Warmth | ✔️ #wattys2021

3. disappointment

"What do you say? Wanna go out with me sometime?" He asked her with a tiny bit of nervousness even in his voice. His nails were scratching the back of his neck and his eyes were carefully watching her beautiful features, eager for an answer.

And then she began to laugh, loudly and right in his face. Her laugh was something that he learned to love. Even if he practically just met her. The sound of her being happy, made him happy. A sound he found comfort in so easily, just like with the rest of her. Perhaps too easily, he began to process... They only met today and they weren't even alone in that time. But there was something about her that fascinated him, lured him in, made him have such great interest in her that he always just wanted her to be with him. And only him.

Never in a million years would she have thought that an A-level celebrity like him would want her. For Adeline, it was a ridiculous thought. Was this a joke? As much as she wished for them spending more time together, as they got along so well just tonight, it felt like it was not real; not meant to be. And just when she saw the hurt in his desperate blue eyes she realized, that her laughing wasn't all that appropriate. She hurt him.

"Well...look, I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you, I was just surprised."

Which was partly true. Wouldn't he be who he is, she wouldn't only hope for him asking, if he wasn't already doing it herself she would've done it. But after all his persona was still the same, so she'd think of this evening as a small and sweet occurrence, when feeling especially lonely.

"So...you don't?" Adam asked, the disappointment clear in his voice. "But we went on well, didn't we?" He went on, desperate in a way he never has seen himself. 

"Yeah sure, I like you very much...But I don't think we should -you know date?"

"Why not?" He was frustrated at her now, no one has rejected him since third grade. And especially after this wonderful night he would've thought there was nothing in the way that stopped him from reaching for the love he avoided for so long.

"Well...look at you and then look at me, I'd never be enough for you. We live in two different worlds, it just wouldn't work out."

"I did look at you tonight-a lot and decided that I very much like what I see." She smiled curtly. "Why aren't you willing to try?" At that point Adam's ego has been brushed enough, he became more impatient and his voice firmer.

"Because that is what meets your standards." She pointed to the advert right behind him. On the poster was a beautiful, blonde model with the perfect body presented in white lingerie. "And I'm never going to be like that."

"Do you think I care that you are not a model? I know I don't have the best reputation when it comes to dating but-"

"It's not just looks, I'm a lot to deal with as a person. And I don't think I could handle your lifestyle." Adeline tried to make him understand. And it was the truth. Along with that, she simply didn't have enough trust in herself to not mess up whatever was growing there. Never did she feel such a connection to someone that soon or intense and that scared her. As much as she liked him, the chance of her potentially hurting him was something she couldn't take.

"You are just searching for excuses! And even if so, then let me get to know you myself with all up's and down's, I don't care. We're all fucked up..." He sighed in frustration: "Please do what you think is best for you I just thought you liked me back...well." That was the point on which he gave up on convincing her and left Adeline standing next to that oh so perfect picture of a woman he wasn't nearly as attracted to as to her.

"Adam!" Adeline called after him in despair when his back was turned to her and he left.