Page 40 of Considering Us

I looked at the extremely tall adult basketball player sitting before me and imagined him as a nine-year-old shooting hoops in his Georgia driveway. “You’re right. Itwasa long time ago. And if I hadn’t met Heath, you and I may be having a very different conversation right now.”

“You want me to meet Heath and tell you what I think.”

“Yes, David. I do.”

“And do I get to meet soccer boy, too?”

“Let’s focus on the paramedic for now.”

...

“Professor Plum, I presume?” I extended my hand to the tall man in wire-rimmed glasses standing in front of me.

“I aspire to look like Christopher Lloyd circa 1985,” he responded, shaking my hand.

“He’s seen the movie?” I asked Tam as he and Heath introduced themselves.

“My complete indoctrination of him into all things eighties and nineties movies is almost complete. We watchedCluelast month,” she said. “Heath?”

“Yeah, nice to meet you,” he said with his warm, easy manner, and I couldn’t help but smile at the handsome specimen of a man I had brought with me to dinner in Newburyport. Since my strange but thought-provoking conversation with David a few days earlier, I still didn’t know what to think, but I had decided not to stress about it for the time being. Heath was fun to hang out with and even better to look at, so I tried not to put too much pressure on myself.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” said Tam. “Shall we sit?”

Agave was a good spot for us to gather, as I always found that tacos were common ground for many people. You could usually find a variety to meet your personal tastes and dietary needs. Tam was a vegetarian and had suggested it both for the food and the midpoint location for us to meet, and I loved the idea of something not too stuffy. Tacos it was.

“So, Professor Plum, or Ellis, I should say, what do you teach?” I asked as we settled into our table.

“I’m in the history department. My area of focus is the twentieth-century American presidency.”

All I could think of was Kyle and how much he would enjoy this. Instead, I was sitting next to someone who did amazing things all day—he saved people’s lives, for God’s sake—but he probably would not have as much to talk to a history professor about. I felt an uneasiness that I quickly tried to shake off. “Very cool,” I said.

“I don’t know how cool it is. Some people think history is super boring. I try to convince them otherwise, but I’m not sure how good of a job I do at it.”

“I heard a really good story once about Calvin Coolidge’s pets,” I said. “That people kept sending him random animals. Like a bear, a bobcat, some lion cubs.”

“He and his wife kept the raccoon!” Ellis exclaimed, obviously glad someone seemed interested in what he loved.

“That’s right. The raccoon was named Rebecca.”

Tam shook her head and took a sip from her margarita. “How on earth did you know all this?” she asked me.

“I have a friend at Rockwood who teaches history,” I said flatly, trying not to give anything away, even though I knew Tam saw right through me.

She made a face and shifted her attention toward Heath. “So, Heath. Can you tell us a good paramedic story? I’m sure a lot is confidential, but there’s got to be something you can share.”

Heath took a swig of his Dos Equis. “Oh, yeah, how’s this one? We get a call that a twenty-eight-year-old female named Trixie is about to give birth in the kitchen of her house. We race over there, and it’s a chocolate lab. We end up assisting with a litter of six puppies.”

“Twenty-eight-years-old?” Ellis asks.

“In dog years,” Heath answers. “She was really four.”

“That’s amazing,” said Tam. “Were the dogs okay?”

“They were adorable,” he said. “Let me find a picture.” He scrolled through his phone for a moment and then showed us a few photos of firefighters and paramedics with cute little puppies. “This is when we went back to visit them a few weeks later. Two of them were adopted by firefighters.” I watched Tam’s heart melt into a puddle at images of good-looking men and little fur babies.

“Exactly my point,” said Ellis with a chuckle. “History professor telling Calvin Coolidge stories versus hunky emergency responders cradling adorable puppies. I’m boring.”

Heath reached across the table to fist-bump Ellis. “Thanks for the compliment, bro,” he said, and everyone laughed.

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