The calm

"Stella you're freaking me the fuck out! Please just spit it out already."

"Mallory, my mom wants both of us to have dinner with her tonight."

The room was quickly filled with nervous giggles as the stress and tension snapped. Mallory couldn't help herself as her mind had already wandered to worse thought she could imagine that almost all revolved around her and Stella having to part ways.

Stella on the other hand was shocked by the sudden giggles. Out of the many scenarios that ran through her head none of them came close to the current one but honestly most calculations Stella tried to make concerning Mallory turned out to be wrong.

"Sorry Stella I just honestly was expecting something worse." said Mallory as she tried to regain her composure.

"It is fine but I must warn you that this is a more serious matter than you may think."

"Well I mean I have met her before so how much worse can it be?"

"Mallory it could be a lot worse."

Mallory upon hearing Stella's words quickly sat up properly and focused into the conversation a bit more now that she realized just how serious Stella is currently.

"Please explain."

"Well Mallory you met my mother in public. She may seem so sweet and delightful in public when it comes to her image but behind closed door my mother is a whole different monstrosity. My father is genius of Draseric Industries but he would be nowhere if it weren't for my mother. She is a ruthless and cruel business woman that knows how to puppet a person's heart."

Mallory's focus was undivided but part of her couldn't help but wonder what the relationship was like between Stella and her mother. It was clear that they were close but Stella's eyes were filled with genuine fear.

Mallory had seen those eyes before when the pair had stumbled upon a small snake hidden in a small patch of grass. Stella nearly scaled Mallory like a tree in an attempt to get away from the snake. Stella had a deep rooted phobia of snakes and it seems this fear was shared with her mother.

The distressing part of the conversation was that despite her words Stella's tone never gave any indication of negative emotions to her mother. Stella was exceptionally proficient in hiding her feelings around this aspect of her life or maybe Mallory just wasn't as proficient at reading Stella than she thought.

"Alright Stella, so how do we approach this situation?"

"Well my mother doesn't give up. We definitely have to go to the dinner also if somehow we wiggled out of it well we probably would never have an ounce of privacy again. My mother knows a substantial amount of personal investigators and wandering eyes."

"That sounds not very fun. It already feels as though everyone is staring all the time. I am paranoid enough at school I don't want it to worsen."

"The sentiment is shared. The only way to get my mother to stop her meddling will be to prove to her that you have no ill intent."

"I assume that is gonna be a lot worse than expressing to her my feelings for you?"

"Very much so. Be as honest and charming as possible. However if it doesn't work out too well we could slowly try to whittle her down. Amazing first impressions will however go a long way."

"Alright so who do i make a good first impression on your mother?"

"Well~"

For the next hour Stella tried to drill into Mallory's head the various things she could do to help her in making the best possible first impression possible. By the end of the hour Mallory's brain hurt from all the information it was forced to take in. Mallory swore her brain quadrupled its size and was now just pushing against her skull in hopes of exploding outwards.

The rest of the day was filled with nervous silence as the pair tried their darndest to look normal, unsure which pair of eyes would be feeding information to Stella's mother. Without incident the pair concluded their day feeling twice as exhausted as they normally did but at the very least they didn't have any issues.

Mallory drove the pair to her apartment so they could get ready to make sure they were early to their dinner reservations. To aid in the effort Stella had contacted Annalise about the details of the outfits to acquire for the dinner.

Without missing a beat Annalise gathered the necessary item as per instructions and waited outside of Mallory apartment for arrival. Without any exchange of words the pair accepted the outfits and quickly scrambled inside to prepare.

"Alright Mallory, have you memorized those note cards for possible talking points?"

"As best as I could Stella though I am unsure how much is actually going to stick."

"Well hopefully enough did to keep her occupied and intrigued. Don't worry too much as I will do whatever it takes to help you."

"Thanks a lot!"

Mallory got another tailored suit in similar style to which she wore to the charity event but this suit was very traditional in its black and white color scheme. Stella on the other hand wore a simple but elegant black evening dress that complimented her feminine flair.

"What's the one rule we will not break at this dinner Mallory?"

"Never let me be alone with your mother."

"Exactly! We got this!"