Here comes the Sun[BE10], Matt!

Wednesday April 18th 2012, 10.45pm

She'd barely left the hospital for the past few days, Sophie had caught batflu and it was lucky that Scarlet hadn't. She had barely gotten any sleep as the little girl had taken a turn for the worse and Scarlet lay curled up in the chair beside her bed hardly able to sleep. She had gone home a few times encouraged by the doctors and showered and changed her clothes but that had been it. You always saw some interesting characters down at the hospital didn't you? Like that man that kept popping up who was actually kind of cute.

Doing some sort of ad for batflu awareness and told people not to run like fuck whenever batflu got into town. Although it did seem like a pretty good idea, she'd decided to hold off on orders until batflu had left Evergreen. Verity's Kayla was sick too, so it would all be on hold until everything blew over. The redhead lay with her head resting against the top of the chair as one of the nurses smiled at her and offered her coffee, Scarlet nodded. Caffiene being one of the few things that she couldn't bear to live without ever.

Sophie was fast asleep and it made her smile a little, yes she was six but boy the kid looked cute when she slept. She spotted a familiar face nearby "Hey," she called over in hushed tones due to the fact that most people were asleep at this hour "I thought that you'd finished that ad for batflu what brings you here? Relative that has been struck down by the rats on wings or are you feeling out of it?" the redhead asked raising an eyebrow at him, somehow feeling a little self conscious in her sweatpants and simple t-shirt.

Matthew had been to the hospital a couple of times now, as he had been working on artistic development for a Bat Flu PSA. He had never been to Evergreen before, but he found that he enjoyed what he had seen of the town, though most of his time had been spent at the hospital, taking a look at some of the patients suffering from the disease and interviewing them so that he knew what the illness was really all about, allowing him to more accurately represent it. He was very serious about his work and he wanted to make sure that he didn't leave anything out - however, the PSA's had gone to print yesterday, and yet here he was.

He smiled when Scarlet called him over - though he would not say anything, she was pretty much the reason that he was here. He had met her the first day he had been there, as Sophie, her half sister, had fallen ill. Matthew had noticed instantly that she was attractive, but he didn't know how to go about dealing with something like that - normally he was confident with women, but this was different, she was dealing with a sick child and he was on the job, it wasn't professional for him to hit on her, and she didn't really seem like other women he had known.

"Hey." He walked over to Scarlet, carrying a bag with a soft stuffed bear in it. "I was just doing one last round, you know, making sure that I had everything right - also thought I might check on Sophie." He held the bag out to Scarlet. "I brought her this." It didn't matter to Matthew that Scarlet was wearing sweats - he knew that she was stressed out with the intense sickness of the child, and if Matthew was being perfectly honest, she was gorgeous, even dressed down. "How is she holding up? Any better?" He didn't know many children, but he had taken a liking to Sophie as well, and he wanted to see her get better.

Scarlet smiled at him "Oh I can't wait to see it!" the redhead said "Considering I've never seen any of your work, I'm sure that it'll be great!" Of course it would be good, Matt had put a lot of hardwork in it after all. Seeing the amount of times that Matt had been here, then he'd definitely done his research and his PSA would be an accurate depiction of what bat flu was like. Sophie liked him already, she could tell. She and her younger sister had become quite close so she could tell what the younger girl felt.

Her expression softened when he mentioned that he'd brought a gift for Sophie "Oh that's so sweet of you!" Scarlet smiled, her expression brightening "She'll be thrilled." Scarlet glanced over to the sleeping form of the young dark haired girl. "I daren't wake her up though. The doctors say that she needs all the sleep that she can get and Sophie hasn't been sleeping too good recently." Well that was an understatement, a few hours on and off for the past couple of days. Scarlet had hardly ever been able to sleep very well herself to be totally completely honest.

Scarlet shrugged a little when he asked how she was doing "She'd not as bad as she was, a little better. She got a little worse a few hours ago but apparently she's doing okay now. She's stable and nothing's developed into pneumonia something that I'm thankful for." God almightly, she would have panicked had Sophie developed pneumonia or something even worse. Quite rightly so as her little sister was freaking adorable, Scarlet almost felt like Sophie's mother at this stage. Even though she would rather not be anybody's mom, not when she was only 22 (though nearly 23) years old.

Matthew found himself a bit flushed that she wanted to see his work. He was sure that she was just being polite, but hey, a pretty girl showing interest in what he did? That was something that didn't happen every day - well it did a lot of the time, but most of that was women showing interest in the money that he made, not his actual work. "I'm sure you'll see it around, but I mean, it's a Bat Fly PSA, so it's not really beautiful or anything." He shrugged, not wanting to get her hopes up, seeing as it wasn't totally amazing and artistic work. "Making this whole bat flu think look glamorous was pretty low on the list of things to do, so..." he trailed off with a shrug, not sure of how else to finish that sentence.

He smiled again, glad that she was excited about the bear. He had found it rather soft and cuddly, so he hoped that it was a good one, though it had been a very long time since he had purchased a stuffed animal. "No, just give it to her when she wakes up, I absolutely wouldn't want to be the reason that she got disturbed." He shook his head, potentially too emphatically, but he wanted Scarlet to know that he had no intention of wrestling her half sister from a much needed nap. "There's a gift receipt in the bag, so if she doesn't like it, you can return it, get something she'd like better."

Matthew grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to Scarlet's, hoping that she wouldn't mind having him around for a bit of conversation. He was glad to hear that Sophie was doing better, even if it was just a little bit. 'I'm glad that she's feeling better, I mean, I hope that things continue along that path," he said softly, biting his lip. "And I know this might not be a good time, but I was just wondering if, um...maybe when she's all better you would want to grab dinner, you know, with me?" He was certain that this was one of the worst places to pick someone up, but he didn't know how else to get a hold of her, so it was this or nothing at all.

Wait, did the hot guy she'd been texting and bothering Maggie about all week just ask her out? On like an actual date. Her inner teenage girl side wanted Scarlet to scream at the top of her lungs, then go and call Maggie and Jeze and have a three way call which involved lots and lots of squealing at the top of her lungs. But if she did that, she would probably freak out Matt, the hot guy who might have possibly just asked her on a real date. A date. She hadn't been on a date in absolute ages.

Why the heck did she feel like a teenage girl all of a sudden? She was Scarlet Turner, divorced, single, guardian of one and owner of semi successful business. Yet here she was, feeling like a blushing teenage schoolgirl who wanted to squeal and text her friends to tell them all know that she'd been asked out by the hot guy. Well she hadn't been on a date since high school so this had to be a cause for some (at least mental) celebration. "Of course when Sophie's better, I'd love to go out to dinner with you of course!"

Was she making sense? She didn't feel like she was making sense at all, but still. Scarlet was attempting to be dignified and not be girly at all about this, because that would perhaps be the most stupid thing on the planet right now. Just because a guy like Matt had asked a girl like her out to dinner, did not mean that it necessarily meant anything. Well maybe it did, maybe it didn't but that couldn't stop her from getting a little excited about it. Come on! It was a guy that looked like Matt and was really sweet!

Wait...did she just say yes? He had wondered if this was the wrong time to ask her out, what with her sister being in a hospital, and them, well, being there with her, but he had wanted to, and he had wanted it to be face to face, and there was a chance that the only times he would see her face to face, at least in the near future, would be in this very hospital, and that would make it hard to ask her out without the moment passing, and that had happened to him before - he met a pretty girl, found out that she was funny and kind as well, then waited to long to ask her out and ended up in the friend zone.

The friend zone and Matthew were foes that went back as early as middle school. One of the problems that Matthew had had with girls back then was that he was adorable, but he wasn't "cute" in that sense. He had had baby fat, and it had taken a bit longer than most to lose, so by the time he had gotten older, entered high school, lost his braces, lost the weight and started really growing up, all of the girls that he would have wanted to ask out had already written him off long ago as a friend and nothing more.

"Great!" He smiled, trying to play it cool. He was a big advertising man, after all, he should at least leave the impression that he knew how to get a date, and that he had been expecting her to say yes all along. "When she's feeling better, just shoot me a text or call me, and we'll set something up." He bit his lip. "I can come down here, or you can come up to Indianapolis, or we could meet half way, I'm pretty flexible." He stopped talking, wondering if it was too much. Sure, just because he was in advertising didn't make him Don Draper...in fact, he was more the awkward artist who put on a professional persona when he was at work out of sheer ambition and drive. On the inside, he was still the awkward chubby kid with acne and braces.

Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. By the calm way he was acting, it seemed like she'd gotten herself a date with Mr Smooth. Oh god. She hadn't accidentally agreed to hook up with a player had she? Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. I really should stop mentally saying oh god. Scarlet thought annoyed with herself. Had he been expecting her to say yes all along? What was he? Some kind of weird human incarnation of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. No, she was not a bimbette or whatever they called those Gaston stalkers in red and yellow.

Wait, there had been a third one hadn't there? Oh yeah. The one in green. In Scarlet's memory they had all melded into one being, one scary being. Either way, she was not a bimbette. Was she now? Now that she had agreed to go out with a possible human incarnation of Gaston from one of her favorite ever disney movies as a kid, did that make her a bimbette? Nope, she was most definitely Belle or perhaps Babette but the less flirty version and less feather duster-y. Because she was not under any circumstances an enchanted human feather duster.

"Yeah sure that sounds great," grinned Scarlet, I don't have a stupid grin on my face do I? the redhead internally panicked feeling like a complete idiot but somehow managing to pull it together on the outside. "I'll give you my number?" Scarlet suggested quietly rummaging through her pockets until she pulled out her phone and quickly read out her phone number "You can call me or text me or something anytime!" she smiled somehow feeling nervous when she knew that she really shouldn't be nervous and feeling like a complete idiot "And I'll let you know when Sophie's better!"

Had she said any one of those Beauty and the Beast references out loud, Matthew would have been completely lost. He was a good guy, but he hadn’t watched a Disney movie since he was a child himself, and even then, he hadn’t really retained too much of it. He wouldn’t have made fun of her, and in all honesty, on his way home, he probably would have gone to rent a copy of Beauty and the Beast so that the next time she brought it up, he didn’t look like a fool who had no idea what she was saying, but she kept those thoughts to herself, and he was grateful for that…or would have been, had he been able to read her thoughts.

This was an awkward meeting, and asking someone out in a hospital? Far from the most romantic thing he could think of, but what was done was done, and she had said yes, so really, it hadn’t been a wash! He wasn’t a Casanova, and he definitely wasn’t any type of Gaston. He may look the part, all Armani suits and Prada shoes, but he was no Don Draper type, and there would be no screwing around on the women he was seeing. He didn’t like those games, in fact, he much preferred a solid relationship with a nice girl like Scarlet to something fast and fleeting like the women that threw themselves around on a stripper pole…which was why he had asked Scarlet out, and not one of them.

Within seconds, she was pulling out her phone, and in order to keep up, he did the same, saving the number, and smiling as he sent her a text. “There, now you have mine too.” He knew that he had to get back to work, and while he didn’t want to, sometimes work had to come before pleasure – besides, Scarlet’s attention should probably be on Sophie anyways. “Look, as much as I would like to talk to you, and believe me, I would rather do that then my job, I should get back to work, but call me, okay?” He smiled. “And that three day rule? Feel free to toss it out the window.” He shot her a wink as he walked out, hoping that he had been charming, and not too blunt.