Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter fourteen:

Ginny rubbed her hands together. With a tilt of her head, she shrugged, hoping to encourage Malfoy to speak. When he didn't, her shoulders slumped and she heaved an irritated sigh. "Does she like me?"

Her lips parted when she registered the angered expression on his face. His brows snapped together in a scowl. The corner of his mouth curled into a snarl. He propped his hip against the side of his desk and crossed his arms. Despite his menacing glares, he spoke steadily, "I didn't think you were a lesbian."

She gasped. Her eyes widened with horror and she slapped a hand against her chest, "Don't say it that way!" She stiffened her shoulders and jutted her chin out, "And I'm not, I just well…"

The sound of his teeth grinding was faint before he interrupted her, "There is nothing wrong with the term 'lesbian.' If you are going to be one, you need to get used to it. When do you plan on telling your family?"

Ginny shook her head, holding her hands up and waving them in front of her like if she did the movement fast enough it would create a barrier. How she wanted that break between them, I only to save her from her embarrassment. "My family isn't going to find out." It was said with a hint of warning. She wasn't going to tell them, but if he did he'd have one less appendage to deal with.

The slight upward curving of his mouth stole her attention long enough to realize he'd been ignorant about the hidden warning. "You need to speak with Pansy about this."

Pansy? Why did she have to speak to Pansy again?

She shook her head, tearing her gaze from his smirking lips."W-why?"

"Pansy's my friend and while I care about the both of you, I don't want her to get hurt about something you've decided to experiment with. She's been in the game for awhile. If you aren't interested, say so."

"I am though," Ginny cried out. As her voice echoed she realized she'd spoken louder than she'd anticipated. Feeling the need to clarify, she continued. "Interested, I mean."

The curving on his distracting, peach colored lips vanished. In fact, it happened so quickly she wondered if he was experiencing the beginnings of an uncomfortable bowl movement.

"Are you okay?" she asked, wondering if she should feel his forehead.

"But-" he paused and gave a helpless shrug. "You like guys," he finished rather pathetically.

Ginny exaggerated her nod, "I do, but sometimes, I don't know. I mean, you can't really help who you're attracted to." Ginny scrunched her eyebrows together and frowned curiously at him as she remembered what he'd said early. "You care about me?"

He gave a dry, defeated laugh as he pushed against the edge of his desk and turned his back towards her, suavely avoiding the question. "Yeah, one sided attraction sucks," he mumbled the words softly.

"What?" She leaned closer towards him, before she managed to catch up with what he'd said. Disappointment could be just as painful as rejection. "You mean Pansy. So she doesn't like me?" Ginny questioned, worrying her lip.

He sighed, his back still turned to her. "If only. No, she's extremely attracted to you."

What escaped her mouth was nothing short of a miracle. Ginny slapped a hand against her lips, muffling the giggle, her face flushing a deeper red when she realized who she'd done it in front of. When was the last time that she'd truly giggled like that?

Merlin.

"Well, that's great then!" She bit her lip and gave a shrug. "Who would have ever thought I'd be talking to you of all people about this."

"Yeah, who'd of thought?" Draco spoke with a hint of sarcasm.

--

Time stopped.

Or it may as well have considering how slow the rest of the working week was turning out to be. The anticipation for the next date with Pansy was nauseating. A single day and she'd been anticipated to death. When a letter came in the middle of the week to let Ginny know that Pansy wanted the date to be at her flat, Ginny had almost close lined her mum to get to the owl. After she'd realized Pansys' address was in what Americans would reference as the 09er or for witch and wizards, the Fantastic Area of the Rich abbreviated FAR, she found herself worrying even more about the location. That didn't stop the thought of paying a visit to Malfoy, falsifying some work related information, so she could drop by her house though. `I was in the neighborhood' probably still wouldn't fly. Ginny was at war. She wanted to see Pansy, but she didn't want to look as needy as she felt. By the time Friday came around, Ginny was feeling particularly weak and snarky at work.

She was gazing intently at the clock, counting down the minutes when George called out to her.

"Why is this so much?"

Ginny blinked her haze away and turned towards George to see him looking over the invoice she'd placed on his desk a few hours earlier. She'd planned on yelling at him for purchasing a gift for Angelina, his current girlfriend, on the company's galleons. It wouldn't have been so bad if Angelina wasn't currently out of the country trying to recruit Quidditch players for her team.

"It used to be only death and taxes were inevitable. Now, of course, there's shipping and handling, too," Ginny spoke flatly.

She could feel his glare at her back and had to hold back from actually saying something mean. It wasn't his fault her week felt like two.

"Why is it even on my desk? You handle this, not me."

Ginny turned fully towards him raising an eyebrow and cocking her right shoulder up. "You can't send expensive gifts to your girlfriend who's out of the country on a work expense," she said and reached over, pointing rapidly in the direction of the paper, "You need to pay that back."

George shrugged, "Draco won't mind."

"That's not entirely the point." When he didn't respond, Ginny heaved an irritated sigh, but obligingly changed the subject. "When is Angelina coming back anyhow?"

"In a week and Draco wouldn't have cared." He pouted, popping his bottom lip out.

"Really? Are you twelve? And yes he would have, he's a tight ass!"

George snorted. "We could've just blamed it on you then."

"So I'd get in trouble? Fat chance."

"Are you kidding? You can do no wrong when it comes to him. What boss do you know wouldn't have fired your arse if you spoke to them they way you do to Draco?"

Ginny scrunched her lips to the side of her face and shook her head in denial, returning a rather vicious glare.

"So what's this I hear about my tight arse?"

Jolting in her rolling chair at the sound of his voice, she swiveled towards him. He'd startled her enough that she could ignore the gentle onset of lust curling in her groin. If she could just hack of his head and use his body, maybe she'd give in.

"Don't you have an elsewhere to be? This isn't your real job you know!" Ginny practically growled.

Malfoy smirked as he pulled up a chair on the side of Ginny's mahogany desk. "It may not be my real job, but I invest a lot into seeing that this business succeeds. I thought I would stop by and let you know the status of Fred's new concoction."

"Oh."

She didn't know what to say to that, but as she studied his face she felt the corner of her lips twitch. Ever since an incident with a said ministry official and an aphrodisiac wheeze, basically a joke, they've had to get approval. From the look on his face the ministry approved the new wheeze.

Ginny grinned. "It was approved?"

Her eyes slammed shut and her arm curled around her abdomen. His smile should be illegal or bottled up and used as sex potion. Man, what was she going to do? She needed to have sex. It was the human thing to do, but she could do it with Pansy. That would be too weird. It would be a cold day in hell before she asked Malfoy the pumping activity she so craved.

"We'll start advertising as soon as it's ready. I'll be speaking with Luna today about getting the front page. Have you decided on a name Fred?" Malfoy said.

"Gin's Escape?"

Making a tsking noise, her eyes slipped open. "You can't label it with my name. I don't want everyone to know that I'm a total screw up."

All three men scoffed and spoke simultaneously, "You're not a screw up."

"I don't want to call it that because I think you're a screw up Gin. It's an ingenious idea. What woman, or man for that matter, doesn't want a quick escape from a date that's gone to bloody hell?" Fred elaborated.

Ginny cleared her throat, before glancing down at her black tuxedo shirt. "Please, guys, a different name."

"Great Escape?" Draco supplied.

"Date Escape," Fred and George supplied together before grinning like two evil genius dorks.

This was going to be a long two hours.

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