Page 84 of The Love Match

Yes, thank you, Professor!!!I respond, as ecstatic as I was last night.

Only then do I realize that I’ve double-booked my day. I don’t have to meet up with Harun until later, but if I’m going to meet Professor Liu in time, I need to catch a bus downtown, which means I should get my butt dressed ASAP.

“Hi, Amma, bye Amma!” I shout as I snatch a couple of still-hot bhafa fita—round rice pastries with golden coconut flakes inside that I’d normally dip into my tea or drizzle all over in sticky honey—shove one into my mouth, toss the other between my hands to avoid scalding my fingers, and vault out the door.

She yells after me, but I don’t hear what. It’s worth it to reach the bus stop before my ride deserts me. I eat the second fita after dropping into an empty seat, and make it to the Passaic County Community College campus.

The girl at the front desk hands me a guest pass and points me toward the lecture hall, but I remember it from the last time I visited. When I enter this time, there are many more students, eyes affixed to Professor Liu’s projected screen, though a few cast me irked glances.

She smiles and juts her chin at a chair toward the back, mouthing that it’s almost over. The expression on her face is vaguely guilty, but I sit at the table she pointed out and peeraround, adrenaline kicking through my veins. I’m in a real live college class!

No one treats me like I don’t belong despite my earlier disruption. Soon I lose myself in the comforting inflection of Professor Liu’s voice as she lectures on the concept of a three-act structure. When the class ends, I’m almost disappointed, although of course I’m dying to know what exactly she wants to discuss that required me to come all the way down here.

“Thank you so much for meeting me, Miss Khan,” she says once we’re alone. “There’s someone I want to introduce you to.”

I pick at a loose thread on my jeans. “Really? Who?”

“My co-chair,” she replies. “Come along this way.”

We stride down the long hallways toward what I presume is the faculty office area, where a harried-looking man wearing a yarmulke sits bent over a desk, a collection of papers fanned on top and a green pen in his hand.

He lifts his head upon hearing the clack of Professor Liu’s heels, smiling warmly. “Ah, Cecilia! And this must be the illustrious Miss Khan?”

“Um, hi, sir.”

Illustrious?!

Professor Liu nods. “Yes, the young novelist I’ve been telling you about.” She turns to me. “And this is Professor Elijah Lewenberg, the co-chair of the English department. I’ve been apprising him of your ambitions since I finished what you sent me.”

“Very impressive at your age,” Professor Lewenberg says.“Especially if you caught Cecilia’s eye. Impressing her is a true feat.”

A pleased blush warms my face. “Th-thank you.”

“Why don’t you take a seat, Miss Khan?” Professor Liu suggests, though she remains standing.

When I do as bidden, her co-chair says, kindly, “Cecilia also told me you won’t be able to enroll next semester. Financial hardships, was it?”

Now my cheeks redden for a different reason. “Yes, sir. I don’t think I can manage this semester, but maybe by the next one, or the following fall? I’ve been working hard to save up money, but I can’t handle going full-time yet because I need to help my family.”

“I see.”

He has cornflower-blue eyes that harbor no judgment in them. They flick to meet Professor Liu’s black ones, and the two of them nod.

“I don’t want you to get your hopes up, but I asked Eli to meet you before the two of us talk to the office of the bursar,” she says.

“Um, why?”

“I would very much like for you to be able to enroll in at least my creative writing class, Miss Khan,” Professor Liu continues. “I hoped if Eli and I campaigned together, we could get the cost of the class reimbursed for you, so you could attend this fall.”

My eyes grow huge. “Really? You’d do that for me? Why?”

Embarrassingly enough, my voice cracks on the last word.

Professor Liu sets her hands on my shoulders, while her co-chair’s smile widens. It’s he who says, “Because we see your vast potential, Miss Khan. Yours is a rare talent that will only grow if given the proper attention, and we’d like to do our part as educators in this community to see you harness it, without forcing you to choose between your passion and your next meal.”

I’m so choked up, I can’t reply right away, but finally direct another question at them. “How can I possibly repay you both?”

Professor Liu stoops closer to me to say, “You can put us in your acknowledgments when you become a famous novelist. And Miss Khan?”

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