It's a lucky girl who gets to kiss you [Zoé]

The flat looked a lot better than it had. There was a table and chairs now, and they’d been to a poster shop and stuck things up. The plant even looked less miserable. All in all, a success.

The room was filled with lots of people he didn’t know. Pierce had a great deal of friends abroad, it seemed. Not that that surprised him. He’d wanted to be friends with Pierce the first time he’d seen him walk in to the Leaky Cauldron. Dean looked around. Among them all he felt insignificant, one friend of many, instead of his only London friend.

Pierce had introduced him to many people whose names he would certainly butcher if not forget. But the girlfriend hadn’t arrived yet. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t anxious to meet her. He hated to be that person, didn’t want to compare himself to her, but he didn’t know if he could stop himself from doing it. He wanted to know who Pierce had loved, who their one night had nothing on.

The door opened. The girl who came through it was dark-haired and beautiful. Dean looked to Pierce, and by the expression on his face he knew it was her.

He wasn’t sure whether Pierce would introduce him to Zoé. He might not have, if it were him, too awkward. But in the short time he’d known Pierce he hadn’t known him to shy away from things. He prepared himself. He’d have to be cool, be polite, let nothing come through. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to think him petty, jealous. The last thing he wanted to be was jealous. He had to be cool.

Zoé had just come back from her trip to New Zealand a few days ago and while she had loved it there, she'd still been looking forward to getting back home. She had missed Pierce, missed him a lot, but asking him to accompany her would have been weird. Sure, she definitely wanted him to meet her parents one day but they'd been only dating for a few weeks and it would have been too early. They still hadn't figured everything out, were still getting to know each other, and to be honest she was happy with how things were at the moment. Sure, her mother knew there was someone, she'd noticed it very early on during their trip and while she'd asked a few curious questions, she hadn't forced her daughter to tell her more than she'd wanted to.

She and Pierce had met up just after her return and even though she'd been extremely curious to see how his flat looked like, he'd asked her to wait a few more days until it would finally be finished. Today was that day, the day of the housewarming party, and she had used the floo network to get to London. Unfortunately it hadn't worked exactly as she had planned and due to whatever reason, she'd arrived at the other side of town. It had taken her a while to get to the right address then but now that she was there, her heart began to beat faster. The last few times they'd always been alone and today would be the first time she'd get to see his friends. Sure, she might know some of them from school but that didn't mean she really knew them.

Zoé wasn't a shy girl around people she knew but in a group of strangers she always felt more anxious than she should. What if they wouldn't like her? The girl was always trying to be as friendly as possible but what if it wouldn't work and they would find her annoying? Trying to control her nerves, she took a deep breath and walked through the door that was standing slightly open. As soon as her eyes fell on Pierce, all her worries got banished into a tiny corner of her brain, and she walked towards him, smiling brightly. "Hey you," she said and gave him a kiss, standing on tiptoes to do so. Now that she was with him, the place didn't seem so scary anymore and she gave everyone he introduced her to a friendly smile.

They hadn't made the whole round yet when someone called for him and after assuring him that she would be fine, she let him go to talk to whoever needed his attention. Feeling lost all of a sudden, the girl scanned the room and her brown eyes fell on a tall guy she hadn't met yet. Judging by his appearance he was surely Dean, the friend Pierce had met on his first day in London, and she decided to walk up to him. He seemed as lost as she felt and maybe he would be grateful for some company. "Hey," she said softly, "you must be Dean, right? He's talked a lot about you." Her French accent was audible but by now she'd gotten used to talking in English. "I'm Zoé, nice to meet you." The girl offered her hand, a warm smile on her face.

They greeted each other with a kiss. As Dean looked on they floated about in the crowd, talking to people. And then he watched Pierce get distracted, leaving Zoé on her own. She didn’t seem to really know anyone either. Perhaps no one here knew each other, and Pierce just picked up friends at random, people from all over who caught his fancy. He looked down at his drink, feeling like he ought to go find someone else lost to make conversation with, but not quite up to it yet. Eventually he would be. He had to be. How hung up on this bloke could he even be, anyway?

He looked up and her eyes were on him, making her way toward him through the room.

Oh hell. What could he say to her? Sorry I’m mad for your boyfriend. Sorry I kissed him. Sorry I’ve been thinking of you as an obstacle and not a person. He tried to calm himself. Maybe it would be easy. Maybe she would be like Pierce, that nice to talk to. The Frenchman liked her a whole lot; she must be okay.

She was there now, introducing herself. Dean smiled at her words. “You’re correct,” he said. “He has, has he? Good things, I hope.” He shook her hand. She looked nice. He hoped he looked nice.

They shook hands and she looked up at him, scanning his features. He was a lot taller than her, handsome with his warm brown skin and eyes, and most of all he looked like a really nice guy. Compared with what she had heard about him, she could see why he and Pierce had become friends. "Only good things," she replied with a smile and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You're the first person who made him feel welcome here and you're a tattoo artist without having a single tattoo which is really interesting, to be honest." The brunette took a step to the side to stand next to him and leaned against the wall, looking at the apartment's interior design for the first time.

"You also helped him decorate, didn't you?" she asked, brown eyes focusing on his face again. "It looks good. He didn't want me to see the flat until it was finished which made it kind of difficult to pick the right sofa but I guess we still did a good job." Her gaze fell on the mentioned sofa and she smiled fondly as she unconsciously touched the lira that was openly hanging on a chain over the grey cashmere pullover Zara had given her for Christmas. "And let me guess, you don't know anyone here either, do you?"

It wasn't completely correct that she didn't know anyone, Alain was here as well, after all, but most of the guests were strangers to her. They had been polite and friendly when Pierce had introduced her but also kind of distant or so she'd thought. He'd probably met most of them during his travels which meant that they were all a lot more interesting compared to her and knowing that made her feel slightly insecure.

Dean gave a good-natured sigh as she told him what she knew about him. “Hey, I’ve got time to get tattoos,” he said. “As many as I damn well please, I’ve just got to make sure they’re really good.” He was a little insecure about his indecision, given his career choice, and kind of awkward about that being his selling point. But that wasn’t his only selling point, according to Zoé—to Pierce. “But really,” he said, “It’s been a pleasure getting to know him, I’m glad I could make him feel welcome.”

Evidently Pierce hadn’t told her the extent of their relationship. Or perhaps he had and she, quite prudently, had decided not to mention it. Dean preferred to imagine she didn’t know. He didn’t want her looking at him knowing, pitying him if she was nice, being jealous if she wasn’t.

"Oh, yeah,” he said. “Took some work. That plant was just about dead when we started.” He smiled at her. “Well, I guess it was a team effort, then,” he said. “Your furniture, my…moving it about.” Dean wanted to extend an olive branch to her, even if she didn’t know what it was for. If he was going to be Pierce’s friend, he wanted to be her friend too.

Sipping his drink, he looked around at the crowd. “Yeah, nobody,” he said. “I’m the sole Londoner.” He glanced to Zoé. “What’s your excuse? How’d you two meet?”