Chapter Seven
I had great first classes on Saturday. I had eager students in both sections, and a few who I knew were going to be extra special.
I had a man in my Women’s Lit class who taught high school English and wanted to diversify his lessons, regardless of what the district’s mandated curriculum told him.
After Creative Writing, my heart exploded when a young woman working on her nursing degree came up to me and shyly told me she’d written since she was a small child and wanted to learn from a published author.
Finally, I walked as far as the handicapped parking spots with an octogenarian named Mary who had taken up writing when she retired from selling real estate.
She was nervous about sharing her work, but I assured her that we would all learn from one another.
I’d just bid her goodbye and started toward my own car in the far lot when I heard someone hurrying behind me. Even though the college was in a high-crime neighborhood, I didn’t flinch; it was broad daylight and the parking lot was well-patrolled. Maudie Simms fell into step with me.
“Hey! I was wondering if you’d have Saturday classes again this semester.”
I nodded. “I love my Saturday classes. Did you have a good summer?”
She shrugged. “Same old, same old. Didn’t do much. How about you?”
“I taught summer session, then mostly relaxed some.”
Maudie was one of the few lesbians I knew outside of my friend group.
She was maybe a bit older than me and looked like Terri the poetry professor except her skin wasn’t quite so transparent.
She taught in the engineering department and we often left the building at the same time on Saturdays.
She had read all of my books, so her next question didn’t surprise me. “Did you get a lot of writing done?”
“Some.” I didn’t know what engineering people did in their down time, so I left it at that.
“So I was wondering if you’re busy tonight? We could catch dinner or something?”
Wait, what? I watched the pavement as we continued to walk, listened to our footsteps. There had never been anything but pleasant small talk between us, and a proposition was the last thing I’d expected. Of course, panic kicked in. “I’m busy tonight…I’m so sorry.”
“Not a problem.” Maudie’s face went pink. “Maybe some other time.”
“Yeah. Some other time.”
She stopped in front of a white sedan. “Well, this is me.”
“Have a good weekend,” I said, waving a little and continuing on my way.
Once I got to my car, I took a long breath.
My pulse was racing mightily. I had never given Maudie a second look, and here I was freaking out.
I didn’t have anything going on that evening, of course, but she’d taken me by surprise.
There had always been token flirting before other people asked me out.
This had been completely out of nowhere.
What if she wasn’t asking me out? Shit. Who was I to assume such a thing?
Vera asked me to football games all the time and she had no intention of dating me.
Granted, she was straight and twice divorced and said she never wanted to go out with anyone again.
I reminded myself of how Maudie had flushed when I said I was busy. Yeah, she was asking me out.
By the time I got home, I felt a little less rattled, but I was still thinking things through.
I parked my bag in the middle of the dining room table so Ollie wouldn’t chew up any of my books and slipped his harness on.
“Shall we go out and solve the world’s problems?
” He smiled up at me with his tongue hanging out sideways and jumped at the door.
Leaves were just beginning to fall, and we crunched through acorns along the sidewalk.
I waved at Mrs. Finley, who was out watering her garden.
And I thought. Frankly, I didn’t know what I wanted.
It had been almost four months since Veronica moved herself out of my life.
It didn’t really hurt anymore except, well, when someone brought it up.
Maybe it wouldn’t hurt any more if I could just move on? She sure had.
I didn’t know if I should go out with Maudie, though. I had never felt a spark from anyone at the college, and I kind of liked it that way. Although I talked a little about it with Vera and those guys, I liked to keep my personal life separate from work. And what could we possibly have in common?
Maybe it would be a good idea. I’d had some pretty bad experiences dating people from my friend group and now they probably all knew how Veronica had scammed me and were laughing about it.
I hadn’t even tried to hang out with any of them in months.
Maybe it would be a good idea to try to get back into circulation with someone completely random.
Maybe it would be better to bumble through my first attempt with someone I wasn’t crazy about, sort of like practice.
And anyway, maybe we’d hit it off. Who knows.
That was when I turned onto the Sutherlands’ street and dropped my jaw. A U-Haul trailer was parked in the driveway, attached to Corey’s truck. I slowed to the point where Ollie was tugging at the leash, fear prickling along my skin. I really didn’t want them to be moving.
I was still most of the way up the block when Corey and a man that I guessed to be his brother came out of the house carrying a mattress. I didn’t say anything, but Corey waved at me on his way back into the house. A moment later, Lisa came out, carrying two boxes stacked on one another.
I almost tripped over Ollie. “Can I grab one of those?”
She continued up to the U-Haul and set them inside. “I’ve got it. Thank you, though.”
“I can bring Ollie home and help.”
She smiled and pushed hair that had escaped her ponytail back behind her ears. “We’re good. Corey’s cousin is here.”
“Are you guys…moving?” I really hoped this was some unfortunate figment of my imagination.
“Corey is.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry,” I stammered. “Are you guys—”
“Divorcing. And don’t be sorry. It’s been a long time in coming.”
“I had no idea.” I felt my cheeks going hot. There was absolutely no reason why I should know about their relationship when all I did was walk by every day. “Are you okay with everything?”
She shrugged. “I’m fine. It is what it is, you know?”
“But you’re not moving.”
“Nope. Just Corey.”
“Good. I mean…” I stared at Ollie for a minute. “It’s always nice seeing you on our walks.”
“It’s nice seeing you, too. And you, beautiful.” She bent to nudge Ollie, who was lying on the grass, half-assed watching a bird across the street.
“If you ever need anything, I’m down on Redbud. Twenty-one fifty-seven.”
“The blue house.”
I nodded, wondering how she knew that. I supposed if she had walked past, Ollie had probably barked at her. “Or, you know, if you just want to chat.”
That smile came back on her face and I knew I’d said too much. “Thanks. I might. I should probably get back to work.”
“And we should continue on our merry way. C’mon, bud.”
Ollie hauled himself up like he was twice his age, but I cranked into high gear as Lisa went back inside.
Could I have embarrassed myself any worse?
I hadn’t told her I was glad she was staying so I could continue to crush on her or anything.
By the time we got home, I’d broken a sweat and Ollie was looking at me like I was trying to kill him.
I hung up Ollie’s leash and harness, and he went to slurp at his water for a long time as if to rub it in. To make matters worse for him, I pulled out salad makings for dinner, so he went off to the other room, disgusted. He didn’t care for salad.
As I ate, I scrolled through what I’d written the day before.
It had been a pretty prolific day, but I realized right away that most of it was shit.
I pushed away my laptop for a while and flipped the pages of notes I’d taken when I’d interviewed the county coroner in my parents’ town.
How could I accurately describe multiple contusions when my vocabulary was that of a second grader? Fuck.
About three hours later, I was staring at my screen, moving the cursor back and forth over what was left of the text when the doorbell rang.
Ollie went from a dead sleep to barking maniacally.
I assessed what I was wearing: crappy clothes, but I hadn’t taken off my bra or anything.
Good enough to see what the neighbor kid was selling this time.
To my complete shock, Lisa Sutherland was standing a few paces down the walk, arms crossed protectively. “Hi.”
My palms went wet. “Hi.”
“You probably didn’t mean tonight.”
“No, no, it’s absolutely fine.” I grabbed Ollie by the collar and stepped out of the way so she could come in. “Ollie, hush. You know Lisa.”
“Are you busy?”
“Not at all. Have a seat.”
Lisa sat gingerly on the sofa. Fortunately, that put her at a good level to pet Ollie, and he stopped barking. “Really, I’ll go if…”
I turned around, feeling disoriented. I wished I was wearing my clothes from work like I had been when I walked past her house before. I hoped my hair looked okay. “Just a sec.” I went to my laptop and hit save, as if there was anything worth keeping. “Please stay. What’s up?”
She looked away. “Everything was fine, everything was fine, then Corey and Steve left and it got kind of quiet in there.”
“Oh, I’m sure.” I tried to make it sound like I had conversations with hot about-to-be-divorced women I hardly knew every day. “Honestly, this came as a total shock to me. You guys seem to get along.”
“We do. I mean, there’s not a ton of animosity.”
“But it just isn’t working?”
“Something like that. Before I forget.” She reached behind her and shyly handed me a worn copy of Ashes to Ashes. “Would you sign this? It’s my favorite one.”