It was not yet noon on Friday and both Owen and Gwen had raced out to lunch already. Ianto hit "save" on the report that he wasn't concentrating on anyway and got up to put on a couple cups of coffee. He took his lunch – a sandwich and apple – and sat down at the table that served as an employee lounge.

"Everything alright, Ianto?" Tosh asked, coming over to join him after taking her cold soba noodles from the mini-fridge. "I'd have thought you'd be excited for tonight."

"Ah. Yeah," Ianto smiled ruefully.

"Oh, no. What happened?" Tosh looked about as disappointed as Ianto felt.

Ianto sighed and got up to pour their coffees. Sitting back down and handing Tosh a mug, he said, "Well, we've been texting all week and I figured everything was fine. He even said last night how glad he was to be seeing me again today. Then on my way in I got the 'something's come up last minute and I'm going to be on it all night, really sorry' bit. No idea whether I should give him the benefit of the doubt or if he's having me on."

"You said yourself his job keeps him running. And I can attest to IT issues not giving a damn about dates. Not that I've had many of those, granted."

"That's two of us."

Tosh looked sadly at her colleague, understanding too well how crushed Ianto was at the moment. Then she had an idea.

"Well, hey, since your plans got cancelled, would you like to have a drink with me after work? As friends, I mean. I'm not trying to convert you. Just thought… as neither of us are doing anything…."

"Just thought you'd cheer me up, yeah?" Ianto smiled gratefully.

"I know how awful broken dates are. Let's go to a pub after work and talk about films or something. It'll take your mind off."

Ianto sighed again but thought about her offer. "It does sound better than sulking in my flat alone."

Tosh nodded encouragingly. "A lot better. First round's on me, ok?"

"No, absolutely not. I'll only agree to go if you promise not to argue about who pays. No beautiful lady should ever pay for her own drink, and that's that."

Tosh laughed. "Alright, Casanova. In that case, I'm buying the nibbles."

Ianto shrugged. "I guess that's acceptable."

"Settled. I'll bet we could even bunk off 10 minutes early. You know Owen and Gwen will be gone by 4:37, so why shouldn't we start our weekends early as well?"

"Oh, this is an emergency, isn't it? That's tantamount to sedition to you, Ms. Sato," Ianto grinned.

"Desperate times," Tosh nodded.

"Alright. Just let me know when you're ready to leave."

As Ianto got up to refill their coffee cups, there was a buzz from the deliveries doorbell. Tosh offered to get it and came back a minute later wearing a smile. "Maybe benefit of the doubt isn't a bad idea," she said, handing an arrangement of orange roses and hydrangeas to Ianto.

Ianto stared for a moment and knew he had to be blushing almost as brightly as the flowers. "Are these from… from him?" he stammered.

"Apparently so. There's a card," she said, plucking it from between the stems. "I didn't read it or anything."

Ianto set the vase down on the counter and opened the little envelope:

Ianto –

I'm so sorry. Please forgive me?

- Jack

Tosh stood by, waiting to hear the prognosis.

"He's really very sweet," Ianto said after a long moment. "I think I'll give him another chance."

Tosh clapped her hands together and gave Ianto a hug. "I'm so glad. Now, we'll go out this evening, enjoy ourselves thoroughly, and in the morning you can ring him to thank him for the flowers and reschedule your date. And if you want my purely academic advice, don't bring it up again until the date. Though, you probably should talk about it in some way, if you think this could get beyond just dating."

"I'm sure it's way too soon for considering that. I'd probably end up scaring him off for good. But I can't help thinking I'd really like it if the dating went on long enough to consider it," Ianto said, tucking the card back in the bunch and sitting back down with Tosh.

It had gone passed one before Gwen breezed back in, happy as a lark, from lunch. "I think the al fresco lunch date is probably the best thing anyone ever came up with," she offered, unsolicited. "Oh!" Gwen exclaimed, spotting flowers on the counter. "Rhys didn't say he was sending flowers as well – he has got to be the most romantic -"

Tosh quickly jumped up, hoping to stop Gwen before she got to the card. Gwen was quicker, though. "Oh. Ianto? Really?"

At that moment, Ianto was trying to work out how exactly he could go about installing himself in the permanently restricted archives. Unless his desk chair suddenly came to life and devoured him whole, it appeared to be his only viable option.

"Yes, in fact," Tosh said, picking up the vase and carrying it over to Ianto's desk. "Don't let them embarrass you," she whispered to him.

"You're dating, Ianto?" Gwen enquired insistently as she set her handbag – one she hadn't been carrying that morning – on her desk.

Ianto knew there was no getting around it now. "Um. Yeah. And he had to cancel our night out this evening. So… flowers."

"Ah. Well, that's sweet. Rhys only ever gives me flowers when he's really ballsed it up. It's just like that by the time you get into a real relationship, though," she said dismissively, pulling up her email, but looking directly at her mobile the entire time.

"Wait a tick," Owen chimed in, pulling himself away from the articles he was engrossed in. "Those two were the only ones here at lunch. How'd we know they didn't just go out and buy a buncha posies, gin up a sweet little card, and make it look like the tea-boy's got an actual sex life going?"

"Owen!" Tosh snapped, "Just because the only consistent partner in your sex life is pornography, that does not mean that other people have to resort to smoke-and-mirrors to make it look like someone actually cares about them! I'm sorry, Ianto. You just pay him no mind."

Yeah, Ianto thought, permanently restricted archives…. "It's alright, Tosh. And, actually, Owen, if I was going to stoop to that, I'd have most definitely had the card, maybe several cards, gushing about what a sex god I was. I'd prefer being in for a pound than a penny."

Owen just gave Ianto a snarky smirk, but said nothing further, which Ianto took to be an acknowledgment of the logic in that. Quitting time could not come soon enough!