Who: Rhys and Madeline When: February 14, 2010 Where: Crevasse Rating: PG?
Summary: Rhys become enlightened as he works on a project with Madeline. Warnings: Confusion. Oh, the confusion.
Rhys couldn't believe his eyes when he read the partner list for his first Sociology project. Out of a class of forty students, he was paired with the one woman he happened to be interested in. The stars were aligning or God was looking down on him or something like that. He couldn't imagine spending a better Valentine's Night than working on a dull school project with Miss Morozov. He was a little confused about her name though, as he could have sworn she said her name was Melina when they met at Crevasse several weeks before, but it wouldn't have been the first time he had messed up a name. She might have also lied about her name as a sign that she wasn't interested. He knew some girls who introduced themselves as "Roxie" when their actual names were Stephanie or Lindsey. He guessed girls had to protect themselves against would-be-stalkers. Not that he was a would-be-stalker, of course.
After meeting the lovely redhead, Rhys didn't see her again outside of class, but he thought about her often with her big grey eyes and sweet smile. He finally gathered the courage to ask her out, but when he approached her in class, she seemed different. She was colder somehow, and he'd lost his nerve to even approach her, let alone ask her out. Over the following weeks, whenever he did try to approach her, she somehow managed to escape the class before he could get to her or she would look at him like he was an idiot.
Now, however, she had zero excuses for not talking to him as they had to get this project done and nothing led to romance than a little shoulder to shoulder teamwork toward a common goal. Or he could hope so, at least. He didn't even really want to ask her out anymore with how weird she had been over the last few weeks and he hoped that it wasn't something he did. Maybe she had a possessive boyfriend who would hurt anyone who came near her. If not that, then maybe she had a hidden crazy gene and he'd somehow first caught her during a lucid episode. Whatever the case, he hoped he could clear the air between them so they could at least be friends.
When he suggested they meet at Crevasse to discuss their plans for the project, he'd hoped she'd give him one of her sweet smiles since it was where they officially met, but no dice. She gave him one of her blank stares he had come to expect and dread. Hopefully he'd get her to smile before the night was out or he'd completely give up since there was only so much rejection one guy could take.