girl genius ¹ ≫ young tony stark

sixty five

July 31, 1999 - New York, NY
6:21 PM, EST

Shelby couldn't remember the last time she was nervous to go to dinner. It was dinner, after all, and Shelby liked eating. As far as meals went, dinner often had the best foods, too. So, why was she so nervous?

She was getting ready in her bathroom, hastily swiping mascara on her light lashes. She missed the days when Lisa and Donna would help her get ready. College was long over, however, and even though Shelby could probably pay someone to do her makeup, she just did it herself. She didn't really wear it much from day to day, only on special occasions. Like this dinner.

"Shelbster, you done in there?" Tony called from the other side of the bathroom door, knocking lightly. "Traffic is going to be awful, and we can't be late! Robbo will never let us live it down if we are."

Shelby groaned and looked at herself in the mirror, smoothing out the silky, emerald green dress she was wearing. She unlocked the door, letting Tony inside. "Do I look ridiculous?"

Tony scoffed. "Come on, Shelby. Of course you don't."

"I feel ridiculous," she admitted, marching out of the bathroom and into their bedroom, where she grabbed her purse. "Let's go, then."

"Hey, what's wrong?" Tony asked, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

"This whole thing has me feeling a bit on edge," Shelby admitted, taking a seat at the foot of their bed.

"Why?" Tony asked. "It's just dinner with Robbo."

"It's not just dinner with Robbo, Tony."

"Fine. It's dinner with Robbo and his super cool lawyer girlfriend that neither of us have met," Tony said, sitting beside her.

"Do you think she ... you know, knows?" Shelby asked.

A flicker of a smirk crossed Tony's face. "Knows what, Shelby?"

Shelby groaned and gave him a light shove. "You know what!"

Tony laughed. "What, that you guys used to date? Come on, Shelby, what does that matter?"

"I don't know, but if the roles were reversed, I'd be a little weirded out going out to dinner with your ex and their partner," Shelby said.

"You mean, like I'm about to do right now?" Tony said, erupting into laughter as Shelby's face turned bright red. "Oh come on, Shelby. If anyone should be freaked out right now, it should be me. I'm about to go out to dinner with my wife and her ex-boyfriend, who happens to be my best friend, and his new girlfriend."

"But you're not freaked out," Shelby said.

Tony shook his head. "Of course not. Rob's my best friend, and you're my wife, also my best friend. Besides, I'm sure Elizabeth knows, and I doubt she would have agreed to come if she was upset about it. Robbo's not the kind of guy to hide something like that."

Rob was in town for a conference, and he'd brought his girlfriend, Elizabeth, along for the trip. They'd been together for about a year, and neither Tony nor Shelby had met the girl yet. Rob hadn't seriously dated anyone since Shelby -- well, looking back, Shelby figured nothing about them had been truly serious, so maybe Rob had just never seriously dated anyone. More likely, he was just a serial dater.

Elizabeth was a high profile lawyer in Seattle, and Shelby thought that was super cool. She also couldn't help but notice the irony, as she knew that Rob's father had wanted him to become a lawyer himself. In fact, his younger sister, Celia, had graduated from Harvard and was now working at Mr. Everett's law firm.