Wednesday morning came before Ginny knew it as she scrambled out of bed later than anyone ever should on a weekday. Wednesday was the one day a week that she was able to not set an alarm to wake up to. Sometimes this worked out fine, as waking up at 6 every other day has adjusted her body to wake up at that time. Other times, it didn't work out so well. Today being the case, she groaned as she looked at the time. 10:30am. Brilliant.
On her way to the bathroom to take a much needed long, hot shower, Ginny's eyes landed on the vase of lilies from Seamus, and as happened the day before, she couldn't stop smiling as they reminded her of her amazing date.
Seamus had been the perfect gentleman the entire night. "And to think I never gave a second thought about him throughout Hogwarts. I actually even dated his best friend…" Throughout the night Seamus was approached by several of the patrons who admired his work on the restaurant. But aside from the slight interruptions, they were able to talk freely about their Hogwarts days, construction and design, and their plans for the Kingston townhouse. All in all, Ginny couldn't have asked for a better first date.
##
With her thoughts on a strong pick-me-up coffee she walked out of her bathroom wrapped in a towel, and another perched on her head Ginny screamed when she saw Malfoy sitting on her couch, calmly reading one of her muggle fashion magazines.
"Malfoy! What the fuck? How did you get in here?" Flushed, Ginny hung on to the towel covering her a little tighter.
"I flooed, like you said. If you think I was going to kneel in front of a fireplace all day you've got another thing coming," Malfoy said calmly, as if he had not just entered her home unannounced.
"I'm helping you! I'm not going to be the one to floo you. And besides, you didn't have to turn up here like this. You could've flooed and waited to be invited before barging into somebody's apartment!"
"I did! I waited for 30 bloody minutes. You do take incredibly long showers."
Ginny took a deep breath to calm herself and said, "Fine. Make yourself useful and make a pot of coffee won't you, Malfoy, while I change into something a little more suitable for company," walking into her bedroom.
Malfoy was making himself at home in Ginny's kitchen, fixing them both a cup of coffee and scoured her fridge for something to eat when she exited the bedroom, fully dressed.
"It doesn't take you much to feel welcome in somebody's house does it Malfoy?"
"While I'm here I may as well see if you have anything to eat, right? I've been up since dawn and haven't had anything to eat since then. I'm starving," Draco replied, while still trying to find something to eat in her cupboards.
"Oh, here, I'll make us some pancakes, huh? They only take a second to make, but you'll have to help me. No way am I doing all the work while you just sit there, Malfoy," Ginny said as she grabbed a box of crackers out of Draco's hands, which he immediately took back and started eating.
"I wouldn't dream of it, Weasley," Draco said with a playful smirk as he handed her her cup of coffee. "All right then, what do I have to do?"
Ginny took a sip of her coffee, savoring the warmth of the cup in her hands, and nearly choked. "How do you drink this? It's as if you put the whole bag into the coffee maker!" It was possibly the strongest cup of coffee Ginny had ever tasted in her life. And that includes the days leading up to her NEWT exams. Which is saying something.
"If you're gonna make coffee, you better do it right," Draco replied simply, taking a sip out of his own cup. "This is how coffee is supposed to taste."
"Not my coffee, its not. This is going to burn a hole through your stomach and take a year off your life with each sip," Ginny said simply, throwing out what amounted to about half the cup and filling it back up with milk. Draco merely laughed, shook his head in disbelief, and proceeded to refill his cup.
##
Draco proved to be of valuable help in making their breakfast. Ginny had expected him to whine and make excuses for having to do menial tasks (as Ron would have done). Instead though, he was actually very eager to help. Though this may have had more to do with his hunger than actual desire to help Ginny.
And so they sat at Ginny's table, eagerly digging into their pancakes, when the subject of Draco's invitation to the Life anniversary party arose.
"And you say you're not manipulative?" Ginny asked, eyebrows raised
"I stand by what I said," Draco answered, and continued to explain. "You know when you do your Christmas shopping, there's always one person that's the most difficult to buy for. So you settle for some horrible gift that you pretty much know they won't like, and wrap it up in fancy paper, topped with an extravagant bow that's better than all the rest. You do this partly to soothe your own guilt, but also partly to distract the person from realizing just how shitty your gift was. Let's just say I'm a master gift wrapper," he finished with a smirk.
There was a slight pause while Ginny tried to figure out whether or not he was joking. She burst out laughing only to stop a few seconds later when she realized he was, indeed, very serious. "Oh my god, you're serious."
"I'm dead serious."
"But that's cheating! You're cheating people out of thousands and thousands of galleons in your business deals. You're flat out lying to them!" Ginny exclaimed, outraged.
"No. I never lie." Draco answered seriously. "I'm an optimist. I look on the bright side," he finished with another smirk.
At this Ginny couldn't help but laugh at his nonchalance and confidence.
"You'll see, I'm really a very good optimist," Draco said with a meaningful eyebrow raise.
Still laughing, Ginny replied, "Honestly, I'm really not sure I want to."
At which Draco's answer was merely another smirk.
Though a second later he turned serious and said, "I don't want you to get the wrong idea about Rudolfo though. I'm not optimizing anything with this business deal I'm pushing."
Ginny had to stifle a laugh at the word optimizing, after recognizing the seriousness of his words.
"Look, I'm not worried about Rudolfo. Like I said, the man has a bullshit detector like no other," Ginny said earnestly. Rudolfo knew what he was doing, so it's not as though Ginny had to look out for him. Plus, as odd as it was to say considering their history, Draco did genuinely seemed to be, well, genuine.
"Good, I'm glad. And now, that we're fully satiated by these pancakes – which, by the way, who knew I possessed such skills in the kitchen? – I'd appreciate your thoughts on how I'm going to approach Rudolfo and finally get the ball rolling on this deal."
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A/N: So it has literally been a year since I uploaded chapter 3. Which is outrageous and totally unacceptable, and I really have no plausible excuse. So if you still have this story on your alerts and have come back, thank you for not abandoning the story even though it may seem as though I had. If you're just reading it for the first time, well, be glad you didn't start reading it last year instead! This chapter is a little short, but I just wanted to get the ball rolling again and get into the groove of things. Once again, if you were one of the original readers, shall we say, do leave me a review to tell me that you haven't abandoned Out of the Blue!