{{Dedicated to @h0neylips for all her comments and kind words}}

"No, I am just saying, if I were ever stuck in an elevator with Chris Evans, I would jump his bones and it shouldn't count as cheating."

Rhea watched as her two best friends bantered back and forth about coming up with a list. Willa had seen it in one of the countless TV shows that she watched, and it was basically a list of five celebrities they could sleep with if presented with the opportunity and the other wouldn't make a problem out of it.

"So you're saying banging Chris Evans wouldn't be cheating?" Wade asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." The Cheshire cat smile on Willa's face made Rhea snort.

"Good," Wade said after a moment's pause, his features stretching into a lazy grin. "Because he's on my list too."

As Rhea was snickering at her friend's antics, she heard the bell above the shop's door jingle, and she couldn't help but immediately turn her head to see who it was, just like she'd been doing for the past ten minutes.

Floyd had said during the phone call that he would come to the ice cream shop in an hour to meet her and that was exactly fifty seven minutes ago. In the past ten minutes, she'd had four false alarms; every time she looked at the door in hopes that it would be Floyd, it was either a ten year old with their parents in tow or a couple of teens, walking into the store hand in hand.

As the minutes passed, she became more anxious, giving only half of her attention to the conversation her friends carried out before her and fidgeting in her seat. She knew Wade and Willa were aware of her distracted, and more importantly distressed state and she was pretty sure they were being ridiculous in the hopes of taking her mind off the confrontation she was about to have with Floyd.

She usually wasn't one to confront her problems. No, she chose to bury them under lots of ice cream and TV show marathons. This time, however, she was willing to put her heart on the line and confront the problem at hand headfirst; simply because she wanted this thing she had with Floyd –whatever it was– to work.

Her stomach began to do somersaults when it was –finally– Floyd who walked through the door. He squinted a little as his eyes swept over all the booths slowly until his gaze landed on Rhea's face, who was already looking at him, silently waiting for him to notice her.

His hair was windswept, all ruffled in the back and slapped across his forehead on the front. His face broke into a grin at the sight of Rhea and he approached her with quick steps, all the while never breaking eye contact with her. Despite the nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach, Rhea couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Hey," Floyd said after he'd come to stand by the booth Rhea shared with Wade and Willa.

"Hey man," Wade said, standing up from his seat to extend a hand for Floyd to shake. Rhea thought she imagined the slight wince that momentarily flitted across Floyd's features as he shook Wade's hand.

"We were just leaving," Willa said, grabbing her phone that sat on the table and throwing it carelessly inside her purse. "You kids behave yourselves."

Willa slid out of the booth after giving them both a sly grin and reminding Rhea to call her in the evening. Wade stayed behind for a second longer while the two boys exchanged a look that certainly held some meaning that was lost to Rhea. Then, Wade patted Floyd on his back once before he took off after his girlfriend who was already halfway out the door.

"Hey," Floyd said once again, as he sat down across from Rhea where her two best friends had been sitting moments ago.

"Hi," Rhea replied, her voice barely above a whisper, a small smile flickering across her lips.

Floyd made a point of taking Rhea's appearance in once he'd settled in his seat, smirking at her when she started fidgeting. She was uncomfortable with how she looked like she lived under a bridge, but she decided she could play it cool.

"Thought you should see me at my worst, y'know," she said, gesturing to herself with a grin plastered across her features. "Get a sense of what you're really signing up for."

"I've seen you like this before." Floyd grinned at her. He pointed towards her head with his index finger as he said, "You even had the added towel wrapped around your head, remember?"

"Oh God, I'd totally forgotten about that," Rhea said, burying her face in her hands in embarrassment at the memory of how he'd showed up unannounced at her doorstep and seen her fresh out of a shower and nursing a hangover, no less.

"I haven't. And I don't think I will. Ever." He emphasized the last words, clearly having a bit too much fun teasing Rhea.

"Well, the good news is it doesn't get any worse than this." She chuckled at her own joke while Floyd remained entirely too sober, so that it got uncomfortable for her to be laughing pretty fast.

"For the record," he looked intently into her eyes, "I'd think you look pretty even if you were wearing a potato sack."

Rhea felt her breath catch in her throat at the sincerity of his words. She matched the intensity of his gaze, her eyelashes slightly fluttering as she peered at him through them. She felt like she was under some sort of trance, staring into the eyes of this enigmatic boy before her. One second he was so sweet with her, giving her compliments and the next he was manhandling her, being rude to her friends in a way that was unacceptable. This thought reminded her of the actual reason she'd asked Floyd to meet up, effectively breaking her out of her reverie.

"So." She cleared her throat. "Aren't you curious as to why I wanted to meet?"

"I assumed you just couldn't stay away," Floyd said, giving her an easy grin, though she could see that it didn't reach his eyes.

"Actually," Rhea said cautiously, drawing the word out, "I wanted to talk to you about the other night."

Floyd sat up in his seat at that, setting his jaw. From the way his posture went rigid in the matter of seconds, she could tell he knew where this was going. Thinking beating around the bush would only serve to make the situation more uncomfortable for the both of them, Rhea jumped right in.

"I don't feel comfortable with the way you treated me last night, or Caleb for that matter," she said. She spoke slowly, uttering each word cautiously to make sure her words had the desired effect. "I am not some thing you can stake your claim on."

"I would never think that," Floyd was quick to reassure her, shaking his head vehemently.

"Then why would you act that way?"

"It's– I haven't had the best of luck with relationships." Floyd heaved out a sigh, letting his head drop into his hands for a moment. Then, he ran his hands through his hair and looked back up to her. Rhea realized he wasn't planning on commenting on it any further.

"Could you, perhaps, elaborate?" she asked tentatively, leaning forward in her seat.

"I had a girlfriend back in Boston. I thought we were crazy about each other." He let out a bitter laugh. "Apparently not. Three months in, I started to suspect things. She wouldn't even let me touch her phone, her excuses to get out of seeing me started to pile up, she grew distant. Eventually, I learned she was cheating on me. She had been almost the whole time."

With all his easy attitude and smooth ways, Rhea hadn't ever thought that Floyd might have his own insecurities, his own heartbreaks buried in his past –things that would prevent him from keeping a level head in relationships, make him act unreasonably.

"That... sucks is all I can say," she said, reaching out to take his hand. "But Floyd, you have to trust me if it's going to work out between us. You have to understand that I am not her, that I am not a cheater."

"I know, I am sorry." His head was hung low and he couldn't meet her eyes for more than a couple of seconds. Shame and a hint of regret were written all over his face, making Rhea's heart go out to him. He'd been broken in a way that was hard to fix. She was familiar with the way it worked –she'd been where he was. Even though she'd found out less than a month into dating that asshole, it had still hurt and she'd lain awake one too many nights thinking about why she hadn't been enough.

"Hey," she said, prompting him to look up at her. "It's okay. I get it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I've been there." He gave her a curious look at that, which she dismissed by saying, "It's a long story. Just know that I'm not holding it against you. And don't ever do something like that again."

"Yes ma'am." Floyd gave her a formal salute, making Rhea let out a short, airy laugh.

"Now that that's out of the way, there is something else we really should talk about," she said, with a glint in her eyes.

"Yeah, what's that?" Floyd said, noticing the change in Rhea's mood immediately and perking up himself.

"You see there is this thing Wade and Willa were talking about before you got here. It's a list..."

***