Carlos was taken off-guard, but he merely gave the other a contemplative frown before reaching out to comply. “Uh… alright,” he said.
She smiled back at him and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I think you’re right,” she agreed. Wait, had- Had Carlos said the D word? Had she
said the D word? Were they actually discussing the possibility of…
dating? “So- So wait, are- are we actually talking about… the
possibility of, like… starting… something?” she asked, voice nervous.It was Carlos’ turn to be bashful. He dropped his gaze and
reached up to scratch his cheek. “Well… I’ don’t know,” he said honestly. “I
mean, there certainly is a possibility…
but at this point in time I am unable to calculate exactly the variables
and percentages with which I can articulate our chances. I would require more
time with you… more outings… more, um… more dates.” A thought occurred to him
and he grinned. “I guess you could say… I need more date-a!”She laughed at his pun, scrunching up her nose. “Oh that was bad,” she grinned. “But… I wouldn’t say no to offering up my time to assist in any further studies you may wish to conduct,” she said with a happy smile. So maybe she hadn’t ruined everything. Maybe things had gone just as they were supposed to. Maybe everything would be okay. “If that’s alright with you.”
Carlos just kept smiling. “Absolutely! If you’re up for it,
then I am!” Things were going so much better now – thank God! And Selina seemed
to be a lot more comfortable now. “I believe we have reached a point where the
two of us can exchange phone numbers… how does that sound to you?”“Yeah, that sounds great!” she said, enthusiasm exuding from her as she spoke. “I’m… really glad you agreed to meet up with me. I feel like initially I came on really strong, and came across as really weird, so I was… kind of worried I’d scare you off,” she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She unlocked it, pulled up the screen to put in a new contact, and slid the phone across the table to Carlos.
Carlos took the phone and started to put in his number. “It’s
okay,” he said. “Like I said, we still have time to get to know each other better
and get past the awkwardness.” He added his name and saved the contact. He
handed the phone back to Selina. “Go ahead and text me so I have your number
too.”“Yeah, that’ll be good. Although I may still be a little bit awkward after we get to know each other better, but that’s just because that’s… who I am as a person,” she said, grinning as she texted a winky face emoji to Carlos. “On a more serious note, though, as we move forward, if I ever say or do anything you don’t like, or that makes you uncomfortable, please let me know right away. Okay?” She looked at him intently, waiting for a response.
Carlos highly doubted that Selina would ever say anything
uncomfortable without realizing it first and apologizing profusely. But he just
smiled kindly to her and nodded. “Of course,” he said.
He mentally reminded
himself that it went for if he thought things were going a weird direction in
the relationship – he had a lot of knowledge about how a relationship should
go, in theory, but it was all about applying it and making sure his own
feelings were okay. It had been such a long time… he didn’t want his first
relationship in so long to hurt him.
The Perfect Scientist 