@willthatbeall (from here x)
They were doing well. It was all new, and they were still learning. Still they did well. It was as if they had simply taken their friendship and turned it up a few notches. He made her laugh. He infuriated her, but he also made her heart skip a beat with every touch and kiss.
Trust, however, it didn’t come easy. Pepper wanted to believe he would never stray. Unfortunately, years of experience told her that Tony had a high libido and very little attention span.
He had changed. She knew it, but that voice in the back or her head nagged at her. That reminder that it wasn’t so long ago that he was bouncing from woman to woman.
She shouldn’t have asked him, but she couldn’t help it. He couldn’t mask his dissapiontment, and she couldn’t deny feeling like a total ass, “I know you wouldn’t. I do.” She insisted, holding on to his arm to keep him from walking away, “I just… need a reminder, okay? I’ll try not to question you so often, but I need the reminder. Can you understand that? Especially since you did sleep with Jill once?” The last part was mostly a joke? And a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth to prove it.
He knew she was teasing, damn well knew it and it still felt like a blow to the gut. Probably because Tony was sure he had in fact slept with Jill from PR, remembering a stray thought that he was glad she didn’t work in HR. But he was pretty sure most of the women he had slept with that were Stark Industries employees were long gone. He hoped. He also still really wanted that drink, more than he had that night when he left Pepper on the roof top.
“Yeah- yeah, I understand. No, I get it I do.” One hand fidgiting at the back of his neck, the other went in his pocket and began wringing the hell out of some benefactors business card. Squeezing and squeezing until he couldn’t feel the cardstock anymore, just the small indents of his fingers in his palms. Tony didn’t jerk away, might have wanted to, but decided he was going to try to be somewhat of an adult about this. For once.
He was quiet for a moment, the man with a thousand words rendered speechless and his lips stuck in a purse. Tony swallowed, adams apple bobbing in his throat and his eyes made a dart for the bar. Just one. Just one and he was sure they could go back to their usual selves for the night. “I’m just gonna--” a quick point and nod to the bartender, thankfully male, and he started away again.
“I need a minute here, Pepper, okay? Or ten, depending on how well they stocked the fucking bar.”