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.

But, as she was beginning to realize, people didn't always see things the same way she did. Instead of being focused on two things at once, people, like Adam, thought she wasn't paying attention.

"Care to discuss?" Adam questioned.

The redhead sighed and shook her head. "No, I don't think so." She replied with a hint of a smile. Work was the last thing she wanted to discuss with him.

Adam grinned and shook his head. "Okay, Shelby Colewell. That's how it's going to be, then? You're to remain a mystery?"

Shelby smirked. "That's how it's going to be."

January 8th, 1990 — New York, NY
8:02 PM, EST

Tony looked down at the piece of paper he held in his hand with butterflies in his stomach. Shelby's name and phone number were scrawled across it in his messy handwriting. It was so easy now to reach her. All he had to do was grab the phone on the wall and dial the number, then wait.

Would she even want to talk to him after all this time? Surely she had moved on to bigger and better things.

Before he could psych himself out even further, Tony made the decision that if he found that Shelby had nothing to say to him, he would just apologize and end their conversation. He couldn't move on with his life anymore until there was no hard feelings between him and Shelby.

He set a tentative hand on the phone receiver before picking it up and carefully dialing the number. The last thing he needed to do was accidentally drop in on a retired grandma who shared a similar phone number to Shelby's.

As he reached the last number, his heart was pounding. This was it. He was finally going to put aside his stubbornness and talk to Shelby.

The phone line rang longer than Tony expected, causing him to almost cancel the whole thing and hang up the phone. Right as he was about to put the receiver down, a voice peeped through on the other end.

"Hello?"

But, it wasn't Shelby. Tony hadn't prepared for what to do if Shelby hadn't answered the phone. Of course she had a roommate. Robbo had told Tony she had a roommate! Why didn't he prepare for that outcome?

"Hi, is Shelby there?" He asked carefully.

The woman on the other line was silent for a few moments before asking, "Who are you?"

Tony smirked before replying, "Who are you?"

There was a snort of a laugh on the other side before the woman spoke again. "Touché. My name is Maggie."

"Okay, Maggie. My name is Tony. I'm an ... an old friend of Shelby's, from-"

"From MIT. Yeah, yeah. I've heard about you." Maggie snapped. "Listen, Tony, I'm sorry, but Shelby isn't here right now. She's out on a date, actually, with this hunky co-worker of hers. I'll let her know you called."

Shelby was out on a date? Well duh, of course she was. She was a gorgeous, intelligent, and extremely desirable young woman in the prime of her life. Of course Shelby was out on a date.

But that didn't matter to Tony. Well, it shouldn't have, anyway. But it did.

"Oh, well, umm, you know what, Maggie? Never mind. Forget I called. Not important." Tony spat out, his teeth gritting together. "I'll try her later." He said before quickly hanging up the phone.

Hearing that Shelby was out on a date had gotten under Tony's skin. It had killed any confidence he had mustered up at all. There was no way he could talk to Shelby now. He couldn't. There it was again, his stubbornness. God, he hated himself sometimes.

He didn't want to hear about Shelby going out with some eligible young genius bachelor, who actually had his life sorted out and was extremely successful at the whole "living life to the fullest" thing. Tony could imagine the type of guy. It was the kind of guy Shelby deserved.

She didn't need some slob like him weighing her down, even as only a friend.

Tony leaned against the wall, staring at a framed photograph his mother had hanging there. It was his father at a younger age, standing next to a brunette woman he did not recognize and a familiar blond man. At Tony's age, Howard was designing shields for Captain America and helping the US win World War II.

What did Tony have to show for his smarts? A piece of paper from MIT and nothing more. That needed to change.

Instead of moping around the house all day, focusing on the fun life he'd had in college, Tony would grow up.

He'd go to work.

He'd get things done.

He'd get his life together.

No more partying, no more sleeping around.

If Tony wanted a serious future, he needed to start focusing on his present and less on his past.