Beautiful Day (Devin)

[Tessa Verity]

Orphans... oh, she would love to work with orphans somehow.

"That's really pretty amazing. It must be wonderful that your family is in a position to do that," She said, wathing him as she spoke. He didn't seem to thrilled about it, but he didn't seem bored by his family's work either. He was just kind of... hard to read, actually.

[Devin Sheppard]

So she was a goody goody, even better. She might prove a challenge after all. "It helps having family in high places with good connections, I was just lucky to be born into it. I like to help those in need, whenever I can." Especially when they were lying on their backs needing him or needing to be brought down a peg or two from their high morals. Though that wasn't really the reason he did it, he just enjoyed the challenge of a moralistic girl falling into his bed.

[Tessa Verity]

"That's really good," she said with a nod. She liked people who gave back, especially those who were really very wealthy. "I've always felt that if you were blessed with more than you need, there's no reason to keep it all. The world may not be perfect, but we can try and make it as good as possible."

Her book was fully closed and sitting beside her now as she found something she could talk to him about. The warm breeze blew her hair around her face like the women in paintings.

[Devin Sheppard]

Devin leaned closer by laying back so that his head was resting on top of his hands above his head, then rolling over onto his side closer. "You're right the world isn't perfect, and I'm sure you do a wonderful job of making it as good as possible when you want to."

[Tessa Verity]

Tessa frowned.

He was over the subject and humoring her now. Her fingers slid over the cover of her book, but she didn't want to be rude.

"What is your parents' business?" She asked, switching topics for him. "You said you would take it over."

[Devin Sheppard]

"My father owns a wizarding publishing company. What about you, what do your parents do?" He answered her question but he was more interested in talking about her.


(sorry it's short)

[Tessa Verity]

He turned her questions back on her too easily, and it made her frown. "Well, my mother is a teacher at a muggle school, and my father is employed at the Ministry." They didn't own companies or anything, but her family wasn't hurting either.

[Devin Sheppard]

He watched her as she spoke, her frown made her look almost as adorable as her smile had. He reached over and with his fingers on both hands touched the edges of her mouth to move them into a smile again. "You look much cuter when you smile than when you frown."

His charming smile didn't leave and he winked at her as he spoke. He wanted to touch her hair and he let his fingers slide from her mouth to touch a lock of hair that had blown across her face to tuck it behind her ear gently.

[Tessa Verity]

She pulled back, if only slightly, when he touched her. He was probably just one of those guys that was very touchy feely. She could handle that, but she wasn't sure why it felt strange to her. He was flirting with her... she understood that much. She just wasn't sure why. It was rather out of the blue, but she gave him the benefit of the doubt for having good intentions.

"Then I'll remember to smile more," she said, letting the smile he put on her lips linger.

[Devin Sheppard]

"Good, I like when you smile much better." Devin let his eyes linger on hers, his fingers slowly withdrew from her hair. He found himself attracted to her smile and for some unknown reason he smiled too. She had one of those contagious smiles and he didn't even realize it as he leaned back onto the grass looking at her.

"What other things make you smile, Tessa?" he spoke softly almost lazy but with interest.

[Tessa Verity]

"A lot of things make me smile," She answered, unable to help how she looked at him. She was allowed to look, and she was definitely curious about what was going on. But she couldn't deny either that she had felt something very similar to unease when his fingers were on her lips and in her hair. That was not something to be discounted.

"I like being able to make other people smile, so... whatever makes them happy."

[Devin Sheppard]

"Helping people to smile makes you happy... but that doesn't answer my question. What makes Tessa smile? Surely there are things that you like that make you smile besides other people. Like.. what are you favorite things?" Devin wasn't deterred, he was determined to find out more about her.. what things could be used to win her over.. what he could do to make her smile.

[Tessa Verity]

Tess was one of those people who adapted to whoever she was around. She liked to please people, and she would like what they liked in order to make them comfortable in a conversation or situation.

So when she was put on the spot like that, with someone she didn't know well, she wasn't sure how to answer.

"Well... I enjoy the outdoors," she said softly, watching him carefully. "And reading, oobviously." Both were things he could have guessed from finding her reading by the lake.

[Devin Sheppard]

Charities, outdoors, children, books... she was definitely full of herself and was likely holier than thou too. "And if you had a cause to fight for, what would it be?" She seemed the type who liked causes, the do gooder type seemed so fitting. His eyes lowered to look over her body but he quickly returned back to her eyes. Yes if he had a cause, it could easily be winning her into his bed.

[Tessa Verity]

"Homeless children," Tess answered without any kind of hesitation. Tess loved children and felt that every single one of them should be loved and cherished, and if she could help make that happen, she certainly would.

"Homeless children would be my cause. Do you have one?"

[Devin Sheppard]

Homeless children... it figured of course, she seemed the type to care for those she saw in need. He wasn't heartless but he wasn't one for causes either. "Does winning you over count as a cause?" His charming smile was in full force, and he wondered how she would respond to a more pointed flirtation.

[Tessa Verity]

"Hardly," she replied, careful not to frown around him again. "I'm serious, Devin," she said, saying his name for the first time since he had given it to her.

"Everyone has a cause. Something they care about, the one thing they would fight for. What's yours?"



(Sorry it's short)

[Devin Sheppard]

Devin caught the use of his name, and inwardly was grinning adding a point to his mental scorecard in his favor. However she hadn't flirted back which wasn't a good sign... she was serious. She was definatly going to be a hard one to crack if he had to keep this up.

"I can't say I have one then... not really. Not yet. But maybe you could change my mind." He wasn't adverse to causes, he just wasn't the type to have one. His cause was keeping himself entertained.

[Tessa Verity]

She raised an eyebrow, wondering just how quickly he would back out and lose interest in any causes. Then, she inwardly chastised herself for thinking like this. She had no right to assume anything about him. Maybe he was right and just hadn't found the right one yet.

Still, she wanted to see...

"There's a soup kitchen type thing right before Chistmas... it's just a big Christmas dinner for the people in London who otherwise wouldn't have one. We could always use extra hands... if you're interested." She added the last part almost as a challange.

[Devin Sheppard]

A soup kitchen.. was she serious? "I'm sure I could come up with some way to help you then." Sure he could support her cause, money wasn't really an object and if she wanted some hands... he could hire a few helpers for her, maybe lend her a few house elves for the day and donate some money to the kitchens. In his mind, of course this was helping. He was sure that throwing money at it usually worked and the fact that it would look good for his family was just a bonus since really he was just doing it to see if he could get the girl into bed.