Work Text:
“How do you know these people again?” Nat asks into the mirror as she applies black eyeliner.
“My dad is trying to do business with her dad and he wants us to try to smooth the deal over or something,” Lottie explains next to her at the bathroom counter as she fixes her hair.
“And why am I coming?”
“Because when we were trying to figure out where to go for dinner, she mentioned her girlfriend knew a place we should try and I told her how you’ve been dying to go there. That new fusion place you wont shut up about,” Lottie says, glancing at her in the mirror. “I don’t know, it just kind of escalated and turned into a double date.”
Nat chuckles lightly and sets the eyeliner down, satisfied with her work before focusing on the messy, blonde mop of her hair. “So we’re just your arm candy while you two do business? How 1980s of you.”
“Shut up,” Lottie says, lightly kicking the toe of her boot against Nat’s ankle. “They seem cool and you’re getting a free dinner out of it.”
“I get a free dinner every night,” Nat points out with a smile. She didn’t really need to be talked into it, she agreed to go when Lottie first suggested it, but it was nice to hear her reasoning as to why they were going to dinner with two strangers from California.
“You’re such a dick,” Lottie says with her voice full of affection.
“You love me.” She watches as Lottie rolls her eyes and turns back to finish fixing her hair, not denying Nat’s words.
They arrive at the restaurant and Nat is suddenly nervous to meet these strangers. Lottie seems perfectly at ease, but she’s pretty sure that’s just because this is work for her and Work Charlotte was way more composed and serious than Regular Lottie.
It was something she always admired about her but still trips her out when she sees it in action. She doesn’t get to see it often, mostly when Lottie has to take a late night business call or have their quarterly dinners with her father to update him on how her end of the business is going. It was kinda hot if she was honest with herself but she wouldn’t tell Lottie that.
Lottie gives their name to the hostess and they’re informed that the rest of their party is already here. Great. Nat was really hoping they would have gotten there early enough to have some time to prepare before dinner, but maybe they all had the same idea.
They’re taken to the back of the restaurant to a more secluded corner, probably a request from Lottie knowing how she doesn’t like an audience for these things.
There were two women sitting at the table already, one looking affectionately into the other's eyes as she spoke in a voice too quiet for them to hear as they approached.
The two women stand when they see Nat and Lottie are led to the table, and give their introductions once the hostess leaves them.
“Charlotte, right?” one asks with a wide smile and an outstretched hand to Lottie.
The first thing Nat notices is how long her nails are and the way they are painted to perfectly match the blue blouse she was wearing. She almost hates herself for how quickly she assumes that means she’s the bottom of the relationship and has to stop herself from allowing a knowing smirk to fill her face. Instead, she focuses on how she’s pretty sure Lottie owns the very same blouse. They probably shop at the same stores. Rich girls.
“Yes, you must be Fatin, hi,” Lottie greets her as they shake hands.
Fatin. She’s pretty, Nat thinks. Tan skin, perfect makeup, large hoop earrings dangling at the sides of her face. Her hair is almost the same color as Lottie’s and pulled back out of her face in a half updo.
“Nice to finally put a face to the Jadmani heiress,” Lottie says it like it’s a joke and Nat wonders if this was something they’ve talked about before. Something between the two daughters of some of the richest men in the country.
“And what a hot face it is,” Fatin says with a wink that makes Lottie crack a smile in her work facade. Fatin was full of herself but had the looks and confidence to back it up which Nat couldn’t argue with. “This is my girlfriend, Leah,” Fatin says, bringing attention to the girl standing behind her like an anxious shadow.
She was tall, probably the same height as Lottie.
Actually, now that she thinks about it, Fatin is only a couple inches shorter than both of them. God, why was she surrounded by giants? It was hot with Lottie, but intimidating when Nat was the shortest one in the room.
Leah watches them over Fatin’s shoulder. Her big, blue eyes scan the two of them silently with just a ghost of a polite smile on her lips. She seems less flashy compared to Fatin, her clothes more plain and casual but still put together. Her cardigan looked well loved and comfortable compared to Fatin’s tight, expensive blouse.
They didn’t seem like they should go together, but then again, Lottie and Nat didn’t either.
“This is Nat,” Lottie introduces her to the two women.
“Hey,” Nat says from her side, lifting her hand in a slight wave.
“Nat, oh my god, I love your hair,” Fatin says. “Our friend, Shelby had that cut for a couple months in college when she and her girl were on a break but it was totally not her vibe. But, god, it looks so hot on you.”
“Oh, uh, thanks,” Nat says, hand absentmindedly going up to tussle her bangs a little, feeling slightly self conscious with the attention on her.
“Don’t mind her,” Leah says, finally speaking up. “That’s just how she is.”
“Shut up.” Fatin turns to grab Leah’s face and presses a kiss to her cheek. Leah’s face scrunches up into something that almost looks like she’s in pain but she’s smiling through it as Fatin uses her thumb to wipe away her lipstick from her cheek. Nat glances at Lottie as if to see what she thinks of them but her face is unreadable with her polite, pursed smile. “Come on, let’s sit,” Fatin says, her attention back on Nat and Lottie before they take their seats.
Their waitress must have noticed them finally take their seats because she’s at their table before Nat can even relax into the chair. She gives them menus and asks what they want to drink.
“Do you two want to drink?” Fatin asks, turning to Lottie and Nat. “I say we get a bottle.”
Lottie looks at Nat but the idea of having alcohol as a buffer is too good to pass up that she doesn’t even need to say anything for her to know how she feels.
“That sounds great,” Lottie says.
“I like you two already,” Fatin smiles before turning her attention to the waitress. “How about a nice vintage red and let’s get tapas for the table.”
“Of course,” the waitress says before leaving them alone again.
“Okay,” Fatin turns back to Lottie and folds her hands over the table. “Why don’t we get this boring shit out of the way so we can enjoy our dinner in peace?”
A hand reaches for Nat’s under the table and she looks over at Lottie who seems to tense slightly. She was great at her job but Nat was always able to see the pressure bubbling just under the surface when they had to do things like this. Her father put so much pressure on her and this was going to be a huge deal if they could secure it.
“Absolutely,” Lottie says in an even voice.
Their voices start to fade in the background of Nat’s mind. She never did understand what Lottie and her family did and she wasn’t even going to try to understand what this deal was between hers and Fatin’s family. Instead, Nat looked up at Leah who was silently watching everything.
“So, um, Leah, what do you do?” Nat asks awkwardly. They were just here as the girlfriends after all, they might as well try to connect as well.
“Oh, uh, I’m a journalist. Freelance mostly, but I’ve had a few pieces published back in LA.” Leah looks down at her hands as she speaks, as if she is embarrassed of what she does, but Nat was impressed.
“No shit, really? What do you write about?”
Leah perks up a little and locks eyes with her. God her eyes are so blue. Not like light, creepy blue that will suck your soul out if you stare for too long but blue like the ocean, eyes that look like they could read your every thought.
“Well I’ve been published with some travel pieces but I prefer to write more think pieces. Stuff that really matters and makes people think, you know?”
“Gotta pay the bills somehow, right?” Nat jokes.
“Exactly. What about you?”
“I’m a photographer actually. I’ve also been published a few times for things I don’t actually care about but I want to work for bands or something. Like to be a photographer for the rolling stones would be fucking sick.”
“Wait really? What were you published in? Maybe I’ve seen your work before.”
Rather than tell her, Nat pulls out her phone and opens Safari to where she has her articles saved for all the times she wants to show off to friends. “So, it’s not what I prefer to shoot, but these are some that I did to go with a friend’s piece about New York bodegas.” She hands over the phone and lets Leah scroll through it.
“Wait, I think I’ve read this. You know Van Palmer?” Leah says, looking up from her phone.
“Uh yeah, she was my best friend growing up.”
“I love her voice, she always writes like you’re there talking to her instead of reading some boring article.” Leah hands her phone back to her. “Small world.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to tell her you said that. She’d probably be pretty happy to know.”
The waitress comes back with four wine glasses and uncorks the bottle for them before taking their orders for entrees.
“Thank god,” Fatin announces when they are alone again and begins to pour them each a glass of wine. Once they are all poured, Fatin holds her glass up. “Well Charlotte, I think we have a deal on our hands that both of our fathers will be happy about.”
“I think so too,” Lottie says as she raises her own glass. “And I think we’re past the formalities, you can call me Lottie. All my friends do.”
“That was fast,” Nat comments with a laugh as she takes a sip of her wine.
“Yeah, honestly we probably could have done this over text, but I’m an attention whore who loves an excuse to go out,” Fatin shrugs.
“It’s true,” Leah agrees.
Lottie laughs lightly, “well you got me there, I do love an excuse to go out too. We’ve wanted to come here for a while too.”
“Oh, your friend Van wrote about this place too,” Leah says “I read about it when we were scheduling our trip out here.”
“Yeah, she tried to get us in when she did that article but Lot had a meeting that day,” Nat explains.
“Lot, that’s cute,” Fatin says, propping her head on her hand. “So how did you two meet? Tinder? Meet cute? Or are you, like, high school sweethearts or something?”
Lottie and Nat look at each other and she can see the blush on Lottie’s cheeks. “We did go to high school together,” Lottie begins. “We actually played soccer together so we were friends and stuff but we didn’t get together until much later.”
“Yeah, we were cool but then Lottie went off to NYU for business and I was stuck back home in New Jersey for a while. Lost contact for a couple years until I said fuck it and finally moved away from our shit hole friend. Ran into Lottie at some random party and well,” Nat shrugged.
“You hooked up, ugh classic,” Fatin finished for them, her lack of a filter making Lottie’s cheeks turn redder.
“Yeah, something like that. And we’ve been together since,” Nat says with a laugh. “What about you guys?”
“Actually, kind of the same story,” Fatin says, looking at Leah with love in her eyes. “We went to high school together, some pretentious art school in the Bay. We never even spoke to each other until years later when I was helping my mom move out after divorcing my piece of shit dad. And I happened to reconnect with Leah.”
“She’s making it sound more romantic than it is, we matched on Tinder,” Leah cuts in.
“Okay yes, I was staying with my mom and I was bored and horny and wanted to see who was still around. But, she swiped on me first. I’m the reason we matched and I made the first move.” Fatin leans in to press a kiss to her girlfriend’s cheek. Leah just scrunches up her face at the gesture.
They were cute, from what Nat had seen of them, they were starting to make sense.
“Hey, whatever brings you guys together,” Lottie says with a smile.
“Amen to that,” Fatin agrees.
Their food is brought to them and Nat is actually enjoying herself. They have more in common than she would have expected. They talk about some of the same places they’ve traveled, concerts they’ve gone to. Fatin actually says that she might have a contact with a music magazine that she could give Nat’s information to, which Nat has to control herself from freaking out about.
It’s a nice evening all around. Lottie got her deal and maybe they made some new friends for if they’re ever visiting LA in the future.
After they’ve all eaten and Nat is decently tipsy from the wine Fatin kept pushing, Lottie and Fatin fight over who was going to pay. “It’s my father’s treat.” “Well it’s going on my dad’s card so it doesn’t matter.” Nat doesn’t even pay attention to who ends up winning that fight, but the meal is paid for and the four of them head out to the parking lot.
Without really thinking about the company she was with, Nat pulls out her pack of cigarettes and fishes out the joint she put in there earlier in the day.
“Nat,” Lottie hiss, smacking her arm lightly. “Don’t be rude.”
“Shit sorry, you guys want to share before you go?”
“You know that’s not what I mean,” Lottie rolls her eyes.
Fatin just laughs. “You really are my type of people. Fuck yeah.”
“See, they’re cool,” Nat says as she lights the joint. She takes a hit and lets the smoke blow out of her lips before holding it out to Fatin.”
Fatin takes the joint and takes a hit. “Don’t worry, I won't tell our dads.” She offers the joint to Lottie but she just shakes her head.
“No thanks, I’m good.”
Nat takes it from her instead. “Lottie doesn’t smoke much, messes with her head.”
“Nat,” Lottie scolded under her breath.
“Shit, sorry, it’s the wine, I have no filter when I drink that stuff.”
Lottie just laughs and wraps an arm around Nat’s waist before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“Hey it’s cool, Leah’s the same way,” Fatin says, mirroring their position by taking Leah’s waist. “Damn, I know we just met a few hours ago, but I feel like I’ve known you guys forever. We have so much in common.”
“Yeah, I’m glad we got to do this instead of just some boring business meeting or something,” Lottie says.
“If you guys are ever in LA, you’ll have to reach out and we'll do this again,” Leah says.
“Yeah, you got it,” Nat says with a nod.
She and Fatin finish the joint together before the two couples say their goodbyes and go their separate ways.
“Thank you for coming with me to this,” Lottie says as they get back into the car. She takes Nat’s hand from across the center console and presses her knuckles against her lips.
“Of course, it was actually really nice. They were cooler than I expected.”
“Yeah, way better than most of the people I have to have meetings with for my dad.” Lottie turns the car on and starts driving home.
“At least when the client flirts with you, it’s a hot girl your age and not some old, white dude,” Nat laughs.
“What are you jealous or something?”
“Nah not at all, though I’m surprised Fatin didn’t offer to have a foursome or something. She was flirting with both of us.”
Lottie bursts out laughing at that which makes Nat laugh. “Leah would have probably killed her if she did that.”
“I dunno, Leah seemed cool. I wouldn’t have been opposed,” Nat says nonchalantly.
Lottie looks at her from the corner of her eye. “Want me to go back? We can ask.”
That makes Nat burst out laughing this time. “Maybe next time, babe,” she says, taking Lottie’s right hand and bringing it to her lap.