Ring by Spring

4 - Ellie

The weekend before finals, I was walking across campus to the library, focused and fervently hoping that the books I wanted to supplement my studying would still be in stock. While admiring how beautiful my surroundings looked now that the flowers were blooming, I also noticed Max waving at me. He looked too calm and happy for finals week, but I saw that he had a distraction - a friend.

"Yoohoo!" Clover skipped across the grass towards us, fairylike in the way the soles of her sky blue flats seemed to skim across the tops of the blades. She clutched a pile of books to her chest. 

"They had your books," she said to me, as she handed over the stack "so I checked them out for you. I had to go there for a muffin anyway."

Max shook his head at her.

"We won't tell Bertie about your disloyalty."

"His pride's in no danger. The purpose of her visit was a certain stud muffin...although there are plenty of those at Jehovah Java, too...or so they say." Clover pouted at me while Max blushed and his friend laughed. I was surprised my own face didn't feel warmer. Flirting with Max had been unplanned. While poking fun at Clover's coffeehouse crushes, I forgot that Max worked there, too. Should I apologize? Would it only make things worse?

"Ellie," said Max, grabbing the silence out from under me, " Clover, this is my friend Dane. Dane, this is Ellie and Clover. They're roommates. I work with Ellie's brother, Bertie."

"I remember," said Dane. "Hello, ladies." I knew the name and the face - both were familiar from old Facebook pictures- but how he'd transformed. The same too-thin boy who hid behind his heavy bangs in high school still weighed less than was probably preferable for his age and height range, but now he'd cut his hair so short you could barely run your fingers through it, and stopped shaving every day, leaving an appealing carpet of stubble across the lower part of his long face. The changes gave him an almost regal bearing, like he should be wearing riding breeches while seated atop an enormous chestnut Thoroughbred in an English period drama. His handsomeness wasn't in the same manner as Max's, but he could still catch a girl's eye. 

As Clover shook his hand, I watched Dane for signs of attraction - appreciation of the shell-pink blush swirled carefully over her round cheeks, or how her full skirt made her figure look like more of an hourglass than it was in reality - but failed to find them. Interesting. How did I manage to be in the presence of the two guys on campus who weren't instantly bewitched by her looks?

"Max said you had a radio show?" So he'd mentioned me? That was my question. Did I matter that much to Max? Maybe it was only a brief mention, my accomplishments referenced once they'd seen me coming. 

"It's nothing big - really not that impressive."

"For a freshman? I think not. Well done." Hearing his praise was like sinking into a cool pool on a hot day. Was I blushing? Better not be. 

"Oh, I'm sure you've got a sparkling resume as well." I loved being the recipient of Dane's smile. Surely it had only improved with his increased confidence. 

"Well, Liberty has given me an excellent education so far. It's strict, but I embrace that. College is such an easy place to get one off track. A lot of my high school friends are sinking into the quicksand of parties and beer. At least I know I'd have to scour Liberty to find that, instead of just turning a corner." Why had Max tensed up? Had he been a partier in high school? I couldn't picture that. He seemed too subdued to enjoy spending hours around a keg with football brutes and nearly-naked girls...but maybe that nature had been grown through hours spent in the Word and in prayer, trying to make up for a squandered youth. There was such a possibility of mysteriousness.... It made me want to spend hours with Max, peeling away at his personhood and discovering who God had made him to be.