Apple polisher

[Raphael Malai]

Professor Jack, when are you coming back to school? :(
I miss you very much.

Jack Ripley

(AHA! When you want to interact with Jack but you can't but you still find a way anyway. <3)

[Jack Ripley]

Hopefully in the next week or so.
It's a little difficult to tell.

Wait a minute. How did you get this number?

[Raphael Malai]

You gave it to me at the start of term when we met at that noisy bar downtown...
But I think you were drunk at the time. :)

Are you sick?

[Jack Ripley]

That sounds like me.....

No, I'm fine. I'm taking care of my boyfriend. He's
Under the weather.

[Raphael Malai]

Your boyfriend? Is it that administrator helper person?

I hope he feels better!

[Jack Ripley]

Yeah something like that.

I'm doing everything in my power to help him get better.
I'm sure he appreciates the well wishes.

[Raphael Malai]

Professor
I need your help

How did you make him your boyfriend?
There's a person I want to impress but he's very... stubborn

[Jack Ripley]

It was a mutual wooing. I flirted with him and he made me soup. And card games were involved.
Honestly there is no recipe to it. You just have to stick your heart out there and hope they'll have it.

[Raphael Malai]

Soup? Card games? What kind of soup?
Were they magic cards?

[Jack Ripley]

It doesn't matter. It will be something different for you.

But...

A few things I picked up in my field might help you.
1 let them talk about themselves. Bonus is that you learn about them from them!
2 share a secret with them. It shows you trust them.
3 don't try to be perfect in front of them. Flaws endear us to people and make them more relatable.
4 time time time. Time spent breeds familiarity and fondness.

[Raphael Malai]

...he makes fun of me when I tell him things like... how I think dates are fun.

And he says my flaws are disgusting...

And
He's full of ennui and he can't stop googling everything

Are you sure they weren't magic cards? Maybe a potion would help......

[Jack Ripley]

Honestly here?
I don't think he sounds like a good person for you.
Unless he's joking with you.... it sounds like he's emotionally abusing you.

[Raphael Malai]

Emotionally abusing?

Is that bad?
He didn't say I was disgusting...

Oh and he offered to fix my flaws...

[Jack Ripley]

Hm.

Is he upsetting you with his comments?
Do you find yourself trying to change yourself to fit what he says he wants or likes in a person?

It's ambitious to try and fix flaws in somebody. And not a bad thing, really....
but are the flaws he sees in you actual flaws or something he doesn't like about you?

[Raphael Malai]

Sometimes it upsets me...

But he did let me come here with him! And he did say he'd go have an espresso with me. I think he likes me but he won't admit it. He won't even say we're friends!

Feelings are very complicated things, professor. How do you manage them? Once you have them they don't seem to stop