Chapter Two: Appearances

This is ridiculous. Adam tossed aside another t-shirt as being "too nerdy." She was just messing with me. She won't even remember me. Sighing, he reached down and plucked a plain, navy blue shirt out of the pile of discards and put it on with a hoodie over top. Might as well be comfortable, right?. Running his fingers through his mop of curls, he grabbed his bookbag and keys from the table and stepped into his shoes.

Eve regarded her closet with a careful eye. Yesterday, I was definitely too much for him. He just didn't know how to handle me, and I guess I can understand that. She flipped through a series of mini-skirts, discarding each one in turn. I should be more approachable if I don't want him to run away from me. Her eyes fell on a pair of green army pants. Hmmm... not bad. Slipping them on, she let them fall over the tops of her big, black boots instead of tucking them in, as usual. Okay, waist-down is now covered. No, waist-up... She started dismissing her cropped t-shirts, but then realised that she did want to attract him a little, after all. Pulling out a plain, black, golf-style t-shirt that was cut to just show off her belly button, she nodded to herself in satisfaction. Cute, but not so sexy as to make his brain self- destruct. She put on a pair of black suspenders with pink skulls on them and put her hair up in a ponytail. Picking up her bag and her keys, she headed off to see if she could track him down, again.

Adam sat on the subway, reading nervously. He shifted in his seat and frequently looked up from his book to take a "casual" look around the car. See? She's not here. He found himself strangely disappointed. He hadn't even said more than two words to her (literally), and yet here he was, wishing he could see her again.

He was jostled out of his reverie by someone squeezing into the seat next to him. Not paying much attention, he shuffled over a bit in his seat and glanced around the car again. Where is she?

"Looking for someone?" a soft voice whispered in his ear.

Adam jumped and his head whipped around to come face to face with a pair of sparkling green eyes and an eyebrow ring. "Y-y-... you!" he managed to get out. Smooth.

He really is cute. "Me!" Eve replied, cheerfully. "Didja miss me?" she pouted sweetly, blinking her eyelashes and utterly failing to look innocent.

"I-I-I..." Adam waved a hand helplessly, horrified by his own inability to speak. Usually, his problem was speaking too much.

"My name's Eve," she said, holding out a hand in greeting. Poor guy. He's really choking hard.

Adam choked slightly. Eve? Her name's Eve?. Holding out his own slightly sweaty hand, he shook hers, limply. "Adam," he whispered hoarsely.

"Seriously?" she asked, surprised. What are the odds? He nodded miserably, waiting for the inevitable joke, but none came. "Well, we must just be meant to be, then!" she laughed.

Wait... what? "Meant to..."

"My stop's next, but here," she pressed a piece of paper into his hand. "Call me, okay?" If you can do that, then we might just have a shot at something. If you can't, well... we're not meant to be, after all.

Adam stared down at the phone number in his hand. A hot chick just gave me her phone number with no prompting from me. I have officially entered the Twilight Zone. He looked up at Eve as she stood up from her seat. "Are you sure you..."

"Ball's in your court, Adam." Eve smiled down at his confusion. "I've done the hard part. The next bit is up to you." I wonder if he'll do it.... "Anyway, it was nice meeting you... Adam." Leaning down, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and then turned to leave the train. "Enjoy your book!" she called, as the doors closed.

Adam reached up and gingerly touched the sticky gloss print on his cheek. She kissed me! And she gave me her number! And she kissed me! Adam grinned foolishly around the subway car, then settled back down to try to read his book. He kept a death-grip on her phone number.