#mannette

Things with Vienna Ferrell didn't exactly work out as Maxwell had expected it to. The dinner had been nice, the evening fairly eventful and comfortable, but when moves were made, stars didn't exactly fly. Maxwell understood that it was primarily his fault, that he had built up this image of her in his head that did not exactly fit in with reality. And she had quite possibly done the same thing. But Maxwell realized that was the whole point of this thing, this business of seeing people. To learn and understand what he liked and what he didn't like, to hone in on those characteristics he actually desired versus the ones he idealized. Most of all, Maxwell learned not to take it too seriously, not to get in way over his head with this sort of thing and try so bloody hard. He had tried so desperately to impress Vienna that he had very much lost sight of what was important and that was understanding her.

Take things slower, Maxwell, but also faster, he told himself. Such an instruction was admittedly very contradictory and confusing. Take things slower in the sense that he ought not to be thinking about rushing into a claim or marriage to fulfill the needs of his family and estate. Not rush head-long into commitments. Take things faster to be less - not selective but picky in his partners, seek other ways of fulfilment and satisfaction and development and do it quickly. Not to over-think things the way he had done with Vienna, desperately selling himself on an idea that didn't really exist.

And that was how he ended up inviting Annette Miller over. It was perhaps a little bit foolish, not to mention somewhat creepy on his part to lie about his intentions. But he couldn't quite muster up the level of courage to actually say the words. More than that, he had a distinct feeling that she wouldn't exactly indulge him in it as readily, or at the very least would question it online. He didn't want to bother with that, and hopefully she had no issue with the slight deception.