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( DRUNKEN SHOWERS )
SO, CHERRY MIGHT HAVE BEEN AN IDIOT. Tony was pretty much out of her league, 'a really great friend' (quoted from Tony when asked about her one of the times she hadn't accompanied him to an event), and Cherry just had to come to terms with that. Darren, who was one of the scientists that worked at Stark Industries and was really nice all the times Cherry had talked to him, had asked her out and she had said yes. Maybe because Darren was cute, with glowing green eyes and dirty blond hair, maybe because some of the other girls were staring at her with clenched jaws and pursed lips. That had been the same reaction they had when they had seen Tony talking to her at first.
It was her day off and she had gone for a nice lunch with Darren. However, both of their hearts weren't in it (Darren had awkwardly admitted that he had been going to ask Renee out but had chickened out last second), so they shook over the table, declared themselves friends, and had a pleasant lunch after that. Which had turned into a stroll down the street and into the park, Cherry's arm hooked with Darren's and the two of them laughing and talking.
She hadn't expected the minute she got home at around four to have Pepper calling her. Cherry pulled her phone out of her pocket, which she had put on silent for her date-turned-friend-outing and felt her eyebrows raise in surprise at the many missed calls she had from Tony, Pepper, and Happy. She was quick to answer Pepper, bringing the phone up to her ear, not even able to greet the woman as Pepper interrupted her, "Were you on a date?"
"Yes?" Cherry replied, walking further into her apartment. She draped her jacket on the back of her couch and took off the heels she had worn, "Well, it started out as a date, but Darren admitted to wanting to ask Renee out instead, so it turned into more of a friendly lunch deal. Why, what's up?"
"You stupid, stupid girl," Pepper said into the phone, sounding exasperated and stressed. "I'm happy that you made a new friend, I am, but someone took a picture of you and this Darren, because even with Tony's quote of you two being just friends, nobody believes you," there was another sigh, and something mumbled under Pepper's breath that sounded oddly like and they shouldn't, you're both idiots. "So, now, while everyone thinks you and Tony are either on the outs or in an open relationship, I have to deal with a pouting toddler who's insecure because you became friends with an Adonis!"
"Why would that bother Tony?" Cherry asked, rubbing a hand down Scottie's spine as he jumped up on the couch's arm. He pushed into her palm, making Cherry smile as the loud purring cut through the silence that was the rest of the apartment. "He's with models all the time and I've never freaked out visibly about."
"You're not Tony Stark," Pepper snapped, making Cherry blink as Pepper started to curse them both under her breath for being idiots. Something must have happened in the month that had passed after the whole Scottie debacle that made Cherry and Tony idiots. Whatever it was had caused the ever professional and calm Pepper Potts to say words that Cherry didn't know she knew under her breath. "Sorry. Listen, can you just call him, explain the situation."
