[color=E5D0FF][CENTER][h3][b]E L I[/b][/h3][/CENTER][/color]
[hr]

Eli decided to chow down on some of her meal as she gave the guy some time to speak. She looked up at him as she chewed, a casual expression on her face. “[b]Oh, uh,[/b]” He began, but he was staring at the screen of his phone with a blank expression. Eli glanced between the look in his eyes, the slightly agape mouth, and the tense way he was holding his phone. She guessed that he’d been staring at the messaging app; maybe at the girl’s empty inbox. “[b]Sorry.[/b]” He said as he put his phone away and looked up at her. Although it felt like he wasn’t really looking at her. His eyes had this faraway look to them.

“[b]I'm Archie. Archie Anderson.[/b]" He grinned sheepishly. Eli took his hand, giving it a gentle shake. One side of her lips curled into an amused smile as she did so. "[b]I've been aboard about a month and a half. The doctors back home said I gots a condition and all.[/b]" Eli grinned and shook her head at his joke. Didn’t everyone have a “condition” on this boat?

She noticed the faraway look in his eyes turn into panick and her eyebrows rose slightly in an expression of concern. [i]What is this guy thinking? He doesn’t think I’m hitting on him, right?[/i]

“[b]And you? It's nice to meet you.[/b]”

Eli smiled and nodded her head as a subtle bow. She opened her mouth to introduce herself, but was stopped short by the arrival of none other but Radvi. She stared at the officer for a moment, barely noticing that Archie had scattered his phone once more. After all the time Eli spent searching for Radvi, he was going to show up at the [i]mall[/i]? With his fancy tech glasses and casual smile. As if he didn’t know Eli had a million questions to ask him.

“[b]Officer Radvi, sir.[/b]” Her new buddy Archie said after grabbing his phone from the ground. Eli glanced between the two. How did these two know each other? Archie must be quite a little troublemaker if he had already met one of The Promise’s finest. 

Eli took a moment to give Radvi a confused look before shrugging it off. “You’re a hard man to find, Radvi.” She felt no difference between calling him Officer Radvi and Radvi. They were two in the same. “Your cheek is looking better. Would you like to grab a coffee tomorrow to catch up?”

She was just about to mention the blue goop when she noticed Archie staring past Radvi. Her eyes followed his gaze to a girl only a little their junior walking towards them. She had raven black hair, a short but lean build, and walked like she was bearing a heavy weight on her shoulders. Her clothes were dark, but she wore it in a way that made it work. She was a dark type of beautiful, and she could definitely picture Archie with this girl.

When her eyes turned to lock with Archie’s, Eli worried for a moment if he was going to pass out. From far away he would appear to be having a casual chat, but up close she could see how scared he was. He made a noise that sounded like all of the air rushed out of his lungs and spoke. [i]Thank god he didn’t pass out.[/i] “[b]That’s her.[/b]”

Eli couldn’t help but smile. [i]Love. This guy’s in love.[/i] Probably his first, by the looks of it. The first time Eli felt in love with someone, which was a [i]loong, [b]long[/b][/i] time ago, she’d felt like there were butterflies in her stomach and a bomb in her heart set to explode in t-minus one second. [i]God, this is painful to see. How can I help this guy out? I don’t know anything about this girl, and by the looks of it I only have a minute to give him advice.[/i]

She decided to just tell him what she wished someone had told her a long time ago. “Look, Archie. You’re never going to know if she likes you unless you tell her how you feel.” She leaned in a little so he could hear her clearly.

“Be yourself around her. And be [i]confident[/i] too. Girls like guys that are sure about how they feel. You just need to show her. Get her alone, somewhere peaceful, tell her that you feel something towards her, and ask her out.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “I’m Eli by the way. I wish you all of the luck in the world. She’ll say yes. I can feel it in my bones.”

She slowly sat back in her chair and took a bite of her food. Her eyes glanced up at Radvi and she hoped that he understood the situation as well. If he didn’t, then he would in a moment. Hopefully he would respond to her earlier comments.