Evelyn walked into the bar early the next morning, ready for the day ahead. Her hair was in a high ponytail but messily, so a few loose strands of hair still hung over her face - and she was wearing a black skater dress. Her arm was still bandaged up but she walked on like she didn't even notice. What she wasn't expecting was to walk in and see Clark sitting at the bar and chatting to his mother. He looked great - he must've had a day off, since he was wearing a simple black top and jeans, somewhat casual. But the top really highlighted his muscles, tightening slightly around his biceps. Martha looked up and her face broke out into a knowing smile once Evelyn walked in. "Evelyn! Welcome back!" she beamed with her arms outstretched. Evelyn felt her cheeks tinge pink as Clark glanced behind him at the mention of her name and gave her a slightly awkward wave. Evelyn pulled herself together and smiled brightly in response, not wanting it to be uncomfortable for him.

"Morning Martha! Morning Clark," she hummed casually as she took off her jacket and hung it up. Clark found that he couldn't tear his eyes away from her, whereas Martha immediately noticed her bandaged arm and frowned.

"Sweetie, what happened?" she asked, gesturing toward it. Clark's eyes wandered to the injury and his eyebrows shot up.

"Oh, just burnt myself last night, really stupid of me," Evelyn waved them both off with a small smile. Clark squinted his eyes slightly but said nothing.

"Evelyn, you don't usually do stuff like that," Martha muttered. "I mean you can't work with a burnt wrist. That's gotta be painful-"

"Ma, she looks fine," Clark mumbled to his mother with a smirk. "She wouldn't be here if it still hurt her." Evelyn shot him a quick grateful smile before going to start up her coffee machines.

"Clark, you got a day off?" she started up conversation as casually as possible. Clark cleared his throat before answering.

"Uh, yeah, today and tomorrow. It's not like I'm missing out on much. The company is producing the same old stories anyway," he shrugged.

"Flying devil this that and the other," Evelyn guessed lightly. Clark nodded with a small smile. "Yeah it's the same stuff I see every time I turn on my TV. Getting real sick of it." Martha watched them converse with a small smirk on her face as she stirred the chocolate cake batter.

"Haha, you and me both," Clark agreed.

"Hey guys, you know tonight they're reopening that restaurant down the way? I can't remember what it's called but I know they're bringing it back," Martha swiftly remembered, gesturing to the bundle of leaflets and posters sitting on the countertop. Evelyn frowned and went to flick through them, trying to figure out what she was talking about.

"Oh the Whiteflag Cuisine? Yeah, I heard about that," Clark hummed.

"Never heard of it," Evelyn shook her head.

"The food's pretty amazing," Clark yawned. Then his eyes glinted slightly. "Did you...wanna come along to the opening tonight?" Evelyn was so caught off guard by his invitation that her cheeks flushed that bright red again and she dropped the leaflets she was holding. Her eyes shot towards Martha who held her hands up in what looked like mock surrender.

"Hey, I was meant to go too," she told her with a grin. Evelyn felt her breathing regulate again once she realised this wasn't a date.

"O-oh, I see," she quickly spoke.

"I mean if you wanted it to just be you-" Martha began.

"MARTHA," Evelyn hissed before turning back to the patiently waiting amused faced Clark. "Erm...yes, Clark, I would love to come tonight," she beamed, graciously accepting his invitation.

"Great," he grinned, nodding in confirmation.

"I'll meet you at the venue," Evelyn smiled, taking the leaflet from the bar surface so that she had the address. Clark nodded at her and stood up.

"You going already?" Martha frowned at her son.

"Yeah," Clark hummed. "Got places to be." Evelyn watched Martha nod casually, as if she remembered he had something to do.

"Alright. Bye son," she muttered, kissing him on the cheek.

"Bye. Bye Evelyn," he saluted her with a grin.

"Bye Clark," Evelyn chuckled, giving him a wave. Once he had left properly, Evelyn spun around to face Martha, who she knew was already laughing to herself.

"Whaaaaaat?"

"Martha, there's no way those leaflets were there coincidentally," Evelyn groaned, slumping onto the counter. "You definitely put them there, don't tell me otherwise."

"Oh as if I would ever do something as devious as that," Martha tutted playfully, before walking into the kitchen.

...

Evelyn knew that she was probably overdressed, but she didn't care. She was wearing a dark blue bodycon dress that clung onto her in all the right places with black heels, and she decided to straighten her dark chocolate hair so that it cascaded over her shoulder with a side fringe carefully hiding one eye. It's something she did for protection reasons. She mentally felt safer behind the barrier of small things like her hair or what she was wearing. It was all an act, but she didn't care. Anything to make her seem stronger than she felt was all that mattered.

"Bruce," she called out to her cat as she grabbed her purse. Her cat looked up from where he was lazily lounging on the sofa. "I'll be back soon okay? Pray for me to whatever god you have." Bruce let out a soft 'meow' and stared at her before going back to licking his paw as if he was never interrupted. Evelyn rolled her auburn eyes and left the apartment, locking it behind her. The evening sky was beautiful, but she regretted the fact that she would have to go into town. She couldn't have a panic attack tonight, she really couldn't. Not in front of people - not in front of Clark.

So Evelyn kept her head down, refusing to look at what used to be the pet shop and what used to be the school full of happy kids. She refused to look at what used to be the supermarket where she got her food every week, and what used to be the buildings for the bustling bankers. She point blank refused, keeping her eyes on the pavement underneath her - but somehow found herself face to face with her biggest demon. Outside her completely destroyed coffee shop. "Oh, you've got to be joking," she muttered, feeling her breath hitch in her throat. Then she glanced behind her and saw the brand new towering restaurant across the road, with a line of people outside of it and paparazzi on the other side of them. Evelyn dragged herself away from the cafe and found herself absentmindedly walking over what appeared to be the grand reopening. She looked up at it properly - and shuddered as she suddenly realised where exactly she was. But her thoughts were interrupted by a light tap on her right shoulder. Evelyn spun around and was taken aback to see Clark standing there - in a suit. A full on black suit. So she thankfully felt nowhere near as dressed up as she could've been.

"Good evening Evelyn," he smiled.

"Hi...Clark," Evelyn trailed off as she found herself gazing into his beautifully blue eyes.

"You look incredible," Clark told her, his tone verging on wistful. Evelyn ducked her head and gave a humble smile.

"Thank you. So do you...all of this for a grand opening! We clearly took the idea of overpriced steak very seriously," she giggled. Clark laughed and shook his head.

"Yeah well, Daily Planet actually wanted me to write an article on the place," he told her.

"That's why you're dressed like Bruce Wayne?" Evelyn frowned playfully.

"No," Clark continued to chuckle, which Evelyn admittedly loved the sound of. He wasn't even too sure what she was talking about but he loved the fact that they were clearly hitting it off. "I'm dressed like Bruce Wayne because we're going undercover. They've secured us one of the elite tables on the top floor." Evelyn raised her eyebrows and her plump lips went into an 'o' shape, impressed.

"Right- hang on, where's Martha?" she suddenly remembered.

"She couldn't make it apparently," Clark grimaced. It was evident that he was just as embarrassed by his mother's moves as Evelyn was, which calmed her down significantly.

"Of course she couldn't," she smiled to herself. "Should've seen that coming. But alright. What alias are we going under tonight then?" Clark's eyebrows shot up as he realised that Evelyn was actually up for this.

"Oh, Mr and Mrs...Westling. Apparently," he coughed.

"That's the best they could do?" Evelyn sighed, shaking her head at the sad excuse of a name.

"Yeah it's awful," Clark agreed with a grin. "Oh! And you need to wear this." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the most beautiful diamond ring that Evelyn had ever seen, with a gold band and slipped it onto her finger discreetly, so that no one would see.

"WOAH. Erm...why?"

"Helps with the realism apparently," Clark shrugged. "Don't ask."

"This is not a bad job at all," Evelyn breathed as she continued to admire the ring on her own finger.

"Yeah, it has it's perks." He held out his arm and Evelyn braced herself before taking it. She tried not to seem fazed by the muscles, but it was almost impossible. They were there, they were bulging through his suit. They were prominent. Clark led her up the steps to the security guard with his checklist behind the desk. "Evening. Reservation for two - Mr and Mrs Westling?" The security guard saw their names on the papers, glanced at them and the first thing he saw was the brightly shining diamond rock on Evelyn's ring finger and decided that was enough to let them in.

"Top floor, table 12," he nodded, lifting the rope and letting them through. Clark thanked him and led Evelyn through the revolving doors, onto the ground floor and then into the elevator. Once the metal doors shut on them, Evelyn let out the breath she was holding in.

"WHAT EVEN WAS THAT," she panted. "That was petrifying! How do you do that with the risk of getting caught?" Clark raised an eyebrow and pressed the floor number.

"I have a lot of practice," he shrugged.

"Clearly," Evelyn tutted, still admiring the ring. "Tell me this ring isn't real, Clark."

"It's not real."

"Really?"

"No. It's real," Clark grinned as they stopped at the right floor and the doors opened. "Come on. Table 12." He held out his arm and Evelyn took it again so that they could exit the elevator together. Table 12 was right by the huge glass windows, allowing them to see the entire city below them lit up in the night sky. Clark pulled out Evelyn's chair for her so that she could sit down before going to sit opposite her. A waiter approached them immediately with two bottles of wine in an icy coolers and left them with menus.

"Wow, these prices are no joke," she hummed to herself as her eyes scanned the French words in front of her.

"All paid for," he interrupted her thoughts. Evelyn put down the menu and sighed, knowing that this time two months ago she would've just been looking up at this place from her place in that dingy little cafe. She looked back at the menu and noticed they had a brand new tag line. 'We won't let lasers stop us serving you good quality food!' Evelyn let out an amused laugh and put the menu back down.

"It's good that businesses are getting themselves back up on their feet after this whole disaster," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else.

"Mmm," was Clark's vague response. He put down his own menu and Evelyn noticed that it looked like he was fighting against himself to say something.

"What?" she encouraged him with a smile.

"I...uh…," Clark cleared his throat, "…what's your opinion on Superman?" he found himself asking against his will. Evelyn raised her eyebrows and put both of her hands under the table so that she could trace patterns on her palms to prevent a full blown panic attack, and took a deep breath before answering.

A/N: Okay so Evelyn might just be one of my favourite fictional characters ever. Fact. I love her. I've written a lot for this story (I was on holiday with no signal so it gave me enough time to write) and her character development is going to be incredible. I will update again next week! – J X