The right time came in early March. Honestly, it probably should have come well before then, but spending over a month on different continents when Finnick went home to visit his family hadn't helped matters. As much fun as it would be to blame it all on Finnick, she had to take some credit as well. The fact that Annie's new boss didn't really understand the concept of free time definitely contributed. Oh well, the blame game probably wasn't the best use of her time. Annie looked at herself in the mirror. Hair up, green dress, somewhat made up… ten out of ten would bang. Fine, maybe more like a nine, nine and a half. Pretty damn fine either way.

"You've been dating him for six months. I don't think you need to worry too much about this." Johanna hadn't even looked up from her laptop.

Well, she did have a point there, but that didn't mean Annie had to care. Also, love was no place for logic. "I would still like to look nice for him."

"How liberated of you. That one wouldn't leave a hundred years of feminists rolling in their graves." Annie tossed a pillow at Johanna, hitting her on the side of her head. "Hey!"

"Hey is for horses." She added a bobby pin to the (really rather impressive) updo. "And I can look nice for him and myself at the same time, thank you very much."

"Sassy."

"And sexy?" She spun, letting Johanna get the full, 360-degree view.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, I see were guys are coming from. You straight girls are fucking insane."

"Ugh, Jo, just tell me I'm pretty, and I'll get out of your hair."

"Gorgeous." She immediately returned to her computer. It was hard to pull an animal out of its natural habitat for long.

"You're too kind. Okay, bye!" She picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder. It didn't really match the rest of the outfit, but she could deal with that. There was approximately a zero percent chance Finnick – or Johanna, for that matter – would notice her inattention to detail.

"Have fun. Don't get pregnant."

Well, she had the right idea, if not the most charming sentiment. "Thank you for breaking my goals for tonight into their component elements."

"I knew there was a reason you kept me around."

She had all the nerves that went with a first date but none of the uncertainty. Even after three and a half years living in Lexington, she still lacked any concept of how long it would take her to walk places, meaning she had arrived twenty minutes early. Five or six minutes late would have been preferable. Then she wouldn't be getting the poor girl, her date must have stood her up looks, and her waitress wouldn't have seemed so uncomfortable when she came to refill Annie's drink before her date had even arrived. Wait, there definitely needed to be a 'maybe' in with the waitress somewhere. She seemed like she was always somewhat uncomfortable. "You're looking lovely this evening." Annie jumped at the voice.

"And you're always looking very handsome." It was particularly true tonight. He wore a button up shirt and khakis with nice loafers, practically white tie attire compared to what he usually wore. She would have to get him into a suit for the wedding. Wait, where had that come from? Yes, the corresponding names on their arms indicated they were soulmates, whatever that meant, but thinking about a wedding on the first date?

She dragged herself back to the real world, where Finnick had sat down across from her. Thank God she didn't have to ask him what he was studying or any of those other asinine small talk topics that were pretty much required of a first date. So, naturally, she went for the bad first date question. Having better options was always a way to ensure she'd take the worst one. "Have you been here before?"

"Nope, thought tonight'd be a chance to try something new."

Something new indeed. Or maybe something she'd tried before – who knew when it came to French names for food. Half of this stuff could be cheese and crackers for all she knew. Le cheese and le crackers, maybe, but functionally the same. "You know what any of this stuff is?"

He shook his head. "I took two years of French in school, but it's really not helping me right now."

"Can you at least tell me what's beef, what's chicken, and so on?"

"Probably?" The question in there wasn't comforting, but even an educated guess was better than she could muster.

With its glass chandelier and actual silver place settings, Le Deauville probably expected its customers to be on their best behavior. Annie stole over to Finnick's side of the table anyway, cozying up against his side and leaning her head on his shoulder. He smelled like cologne, and maybe something else as well. If her life was a novel, she would immediately be able to identify it as "All right, give me the rundown."

He kissed the top of her head. "Okay, well…" He pointed to an entry on the menu. "That's some kind of chicken and asparagus dish, while that's beef, mushrooms, and something else that I'm not sure of." He glanced up. "The waitress is coming back. You got any questions? She's probably a better person to ask than me." Annie didn't know enough about these dishes to even begin asking intelligent-sounding questions. She shifted in a little closer to combat the glare on the menu (as if that was somehow going to help), and he hissed.

Immediately, she froze. "I'm sorry! Are you all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just still a little sore from this morning."

There was a crash, and she spun towards the source. For a long, horrifying moment, Annie made eye contact with the wide-eyed, open-mouthed waitress, who had spilled some nice couple's soup all over the front of her starchy white clothes. "Oh, are you all right?" She grabbed a napkin – cloth, since this was one classy establishment- and stood up to help, but the waitress turned and practically ran away.

She felt Finnick's hand on her arm. "Come on, let's get out of here. I'll leave enough to cover your drinks and a nice tip."

"Wait, why? Oh…" Realization finally dawned. "She doesn't think –"

"She definitely thinks."

Annie didn't know that she'd ever laughed so hard on a first date. A few of the other patrons were watching them, but she leaned up to give him a kiss anyway. This was just, um, it was… it was easy, that was the word she was looking for. And who cared if they had to give up their reservation at Le Deauville for somewhere cheaper? If it had grilled cheese, burgers, or just a couple hours spent together on the menu, Annie knew she'd be absolutely fine with it.

A/N: And that concludes the story! Thank you so much for reading! I hope you've had as much fun reading this as I've had writing it. Extra thanks to anybody who's provided feedback - it's been super helpful, and I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into helping a writer improve.