Page 65 of Ten Years and Then…
Maybe it was about replacing him as editor-in-chief next year. If he was going to push for her, he’d want to tell her first, and privately. And if that was the case, she needed to look the part.
She had the skirt suit she’d bought over Thanksgiving, but that was overkill for a meal with Ben. She’d wear it for a formal meeting with their faculty advisor, but for today? A good, solid blouse—maybe the red one that Rachel had given her for Christmas—would do nicely. And wasn’t red supposed to be a “power” color? She got it out of her luggage, paired it with a conservative dark skirt, threw her coat on and headed over to the restaurant.
He was already there when she arrived, sitting at a table in the back of the restaurant. He stood up until she sat. “I’m glad you came, Nora,” he said. “Just to get the important business out of the way first, I ordered sweet potato fries to share, but I didn’t know if you’d want iced tea or a soda.”
She’d prefer a milkshake, but the Green Lantern Café did them much better. “Iced tea is always safe,” she said. “So what’s the big deal? What did you need to talk to me about?”
He was staring at her; almost a searching sort of look. “I already said it on the phone. It’s a date.” Now he looked away, just for a moment. “I hope so, anyway.” He lowered his voice a little, and was there the tiniest hint of nerves there? “A date. Me and you.”
She only now paid attention to what he was wearing. A light brown sweater that set off his eyes. Slacks that were perfectly creased, as though he’d ironed them just before he got here. And when he’d stood up, she’d caught a glimpse of his shoes—shined to the point that you could see your reflection in them.
He was serious. Had he been thinking about this—about her—all during Christmas break? Were the shoes new? Had he bought them just to impress her?
“Uh—I wasn’t expecting that, Ben.” But the question was, did she mind it?
He laughed. “I wanted to catch you before classes started—and the paper—and you got too busy. I even came back to campus a day early. You’re worth the $50 it cost me to change my flight.”
She wasn’t sure whether she believed him.
But even if it was a lie, it was a flattering one, and also pretty harmless. It was the kind of thing she might have said herself, once upon a time.
It was also flattering that he’d gone to all this trouble. And he was handsome. And smart. And a great editor-in-chief. And hadn’t she been thinking about him this morning—and all through Christmas break?
If she wanted to see what could happen with him, here was her chance. If she wanted it.
“Well, then, I agree. I guess this is a date.”
Daniel, exactly the same time
It was going to happen!
Quantum Networking Systems was going to fly him to Chicago, a week from tomorrow.
He’d known at Thanksgiving that they wanted him to come out—but it wasn’t finalized. It wasn’t official. There wasn’t an actual plane ticket. The whole thing could have fallen through, for any of a thousand reasons.
Now, though, it was set in stone. Not an hour ago, he’d spoken with Francine from the Human Resources department. She confirmed the date, and all the arrangements. His ticket would be waiting for him at the airport, they’d have a car to pick him up when he landed at Midway and take him to the hotel—which they were also paying for. Then in the morning, another car to take him to company headquarters for the actual interview.
He hadn’t been able to think straight on the walk over to Ellis Hall; he’d nearly ran into two light posts and a tree.
And now that he was here in the lab, he couldn’t think about anything but the trip. He was lost in his own world. He was …
“Hey, Daniel, are you all right?”
It was Valerie. She looked concerned. Worried, even.
“Oh. Hi.” He knew he still had a mindless grin on his face.
“I called your name ten times. What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, tried to focus. “Nothing. Everything is good. I mean, really good. Like, amazingly good.”
She pulled over a chair from the nearest desk and sat herself next to him. “Well, I want to hear it.”
He wanted to tell it. Shout about it.
But before today, he’d been thinking about Valerie. Thinking about asking her out. Or stuck in a loop about asking her out, really. But it wasn’t unrealistic now, was it? He wasn’t some 21 year old kid with nerdy hobbies. He was an almost 22 year old man who was being flown halfway across the country for a job interview. Someone like that could totally ask out a law student, couldn’t he?
“I will. But I need to say something first. I was thinking about you over Christmas.”
