Page 4 of The Lover
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Iwas sittingin class the next day, listening to the TA drone on about profit and loss and thinking about Jake. About how he hadn’t answered my question.
He had to miss me a little bit. I was missable. He’d said it before when I was freezing him out over the whole Carol (which now I sort of automatically hated everyone named Carol) thing.
He didn’t say hedidn’tmiss me. That would have been awful.
Not that this was much better.
“Who is he?”
I was startled by the guy sitting next to me.
“Who is who?” I asked him.
“Whoever it is you’re mooning over?”
“How do you know I’m mooning over anyone?”
“Because you’re the only girl in the room not drooling over the TA teaching this class, who by the way is HAWT.”
He fanned himself with his hand. It was probably the most feminine gesture I had ever seen a man make except for on TV.
Which prompted me like an idiot to say, “Oh my god, you’re gay like on TV.”
Which he thought was the most hilarious thing he’d ever heard, to which he replied, “No honey, I’m gay like on reality TV.”
“I’m sorry,” I said immediately. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I’ve just…”
“Never seen one in real life?”
I shook my head. Everyone in Riverbend had suspected David Tillerson, Jeff Tillerson’s older brother, was gay, but nobody ever spoke about it. Certainly not David Tillerson.
“When class is over, you can buy me a coffee to make up for it and tell me all about the guy. I love a good romance.”
Denny—he told me his name—walked me to the campus Starbucks. I ordered two coffees, and he looked at me like I had lost my mind. He changed the order to two caramel macchiatos and my life, as I knew it, was changed.
We sat down at a table and I thought I would never be able to have coffee again. Which was a shame, because I really liked coffee, but nothing would ever be as good as a caramel macchiato.
“So… who is he?”
“He’s just a guy. From back home.” I didn’t want to tell him the story. One of the best parts about being here was that I didn’t have to be Weird Married Ellie or Weird Divorced Ellie. At least for a while.
“Is he pining for you too?”
“I don’t know. I guess if he missed me more, he would come get me and bring me home.”
“And leave all this?” Denny said, gesturing around with this hand. It really was so strange to see this handsome man use his hands like that. Denny was definitely handsome, too. Blond, thin, but built. I imagined he did very well for himself with other gay guys, but obviously I wasn’t going to go there.
“I don’t think I’m cut out for college. I’m a rancher’s daughter.”
No, that wasn’t right. I had been a rancher’s daughter. What I’d learned by coming here was that I was rancher. Period. I belonged on my land and not in a classroom.
“Well, if you won’t give me the gory details then there is nothing I can do to help. Which means as your new official first gay male friend, let me take this time to tell you that the color orange does NOT work for you.”
I looked down at my shirt. I had never really given it much thought, but Denny seemed to know exactly what he was talking about.
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