Chapter 3
Lois was in over her head. What had happened back there? One moment she’d agreed to go out on a date with her best friend and the next? The next she’d found herself agreeing to a Pearl Jam concert of all things. How had that happened?
She thought about the look on his face when he’d told her his ticket broker had the last two tickets to see Pearl Jam, and did she want to go? That’s how it had happened. She’d taken one look at his eager and somewhat apprehensive face and agreed. After all, he had been so nervous earlier and she had been so hesitant. She didn’t want him to think she didn’t want to go out with him. The truth was, she really did. Like, really did.
But Pearl Jam? Did she even like Pearl Jam? Had she ever listened to a single one of their songs? Could she even name one of their songs? She was a little embarrassed to admit that if there were a gun pointed to her head, she didn’t think she could think of a single one.
Clark obviously liked Pearl Jam. After all, he seemed pretty excited when he’d told her they were the last two tickets. She tried to imagine him listening to a band like that, but since she didn’t know any songs, the image did not come easily.
Clearly, there were things about Clark Kent she didn’t know. She’d always pegged him as having somewhat more classical tastes with maybe the odd country album thrown in there. After all, he was from Kansas. But this? This threw her for a bit of a loop.
What was she going to do? Clark was expecting her to go to this concert with him and she had literally no working knowledge of the band or any idea what to even wear to this kind of thing. She wanted to impress him.
She was surprised when she thought about it, just how much she wanted to impress him. She wanted him to take one look at her and get that look in his eyes—the one he reserved for her and thought she didn’t notice. Only this time she wanted to see it directed at her on their first date. She wanted something that would make his pulse race ever so slightly—something that said they were firmly and unequivocally out on a date.
After all, they had gone out as friends many times. This though...this was different. This was potentially the beginning of something new. Something...something she’d been thinking about for a very long time but was afraid to want.
But she knew now she wanted him. And she would have agreed to a monster truck rally if it meant spending time with him on a capital ‘D’ date.
But that didn’t answer the question of what she should wear. It was times like these when she wished she hadn’t unintentionally alienated all of her female friends in her single-minded pursuit of her career. She couldn’t ask Jimmy or Perry, as that would be beyond awkward, so...who?
Lucy! She would ask Lucy, of course!
She grabbed her phone and dialled Lucy’s number. The call went straight to her answering machine.
“Hello, you’ve reached Lucy Lane. I’m not home right now. I’m on vacation in Hawaii. If you wish to reach me, leave me a message here, and I will respond when I return. Aloha!”
Lois sighed and hung up. She sighed and tried to think of someone else—anyone else she could call. Who did she know that would be able to tell her what was appropriate for a Pearl Jam concert but also sexy enough to knock Clark Kent’s socks off?
She groaned as she thought of the one person who would have been able to tell her all of those things but no longer worked in the office.
Cat Grant had come into a considerable sum of money last year after her wealthy grandmother had died. It had happened just after the Planet closed, supposedly for good, and she'd made the decision to start her own lifestyle magazine, Cat’s World.
Even though the Planet was saved, Cat had felt this was something she needed to do, and though Lois had never been friends with her or even liked her, she respected Cat’s ambition. And surprisingly, the magazine was doing fairly well. Lois didn’t read it, of course, but she had noticed it appearing more and more on major newsstands and even in some supermarkets.
Could she do it? Could she ask Cat Grant of all people what to wear on this date? She knew that the question alone would prompt either a slew of questions or raucous and uproarious laughter with no guarantee that she would actually help her. Could Lois risk the humiliation for the sake of impressing Clark?
She glanced over at Clark and saw he was deep in conversation with Jimmy. Despite that, he must have caught her looking at him because he glanced her way and gave her the barest hint of a smile. It was enough to send her heart flip flopping all over the newsroom.
Right. She sighed. Cat Grant, it was.
She picked up her coat and scribbled a note for Perry which she left on her desk, saying she was ‘looking into something’. She left it deliberately vague for plausible deniability but was fairly certain she would be safe. After all, she had turned in her story on time and hadn’t yet been assigned anything new.
She raced out of the newsroom before Perry did see her, and got into her Jeep. She decided that it was better to show up at Cat’s new office rather than phone her. After all, it meant that Cat couldn’t just slam the phone down after laughing at her. She’d have to laugh her out of the office instead. Of course, Lois was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
First, she stopped at the record store two blocks down from the Planet and picked up Pearl Jam’s latest album Vitalogy on cassette tape. She popped it into the tape deck in her Jeep and managed to listen to the first two songs – loud and without any discernible melody to speak of – on the album before arriving at the office that Cat leased for the production of her magazine.
Cat’s receptionist, a small woman in her mid-forties, was in the middle of telling her that she couldn’t see Ms. Grant without an appointment when Cat poked her head out of her office door and looked at her in amazement.
“Lois?” she exclaimed, sounding shocked. “I heard your voice out here, but I didn’t believe it. It’s alright, Estelle, I know her. Come on into my office. I can’t wait to hear the reason you’ve come here of all places.”
Cat’s face suddenly went from joking to utterly serious and a little worried as they entered her office. She shut the door.
“Wait...nobody died, did they?” she asked Lois worriedly. “Is Perry okay?”
“Perry’s fine,” Lois said, trying hard to keep the irritation out of her voice. “Can’t a former colleague just pop by for a visit?”
“Sure,” Cat said shrewdly, “Janet from sales and I get drinks every Tuesday. You on the other hand...”
“Okay, okay, fair point,” Lois conceded. She was suddenly starting to think this was a bad idea.
“So, what do you want?” Cat asked with a grin. She clearly liked knowing that Lois had come for a favour of some kind. Lois sighed. It was now or never. She just had to rip the band aid off.
“Clark asked me on a date to a Pearl Jam concert and I have no idea what to wear and nobody to ask because the only friends I have are all male and my co-workers, and my sister is in Hawaii and I can’t believe I am asking you this, but will you please help me find an outfit to wear by tomorrow night?”
Cat stared at her in stunned silence for a moment before throwing her head back and laughing. Lois felt her shoulders drop and humiliation flood her cheeks. She stood up.
“I knew this was a bad idea. I’m sorry to have wasted your time. I’ll see myself out.”
She started for the door.
“Lois, wait. I’m sorry.” Cat had stopped laughing, but Lois could see the amusement still in her eyes. “Sit down. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh. Well, okay I did because it’s funny, but...sit.”
“Why?” Lois said suspiciously. “Are you going to help me?”
“I’ll help you,” Cat agreed and Lois sat back down. “I just...he asked you to go to see Pearl Jam?”
“That’s what you were laughing at?” Lois replied in surprise.
“Of course,” Cat said with a shrug. “I mean, Clark asking you out on a date someday was pretty much inevitable, despite my best efforts. Even I could tell he was crazy about you. I’m surprised it took him this long, though. I guess I owe Gary in accounts twenty bucks.”
“Wait...you placed a bet on Clark asking me out?” Lois said.
“Oh, not just me,” Cat told her. “Last I heard, the pool was up to fifteen people. Jimmy will be disappointed. I think he had two months from now on the chart. Anyway...Pearl Jam? Why? Does Clark even like Pearl Jam?”
“He must,” Lois replied, trying to focus on the task at hand. “He managed to get the last two tickets through his ticket broker.”
“Wow, yeah he must have a really good broker,” Cat mused. “That concert’s been sold out for months. Huh. Never pegged him as a fan of grunge, but we can work with it.”
“Why would you agree to help me so willingly?” Lois wondered, still slightly suspicious. “After all, we were never friends.”
“No, but I do love good gossip,” Cat said, her eyes narrowing in a way that told Lois this entire situation had her highly entertained. “And the two best reporters from the Daily Planet going on a date sounds like a column for Cat’s World if I ever heard it.”
“You want to use my date for a column in your magazine?”
“Lane and Kent are the hottest team in town,” Cat replied with a slight smile. “Take it or leave it. That’s my offer.”
“Fine,” she grumbled. “But just the basics for your column. Nothing too...personal. I’m only asking because the date is tomorrow night, and I have only ever heard two Pearl Jam songs and they were both on the way over here. I need help.”
“Come over to my apartment once you’re finished with work tomorrow,” Cat said. “I’ll have a few options for you to try on then.”
“Alright,” she agreed, feeling both reassured and apprehensive at the same time. “Just...nothing too...loud, please?”
“Don’t worry,” Cat said with a grin that made Lois worry quite a bit. “Clark will never know what hit him.”
