Thank you SO much, people who reviewed my story! I love you all! Thanks for the intern thing, AshCarrol! I'm not your number-one-medical-expert, as you may have guessed…

And this is about a week after he asked her out…I had no ideas for the date, really…

It's a short one now guys!


"Hey, gorgeous – my place or yours?"

Ray slipped his arm around Neela's waist, pulling her closer – as usual. She just kept right on walking, leaving him to follow her: as usual. It was really beginning to annoy Ray; how he could spend all this effort on trying to chat her up, and she could just throw it all back in his face…

Maybe Frank had a point about the "makes you feel like dirt" thing.

"C'mon, Neela! We've been going out for a week now…"

"And?"

She looked back at him, one eyebrow raised in question. But there was just enough flirtatiousness in her eyes, and just enough of a smile on her lips that Ray could tell she knew exactly what he was referring to. And she was just going to annoy him with it for a bit – after all, he had no right to demand anything from her, did he?

"And, I think you should at least let me show some affection towards you…" This time she let him put his arm around her, and they set off for a small café along the street. "See, this isn't so bad!"

The young woman chuckled, pulling her coat tighter around herself against the drizzle of snow which began to fall around them. "At least it's warmer like this…"

"See! I'm not all bad!"

"Says the man who spends half an hour over himself in the mornings…"

Ray gave a shout of laugher. "Oh yeah, miss "I need to find my hairbrush"!"

"At least I use a hairbrush, instead of all that gel…and what does all this say about you? I can spend one night at your flat and know everything about you…"

They were like this a lot – friendly teasing, Ray making jokes, Neela making more sarcastic comments…more like friends than actual boyfriend and girlfriend, when Ray thought about it. And he thought about it a lot – the aforementioned night had been when they had been over at her house – they had rented a few movies, had a takeaway…and it didn't go anywhere. That was possibly the biggest disappointment to Ray: what was the point of a gorgeous, beautiful girlfriend if she didn't let you see her once in a while?

At any rate, Ray had spent the rest of the night on the sofa. Not exactly what he had planned…

And every time he thought it could possibly go anywhere, it didn't! She just made some excuse! It was getting more and more difficult to find reasons to be alone with her…

And it was beginning to make him feel more and more inadequate.