Carlos was taken off-guard, but he merely gave the other a contemplative frown before reaching out to comply. “Uh… alright,” he said.
Her stomach dropped when he laughed. Had she said something wrong? Oh… Well now she felt like an idiot. Wait. Oh. Oh! He was agreeing to this! Okay, good! The changes in her face as he spoke were barely perceptible, but her eyes definitely lit up as he confirmed their plans. “Sounds perfect,” she grinned. “Yeah, that sounds great.”
Carlos smiled to her and nodded. “Alright then. So the
Starbucks? Or do you have another coffee joint in mind? I’m not really picky.”In all honesty, she really didn’t care for Starbucks. Their coffee was too bitter and always tasted burnt, and the syrup they used for flavoring was way too viscous and all kind of tasted the same. She was probably far more picky than most people were about this kind of thing, and was more of a tea person anyway, but she was enamoured and had been out of town for too long to think of any other good coffee shops. So all she could manage was, “No, no, Starbucks is fine. Starbucks is perfect.”
Carlos nodded again. “Sounds good then! I look forward to
it. Until tomorrow?” He didn’t think they’d quite picked a day, just a time.“Tomorrow,” she confirmed with a grin. “I’ll see you then,” she added, giving him a wink.
Carlos was a little surprised by the wink. He cleared his
throat slightly and offered her a smile. “Um, well, until then,” he said. “I’ve
got some science to get back to – it was nice running into you.”Had she been flirting with him? Well obviously, when asking
to hold his hand. Carlos just had a little trouble believing anyone would try
to flirt with him. Well… he’d see how
it went as they got to know each other.“That it was. Enjoy the rest of your day. Hope your science goes well.” And with that, she twirled around, long hair cascading behind her and leaving the faint scent of roses as she walked away with a slight sway in her hips.
With Carlos behind her, he couldn’t see the giddy, triumphant grin on her face. That had gone better than she had hoped. A couple hiccups maybe, but it all worked out. She waited until she rounded a corner and knew she was out of earshot to let out an excited, happy giggle and break into a run to get home. She needed to start planning out an outfit!
“Thank you,” Carlos said to her. “Have a good day!” Carlos
watched her turn and leave. She was cute, he thought – both in looks and
personality. He liked her. He kind of hoped she wasn’t too interesting for him –
she might not like him as much if she ended up finding him dull.Oh well… he could see about that soon.
She had a huge grin on her face the entire way home, and her heart was pounding in her chest. She was incredibly excited. She had been admiring this man from afar for a couple weeks now, but hadn’t been quite sure how to approach him. Luckily that outlandish little stunt she pulled had actually worked!
She got home and headed straight for her closet. She needed to find something to wear. Cute, but not too fancy. It was just a coffee date at Starbucks. Oh god, she hated Starbucks. What had she agreed to? Oh well. She didn’t have to drink it fast or anything. She assumed most of their time would be spent talking anyway. She had time to worry about that later. For now, she was just going to focus on figuring out what to wear.
The next day Carlos was in the lab. But he was on his computer,
reading up on how to manage a rock band. The Literal Rock Band he had discovered
agreed to help out with his research, but only if he could help them make it
big. So there he was.
He was a little confused by his phone going off. Who would
text him? However, he checked it and realized that it was an alarm he’d set the
night before just before going to bed – it was a reminder that he was meeting
someone. He’d managed to remember it just before sleeping. After a moment with
a protractor and the window he realized that he was a little late already.
Shoot! He grabbed his keys and hurried out to his car, driving to the Starbucks
as quickly as he could.
The Perfect Scientist 