Blacktail Deer Plateau rattlin' bones

"You look lovely."

He might as well have said nothing else because Junior promptly forgot everything that came before that and simply didn't hear anything that came after. Although she badly wanted to disagree with him and point out all her flaws, she simply basked in these three words for a few beats. Butterflies danced in her stomach and she acknowledged in a slightly wry inner voice, Damn, you've got it bad for him, don't you?

At length, she blinked back into focus, smiling demurely at her handsome counterpart. She tried to mentally backpedal to gather what he'd last said, failed at it and simply breathed, "Thanks, Dante." Her eyes were rather starry as she regarded him.

But it only took a few seconds for self-consciousness to begin bursting Junior's bubble as she realized she might have sounded inattentive at best and dumb at worst. "You're a good friend and you're going to be a phantasmagorical Alpha," she told him, trying to recover. She was unaware that she'd just entirely misused that large word, likely making herself look a bit like an ass.