To his surprise, Baldur found the same girl who had just insulted him by his side as he was putting things in the blender to make the first batch of pina coladas. Even more surprisingly, she was apologizing for the remark without him even having said anything. In Baldur’s experience, people rarely apologized for such things without him calling them out on it.<br/><br/>There was a somewhat bewildered expression on his face for a moment before he finally responde,<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(147, 101, 184)">“Nah, it’s cool. I understand; a lot of guys can be real douchebags to women to swell their egos or some shit. You’re good; I know you weren’t trying to be rude. I’m Baldur.”</span><br/><br/>Taking her hand firmly, he shook it with his sparkling eyes locking with her own. He was clearly a man used to looking people in the eyes when he spoke with them. There was sincerity to his words in that he didn’t seem to hold any animosity toward her, but there was perhaps less of a playful, flirty tone. Big and untamed as he was, he respected boundaries.<br/><br/>Still, the words weren’t hollow and Baldur knew it. Inevitably people would always see him as the dumb jock; by and large, most of the group likely was smarter than him. Other than his sister for obvious reasons, Baldur only had one friend that fit the bill of nerd. As popular as he was, the one group he never seemed to be accepted by were the intellectual crowd. Still, he appreciated Penny’s ability to introspect, read the situation and react with empathy.