Terminal Attraction
There was no logical reason for her to be attracted to this man, and yet, she was. This bitter, arrogant older man physically disabled and addicted to pain killers. Brash and rude, this sense of humour anything but jovial, there was something about him that she couldn't quiet put her finger on. A smile rarely reached his mouth let alone his piercing blue eyes, and he preferred to see the worst in people.
She was young, sweet, and optimistic, the girl next door type, everything he wasn't, and here she was attracted to the most unlikely of men. Maybe, that was it, he was a man those her own age still mere boys in comparison.
She had tried the direct approach, told him how she felt, how she believed he felt about her, only to be brushed off. However this did not break her spirits nor cure her of these feelings. Determined to make him see what they so clearly both wanted, at least in her mind, she had agreed to return to work on the condition of a date. She had left, freely, only weeks before when a rich beneficiary had ordered he fired a member of his staff. In the end she had chosen to protect him, or at least that's what she told herself: maybe it had been to protect herself.
The date had been far from perfect. He had commented on her earrings, which she liked, thinking he was showing interest, however a remark about her shoes and she knew it was just an act, something he thought she wanted to hear. She had told him she didn't expect him t be someone he wasn't, but this only led to him insisting on wanting to know what she did in fact want. To know how you feel about me: simple enough. However this had led to the end of the short night as he cynically rambled on that her only interest in him was as a project, that she wanted to heal his broken soul and that nothing else about him could possibly be of any interest to her. Of course she had denied this, but he wouldn't listen, nor believe, after all people lie, that's what they do.
All this and yet she was still determined, now more then ever, to show this sad, broken man how she really felt. Then it happened, his ex showed up and she realised it wasn't that he couldn't love, it was that he couldn't love her.