WHO: Patricia Stimpson & Angelina Johnson WHAT: Girl talk~ WHEN: December 12 WHERE: Patty's!
Patty was pleased Angelina could stop by for a visit. Since her recent brush with potential Dementor’s kiss, she felt less inclined to go out unless she had too. Preferably with a bunch of people. Sometimes she considered proposing a work from home option with the network. She dwelled on that thought a moment longer than was really necessary and snapped her focus back to Ang. “Pretty sure I’m gonna have to find a new roommate,” she sighed looking down over to Henry the cat playing around on the floor. “She really isn’t a cat person, but I saw him and couldn’t say no.” Patty shrugged, if she was honest she had never really liked her flat mate much at all anyway. “Too bad he couldn’t split the rent with me.”
“Henry’s cuter than your roommate,” Angelina said from the floor, waving a fluffy cat toy in front of Henry. She angled a grin at Patty, but her eyes didn’t leave Henry for long. Cat toys plus cat claws equaled cat scratches if you weren’t paying attention. “Maybe he could start earning his keep. He’d make a good cat model, yeah?” She jerked the toy away from Henry at the very last second with a laugh.
“Oh way cuter,” Patty agreed as she watched Henry jump for the toy. “Huh,” she thought about what Angelina said. “You know, I think you’re right. He could be a great cat model. I could make him wizta famous I’m sure. Get some sponsorships.” Patty sounded kind of enthusiastic by the idea, even if she knew it was probably wishful thinking. If only she could have a cat roommate who could pay her way. “Perhaps Roger could give Henry some modelling tips,” Patty said with a laugh as she joked.
“I don’t know if wee Henry here has the muscles for Roger’s brand of modelling,” Angelina said, echoing Patty’s laugh. She pretended to do a few biceps curls with the cat toy, Henry’s head bobbing with each rep as he followed its fluffy end. “Do a few of these, Hank, and you’ll be Roger in no time!”
“Oh yeah, definitely. We can buff him right up.” Patty laughed as she watched Henry’s head bobbing with each rep. “Oh, better watch yourself there Ang, you might end up with a kitty attack.” She noticed Henry’s bum wiggling like he was getting ready to pounce.
Out of self-preservation, Angelina nonchalantly lowered her arm and flicked the toy a few more times off to the side, jerking it away just as Henry pounced. When he looked up at her with wide, betrayed eyes, she couldn’t help but laugh again, reaching out to scratch behind his ears. “He’s really cute, though. You made the right choice!”
Patty couldn’t help but smile as Angelina played with Henry.”I agree, he is really cute and the right choice. Who cares if the roommate leaves.” She could probably find someone, or a cheaper place. “I mean who could say no to that face.” Patty gestured to Henry.
“So, how are things with you?” Patty asked feeling she should check in with her friend after all times were crazy.
Things were stressful in myriad of ways and not really something Angelina could talk to poor Patty about. “Percy’s coming to Christmas dinner at the Weasleys,” she said instead of talking about how badly she missed her aunt or how Quidditch felt like it was slipping through her fingers. “So Fred and I are going to fake break up with each other so no one else can argue.”
Patty raised an eyebrow, “Really he is coming to Christmas!” That seemed a surprise to her even from someone not closely connected with the family. “So, how would fake break up help? That things are bad enough or something?” Wasn’t the war good enough to do that? Like enjoy the time you could spend with your family. Patty didn’t say it though she didn’t really wanna bring up how bad things were or touch on the fact she knew her parents would be begging her to stay with them when she went back for Christmas.
“It’s a distraction,” Angelina said with a shrug. “And fake.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh, glancing over at Patty. “I’m hoping the dinner goes well, though. It’d be nice to see them all get along.”
Patty nodded her head, “I agree it would be nice.” Not that she had much interaction with the complete Weasley family like Angelina but a riff like that most likely wasn’t pleasant. “I bet it will be nice to have a significant other over Christmas, even if you are fake broken up.” Patty smiled, even if things weren’t good for the magical world as a whole at least Angelina found a positive and something to be happy about. “I think just nice having positives in time like these you know.”
“Being really broken up with Fred last Christmas was…” Angelina trailed off, pulling a face down at the floor. She’d stopped scratching behind Henry’s ears so he’d taken up rubbing his face against her hand. Breathing a laugh through her nose, she started petting him again and looked at Patty. “I think good friends is a positive, too. Plus I’m stealing Henry so that’ll be another positive.” She grinned at her friend.
“Whoa what?” Patty gasped and looked overly dramatic in her shock. “Who said it was okay to steal Henry?” She faintly chuckled because nobody asked when they stole. “No way, he is all mine for the holidays.” Patty nodded her head. “I got Henry and the quidditch calendar.” Patty joked though tried to be deadpan about it.
“If you want to leave my month up year round,” Angelina said, an understanding hand pressed to the middle of her chest, “I would understand. I’m sure the others would, too. I mean…” She gestured demonstratively at herself, the corners of her mouth twitching despite her attempts to look like she was being serious.
“If anyone is going up all year round it is Roger,” the words came out with a sort of wishful tone before Patty could catch them and keep them in. She looked at Angelina as she backpedalled, “Though you would obviously be a good choice year round.” Yup, smooth recovery she never said anything else.
“I would,” Angelina agreed, as if she hadn’t realized what Patty had said. But she had. To coax Henry into playing with her, she prodded him with the toy before wiggling it enticingly off to the side. And then, careful to keep the toy moving away from her flesh, she aimed another grin at Patty. “So…Roger, huh?”
Patty focused on Henry watching him play. She let Angelina’s question hang there for a moment not really sure how to answer her. “Huh yeah...no…well,” her words punctuated with noises of being unsure. “Yeah I guess,” she said a bit sheepish but also relieved that she had said it. So maybe now she wouldn’t have to deal with feeling any sort of crush like thing for one of her friends.
Angelina gave one of Patty’s knees a poke. “Oh, you guess.” She set aside the toy and hauled herself off the floor to sit at Patty’s side. “Roger’s cute! And really nice. And a good Quidditch player, too.” She paused and then laughed. “Though I know that’s more my criteria than yours.”
Patty gave a half smile, “Yeah he is cute and really nice to me.” She nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah I like him, but I’m pretty sure it is one-sided in the beyond friends department.” Patty shrugged her shoulders and looked at Angelina. “And you’re criteria isn’t bad criteria.”
Patty looked to her knee before looking back at Angelina. “Yeah, I guess so.” She gave a nervous laugh. “Though I don’t think I’m gonna go and ask him anything.”
But Angelina was already considering how she’d casually bring up Patty to Roger to get a sense of his feelings for her. “You know, you’re cute, too. And really nice.” She bumped her shoulder into Patty’s. “Roger would be lucky to have a girlfriend like you.”
“Thanks,” she smiled a bit bashfully. She nudged her shoulder against Angelina. “And Fred’s lucky he has a girlfriend like you, but I think he knows that.”
“He’d better!” Angelina’s smile went a little sentimental thinking about Fred and luck. She wiped her hand over her mouth. “Hey, what do you think about putting on a film? Do you have snacks? Also, bonus points if the lead actor looks like Roger so I can get all my teasing out of my system!”
“I have snacks and a film. Dunno about the Roger look alike, but I’ll see what I can do.”