âYouâre going to love him,â Lydia says from the bed.
Stiles sighs as he buttons up his shirt. âYou always say that.â
âAnd Iâm always right,â Lydia replies haughtily, pulling a compact mirror from her bag and checking her impeccably applied makeup. âI have exquisite taste. You have a problem committing.â
âI do not,â Stiles shoots back, fighting with his tie. âI just - the guys you set me up with are way out of my league.â
Lydia sighs and slips off the bed. âMaybe,â she says pointed, pushing his hands aside so she can take charge of his tie, âyou need to stop thinking of yourself as so inferior. You have a fulfilling job and youâre a wonderful person who deserves happiness, right?â Lydia gives him one of her rare warm smiles and Stiles smiles back reluctantly.
âIf you say so.â
Lydia lightly smacks him on the cheek. âNone of that self-deprecating crap. Youâre going to be funny and confident because thatâs who you are.â
Stiles smiles faintly and plants a kiss on Lydiaâs forehead, which had her ducking away and complaining about her foundation. âI knew you were my best friend for a reason.â
Lydia grins and say, âDonât let Scott hear you say that. Heâll cry again.â
âA man can have two best friends,â Stiles snorts, slipping on his suit jacket. He spreads his arms at Lydia. âHow do I look?â
-
An hour later finds Stiles standing in front of the restaurant, anxiously fiddling with his cuffs. Itâs a new place, only recently opened, and it looks expensive, but Lydia assured him his date would take care of it. He doesnât know anything about the guy except his name; Lydiaâs sent him on so many failed blind dates that heâs kind of stopped asking for information about the guys beforehand. Heâs already decided that this is the last time; if this date doesnât go well, heâs going to take a break from the dating game for a while, maybe forever.
A sleek black car pulls up to the curb and Stiles watches it idly. Thereâs no way the man who emerges from the back is his date; heâs about a twenty on a ten scale, all beautiful cheekbones and brooding eyebrows, and Stiles is like a six, maybe a seven in this expensive suit Lydia bought him. He fully expects some slim blonde supermodel to emerge from the car after him, but the man is alone. He looks vaguely familiar, and Stiles wonders if heâs seen him before, modeling on a billboard maybe. The man bends to say something to the driver, then shuts the door and saunters directly over to Stiles who realizes that heâs the only one in front of the restaurant.
âStiles?â the man queries with a faint smile, and his voice is like velvet on ice, not too deep, but itâs got a rumble to it that Stiles swears he can feel in his bones.
âDerek?â Stiles tries, and oh hell, was that his voice that just went up about two octaves? He makes a mental note to kiss Lydia and then maybe kill her because she has really outdone herself this time and there is no way this date is going to do anything but flop.
Derek smiles again and nods toward the restaurant. âShall we?â
âY-yeah,â Stiles stammers and he can feel his fucking face going bright red. Fuck his body and its stupid betrayal. This night is going to end in tears.
Inside, the hostess smiles at the two of them, but itâs to Derek she says, âWelcome back, sir. Just the two of you?â
Derek nods and Stiles thinks, okay, wow, heâs recognized here? Heâs a patron? Stiles isnât a patron anywhere except maybe the dollar-slice pizza place down the road from his apartment. This is around the moment when he starts feeling extremely inferior, not like he wasnât already feeling like shit because Derekâs the hottest dude heâs ever seen outside an underwear ad. Peopleâs heads are actually turning to stare at them as theyâre led across the restaurant.
âSo, you, um, come here often?â Stiles asks, after theyâve been seated at a table in a dimly lit corner. He picks at the edge of the menu and tries in vain to keep from jiggling his leg nervously.
âMy sister owns this place,â Derek replies evenly, which probably explains why heâs not looking at the menu. Heâs watching Stiles with an unreadable expression on his face, probably wondering what Lydia was thinking when she set them up. Stiles can feel his cheeks burning again.
âOh,â he says. âThatâs awesome. Um. How do you know Lydia?â
âHer firm represents a charity I work with,â Derek says, smiling that faint smile again. This isnât unexpected; Lydia is a principle at a public relations firm, which is how she meets all the lawyers and business owners sheâs forever setting Stiles up with. âWhat about you?â
âWe went to high school together,â Stiles replies. âIâm not sure why she keeps me around.â
âSheâs got a lot of life in her,â Derek agrees and they share a quiet momentâs reflection on the unstoppable force that is Lydia Martin.
Things get a little easier after a glass of wine, which dulls Stilesâ nerves a little. Unfortunately it also seems to dull his sense of grace and itâs like his clumsiness, which had disappeared after high school, comes back in full force. He drops at least three forks and spills his water and spends a lot of the time apologizing profusely. Everything that could go wrong seems to, and Stiles doesnât think the red in his cheeks will ever go away. Derek doesnât say much but watches Stiles with a sort of bemused, pitying look, like the way you might watch an overturned turtle struggle to right itself. Stiles wishes he was a turtle; then he could just pull his head inside his shell and hide from this whole mess.
When heâs not wrecking their table, their conversation doesnât go too badly, though. Derek doesnât seem like heâs a big talker, but heâs got the type of dry wit that Stiles always finds himself drawn to. He looks startled every time Stiles laughs at something heâs said, like he didnât realize it was possible to make people laugh, and Stiles finds it endearing. He seems happy to talk about the charity he works with - some kind of conservation area that rehabilitates wolves, which is cool. Stiles feels like thereâs something that Derekâs not telling him â he looks uneasy when Stiles starts asking a lot of questions about his job, but thatâs all right. Stiles is nervous too.
Derek asks him what he does and Stiles flushes again, because being an elementary school teacher is nowhere nearly as cool as working with a wolf charity. Derek seems to disagree; he says, âTeachers arenât paid nearly well enough,â which sends him and Stiles on lively discussion of the countryâs educational system. Stiles revises his earlier decision and comes to the conclusion that heâs going to marry Lydia for setting this up. He doesnât know if itâs possible to fall in love on a first date, but heâs really fucking close.
Things go south again when they finally leave the restaurant. Derek pays, firmly shaking his head when Stiles offers to split the bill (which is a secret relief because heâs got a feeling this meal cost about as much as a monthâs rent and heâs not sure he has that much in his bank account right now). Theyâre leaving the restaurant and Stiles has just turned to make sure he hasnât left Derek behind when he clips a waiter just hard enough to send the manâs armful of plates crashing to the ground. Everyone in the restaurant turns to stare and Stilesâ face goes bright red.
âI am so, so sorry,â he says, dropping to his knees to help. The waiter rebuffs him, waving him away firmly, and Derek pulls him to his feet, leading him out of the restaurant.
âOh my god,â Stiles groans, covering his face with his hands. âIâm just going to go home and get into bed and never get out again, okay? It was really nice meeting you butââ
âHey,â Derek interrupts, catching one of Stilesâ wrists and prying his hand away from his face. âIt happens. I donât care.â
âNo,â Stiles says, trying to free his hand from Derekâs grasp. âNo, I just - Iâm kind of inept, dude. You really donât wantââ
âLydia warned me about this,â Derek says, his grip unrelenting. âShe said youâd try to get out of this.â
âUm, did you not see me in there?â Stiles asks, the needle in his head swinging back to point at kill Lydia. âIâm kind of a mess.â
âAnd I kind of donât care,â Derek retorts, stepping closer. He slips his other hand around Stilesâ waist, smiling that faint smile.