be knocked sideways and it would go brilliantly.

Fred had caught her as Harmony left work to get ready. But Harmony ignored her final warning, "Don't get your hopes up. He really has no idea this is a date. And I don't know how he'd feel if he did know."

Harmony, you see, was confident. Confident that Wes didn't need to know it was a date because if he did, he'd only get all shy and embarrassed. She was confident that, once he saw her, he would be so bowled over that she needn't even bother flirting.

To a certain extent, Harmony had been right. Wes had blinked and did a remarkably obvious double-take when she entered the lobby at eight. And, he had goggled at her for over a minute before gathering his wits and reverting to his normal self.

Wherein lay the problem.

Wes's normal self – though vastly intelligent when it came to research, translating and identifying any number of squick-worthy demons – was about as thick as two short planks when it came to signals.

Harmony had done everything.

She had flirted, but he had laughed and joked in return.

She had fluttered her eyelashes and twirled her hair, he hadn't even noticed.

She had ran her foot up his calf, he had thought she wanted more space and tucked his feet under the chair.

Harmony had quickly come to the conclusion that Wes was quite possibly the densest male specimen on the planet. She pouted at the thought as she stared out the window of the jeep as he drove her home.

That is, until she hit upon the reason. It was so obvious that she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before. Wes was playing hard to get. He wasn't the type to come on all hot and heavy. She smiled, shifting in her seat as she anticipated her good night kiss.

They pulled up outside her apartment block.

"I'm sorry I didn't get you anything," he apologised yet again.

"It's ok," she said. "You bought the meal and gave me a great night out."

He didn't reply, instead, he got out the car, gesturing her to stay put and came round the jeep to open the door for her.

She giggled as he helped her out and walked her to the door of the apartment block.

"I enjoyed myself," he said. "It makes a change to eat real food rather than something fresh from the microwave."

"Me too," Harmony nodded. "It actually makes a change to eat food at all."

He gave a gentle laugh.

"Goodnight, Harmony. I'll see you tomorrow. Happy birthday."

Her eyes began to flutter close, her mouth parted slightly and she leaned forward. He squeezed her arm, grinned and turned away, climbing back into his jeep with a wave.

In other words, he didn't kiss her.

Fred managed to make her excuses about halfway through the morning and practically ran from her lab to Harmony's desk. Panting, she grabbed the desk to support herself and leaned over it.

"Well?" she demanded.

"It was fun," Harmony said with false brightness. "The dress had the wow factor. The food was great. He wouldn't let me pay. We laughed a lot. He drove me home."

"And?" Fred prompted, though her gut told her that Harmony wasn't about to deliver good news.

"And nothing," Harmony shrugged. "He drove me home. There was no kissage. There wasn't even huggage," she frowned, continuing slightly indignantly. "There was only arm-squeezege. And what's that anyway? English for something?"

Fred didn't answer immediately. She had known this feeling countless times over in high school, but she still hadn't a clue what to say for the best. Her instinct had always been that Wes enjoyed Harmony's company as a cheerful relief from the daily grind. She doubted whether he had ever or would ever see Harmony as girlfriend material. She had tried to warn Harmony, make the let down slightly easier. Perhaps she had been too subtle.

"I'm sorry," Fred said finally. "But at least now you know. Now you can concentrate on your feelings not affecting your friendship. And that's the most important thing, right?"

"Are you kidding?" Harmony replied. "I've had a rule since high school – no man gets away on the first try. From long experience I know that three attempts are the limit before you start to look desperate. I've still got two tries left."

"Are you going to try dinner again?" Fred asked hesitantly.

"Dinner? Nope. I'm thinking heavy flirting, perhaps with a male interest thrown in for jealousy."

"Oh," Fred didn't know how to answer that.

"Trust me, Fred," Harmony said gently, patting Fred's hand. "Wesley won't be able to resist me. You'll see…"

Fred wasn't so sure, so she gave only a tremulous smile and the smallest of nods before she walked away, shaking her head. Harmony returned, buoyed by a new sense of certainty, happily to her computer screen.

Angel, frozen unseen halfway between his office and Harmony's desk, gaped.