FIVE YEARS AGO

Speechless: Whenever Brady would run into Belle in the hallway or in a classroom, Brady would be so nervous that he could not talk and could only stare at Belle, therefore, Belle believed Brady to be “creepy.”

The first conversation...6 months later: Belle was coughing heavily during class and after several silent minutes and the usual staring, Brady finally had the courage to speak.

”Do you want some gum?
For your cough?”

Shocked, Belle said
“Yes” and “Thank you.”

End of conversation.

A few weeks later: Admist the day of finals, Belle’s computer seemed to die on her before being able to transfer her completed project to turn in class. Luckily, the instructor allowed Belle the following weekend to redo her assignment. Unfortunately, Belle had an extremely tight schedule between work and attending school limiting her to be able to use the school lab computers. To alleviate some stress, a fellow classmate had offered to play a game of pool at a local tavern before returning to work. Brady was also invited who had declined the offer. However, Brady decided to actually talk to Belle before she left. He mentioned that he happened to notice that she drove with “Nevada plates” and heard she was from Las Vegas. He mentioned that his friend lived there to which he visited quite often. Unknowingly, his friend happened to be the boss of Belle’s friend in Las Vegas and Belle resented him because of his poor business ethics and the lack of respect for her friend. Brady tried to quickly change the subject thereafter.

Belle then asked, “So are you going to play pool with us?”

Brady replied, “Yes.”

“Didn’t you say earlier that you weren’t going?”

Brady answered, “Ahh...yes.”

That same evening, Belle returned to the school lab after work to begin her assignment. An hour later, the security guard closed the lab 3 hours early so he could attend a party.

The next day: Belle again returned to the lab the following morning, a Saturday. With only having a few hours to work on the assignment, Belle again had to return to work for the rest of the day and by then the school lab would be closed. Frantic, Belle called her good friend Jimmy who had a laptop. Gratefully, Jimmy offered his computer and would drop it off at her house at midnight on his way to meet a friend. He specifically instructed her about his computer’s bug and how to avoid it. After saying good-bye and a million thanks, Jimmy leaves. Belle turns on the computer and a blue screen graced the monitor. Without a doubt, Jimmy’s computer crashed with only touching one button.

The next and final day: In the early morning, Jimmy picked up his laptop and had to find help to solve the problem. Belle was left again without a computer to complete her final. Fortunately, Belle’s boss called early to check-up if she completed her assignment overnight, after telling her the situation, her boss forced her to not work that day and find a way to complete it. With some last hope, Belle called as many people as she could and she happened to remember seeing Brady with a laptop. Hours later, not one person returned her call. On the way to work believing she would fail the class, Belle gets a phone call.

“Hi, I got your message.”

“Who’s this?”

“Brady.”

“Ohh! Hi! Yes, I’m in dire need of a computer...blah blah blah... and was wondering if I could borrow your laptop?”

“Yeah sure! But it’s a Mac.”

“Oh that’s right, everybody called you the Mac guy. I work off on PCs though.”

“Well, that’s your problem right there.”

“What is?” Belle questioned.

“The PC. Piece-of-Crap. If you had a Mac, you wouldn’t have this problem to begin. However, I do have a PC that I use to review browsers with.”

“Oh, can I use the PC?”

“Yeah, I have three computers, you’re welcome to use them.”

That same day was also Father’s Day so Belle met his father and step-mother as well over dinner. That same night, Brady helped Belle to finish her deadline. Thereafter, Brady and Belle were inseperable.

Moral of the story:

Belle learned that Brady was right, PC’s do suck. Also, that Brady wasn’t “creepy” he was just shy and just needs lots of coffee to talk non-stop.

Brady learned that Belle’s name was not “Cutie” afterall. Also, that Belle has bad luck with computers and to never let her touch a source of technology where the files were not backed-up beforehand.

In the end, it just seemed they were meant to “B” (ha ha).