Previously...
"You know what Barry ... never mind, we'll talk later. The coffee's getting cold and if you're late again, I swear my dad will kill you, so scurry off!" Iris reminds him but still continues to slap his arm.
"Alright! Alright! I'm leaving!" Barry replies as he turns around and leaves.
He waits until Iris goes behind the counter. He stands outside the window and watches her move around taking orders. She greets every one of them with her signature bright smiles and even the grumpiest of them couldn't help but return that smile back. He just stood there in awe of how beautiful she is. Her smile had a certain charm that even science couldn't explain.
For two minutes, he stood there admiring her. To him, it felt more like forever
"Like Crazy."
It is now 7:00pm on the dot. Iris wave's goodbye to her co-workers as she exits Jitters. She then decides to swing by the police station and talk to Barry as she had earlier promised. She enters and stops by Eddie's office just to find it empty. She starts walking towards the stairs when she hears her dad's voice, "If you're looking for Eddie, he's with Barry."
She turns around and flashes a smile at him. "Thanks dad! See you in time for dinner?" she asks.
"Its Mac & Cheese night, Iris, you know I never miss Mac & Cheese night." He reassures her and walks away.
Iris giggles and continues up the stairs. The station seemed deserted. She figured most of the officers had gone home for the night. She finally reaches the second floor and sees Barry and Eddie fully indulged in an ongoing police investigation. With Barry's back facing her, she just couldn't resist it.
She slowly creeps step by step; carefully trying to silence every creek the floor might make. Eddie catches her sneaking. She quickly smiles and places a finger on her lips signaling for Eddie to keep quiet. He gets the message and tries to keep cool.
Iris then quickly approaches Barry, gets on her tippy toes and covers his Eyes and says playfully, "Guess who thinks you're 'dreamy'!? She sounded like a schoolgirl would.
Eddie sends her a surprising look with a sly smile. Barry, even with his eyes covered appeared to be clueless about what Iris was rambling on about. "Iris, don't you think we're getting a little bit too old for stuff like this?"
Iris quickly frees Barry's eyes, gets between the two men and give's Barry her signature 100,000 watts smile.
"Um, Iris, Is there something you're not telling me?" Eddie interrupts with a nervous tone that revealed he was feeling out of the loop.
"EDEN!" she quickly yells with her hands going Tada!
"Not this again, Iris." Barry wearily tells Iris before he goes to sit down.
Iris moves closer to Eddie and gives him a quick kiss and hug.
"Eden is my totally hot and totally gorgeous friend who Barry met at Jitters this morning." Iris enlightens him and then turns back to Barry.
"During my break, I decided to call Eden and we talked about girly stuff you probably don't wanna hear about ..." She drifts off as she observes her audience slowly losing interest. "If I'm not mistaken, this was all your idea." She sternly tells Barry.
He just shrugs and says, "And the moral of this story is..."
"You know what Barry? Never mind. Anyways, your name happened to come up; courtesy of yours truly. Long story short, Eden told me she thought you were 'kinda dreamy'." She continues. "She said she found your awkwardness and the whole nerd thing you have going on kinda cute." Iris reveals to him.
"Annnnnnd that's my cue!" Eddie announces. "Iris, Barry, I'll see you both when you're done playing matchmaker." Eddie says kissing Iris' cheek and walking out.
Barry didn't know what he was signing up for when he had told Iris he supported her relationship with Eddie. He thought telling Iris the truth would somehow make it easier. He thought wrong. Seeing her be with him in that moment filled him with unexplainable jealousy. He knew she would never do it just to hurt him and that made him even madder. Why did she always have to be so ... so... perfect? He found himself constantly asking. If she was at fault, at least he'd have a logical reason to disapprove of their relationship and maybe hate her. God, he wanted to hate her so bad but he just couldn't.
He knew he should be happy for her but he wasn't and he didn't care if it was okay. He didn't care if it was the friendly thing to do. All he knew was he wanted to have her. He loved every single thing about her. Getting over her wasn't an easy task at all.
When he had told Cisco and Caitlin about their talk, Cisco had advised him to make a list of everything he didn't like about her; physically and personality wise. He took Cisco's advice and when he tried to, he ended up staring and giggling at the paper for two hours straight. Everything he came up with was justified with one and the same thought. "But it's so adorable when she does it." He just ended up fantasizing about a Utopia where he never got struck by lightning and didn't stay in a coma for nine months and Eddie Thawne never came along; a utopia where he could call Iris his.
When Cisco had called back to check on him, he told him what had happened and all Cisco said was, "Duuuuude, you've got a bad case of the feels and sadly, even Dr. Cupid can't help you with this one. Sorry buddy, you're on your own."
"Cisco, don't give up on me. I need your help now more than ever." Barry begged him on the phone.
"Wow, you're really in love with her aren't you?" Cisco suddenly realized.
"Like crazy." Barry replied. "Sometimes it just plainly hurts."
"I'll call you!" She says to Eddie as he disappears and then she turns to Barry.
"Iris, Eden seems really nice and all but I don't think we have that much in common." Barry tries to tell her in the hopes of making her drop the topic before he said something he couldn't take back. He wasn't over her yet and he so wasn't ready to start dating someone else.
"Barry, I know you. You always try to shut things down before they even start. Eden is amazing, I know you two will hit it off and I want you to be happy." She assures him.
"How am I supposed to love anyone else if I'm still in love with you?" Barry asks her sincerely. "I thought moving on would be easy but Iris, it's not. I still think of you every second of every day. When I'm at work, I'm always hoping the next person to walk in would be you. And worst of all, I have to work with him knowing he's the only thing standing between me and you." He says looking down. "I wish it was that easy, but it just isn't. And, trust me, I've tried!" He presses his palm to his forehead.
Iris is speechless for a few seconds. "It can't be easy for you and I know that."
"And how could you possibly know that, Iris? You could basically get any guy in school. You were the girl every guy dreamed of going to prom with; including me." He giggles nervously.
"Barry, I'm sorry okay. I really am. I'm trying the best I can to be here for you. I know that's not much but..." Iris starts but Barry interrupts when he sees her eyes getting glassy.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have put you on the spot like that. I know you have my best interest at heart and I'm sorry for being inconsiderate." Barry apologizes.
Iris smiles and starts blinking rapidly in the hopes of making her tears disappear.
"I thought you getting to know Eden would maybe help, you know? Maybe get your mind off things. I already feel guilty as hell for the way things are now."
"Don't." Barry reassures her.
"Just promise me you'll at least try with Eden?" She begs.
Barry could never deny her anything. He couldn't bear to see her hurting. Not when he could do something about it. "Fine, I will." He gives up.
"Great! It's a double date then." She reveals with excitement.
Barry raises an eyebrow.
"Too soon?" She inquires.
Barry nods.
"Okay, we'll just call it a group hang then." She says.
"Much better." Barry agrees.
"Eden doesn't really have any other friends since she's new in town so, be ... be Barry." She advises as she tilts her head to the side and smiles.
"Yeah, It's going to be hard, but I'll try my very best to be 'Barry', Iris." He replies sarcastically as he laughs.
"I'm serious!" Iris smacks his arm.
"Alright! I'll be 'Barry'." He reassures her; air quotes evident in his tone.
"Good! I'll leave you to whatever you're doing. Text me when you get off?" She asks.
"Will do." He answers.
Iris turns and walks away. She almost reaches the door before Barry calls out. "Iris!"
Typical Barry felt guilty and compelled to ask her about the flash since he couldn't stand her being mad at him; be it as the Flash or as Barry Allen.
"Yeah?" Iris turns around.
"Um... you haven't been talking about the Flash in a while. Did something happen?" He tries to ask with utter subtlety.
"Turns out he wasn't who I thought he was. Ugh how could I have been so stupid? I should've listened to you Bear." She says regretfully.
"Maybe he ..." Iris cuts him off.
"Don't! Don't try to defend him, Barry." She says as she walks out.
Was she really that mad at him? ... The Flash? Barry thought to himself. Telling her his secret just became 10 x harder to do. He feared it could be the only lie their friendship could not survive.
It's Friday Morning.
Iris texts Barry.
Iris: What are you wearing?!
Barry: ... umm what..?
Iris: Tonight! Please tell me you didn't forget.
Barry: Oh, it's Friday already?
Iris: Yes it's 'Friday already'. Send me pics of what you plan on wearing tonight.
Barry: Iris, I'm not sending you pictures of my clothes. Like I said, you need more girlfriends. Guy's just don't do stuff like that.
Iris: Since when?! I basically picked out every outfit you wore to school during election week. You couldn't have won class treasurer without me and you know it.
Barry: Iris. We're not in high school anymore.
Iris: Whatever, just be on time okay? We might be used to 'Tardy Barry' but Eden might take it the wrong way.
Barry: Got it! See you tonight.
Its finally 7pm. Eddie picks Iris up from the West house and they ride together to the movie theater. It's pretty dark out already and the weather is absolutely ideal for the night they had planned. Iris gets out of the car and notice's that Barry's late again. Thankfully, Eden was too. They both wait for five minutes in the movie theatre lobby but still no signs of Barry or Eden.
"I can already tell they're going to hit it off." Eddie says jokingly.
"I specifically told him not be late. Ugh. I'll call him." Iris tells Eddie.
"You do that. I'll go buy the tickets." Eddie says before kissing her on the forehead and leaving.
Iris takes out her phone and just as she's about to dial Barry's number, she feels a swift wind blow on her from behind.
"I told you I'd be on time, didn't I?" Barry whispers from behind her.
"Well, you're in luck because Eden is running late." She turns around and says sternly.
Barry becomes speechless. He takes the time to take in how beautiful she looked in the pale movie theatre lighting. God she was beautiful. How on earth was he supposed to move on with another girl now? He thought to himself.
She had on a black and white striped t-shirt, tucked into a black scallop hemmed mini skirt. She also wore the same black booties from last time, only this time, he could see she paired it with a pair of black lace socks that went a little above the boot cut. He noticed her legs appeared longer and sexier in that skirt. Barry could have given anything in that moment to reach out and touch them. She was wearing a pomegranate - like scent that made her smell yummy. Her hair was pinned up in a messy bun with strands rebelliously falling down her temples. She hung her cross body Rebecca Minkoff bag across her frame and she was wearing the wedding band he had given her for Christmas around her neck. He grinned to himself at the sight of it.
Just when Barry thought she couldn't get any sexier, she proves him wrong. She could literally put on rags and look perfect in his eyes. On multiple occasions when Caitlin would catch him staring, she would say, "Iris must be some sort of succubi. Look, you're basically drooling at the sight of her." He just could not keep himself from being mesmerized by her.
"Barry! Look at me." Iris snaps.
"Sorry, it's just, you look really freaking sexy ... nice." He catches himself before he made things even more awkward this early on in the night.
Barry is wearing a pair of black jeans, a white graphic baseball tee, an army green jacket, black oxford shoes and a black beanie.
Iris scans him from head to toe and reaches for his Beanie. "Beanies were made for bad hair days. Barry Allen does not have bad hair days." She says as she gets on her tippy toes and begins to run and ruffle her fingers through his hair. She was right. Barry's hair always seemed to look perfectly imperfect no matter what.
"There. Now you look dashing." She smiles at him.
She was making this (moving on) harder. Barry thought to himself.
"Sorry I'm late, traffic was horrible!" Eden walks up to them and hugs Iris.
"No need to apologize." Iris responds.
She then gives Barry a look which led to him complimenting Eden. "You look really pretty." He says with a sincere grin.
Eden was wearing a black midi skirt and a lime green criss-cross crop top. A little bit of her belly was exposed, thus giving the whole outfit a very daring vibe. Her long red hair was curled and she had on brown heeled sandals.
"Thanks Barry, you don't look so bad yourself." She responds with a cute smile.
Eddie walks up to them and says, "4 tickets to ..." He stops short at the sight of Eden.
"Eddie Thawne?!" Eden asks shockingly.
"Eden Crowley?!" Eddie asks shockingly as well.
FIN.
Longest Chapter Ever Am I Right?! Lol
I got tired of you all telling me it was plain rude to write short chapters and end on a cliffhanger so I did something about it and man am I glad I did.
What do you like? What do you hate? Please leave me some comments!
THEY MAKE ME UNEXPLAINABLY HAPPY!
I started writing this to get us through the hiatus and guys, its finally here. Tuesday is literally 3 days away! :D #wemadeit
Okay, I have nothing else to say other than, Jan 20th IS COMING! And... I have to pee...
Stay Splendid,
xxxxsplendidjaniexxxx