When Aiden hung up the phone, Joanie found herself worrying just a bit. He said he wasn't going to suffer alone, which meant that he'd be bringing along at least one other person. Who the hell would Aiden know well enough to drag long to a beer and movie night? Would this person be as bad as he was? Would they be worse? Joanie knew that she was a pain in the ass, but at least she was entertaining. And Aiden was the same way. His complete and utter humorlessness combined with his spiky hatred for everything made him amusing rather than frustrating (most of the time). What if this person was a plain asshole?
There was no more time to fuss, because there was a knock on the door. Glancing over her shoulder at it - she had taken the initiative and set out three beers on the coffee table to start them off - she skipped over to the door, putting any misgivings aside. She had to pretend to be cheerful now.
The door opened wide, revealing Aiden and the last person she expected to see him with. "Oliver?" she asked in disbelief, eyes wide. Her smile was genuine, actually real. She had liked Oliver. His contributions to the Panic Room Horrorfest had been great, and she was still using his donated materials. "I can't believe you two know each other! You are way too nice to be friends with this asshole," she said to Oliver while jabbing a thumb towards Aiden, grin cheerful. "Come on in."
She stepped back to allow them passage into her apartment, which had been cleaned up - mostly - for the occasion. There was nothing terribly messy out, and she had gotten rid of any stray shards of metal from the Knife Testing Mishaps. "I put some beers out there," she said, gesturing to the coffee table. "And the DVDs are next to them. I don't care which one we watch first, you guys can pick."
As she shut the door behind them, she realized that she was forgetting something. But what? She struggled with it on the tip of her tongue as a red blur darted from the kitchen, zig-zagging across the living room before barreling into Aiden's legs in a ball of purring and fuzz. Oh, right. That. Joanie snickered as Zeph straightened up, pressing his paws against Aiden's shins as he stared up at the other man with vivid green eyes. "I hope neither of you are allergic to cats," she said offhandedly. "That's Zeph. He's a manwhore."