Cruel Intentions (2/?)
Title: Cruel Intentions, Part 2
Author:
butterbadger
Spoilers: Some of the pilot
Rating: R
Warning: Sex, Language, Some Angst
Word Count: 2,800
Disclaimer: I still don't own Community.
Summary: Jeff furthers his seduction of Annie for his bet with Britta.
Note: I'm sooooo sorry this took so long to update. Sickness, polls, work, etc etc, I'm hoping to update much more quickly! Enjoy!
(Part 1)
Jeff hadn’t really been able to concentrate in class as he was preoccupied with thoughts of how to go about seducing Annie. She was a cute enough kid, so it would be no hardship for him. His conscience had made a feeble protest, but thoughts of Britta had quickly drowned it out.
Annie was clearly a good girl, but in his experience most good girls were just normal girls waiting to be seduced by the right person. He couldn’t come on to her too quickly, but he needed to establish himself as a potential romantic interest as opposed to a “dad/older brother” figure.
He glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye. She was listening attentively to everything the professor was saying, occasionally writing something down with one of those purple pens she was never without. Her cardigan was buttoned up to her neck, and a barrette kept her hair from falling into her face. His eyes narrowed as he realized she had carefully lined up her notebook and pens so that they were equidistant from each other. Definitely repressed.
Finally the professor dismissed the class, and Jeff timed his exit with Annie’s.
She turned, surprised to see him there. “Oh, hey Jeff.”
“Annie, hey! I was just on my way to lunch. Care to join me?” Jeff tried to smile as innocently as he could.
“Okay,” Annie replied and fell into step beside him. Jeff moved closer to her, and noticed how she blushed and moved back slightly. Good, so she wasn’t immune to him.
Jeff waited a moment before speaking. “I have to say, I found your announcement at the table yesterday rather appalling.”
Annie looked up at him, surprised. “You did? Most people praise me for it. Well, besides Pierce.”
“Most people are sheep. Who are you to criticize something you’ve never experienced?”
“I wasn’t criticizing anything. It’s just my belief that people shouldn’t experience the act of love until they are in love.”
Jeff digested that answer, and said, “Are you a lesbian?”
“No?” Annie replied, her voice going up at the end, as if unsure whether she had heard him correctly.
Jeff hid his laughter and said, “I didn’t mean to offend you. I just picked up on a little of that lesbian vibe.”
“Look, I wouldn’t expect a man of your experience to understand my beliefs.”
That sobered him up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Annie gave him a smug smile before answering, “I’ve been very well-informed of your reputation.”
“What have you heard?”
“That you promise girls the world to get them in bed with you.”
Jeff couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Who told you this?”
“A friend warned me.”
Jeff frowned. “That’s a little tacky.”
Annie gave him a challenging look. “Why do you sound so surprised? It’s the truth, isn’t it?”
At that point they had reached the cafeteria, and Jeff needed to re-think his strategy, so he just replied, “If you say so,” and walked away.
~*~*~
Jeff figured he couldn’t lose much more ground with Annie, so he showed up to the study group that afternoon anyway. If things went well, maybe he could repair some of the damage done to his reputation.
Fifty minutes later, Jeff wanted to hit something. Having to pretend he was interested in what the rest of the group was saying was beyond frustrating, and Annie kept shooting him suspicious looks, not seeming to believe that he was actually studying. Britta just sat there, smirking, which pissed him off even more.
Finally the study session was over and Jeff pulled Annie aside. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
Annie sighed. “What do you want, Jeff?”
“You’ve done a really good job organizing our study sessions. If you ever need any help, feel free to ask.”
Annie looked at him for a moment before saying, “It amazes me someone as charming as you can be so manipulative.”
Jeff groaned inwardly. “We’re not going to start this secret friend nonsense again, are we?”
Annie smiled as she said, “What was my favorite part? Oh, right: ‘Even more treacherous than he is attractive, he has never uttered a single word without some dishonorable intention. Every woman he has successfully pursued, has regretted it. Stay away from him.’”
Jeff really wanted to hurt this friend of hers. “Well you could at least have the decency of telling me who’s badmouthing me so I might have the opportunity to confront them.”
“Not a chance.”
Jeff decided it was time to take a different tack. “You’re right, you know.”
Annie looked confused. “About what?”
“About what you said today,” Jeff replied. “I’ve done some things I’m not proud of.”
Annie looked a little guilty. “Look, I wasn’t trying to give you a hard time.”
“No, I mean, I look at you with all your morals and values, and you seem to be happy in your choices. I envy you. No bullshit. I mean, you’ve got everything going for you. You’re smart, you’re beautiful, you’re determined. You’re everything I’d want in a girlfriend.”
Annie was a little flustered as she said, “You know I’m seeing someone.”
Jeff smirked. “Oh, yes, the infamous boyfriend. It’s funny how you haven’t mentioned him until now.” Jeff leaned in a little closer toward her, and Annie backed away.
“He’s great. I really miss him,” Annie replied. “And I’m sorry, but you’re not my type. Listing my qualities on your fingers is not going to get you anywhere with me. The best you could hope for is my friendship, and you’re really walking a fine line at that.”
With that, she flounced out of the room, and Jeff had the feeling her opinion of him had sunk even lower.
So someone had warned Annie about him. Shit. He tried to figure out who he knew that Annie would know. And who would actually warn her away from him.
The only person he knew at Greendale from his old life was Ian Duncan, so five minutes later he found himself impatiently knocking on Duncan’s door.
There were some shuffling noises before Duncan opened his door. He looked surprised to see Jeff, but he smiled and invited him in. “Jeff Winger, I’d heard you were attending Greendale. What brings you to my office?”
“Do you know Annie Edison?”
“Sure, I used to work with her father. What’s this about?”
“Did you warn her to stay away from me?” Jeff demanded.
“What? No, I haven’t even seen her since I started working here last year.”
Jeff made a noise of frustration. He paced for a moment before turning to face Duncan and said, “Someone told Annie that I’m a horrible person and she should stay from me. But for the life of me I can’t figure out who we know in common.”
Duncan considered that for a moment. Jeff saw something cross his face, and immediately pounced. “What do you know?”
Duncan nervously fiddled with his collar. “I don’t know anything for sure, but I was just remembering…”
“What?” Jeff said impatiently.
“Well, I remembered how her father hired a lawyer once.”
“And?”
“And I believe the lawyer was Alan Connor.”
Jeff couldn’t contain his surprise. Alan? He wasn’t sure if he could believe it…he and Alan had been close friends. Unfortunately that also meant that Alan knew some of the worst things he had done. And if he had told Annie…
“That doesn’t make any sense. Alan and I were friends. And how would he and Annie even be friends? I mean, her father’s lawyer giving her advice about me?”
Duncan held up his hands. “Like I said, I don’t know anything for sure. But Alan always was a sneaky bastard.”
That was true enough. To be honest, Jeff’s sins weren’t much worse than Alan’s. Jeff thought for a moment.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to tell Annie what a nice guy I am, and how my reputation’s much worse than the truth. And then you’re going to find out who told her.”
“And why would I do that? I may not have been the one to warn her about you, but you can’t deny that you’ve earned a good deal of your reputation.”
“Remember that DUI I got you out of? And all the little details I never told anyone?”
Duncan squirmed in his seat at the reminder. “Fine. I’ll tell her you’re a paragon of virtue.”
Jeff shook his head. “No need to lay it on so thick. Just make me look good.”
“Sure,” Duncan replied. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
“Great. Call me when it’s done.”
With that taken care of, Jeff left Duncan’s office and headed to his car. Fixing his reputation with Annie was important, but he needed to do a lot more than that. He had always found that presents worked wonders on women. He usually went with jewelry, but something told him Annie would need something a little more personal.
He didn’t have class tomorrow, so he still had time to figure out what to get her, and hopefully by then Duncan would have repaired Jeff’s reputation in Annie’s eyes. Feeling a little stressed, he got into his car, ready to go home and relax. But of course his car made him think of his bet with Britta, and for a moment he wondered if the bet was really worth it.
~*~*~
Jeff was standing in a store aisle full of backpacks, considering which looked the most OCD when his phone buzzed. He sighed when he saw it was Britta.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Fuck her yet?” Britta asked, a hint of laughter in her voice.
Jeff rolled his eyes. “I’m working on it.”
“Loser.”
“Blow me,” Jeff replied, and saw that Duncan was calling. “I need to go,” he said and switched lines.
He anxiously answered, “So?”
“It was Alan.”
“Dammit, I can’t believe him. What an asshole.” For a moment Jeff had forgotten where he was, and cringed when he saw a woman look over at him, shocked, before grabbing her son’s hand and dragging him away. “So what’d you tell her?”
“I told her that you were a good guy underneath it all, that if I had a daughter I’d want her to marry someone like Jeff Winger, et cetera, et cetera.”
“And did she buy it?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“You think so? Either she did or she didn’t-“
“She bought it.”
Jeff let out a sigh of relief. “Good.”
He hung up his phone, feeling better, and picked out a backpack that had a ridiculous amount of zippers and specialized pockets for pens and other school supplies. He went to the checkout line feeling confident, and couldn’t wait for tomorrow.
~*~*~
Jeff arrived to the study group early, hoping to catch Annie alone. Sure enough, she was already there, writing something in her organizer with her purple pen.
He was smiling as he walked through the door, the backpack hidden behind his back. Annie looked up when he came in, and he saw her cheeks flush. He hoped it was because she felt guilty for believing Alan.
Before Annie could say anything, he said, “I wanted to apologize for the other day. I shouldn’t have said all those things to you.” He then brought the backpack out from behind his back. “I got this for you.”
“You didn’t have to do this,” Annie replied.
Jeff yanked it back. “You hate it. It’s lame.”
Annie stopped him. “No, I love it. You just didn’t have to do it.” She reached out and took the backpack from him, smiling when she noted all the pockets.
Jeff could tell that she actually really did love the backpack, which made him feel absurdly happy. Strange.
The other members of the group began to file in, and the rest of the study session passed without incident, although as usual not much studying happened. Jeff found himself looking at Annie more than he should, and once she met his eyes and smiled. She really was pretty, in a very fresh-faced and innocent sort of way. He found himself wanting to see the skin concealed by the top buttons of her cardigan.
Britta noticed Jeff looking at Annie. And Annie looking at Jeff. She wasn’t happy about it.
~*~*~
Jeff had just sat down to lunch with Annie when the dean materialized beside their table. He was wearing a nurse’s costume, which couldn’t mean anything good.
“Jeffrey, Annie! Just the people I wanted to see. As I’m sure you know, it’s Elderly Awareness Day, and in honor of that, we at Greendale have organized a small group of volunteers to spend some time with the residents at the nursing home up the street! Unfortunately a few of our volunteers had to give up their spots due to…” the dean lowered his voice, “prior arrest records, so we’re in need of some last-minute volunteers!”
Annie was smiling and replied, “We’d love to help! Right, Jeff?” She turned to look at him, and he couldn’t do anything other than nod in agreement.
“Deantastic!” The dean said and sashayed away in search of more volunteers. Jeff was still trying to figure out what had just happened. Apparently he was going to spend the day with old people.
They arrived at the nursing home later that afternoon. Jeff had at least thought he would get to spend some time with Annie, so he watched in dismay as she was put with a lively-looking gentleman and he was put with an old lady who introduced herself to him five times.
He spent his time with her checking his phone while she kept telling the same story. She was about to launch into the story again when Jeff saw that their time was almost up, and said, “You told me that story, remember? When we were playing backgammon? You beat me three times.”
The old lady’s face lit up. “Really?”
Jeff nodded. “Yep.” He moved to sit next to her when he heard footsteps nearing the door.
Annie and the nurse poked their heads in a moment later. “Did you two have fun?”
The old lady excitedly said, “We played backgammon! I won three times!”
The nurse beamed and Annie smiled, looking a little surprised.
As they were leaving the nursing facility, Jeff convinced Annie to let him give her a ride home. She settled back in the luxurious seat, seeming perfectly at ease.
He turned out of the parking lot and said, “It’s weird. I actually feel good about myself.”
Annie turned to look at him incredulously. “Come on. You must think I’m a real idiot.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You’re trying to tell me that you had a good time with that old lady?”
“I did,” Jeff protested. “We played three games of backgammon.”
At Annie’s continued stare, Jeff finally admitted, “All right, I was bored out of my mind. I hate doing charity.”
Annie was smiling when she replied, “It’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad person.”
Jeff scoffed. “Yes it does.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Jeff shook his head. “I can’t win with you.”
“It’s not about winning, Jeff,” Annie said to him. She was quiet for a minute, and said, “You know what your problem is? You take yourself way too seriously.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “I do not.”
“Yes, you do. You should try to lighten up.”
Annie was hitting a little too close to home, so he replied, “I am lightened. Can we drop this?”
“Fine.” Annie was silent, but when Jeff looked back at over her, she had scrunched up her face and stuck out her tongue at him.
“What are you doing?” Jeff said, and she used her fingers to make it look like she had horns.
“Stop it, it’s distracting.” Jeff could feel a smile threatening to break. And it was from genuine amusement. From a girl making silly faces at him.
“Cut it out! Stop that.” This time Jeff really was smiling.
Annie finally stopped and sat back, looking satisfied. “Are you smiling?”
“No,” Jeff said, trying and failing to keep the smile off his face.
Annie laughed. “It’s okay. You can laugh. I promise I won’t tell anybody.”
Jeff was shocked when he felt a small hand cover his own. He looked down to see Annie’s hand on his, and when he looked up to meet her eyes, she was smiling. There was something like tenderness reflected in her eyes, and his heart began to race. He didn’t remember the last time he had felt this happy…or this terrified.
Author:
butterbadger
Spoilers: Some of the pilot
Rating: R
Warning: Sex, Language, Some Angst
Word Count: 2,800
Disclaimer: I still don't own Community.
Summary: Jeff furthers his seduction of Annie for his bet with Britta.
Note: I'm sooooo sorry this took so long to update. Sickness, polls, work, etc etc, I'm hoping to update much more quickly! Enjoy!
(Part 1)
Jeff hadn’t really been able to concentrate in class as he was preoccupied with thoughts of how to go about seducing Annie. She was a cute enough kid, so it would be no hardship for him. His conscience had made a feeble protest, but thoughts of Britta had quickly drowned it out.
Annie was clearly a good girl, but in his experience most good girls were just normal girls waiting to be seduced by the right person. He couldn’t come on to her too quickly, but he needed to establish himself as a potential romantic interest as opposed to a “dad/older brother” figure.
He glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye. She was listening attentively to everything the professor was saying, occasionally writing something down with one of those purple pens she was never without. Her cardigan was buttoned up to her neck, and a barrette kept her hair from falling into her face. His eyes narrowed as he realized she had carefully lined up her notebook and pens so that they were equidistant from each other. Definitely repressed.
Finally the professor dismissed the class, and Jeff timed his exit with Annie’s.
She turned, surprised to see him there. “Oh, hey Jeff.”
“Annie, hey! I was just on my way to lunch. Care to join me?” Jeff tried to smile as innocently as he could.
“Okay,” Annie replied and fell into step beside him. Jeff moved closer to her, and noticed how she blushed and moved back slightly. Good, so she wasn’t immune to him.
Jeff waited a moment before speaking. “I have to say, I found your announcement at the table yesterday rather appalling.”
Annie looked up at him, surprised. “You did? Most people praise me for it. Well, besides Pierce.”
“Most people are sheep. Who are you to criticize something you’ve never experienced?”
“I wasn’t criticizing anything. It’s just my belief that people shouldn’t experience the act of love until they are in love.”
Jeff digested that answer, and said, “Are you a lesbian?”
“No?” Annie replied, her voice going up at the end, as if unsure whether she had heard him correctly.
Jeff hid his laughter and said, “I didn’t mean to offend you. I just picked up on a little of that lesbian vibe.”
“Look, I wouldn’t expect a man of your experience to understand my beliefs.”
That sobered him up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Annie gave him a smug smile before answering, “I’ve been very well-informed of your reputation.”
“What have you heard?”
“That you promise girls the world to get them in bed with you.”
Jeff couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Who told you this?”
“A friend warned me.”
Jeff frowned. “That’s a little tacky.”
Annie gave him a challenging look. “Why do you sound so surprised? It’s the truth, isn’t it?”
At that point they had reached the cafeteria, and Jeff needed to re-think his strategy, so he just replied, “If you say so,” and walked away.
~*~*~
Jeff figured he couldn’t lose much more ground with Annie, so he showed up to the study group that afternoon anyway. If things went well, maybe he could repair some of the damage done to his reputation.
Fifty minutes later, Jeff wanted to hit something. Having to pretend he was interested in what the rest of the group was saying was beyond frustrating, and Annie kept shooting him suspicious looks, not seeming to believe that he was actually studying. Britta just sat there, smirking, which pissed him off even more.
Finally the study session was over and Jeff pulled Annie aside. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
Annie sighed. “What do you want, Jeff?”
“You’ve done a really good job organizing our study sessions. If you ever need any help, feel free to ask.”
Annie looked at him for a moment before saying, “It amazes me someone as charming as you can be so manipulative.”
Jeff groaned inwardly. “We’re not going to start this secret friend nonsense again, are we?”
Annie smiled as she said, “What was my favorite part? Oh, right: ‘Even more treacherous than he is attractive, he has never uttered a single word without some dishonorable intention. Every woman he has successfully pursued, has regretted it. Stay away from him.’”
Jeff really wanted to hurt this friend of hers. “Well you could at least have the decency of telling me who’s badmouthing me so I might have the opportunity to confront them.”
“Not a chance.”
Jeff decided it was time to take a different tack. “You’re right, you know.”
Annie looked confused. “About what?”
“About what you said today,” Jeff replied. “I’ve done some things I’m not proud of.”
Annie looked a little guilty. “Look, I wasn’t trying to give you a hard time.”
“No, I mean, I look at you with all your morals and values, and you seem to be happy in your choices. I envy you. No bullshit. I mean, you’ve got everything going for you. You’re smart, you’re beautiful, you’re determined. You’re everything I’d want in a girlfriend.”
Annie was a little flustered as she said, “You know I’m seeing someone.”
Jeff smirked. “Oh, yes, the infamous boyfriend. It’s funny how you haven’t mentioned him until now.” Jeff leaned in a little closer toward her, and Annie backed away.
“He’s great. I really miss him,” Annie replied. “And I’m sorry, but you’re not my type. Listing my qualities on your fingers is not going to get you anywhere with me. The best you could hope for is my friendship, and you’re really walking a fine line at that.”
With that, she flounced out of the room, and Jeff had the feeling her opinion of him had sunk even lower.
So someone had warned Annie about him. Shit. He tried to figure out who he knew that Annie would know. And who would actually warn her away from him.
The only person he knew at Greendale from his old life was Ian Duncan, so five minutes later he found himself impatiently knocking on Duncan’s door.
There were some shuffling noises before Duncan opened his door. He looked surprised to see Jeff, but he smiled and invited him in. “Jeff Winger, I’d heard you were attending Greendale. What brings you to my office?”
“Do you know Annie Edison?”
“Sure, I used to work with her father. What’s this about?”
“Did you warn her to stay away from me?” Jeff demanded.
“What? No, I haven’t even seen her since I started working here last year.”
Jeff made a noise of frustration. He paced for a moment before turning to face Duncan and said, “Someone told Annie that I’m a horrible person and she should stay from me. But for the life of me I can’t figure out who we know in common.”
Duncan considered that for a moment. Jeff saw something cross his face, and immediately pounced. “What do you know?”
Duncan nervously fiddled with his collar. “I don’t know anything for sure, but I was just remembering…”
“What?” Jeff said impatiently.
“Well, I remembered how her father hired a lawyer once.”
“And?”
“And I believe the lawyer was Alan Connor.”
Jeff couldn’t contain his surprise. Alan? He wasn’t sure if he could believe it…he and Alan had been close friends. Unfortunately that also meant that Alan knew some of the worst things he had done. And if he had told Annie…
“That doesn’t make any sense. Alan and I were friends. And how would he and Annie even be friends? I mean, her father’s lawyer giving her advice about me?”
Duncan held up his hands. “Like I said, I don’t know anything for sure. But Alan always was a sneaky bastard.”
That was true enough. To be honest, Jeff’s sins weren’t much worse than Alan’s. Jeff thought for a moment.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to tell Annie what a nice guy I am, and how my reputation’s much worse than the truth. And then you’re going to find out who told her.”
“And why would I do that? I may not have been the one to warn her about you, but you can’t deny that you’ve earned a good deal of your reputation.”
“Remember that DUI I got you out of? And all the little details I never told anyone?”
Duncan squirmed in his seat at the reminder. “Fine. I’ll tell her you’re a paragon of virtue.”
Jeff shook his head. “No need to lay it on so thick. Just make me look good.”
“Sure,” Duncan replied. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
“Great. Call me when it’s done.”
With that taken care of, Jeff left Duncan’s office and headed to his car. Fixing his reputation with Annie was important, but he needed to do a lot more than that. He had always found that presents worked wonders on women. He usually went with jewelry, but something told him Annie would need something a little more personal.
He didn’t have class tomorrow, so he still had time to figure out what to get her, and hopefully by then Duncan would have repaired Jeff’s reputation in Annie’s eyes. Feeling a little stressed, he got into his car, ready to go home and relax. But of course his car made him think of his bet with Britta, and for a moment he wondered if the bet was really worth it.
~*~*~
Jeff was standing in a store aisle full of backpacks, considering which looked the most OCD when his phone buzzed. He sighed when he saw it was Britta.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Fuck her yet?” Britta asked, a hint of laughter in her voice.
Jeff rolled his eyes. “I’m working on it.”
“Loser.”
“Blow me,” Jeff replied, and saw that Duncan was calling. “I need to go,” he said and switched lines.
He anxiously answered, “So?”
“It was Alan.”
“Dammit, I can’t believe him. What an asshole.” For a moment Jeff had forgotten where he was, and cringed when he saw a woman look over at him, shocked, before grabbing her son’s hand and dragging him away. “So what’d you tell her?”
“I told her that you were a good guy underneath it all, that if I had a daughter I’d want her to marry someone like Jeff Winger, et cetera, et cetera.”
“And did she buy it?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“You think so? Either she did or she didn’t-“
“She bought it.”
Jeff let out a sigh of relief. “Good.”
He hung up his phone, feeling better, and picked out a backpack that had a ridiculous amount of zippers and specialized pockets for pens and other school supplies. He went to the checkout line feeling confident, and couldn’t wait for tomorrow.
~*~*~
Jeff arrived to the study group early, hoping to catch Annie alone. Sure enough, she was already there, writing something in her organizer with her purple pen.
He was smiling as he walked through the door, the backpack hidden behind his back. Annie looked up when he came in, and he saw her cheeks flush. He hoped it was because she felt guilty for believing Alan.
Before Annie could say anything, he said, “I wanted to apologize for the other day. I shouldn’t have said all those things to you.” He then brought the backpack out from behind his back. “I got this for you.”
“You didn’t have to do this,” Annie replied.
Jeff yanked it back. “You hate it. It’s lame.”
Annie stopped him. “No, I love it. You just didn’t have to do it.” She reached out and took the backpack from him, smiling when she noted all the pockets.
Jeff could tell that she actually really did love the backpack, which made him feel absurdly happy. Strange.
The other members of the group began to file in, and the rest of the study session passed without incident, although as usual not much studying happened. Jeff found himself looking at Annie more than he should, and once she met his eyes and smiled. She really was pretty, in a very fresh-faced and innocent sort of way. He found himself wanting to see the skin concealed by the top buttons of her cardigan.
Britta noticed Jeff looking at Annie. And Annie looking at Jeff. She wasn’t happy about it.
~*~*~
Jeff had just sat down to lunch with Annie when the dean materialized beside their table. He was wearing a nurse’s costume, which couldn’t mean anything good.
“Jeffrey, Annie! Just the people I wanted to see. As I’m sure you know, it’s Elderly Awareness Day, and in honor of that, we at Greendale have organized a small group of volunteers to spend some time with the residents at the nursing home up the street! Unfortunately a few of our volunteers had to give up their spots due to…” the dean lowered his voice, “prior arrest records, so we’re in need of some last-minute volunteers!”
Annie was smiling and replied, “We’d love to help! Right, Jeff?” She turned to look at him, and he couldn’t do anything other than nod in agreement.
“Deantastic!” The dean said and sashayed away in search of more volunteers. Jeff was still trying to figure out what had just happened. Apparently he was going to spend the day with old people.
They arrived at the nursing home later that afternoon. Jeff had at least thought he would get to spend some time with Annie, so he watched in dismay as she was put with a lively-looking gentleman and he was put with an old lady who introduced herself to him five times.
He spent his time with her checking his phone while she kept telling the same story. She was about to launch into the story again when Jeff saw that their time was almost up, and said, “You told me that story, remember? When we were playing backgammon? You beat me three times.”
The old lady’s face lit up. “Really?”
Jeff nodded. “Yep.” He moved to sit next to her when he heard footsteps nearing the door.
Annie and the nurse poked their heads in a moment later. “Did you two have fun?”
The old lady excitedly said, “We played backgammon! I won three times!”
The nurse beamed and Annie smiled, looking a little surprised.
As they were leaving the nursing facility, Jeff convinced Annie to let him give her a ride home. She settled back in the luxurious seat, seeming perfectly at ease.
He turned out of the parking lot and said, “It’s weird. I actually feel good about myself.”
Annie turned to look at him incredulously. “Come on. You must think I’m a real idiot.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You’re trying to tell me that you had a good time with that old lady?”
“I did,” Jeff protested. “We played three games of backgammon.”
At Annie’s continued stare, Jeff finally admitted, “All right, I was bored out of my mind. I hate doing charity.”
Annie was smiling when she replied, “It’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad person.”
Jeff scoffed. “Yes it does.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Jeff shook his head. “I can’t win with you.”
“It’s not about winning, Jeff,” Annie said to him. She was quiet for a minute, and said, “You know what your problem is? You take yourself way too seriously.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “I do not.”
“Yes, you do. You should try to lighten up.”
Annie was hitting a little too close to home, so he replied, “I am lightened. Can we drop this?”
“Fine.” Annie was silent, but when Jeff looked back at over her, she had scrunched up her face and stuck out her tongue at him.
“What are you doing?” Jeff said, and she used her fingers to make it look like she had horns.
“Stop it, it’s distracting.” Jeff could feel a smile threatening to break. And it was from genuine amusement. From a girl making silly faces at him.
“Cut it out! Stop that.” This time Jeff really was smiling.
Annie finally stopped and sat back, looking satisfied. “Are you smiling?”
“No,” Jeff said, trying and failing to keep the smile off his face.
Annie laughed. “It’s okay. You can laugh. I promise I won’t tell anybody.”
Jeff was shocked when he felt a small hand cover his own. He looked down to see Annie’s hand on his, and when he looked up to meet her eyes, she was smiling. There was something like tenderness reflected in her eyes, and his heart began to race. He didn’t remember the last time he had felt this happy…or this terrified.