Page 8 of Ten Years and Then…
Now it was a laugh, the kindly laugh that always made him smile. “That’s usually how it works if you ask somebody out, Danny. But back up. I don’t know who ‘her’ is. You’ve been holding out on me.”
“No, I only found out her name yesterday. Nora. She’s Nora.”
Another laugh. “OK, she’s got a name. That’s progress.”
He didn’t mind her teasing; honestly, she was the only person he didn’t mind it from. “She’s a freshman, I saw her—no, I heard her. Overheard her first. She was in the computer lab, we have some terminals set up for CompuServe, and I guess she was using them for a class assignment, and I was across the room and I’d hear her talking with her friends. Or classmates. Whoever. And she was just—she was really funny. And she just sounded like, well, kind of like you.” That wasn’t right. “No. Not like you, but like she’s somebody I could talk to all day long and never want to be anywhere else—how it’s always been with us.”
Now she sighed. “Are you telling me I spoiled you for all the girls on campus there?”
“Don’t say it like that! That makes it sound weird.”
More laughter. “I know what you meant, Danny. Wanting somebody you can imagine talking to all day long, that’s a good thing. And if this girl—”
“Nora.”
“If Nora’s one of those people, then I’m happy for you. Just promise me, you won’t do that thing you do, where you get caught up in your own head and get all nervous and she never sees the real you.”
If anyone else had said that, Daniel would have hung up the phone, and then probably cursed at it once he was sure the line was disconnected. “Yeah. I’ll—I’ll do my best, Bee. I really don’t want to mess this up. She’s—like I said, I liked her before I even saw her, and when I did see her … God, she’s beautiful. And I don’t think—I swear to you, I mean it—I don’t think it would have mattered what she looked like. But she really is beautiful, on top of everything else.”
There was silence for a few seconds. “I believe you, Danny. I hope it goes great tomorrow night, and I want to hear all about it afterwards. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Nora, October 15
This was ridiculous. She’d been in the cosmetics aisle of the drugstore for half an hour now. Nora had never spent even half this much time trying to pick out the perfect shade of lipstick before, not even for her senior prom. On the other hand, it wasn’t like Robbie Fairbanks and his powder-blue tuxedo had deserved that level of effort anyway.
Hopefully Daniel would be worth it.
And there it was—she’d found it. Berry Kiss. A deep red with just the tiniest hint of something she couldn’t quite name. It was perfect. And even if Daniel didn’t notice—and to be fair to him, those subtle details were lost on most guys—she’d know it was perfect. And that was good enough.
Now to go back to her room and figure out what to wear. That detail certainly wouldn’t be lost on him.
Daniel, the same time
Daniel’s body was sitting in his usual seat in Room 220 of Ellis Hall, just like every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at two o’clock. But his mind was elsewhere, in a booth at the Green Lantern Café, sitting across from her.
He tried to focus on Dr. Maddox’s lecture about Virtual Memory, but it just wasn’t happening. Every few minutes, he managed to pull his attention back to class, only to look down at his notebook and see random words—“page fault” and “clock override” and so forth—scribbled there in handwriting that barely resembled his own.
He’d already imagined what she’d be wearing a dozen times—a dress, a blouse and a skirt, maybe a T-shirt and jeans? And he’d played over what she might say and do when he met her outside her dorm—a friendly hello, a hug, a kiss on the cheek or maybe a clever joke?
“Mr. Keller?” His professor’s voice cut through his musings. “Would you care to contribute to the discussion?”
What exactly was the discussion? He glanced down again at his notebook and found no help there. For an instant he wondered if he could fake it, but you had to have at least some idea what you were faking. “I’m sorry, sir. I—I guess I’m a little distracted today.”
Dr. Maddox squinted at him through his awful plastic glasses. “Clearly. But I suppose you get points for honesty, if nothing else.” He gave Daniel a momentary half smile. “Do try to keep up, Mr. Keller. I’d hate to see one of my better students blow the midterm.”
“Yes, sir.” Easier said than done; he was already imagining telling Nora about this tonight, hearing her laughter, not at him but with him. And then telling her that she was the reason he’d been called out in class. Would she laugh at that, too? Be touched? Or some other reaction he couldn’t even guess at?
He couldn’t wait to find out.
Nora, about 6:30 p.m.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. You were standing in that exact spot when I left for dinner.”
Nora turned away from her closet to see Kim aggressively rolling her eyes. She hadn’t even heard her roommate open the door. “I think I was about six inches to the right when you left,” she answered.
“Very funny. But what gives?” Now Kim was looking at her more seriously. “It’s just a date, right? You’re kind of obsessing here.”
