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January 8th, 1990 — Cocoa Beach, FL 7:40 PM, EST
Though Shelby adored her Jeep, Adam's sleek, black Mercedes (almost) put it to shame. He drove her down the coast, heading south out of Canaveral and into neighboring Cocoa Beach, which was a famous tourist spot. Despite the influx of visitors, however, it also happened to have some of the best seafood restaurants in Florida, and, like Shelby, Adam was apparently a sucker for fish, shrimp, and all things aquatic.
"You look beautiful, if I haven't said that already." Adam said with a flirty grin as Shelby flushed.
"Thank you." Shelby replied with a smile.
She'd always considered her intellect her most valuable feature, but it did make a girl feel good when a handsome man like Dr. Adam Mitchell called her beautiful.
They'd just gotten done with dinner and were now driving over to the beach. With their busy schedules, neither had taken much time to explore the things that people typically loved about living in Florida. Shelby was used to dreary New England, and Adam had grown up in London, which really wasn't much better.
"What is your opinion on beaches, Shelby?" Adam questioned as they walked down the empty beach, shoes in hand.
"My opinion on beaches?" Shelby repeated, a hint of a smile on her face. "Well, I don't know. They're nice." She stated with a bit of a laugh. "What is your opinion on beaches, Adam?"
"I happen to think they are quite lovely, actually." Adam replied as he bent over to tug up the bottoms of his pants legs. "Care to take a dip, Shelby?"
Shelby shrugged her shoulders and waded in the water, her toes slipping into the warm waters of the Atlantic.
Adam rolled up his pants and joined her, a content smile on his face. Though they were enjoying a peaceful and happy night away from NASA, Shelby's mind couldn't help but wander back towards work.
Who was going to the moon with Tenacity?
Would she be one of them?
Would Adam?
She'd given the past two years of her life to that company. She worked harder, longer, and faster than anyone else in her department. She kicked ass at everything she did.
Shelby deserved to be on board that ship more than anybody.
"You know, Shelby," Adam began, "It seems as though whenever I talk with you, there's something else on your mind."
Shelby smiled slightly and looked over at her handsome date. "I'm sorry. My mind is always racing. It's hard to turn it off, you know?"
Adam nodded. "I know."
Despite the enjoyable evening, Shelby found herself frowning a bit. Her brain had always worked differently than anyone else that she knew, until, of course, she met Tony in college. While she might have been focused on one thing, there was always part of her brain that was thinking about something else. She could multitask like nobody's business.
