It was when his eyes met hers. It was when she saw that familiar charm. That sadness under the jokes. She was drawn to him, just like with the last one.
She knew deep down, the second they met, but she refused to admit it to even herself until months later. But the last one broke her. How could he feel anything for anyone like her? She was weird, dumb, ugly, and just friend material. She felt nervous when ever she thought about him, but then they would make eye contact and she felt okay.
He looks across the room at her. She pretends to be working. She would hope that would mean something to him. She wanted him to stand up, walk over to her and say that she meant something to him, but he never did.
No one had ever put effort into her, and that's really all she wanted. She didn't care if it was small and weird, but she wanted it. She wanted him to put effort into her.
The weeks slowly went by, with them becoming closer, but her never saying anything to him out loud. It got to the point where she didn't care if he liked her back or not. The last one certainly didn't, like her and she certainly didn't care then either.
The last one taught her that no one can like her the way she likes them. He taught her not to expect romance. She decided that she just wanted to care for him, she didn't care if he cared about her the same way. She knew she could treat him right, and she wanted to, if he would let her.
What she knew was she wanted to care for someone who cared for her, but she could settle for caring, and not being cared for.
