Page 25 of Pete and His Precious

“Flipper’s mistress wants to go, so Flipper will go whether she wants to or not.”

“I see,” he sounds pleased with my words.

“I can’t do it tomorrow. Or Sunday.”

“Me either.” Interesting that we both had full weekends. Of course, I have never met him in the hall; it makes sense that both of us are busy.

“Monday evening?” he asks, and I’m a little surprised. But it’s the earliest we can do it, and it’s not a weekend, or typical date night. Maybe he really does want to see me.

It is a good thing he isn’t standing in front of me, because my smile gets bigger at the thought.

“All right. Monday evening sounds good.”

“I won’t be able to do it until after nine. Sorry. I’m working.”

“That’s fine,” I say, stifling my disappointment. I have to wait three whole days.

Of course, Saturday and Sunday, at least, would be full. And the time will pass much faster that way. It always did on days that were busy.

I don’t want to quit talking to him. “I’m sorry about tonight. I was...surprised.”

“You and me both. I guess you owed me though.”

“I did?” I say, leaning my head against the wall so my ear is right there and I can hear better. His voice rumbles, and it comes through just fine. I really should have put some soundproof panels on the wall, but I haven’t gotten around to it. I didn’t want to spend the money. It would improve the quality of my production though, and I should stop putting it off. Maybe I would get more jobs if I had soundproofed my room a little better.

“Yeah. I...I swore you would never find out, but I was the one who hired you for the drawing lessons.”

I open my mouth and gasp. I had waited an hour for that student to show up, and he never had.

“That’s why you were in the library that day.” Now it all made sense.

“Yeah. I saw you with the crayon box, and... I pretty much had the same reaction that you had when you saw me with the rose.”

I laugh softly, and his laughter rumbles through the walls. It curls around my stomach, and squeezes in a very pleasant way.

“Wow. So I guess I did owe you, but I didn’t know it. And I wish I wouldn’t have acted the way I did.”

“I understand, truly. Like I said, I just went through it myself. But, I’m kind of ashamed of the way I acted.”

“Me too. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too. And, you’re forgiven. Easily. It could happen to anyone. It did happen to me,” he says, and I can hear the humor in his voice.

“I forgive you too.” I pause for a minute and then I say, “And I’m sorry for that day a year ago. I suppose you don’t want me to bring it up anymore than I want to talk about it —” I kind of break off, not knowing what more to say.

“Yeah. I...am really embarrassed every time I think about it.”

“I don’t think you’re half as embarrassed as I am.”

This man had seen me like not too many people had. Of course, everyone at the rally that day had seen her like that. But...

“I didn’t mean to grab you... You know, where I did. I promise, that was an accident.”

“No. I know it was. You took your hand off like I bit it, and maybe I would have if you’d kept it on long enough, so that tells me that it wasn’t on for very long at all, even though it felt like a year.”

“I... I don’t know what to say. Other than, that kind of colored the way I thought about you.”

“And rightfully so. By if I had met you for the first time and you were naked somewhere, I probably would think a little bit differently about you as well.”

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