My Dear

Settling and a Movie

"Paula am I an alcoholic?" I speak after my friend answers the phone.

"No, I'm pretty sure you drink less than I do."

"Well, I just found out Lenore is going to be a student of mine and I immediately grabbed a bottle of wine when I walked through the door."

"You're kidding." She said. "That's justified though. Anyways I'm on my way over."

"So tell me exactly what happened tonight." She says when she walks into the door.

"So, we are on our date, which was going great. Someone the restaurant didn't put in my reservation so we decided to walk around for a little bit. I took her to the little plaza near the office," I take a break and a sip of my wine. "So we're in the plaza and we are dancing, Paula. It was going so great and we hadn't even gotten to dinner yet. And then Mark calls."

"Oh Mark, how could you." She shakes her head which makes me actually laugh.

"So Mark calls telling me that someone broke into the building, which actually was this twenty year old boy, and I feel like there's more there cause it was just Mark's office that was a mess. Anyways on that later. So I check the rest of the buildings and as we are walking out, she tells me that she's going to finish her last year as a Creative Writing major at Farrington." I throw my hands up in the air and then cover my face.

"How did the ride back go?" She asks.

"Quiet. Awkward. Tense. I was just so shocked, and my mind was all over the place with the break in."

"I think you need to talk to her." She looks at her watch and back to me. "It's only 10...maybe she's awake?"

"Is it too soon?"

"Better now than never."

I take the stairs down to her apartment and stop in front of the door. I really don't think this is the right time to do this. I wrap my cardigan around me and look down at my bare feet. She probably needs some time to process also. Even though she was the one that didn't mention she was going to school. But I didn't tell her where I was working.

Why didn't she tell me...

I raise my hand to knock on the door and it suddenly open.

"Holy fuck." She yelps while jumping in the air. I stifle a laugh by pressing my fingers to my lips. "Um, hi. I was just coming to see you actually."

"Saved you a trip."

We both stand awkwardly in a small quiet tension. "Can I come in?"

She steps aside and I walk in. Her apartment is now fully decorated with a few stray boxes laying around. I see on her island there is an open bottle of wine with a half filled glass. I suppose she had the same idea as I did.

"Is your sister at work?" I look over and she is nodding her head in response. "Cool."

"I applied to the school before we moved out here. And after hearing that you teach at a university, I figured the school is so small that there was no way in all the schools in the city that you would work there."

"No it's okay, I wasn't saying where I worked."

"I didn't even mention I was a student." She runs her hand through her hair. "I don't know, I am still so young. Still being in school made me feel more like a child with you."

I laugh lightly. "I've felt like a grandma with you. Ever since the moment I met you I have been so intrigued but I don't want you to think I'm some old lady."

"Well I mean, I'm into older women..." she whispers. She quickly clears her throat and speaks up before I can say something. "So where do we go from here?" She asks.