Carlos was taken off-guard, but he merely gave the other a contemplative frown before reaching out to comply. “Uh… alright,” he said.
“O-
Okay, but… please let me know if that was… inappropriate for me to
say,” she said quietly. “I really hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable…”It did, but that’s all
on my part, Carlos thought to himself. He still smiled at her. “No worries,”
he told her. “I ought to be flattered, shouldn’t I?”“Well I don’t know if you ought to be anything,” she said quietly. “If I made things uncomfortable for you, I sincerely apologize, and you don’t have to thank me for that, just for the sake of being polite. I- I am sorry, I’ve… obviously made a mistake, and I’ve obviously made you uncomfortable, and… Please, don’t feel obligated to thank me…”
Carlos was starting to panic and his smile slipped from his
face. “No, no, I promise, it’s okay!” he said quickly. “I just – look, it’s me, okay? I-I just – I have trouble
really believing what you’re saying.
Make sense? Nobody’s ever said those sort of things to me before… and it’s all just a bit much for me to accept
with any grace is all.”She could see the panic. And hear it in his voice. Oh man. Now she really had messed all of this up. He sounded upset. “O- Okay, well, I, um… If it helps anything, I- I did mean what I said. I’ve- I’ve had a crush on you for a couple weeks now, and I was really nervous about this meet up, which is why I’m… way overdressed, and… Why I was rude and didn’t wait for you to get here before ordering, because I really needed the tea to soothe my nerves, and- and why I got nervous and just kept blurting all those compliments out. I… I meant every word of it… But now I feel like I’ve upset you and I’ve ruined everything, and- Look, maybe it is just a good idea for me to go, I keep messing all of this up…”
Carlos reached out and took her hand, trying to keep her sat
down. She had been babbling and honestly he only caught some of it… but he did hear that she was thinking of
leaving, which wasn’t good. “I’m not mad,” Carlos told her. “I’m not upset. I
mean it – thank you for all the nice things you said to me. I haven’t done the
dating thing for a while, so I’m kind of out of practice myself. I promise
though, nothing is ruined. You’re just fine.” He offered her a smile – a kind
one, but one that he hoped would calm her enough and convince her to stay.Her breath caught slightly as he touched her hand. “Sorry, I… Guess I sort of panicked,” she said softly. “I haven’t done the dating thing in a while either. I guess I didn’t know exactly what to expect, so when things started going weird, I just… started freaking out. Thank you for… being so understanding.”
Carlos smiled a bit wider. “Of course,” he said to her. “It’s
okay – it’s completely okay, I promise. I think I recall that dating is
supposed to be fun… not perfect. Right?”
The Perfect Scientist 