Heart Beat Song (A Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Fanfiction)

Chapter Fifteen: Dinner and A Movie

I changed out of my comfortable clothes, putting on a pair of black jeans, a white floral shirt, a grey suede waterfall jacket and a pair of black wedged sneakers. I combed my fingers through my hair and touched up my makeup before grabbing my purse and leaving my room.

"Whoa, are you going somewhere?" Zoey asked, smiling knowingly at me. I shook my head.

"I'm going to dinner and a movie with Leif." I told her. She nodded.

"So, after-not even a week ago, you were telling me I was crazy for ever thinking that you liked Leif, and now here you are going on a date with him?"

"Its not a date." I told her.

"You look nice and you're grabbing dinner and going to a movie alone with a guy. That sounds like a date to me."

"Tobin's gonna be there too." I pointed out. She raised her eyebrows.

"You're going to hang out with Tobin? Voluntarily?"

"I kind of like Tobin in a weird...annoyingly endearing kind of way." I said. She shook her head. 

"I don't get you in the slightest. Have fun."

"Thank you, I will." I said, slightly sarcastic as I made my way out of the apartment. As soon as I got outside, Mo was standing in the hall, arms crossed with a similar knowing look on his face. "Not a word, not a date, no comment."

"Mhm."

~~~

When I got to the steakhouse, I told the hostess Leif's last name and she led me back to their table. When we got closer I could hear them talking.

"I just don't understand why you needed to invite her." Tobin said.

"Because I like her," He said, "She's spent a long time hating me, justifiably so and I've missed her. I seem to recall a point in time when you liked hanging out with her too."

"That was before Joan started handing her everything just because she's a woman." my smile fell as the Hostess stopped by their table.

"Here you are." She said. Tobin, whose back was to me, stiffened and Leif looked up at me with wide eyes.

"She's right behind me, isn't she?" Leif rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah."

"And she heard everything I just said?" I walked around him, sitting down diagonal from him and across from Leif.

"Nice to see you too, Tobin. Glad we could get together." I said, clapping him on the shoulder. "What were you saying about Joan handing me everything because I'm a woman?"

"Well...you know..." I nodded.

"And um...just out of curiosity...what did our quarterly performance reports say this quarter and last?"

"That you had fifteen percent more bug diagnosis and repairs than most of the guys on the team."

"Including..." He sighed.

"Including me."

"There it is!" I exclaimed. "And that came directly from accounting meaning there is no way in heck that Joan could have influenced those numbers, so...glad we had this talk."

"Come on, man, seriously?" Tobin whined, gesturing at me. Leif sighed.

"Look...you guys are my friends. If I'm being honest, you two are kind of the only two people I really enjoy talking to at the office, when we're not arguing." I shrugged in agreement. "Can't you at least try to get along with each other?"

"Fine. I'll try," Tobin said, "But the minute she suggests mani-pedis and face masks, I'm out." I rolled my eyes.

"That's your limit on female stereotypes for the night. No more." Leif said.

"So you're forcing me to hang out with her and I can't even make sexist jokes?! So much for having a fun night out." I scoffed, shaking my head.

"You know what...this was a bad idea. Its probably best if I just go." I stood, walking back towards the door, but Leif was by my side in seconds, his fingers gently clamped around my elbow, much to my unease, making my breath hitch in my throat.

"No, Mary, come on. Please don't go."

"Dude, if she wants to Rage quit like a thirteen-year-old boy playing Dark Souls, I say you let her. We'll have more fun once she's gone."

"A thirteen-year-old boy?" I asked. "Are you sure you don't mean a twenty-six year old man, because knowing you, you probably aren't even capable of beating Dark Souls three, which is arguably the easiest game in the series." Leif's hand slipped from my arm and they both looked at me with similar looks of shock. "What?"

"You just made a video game reference..." Leif just pointed out.

"You play video games?" Tobin asked. I scoffed, shaking my head.

"I'm a coder and an aspiring tech designer, of course I like video games. What do you think introduced me to coding in the first place?" Tobin narrowed his eyes skeptically at me.

"You ever played Better World?" I slowly walked over, sitting down diagonally from him.

"Have I been living under a rock? Yeah, obviously. I was a teenage girl who didn't like any of my classmates."

"But you're...girly." Tobin pointed out. I nodded.

"Well, now you see what happens when you judge a person based on their gender and/or physical appearance. More often than not, you're wrong." Tobin leaned back in his chair, still eyeing me skeptically.

"I still don't like you very much." he said, narrowing his eyes. I mimicked his movements, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I still don't like you very much either." Leif sat down in his chair again, furrowing his eyebrows at us.

"So we're making progress...I think." He said. "You have a common interest so...surely you guys aren't completely incapable of just being friendly to each other, right?"

"Well, I was perfectly prepared to come here and be friendly until he started making comments about my job performance."

"I didn't mean that." He said, causing me to raise my eyebrows. "If I'm honest, I'm just incredibly intimidated by you."

"Are...you being serious or is there a sarcastic sexist punchline coming up?" I asked. He sighed.

"You're really good at your job," He said, "and you're Joan's favorite. That makes you kind of threatening." Leif gestured at him, having said exactly the same thing to me when he apologized. "Also you're crazy hot and out of my league and that's really annoying." I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Dude...come on." Leif said.

"Don't scold me like you haven't talked about her attractiveness level just as much as every other guy in the office." I raised my eyebrows, looking up at him.

"Is that so?" I asked.

"No, he's lying." Leif said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, sure, like she's gonna believe that." I chuckled. "I knew even back in the day that he was full of it, complaining about you all of the time."

"Dude!"  Leif winced, pinching the bridge of his nose. I nodded.

"So...it wasn't just the peer reviews?" I asked. 

"Like he said...intimidating." Leif said. "Also like he said, I didn't mean any of it. I promise." 

I offered him a half-hearted smile, looking down at my menu.