Guidance Counselor's Office, Tuesday

[solarhippie]

In the end, Karolina had had most of extra flowers from Friday carted to a women's center on the mainland. But, she'd also taken some home, and she'd Googled for how to dry roses, too, so now she had a box in her office filled with silica desiccant and some roses she wasn't supposed to open for a few weeks. She realy wanted to peek in and see how they were doing, but she didn't know if that would disturb the process, so... A few hours into her work day today, she went ahead and moved the box from her desk to on top of one of the filing cabinets, where it wasn't constantly in her line of sight.

There were also a few flowers still in a vase on her desk. Starting to wilt, sure, but not too badly. They were okay enough that she didn't think they'd give her office an unwelcoming air or anything.

The door to the office was open, and the guidance counselor was in and doing some paperwork.

[ooc: Open, with bouts of slowness until I get home tonight!]

Comments

[solarhippie]

"Gosh, you are so cute."

Look, that was Karolina's immediate reaction upon pulling back a little and opening her eyes. And sometimes, you had to let those reactions out exactly as they were. Which in this case was kind of a breathy chuckle.

And also not the words she'd meant to say before she'd opened her eyes. But she could get to those: "I don't know what I'm doing, either," she admitted. "I never have." Between Xavin and Julie and handful of Tinder-adjacent dates making up the entirety of her history, it was a big ol' mess. "But I figure, maybe that doesn't matter?"

[notallbluemonks]

Beau had to take a moment before she replied; she knew Karolina well enough by now to know the compliment was genuine, and those were a little bit addictive for someone so unused to them that she had to stop and just . . . let it soak in a little bit.

"So we just make it up as we go along, kind of improvise?" she asked, reaching up to wrap her hands around Karolina's, almost more gently than she thought she was capable of. "Like -- figure it out together? I could be into that."

Karolina still had a slight edge on her own history of girls she never saw again once they were done with their business in town, granted, but at least they could both be a mess.

[solarhippie]

One of Karolina's first forays into dating had involved getting engaged to someone who'd been told she was their betrothed and that their marriage could stop a war.

'Mess' really was a good word for it.

"Yeah," she sighed. Appreciating the warmth of Beau's hands against hers. "I think it works. And going out to dinner and then probably in for other things... It seems like a really good step for that, in my book."

[notallbluemonks]

"My teachers at the m -- last school I was at always yelled at me to not get ahead of myself anyway," Beau said with a small huff of laughter. "Look at that, I finally listened to them, and they'll probably never know. But yeah. We'll figure this out."

The monks would also be stunned to know she was actually making an effort to not just barrel into things full speed. Well, not more than she already had.

She squeezed Karolina's hands and then cleared her throat, apparently remembering where they were, and that the door was open.

"We should probably save some of this for after dinner, huh?" she asked, although she sounded reluctant about it and hadn't actually pulled away yet. "Like when you're not at work. People are gonna think I'm the worst influence on you or something."

[solarhippie]

"When I went to school here, my best friend was Jim Kirk," Karolina replied with a quiet chuckle. "I don't expect you to know him, but... It kinda means you're not the first bad influence people here might think I have."

She really missed Jim sometimes. He deserved some credit for for the level of confidence she had going on these days.

"But, I think you're right," she added. "I mean, I should probably try and get some work done today, too."

[notallbluemonks]

"Oh, is that why you were attracted to me, then?" Beau teased her. "And they told me I'd never find anyone by looking like this."

Mirroring Karolina's move from earlier, Beau kissed the back of her hand before letting go.

"Kick the paperwork's ass. I know it'll be boring, but I'll make it up to you tonight," she said with a pointed smirk.

[solarhippie]

Karolina chuckled a little, her smile on the coy side as she glanced down, briefly.

Then she looked back up. "Thank you," she said, some hint of a smirk tugging on the corners of her own lips. "And thanks so much for the coffee, too." No, really. She appreciated the hell out of that.

[notallbluemonks]

"Sure," Beau replied, "and we can make the coffee a regular thing too, right?"

She started to head for the door. "I'm gonna go bug Fjord, maybe give him a hard time about what he put his students through this week. Text me when you get home so I can get ready, 'kay?"

And then, because she couldn't help herself, she paused in the doorway and blew Karolina a kiss. "See you tonight."