Don't Forget to Write

First Date?

 arrived to class in the tall NAC building a few minutes early and took a seat in the back. Camila was at the desk going over papers, while the professor looked through her computer. Camila glanced up at me over her papers and smiled. She was wearing a white button-down shirt that hugged her mid-section tightly and a short black skirt with tall heels.

I took lazy notes all class, fading in and out of focus. When the professor let us go I was sure that I hadn't retained anything. I walked out of the room and went to a bench in the hallway to look through my notes, hoping that some information would soak in if I stared at it long enough, but all of the ideas and words in my notebook seemed like somebody else had written them there was minimal recollection of the meanings and the ideas behind them. My scar was itchy, so I removed my hat to let it breathe. Camila walked down the hall and saw me.

"Hey, teach," I said.

"Stop that."

"I'm just playing,"

"Hm. You're studying already?"

"Hoping I might remember something. Maybe later you can tutor me?"

"I think you can handle it on your own."

"I don't think so," I pointed at my head, "lots of empty space up here."

She smiled at me, but the smile faded when her eyes flickered up to the scar. I fumbled for my beanie and pulled on. Camilla looked away, embarrassed, and said "Oh please, you're smarter than you give yourself credit for."

I shrugged. "Do you ever get sad in here?"

"Sad? No. Why?"

"'Cause there's hardly any windows. This building is practically a prison."

"It's actually not so bad in some spots. Let me show you." She started walking down the hallway towards the elevators. I watched her legs for a second before throwing my notebook in my bag and following her. A sensor on the wall with a red light beeped and turned green when she swiped her faculty pass over it, then she pressed the button for the top floor. the doors slid closed, and it was silent inside of the capsule of the elevator, just me and Camilla. Damn she looked good. Part of me wanted to kiss her right there.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked, mostly to break the silence and get out of my own thoughts.

"Patience, you'll see."

When the doors slid open, we walked out into a hallway of the triangular shaped building. The side of the hallway that faced the center of the building, where there were usually scores of classrooms without windows, now consisted of floor to ceiling windows exposing a triangular rooftop patio with tables and chairs and even umbrellas, as if it was an outdoor cafe in Paris. On the opposite side of the hall, the side of the building that faced outside, were big offices.

"Wow, that is quite the teacher's lounge," I said, still looking at the patio.

"Oh, that's not all."

She walkway down the hallway and I followed. We turned with the building at one of the triangles points, and she opened a metal door with the words "EMPLOYEES ONLY" stamped on it. "C'mon, quick," she waved me inside. There was a staircase that led up to another metal door, and when I opened that I was on the roof. The patio was beneath me in the center of triangle, and all of New York city lied in every other direction. The NAC was the tallest building for many blocks, and the campus was on a hill, so I could see for seemed like miles.

We walked along the gravel-topped roof the towards the southern edge. The sun was out and the sky was blue, but a heavy wind sent a chill through me and whipped Camila's dark hair around her face as she pulled a Nikon camera with a big lens out of her bag.