a work in progress

Chapter 11 - The Bench

"Morning hun!"

"Hello Joyce. ¿Cómo te sientes?"

"Como te," Joyce audibly ponders the translation of my inquiry. "Ah, how am I doing? Right?"

"Sí. Bien Joyce. Now dime. ¿Cómo te sientes?"

"Oh yeah. Me siento.....excited!"

"Excitada."

"Ex-ee-tah-da. Thank...uh, uh....gracias."

"De nada. What do we have going on today?"

"It should be fairly quiet today. I think you have a follow-up meeting with Julius Cravens."

"Joyce...anonymity please!"

"No one's here," she starts to protest. "Alright. You have a follow-up appointment with an academic integrity case. Then at some point the Deans will request a meeting with you. You know, it's the end of the year they want to insert themselves in pretty much everything. But other than that you're free."

"What's Matias' calendar looking like?" I ask, immediately regretting it.

"Well aren't we a nosy Nancy?"

"I am not. It's just...it's weird having someone else around here. We hardly see him so I can't help but wonder what he does all day."

"If you say so," she says laughing a bit, not yet responding to my question.

"Okay well...I guess this nosy Nancy, is going to head on back to her office. Buzz me when Mr. Cravens gets in," I say winking as Joyce gasps at my lack of discretion.

"Well I'll be," Joyce adds placing her headset on.

Even with a relatively small suite, the walk to my office is long and boring. Our suite is set up similar to a right triangle. Matias and Joyce's offices are side by side along the short leg and my office is almost directly across from Joyce's down the long leg. Because of that I always have to ask Joyce about Matias' whereabouts.

After our interlude I'm a bit anxious about the relationship that has seemingly developed out of thin air between me and Matias. It doesn't seem natural that I can feel the way I do about someone I've basically just met, but I do. I think I have since passed the healthy infatuation phase and I'm now securely in the 'I like him for a reason' phase. It's eerie. I wonder if he might be anywhere near a similar phase with me. I've always thought that men began to listen to their feelings much later than women did. It's like we're so much more in tune with all the voices that are in our heads than they are. They only think about one thing at a time...or at a maximum two things.

"Good day," Matias' voice interrupts my train of thought.

"Hi," I say looking up to greet him with a smile.

"How is your day so far?"

"It's just wonderful. How'd you get past Joyce? I didn't hear her call out to you."

"I came through the loading dock behind the kitchen. Joyce has not yet seen me."

"Wait, what? We have a loading dock?"

"How long have you worked here? How do you not know of that? I'm certain it is your fire exit."

"I don't know. I suppose that's one more reason I appreciate your being here. You're teaching me things I probably should've known," I beam.

"How does your day look today?"

"It's pretty light. I have one academic integrity follow-up appointment and...that's about it. How about you? What does your day look like?"