girl genius ¹ ≫ young tony stark

thirty two

Shelby glanced at her watch, knowing she needed to leave soon. "Okay, go ahead then."

"Okay, so first I opened up the bottle of Chardonnay, and then I put on my sweatpants, and then I turned on the TV and Beetlejuice was on, so I was like 'hell yeah', and then I finished off the first bottle. Then, Beetlejuice was over, so I got up to open the second bottle, and I couldn't remember where I had put the wine corker, so I went looking for it, and then ..." Maggie's eyes went wide and she clapped her hands. "Right! Phone call! The phone rang and it was some guy for you—"

"Some guy?" Shelby questioned, cutting Maggie off. "Who?"

Maggie shrugged. "I dunno, Shelbs. Said he was a friend from MIT."

Shelby's breath hitched in her phone. Robbo called all the time, but she had a feeling it hadn't been him. "Was it Rob?" She questioned as she casually took a sip of her coffee.

"Mmm, no, I don't think so." The brunette said with a shake of her head. "Doesn't ring a bell."

Shelby took a deep breath before saying a name that she hadn't uttered in a long time. "Tony?"

"Yeah, Tony!" Maggie replied. "Isn't he that douchebag?"

Shelby nodded, setting her coffee cup down. "Yeah, that just about sums it up."

"Anyways, I said you were out with Adam and he said to not take a message, that he'd call back later." Maggie stated.

"So he didn't give you a number?" The redhead asked.

Maggie shook her head. "No number, just the name. How'd he get our number anyways?"

Shelby rolled her eyes, and a smirk overcame the nervous expression on her face. "Robbo."

"Robbo's your hottie ex-college-boyfriend, right?" Maggie asked. "You know, the one you have a picture of on your desk?"

Shelby rolled her eyes. "It's a picture of all of three of us, Maggie. Me, Robbo, and ..."

"And Tony." Maggie finished with a smirk. "Mhmm. He who shall not be named." The girl winked across the table as the redhead. "I see the kind of girl you are, Shelby Colewell."

Shelby rolled her eyes and stood to rinse off her dishes. "Whatever, Mags. I've got to get to work."

The redhead grabbed her briefcase and lunch, then headed out of the apartment and downstairs towards her Jeep. As she backed out of her parking spot, she realized the nagging feeling she'd woken up with was gone. Instead, it was replaced with a different one.

Tony Stark had tried to call her, and she'd missed it. She had no way to call Tony back, and only one man stood in between this: Robert Everett.

As she got to work, Shelby was thankful to see that Adam's car wasn't in his parking spot yet. She usually looked forward to meeting him in the parking lot and walking towards their offices together, but that day, she was thankful to not see him with what was on her brain.

She quickly raced towards her office, saying a short 'good morning' to the few co-workers that she saw on her way. She had time before her day really started, so she quickly dialed Robbo's phone number, knowing he wouldn't be at work for a few hours yet, as he was in Seattle.

"Hello?" His groggy voice filled her ears after he finally answered. She normally would have felt bad about obviously waking him up, but not that day. Shelby was slightly mad at him for giving Tony her phone number and then not telling her so.

"Robert!" Shelby's voice was a bit louder than she had intended.

"Shelby?" Robbo asked as he stifled a yawn. "Is everything okay?"