Who: Cole and Ileana What: A very awkward attempt at an apology, inspired by Boyd. Where: 1203 When: Today. Nowish? Warnings: Likely none.
Cole hadn't expected his talk with Ileana to happen so soon. He needed time to prepare - even though he'd been agonizing over it for the last few days - but even if he'd had a week, he still wouldn't be ready. Usually he wasn't so bad with words, considering he was a teacher; but teaching Shakespeare to a group of students and trying to explain himself to a girl were two very different things.
He knew he'd told her he would only be a few minutes, but he couldn't bring himself to show up empty-handed. Yes, Boyd was only eighteen, but she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Besides, he couldn't possibly mess up things any worse than he already had.
With a combination of running like hell and speeding just a little, he managed to get to the flower shop - before they closed; thank God for extended hours - and picked up a bouquet of flowers that were most certainly not roses. Inside the card that came along he scribbled an Ella Wheeler Wilcox quote, with the words 'Sorry for acting like a jerk' underneath. It was the the best he could think of on such short notice. So much poetry contained the word 'love', and he only hoped Ileana got the overall gist of what he was trying to say through it.
This was something entirely foreign to him, courting or wooing or whatever it was called, and he kept second-guessing himself all the way up to 1203. He almost turned back a few times, but no - he was going to do this. One step at a time, like Boyd had said. First he'd apologize and tell her he wanted to get to know her better... then he'd go from there. He had to stop getting ahead of himself, imagining situations that hadn't even happened yet. It was difficult to get over the age difference, not to mention his job, but maybe he didn't need to yet. Maybe time would change things.
Taking a deep breath and bracing himself for a possible negative reaction, he knocked on the door.