"I think it will probably be okay," she says, patting his arm.

(Her hands are soft and nice.) "I hope so," he tells her. "I don't think so, but I hope so." His head is still on the table. 

...tentative headpats?

In theory his father could see the headpats and continue to draw Conclusions but he made a clear and obvious point about how he's going upstairs to shower (thus leaving them alone for an extended period of time, which is just, so much, dad), so there is no one around to see. He will accept the headpats. 

Headpat success! ✨

Well at least one of them is happy. 

He does start to feel a bit silly after a bit of this, though. His dad knows. He was always going to know. John knew this was going to happen as soon as he took her home with him (why did he end up doing that again?), and there's no point in despairing about it now. 

He eventually picks up his head, and sighs, and says, "back to the book?" 

"Yes please!"

The book is good, and seeing her enjoy herself is even better (and comes with its own set of complicated emotions, she has a pretty smile and the way she looks when she's concentrating) but they're still in the sections of that he's done before and so the math (and her face) is not enough to distract him from his thoughts. 

After the umpteenth time imagining how dinner with Rosy and Dad will go from start to finish, thinking through every bit of possible conversation and acute embarrassment, he puts the pencil down. "Do you actually want to stay here and have dinner? It's probably going to just be leftovers, I think probably the hamburger casserole from two nights ago, unless he decides your presence is unusual enough to get takeout for, which isn't entirely unlikely especially if you say you don't like casserole" what even are her food likes and dislikes. Bubblegum ice cream, but besides that? "but he'll ask you and me a bunch of questions probably and I don't know if you want that." He also doesn't know if he wants that. 

"I would love to stay and have dinner. Do you want me to stay for dinner, though? Because if you don't, then I should go home."

He thinks about dinner with Rosy there, revisiting the scenes that have been playing through his head for the last half hour. 

He thinks about dinner without Rosy here. 

"...I don't know what I want," he tells her. "On the one hand, you staying would probably give him the wrong impression this time, at least when it comes to my feelings on the matter?" Though those are quickly changing. "On the other hand.... I might want backup?"

"I can be backup! Or at least moral support?"

"I might want that. I might want that but I don't know if it's a good idea."

"...can I hug you," she asks.

"...maybe."

"Okay, yes."

She snugs her arm around his shoulders and squeezes gently.

Her arm feels nice.

"I'm getting overly worked up about this, aren't I?" He asks, half-knowing the answer. 

"Yes, but that's okay." Squeeze. "So! What's our plan of attack?"

Oh. Plan of attack. Fuck. They can't really tell the full truth, can they. (And even the partial truth, the note on the locker, is far too much.) (Also he should do something with that note, it has details in there that shouldn't be shared but he doesn't have the heart to destroy it.) What can he say that would be believed, that would explain how he suddenly found himself with a prospective girlfriend. "Lie and tell him that I got you pregnant and we're getting married?" he says glibly. "Sorry, no, it just feels easier to make up something than try and tell him a palatable" and unembarrasing "story with at least some truth in it. Like, how did we even meet?"

"I saw you helping someone with math and thought you were really cute but I was too shy to say anything for a few weeks until today I gathered up the courage to ask you out, and we decided on Math Date because we're both dorks, and because you're not sure what you think of me yet and don't want to commit to anything more exciting?"

That... actually makes a lot of sense. And gets most of the (relevant) picture across. Minus the stalking, and the magic, but besides that is... essentially true, and won't give any wrong impressions. "...that works," he tells her. "That works pretty well, actually."

"I'm pretty good at plans of attack."

"I'm starting to get that impression," he tells her. "Are there any other things you think we need to coordinate on before he starts asking more penetrating questions? I suppose lying about your last name wouldn't help much." He has no idea how his parents are going to respond to that. 

"It could get awkward later and also I don't want to."

"Yeah that's pretty fair. It would get awkward." Better to deal with whatever fallout now. "Anything else? Or should we get back to math?"

"I think, given that this is a social situation and not a military campaign, we are a reasonable level of prepared. Back to math."