City of Smoke // Brian 'Otis' Zvonecek ✔️

11 || FEELINGS

"Hey Rory." Herrmann called towards her, breaking her out of her trance in which she was psyching herself up to ask Otis to the gala. "Are we gonna meet that mystery guy of yours at the gala?"

"Mystery guy?" Rory's brow furrowed as she set her near empty bowl aside. "What mystery guy?"

"The tall one." Herrmann replied, as if that made it any easier for her to understand. Lots of men were tall.

"He's talking about the guy you were talking to last shift... Out on the apron." Cruz spoke up, opting to speak plainly unlike Herrmann. His words made Otis's stomach knot together at the thought of Rory and this mystery guy attending the gala together, which he knew he had no right to be annoyed about given that he was planning to take another woman, but still, he couldn't help it.

"Oh, you mean Shane?" Rory chuckled a little, as she shook her head. "No, no. That's not what you think... Shane is my cousin, he was staying with me for a few days, that's all."

"Your cousin?" Otis blurted out, choosing to ignore the way Cruz chuckled quietly to himself. And to think he'd gotten himself so worked up the other day over this guy when in reality he was nothing more than Rory's family.

God, that made him feel like such an idiot, and honestly it kind of made him feel worse about seeing Amy as the only reason he'd agreed to go out with her was because he thought Rory had moved on from him and found someone else. But she hadn't, and whether she still had feelings for him, he didn't fully know. All he knew was that this newfound knowledge was going to make it a lot harder for him to ask Amy to the gala instead of Rory.

"Yeah." Rory nodded, pushing herself off the counter before grabbing a mug and filling it with coffee. "He was here for a, uh, for a work thing but he's gone now. On his way back to LA." She added a little sadly, hating that she hadn't had much time to spend with Shane before he had to leave.

And she hadn't even gotten the chance to introduce him to the guys either, which in hindsight was probably for the best as he didn't seem like Otis's biggest fan before he left. Especially when he threatened to send whatever demon lived in the house that he and his friend were going to investigate next, Otis's way for agreeing to go out with Amy. That's when Rory knew Shane was serious in his feelings towards Otis, as Shane didn't even believe in demons, or ghosts or anything even remotely supernatural, much like Rory herself.

"Well if you ain't planning on taking him... Is there anyone you are planning on taking?" Herrmann asked curiously, his eyes following Rory's towards Otis, whom she glanced briefly, and hopefully, towards before her attention fell back onto him.

"I, uh, I'm not sure yet." She shrugged lightly, taking a sip of her coffee. "I don't have much luck with guys."

"Now that's hard to believe." Mouch said, unconvinced by Rory's statement. "Pretty girl like you, I'm sure you'd have no problem getting a date to this thing."

Glancing down at the ground, the tip of her ears reddening a little as she blushed, something the others couldn't see beneath her makeup, Rory chuckled softly to herself. She looked up a second or two later, flashing Mouch a thankful smile for his kind words. She didn't have it in her to tell them that she was hopeless when it came to guys, or that she was once engaged but she appreciated what'd he'd said nonetheless, and frankly it made her feel a little braver about asking Otis to the gala.

A little later in the day, Rory found Otis outside on the apparatus floor. She had spent the whole call free morning mentally preparing herself to ask him to the gala. She knew how to phrase it so that if he turned her down she could act casual about it and as though she'd only been asking him as a friend. She knew how to manage if he said yes and how to control herself if he asked her if she meant it as a date, which she did.