David Groves left the deli with his lunch and was standing in the middle of a semi-enclosed park filled with people eating their lunches while eyeing passing pedestrians. Spotting the last empty table, he strolled quickly, but nonchalantly, and claimed his eating place. It was the first day of classes and right after he bit into his cold turkey wrap, he regretted getting onions on it because he had no time to get back to his apartment to brush his teeth, nor did he have any gum or mints on him.
He didn’t have a novel or newspaper to read, and since he was eating alone outside, he reached for his geology textbook to skim over; he thought it was better to look occupied than to look lonely so early in the year. Some moments later, a girl walked up to his table and shyly asked, “Is it okay if I sit and eat here?” David looked up at her, unintentionally giving off a friendly yet interrupted vibe and replied, “Sure, go ahead.”
He assumed that since she had caught him reading, the girl wouldn’t do much talking.
“Hi. My name is Michelle.”
David looked up, trying not to act too surprised and answered, “I’m David. Nice to meet you.” He looked back down and saw something about limestone that a previous owner of the book had highlighted.
“I’m a sophomore. What year are you?” The girl was intriguingly bold and carried with her a very natural beauty. David found himself attracted to her thin lips, big eyes, slender body, and perfect posture. When he looked back up at her, he became imprisoned in her relentless stare. “I’m a junior,” he answered quickly and definitively.
“Wow. I’m so nervous today. I’m in a quad and my three roommates didn’t get back to the room until 4:30 a.m. They had to get up for class at eight. They were all so drunk, smelly, and loud when they got in—it was ridiculous. And then, of course, I laid awake in bed while they snored the dawn away.” By this time, she was fidgeting and acting a little nervous. David suddenly felt the need for a cigarette.
With her lunch untouched, she continued, “So, what’s your major, Dave?” He stared at her curiously for a moment, trying not to wonder too obviously how she could be so bold as to call him by a nickname after only 30 seconds, and blurted, “English” awkwardly as a response. After a brief pause, he saw that she was waiting for him to speak. She took a single chip from her tray and nibbled at it impatiently. As if talking were a last resort, David spoke up, “So, what are you doing here?”
“What do you mean what am I doing here?”
“No, no, no…I mean, what’s your major?”
“Oh. Well, who cares? You only remember that sort of thing after hearing it five or six times, and I’m sick of that subject anyway.”
At this point, she picked up her still hot spinach and cheese panini and took a big bite. When she looked at Dave, she looked like she had found something very important, which, up until this random lunch date, she had been seeking. Moved by this, he stopped pretending to read and stared at her while she took her first bite and chewed. Startling him, she stood up, mid-mouthful, to grab the napkins that were on his side of the table instead of asking for them. As she wiped the edges of her mouth, she looked up at him and spoke very innocently, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong really.” He looked down at the table and knew that absolutely nothing was wrong. “This is just odd,” he said.
“You think I’m odd, Dave? Well, I’ll take that as a compliment, since most people annoy me.”
Dave felt himself smiling inside, but wasn’t sure if she could tell. He wanted Michelle to know that he liked her, but he thought that the safest thing to do was to remain relatively quiet. Although he was intimidated by her company, he enjoyed it and so he decided to close his textbook and put it in his backpack.
She looked at him and smiled intelligently. “If you’re wondering, yes, I am a vegetarian, but I’m not the type that goes to crowded places spreading pamphlets about how animals are being brutally murdered left and right. Two women in pleated skirts and halter tops waving pamphlets and screaming atrocities nearly stampeded me to death as I was trying to cross Main Street last week.” She paused to contemplate, but just long enough to catch her breath. “I don’t understand women. They’re either neurotic, psychotic, or some combination of the two.”
She looked over at Dave who had not yet taken another bite of his turkey wrap, looking for some sign that he was still alive. Noticing this, he reached into the grab bag of his above average vocabulary, but only to pull out, “Well, I can agree with that.”
She looked amused, to Dave’s delight, and then a moment later, sincerely concerned. “Do you think I’m neurotic, psychotic, or some combination of the two, David?”
He sat wanting a tooth pick or a pen or anything at all to occupy his hands while he spoke, but they were empty and he felt like a small child whose bathing suit came off by accident in a crowded pool. “Well…I don’t think you’re anything really,” he offered nervously.
“Thanks a lot! You don’t think I’m anything really. That’s just a failed attempt at diplomacy is what that—”
“You’re eccentric. But I—”
“Surprise there. Do you know that you’re not the first one to say that? So what if I am a little eccentric? If you’re going to label me, then you should at least know some things about me first: I’m terribly impatient—”
“Look, I didn’t mean to upset—”
“I smile mostly when it’s inappropriate, I hate people who say ‘I love going for walks in the rain at night on impulse,’ and yet I love walking in the rain at night. I don’t floss, I refuse to let the last digit of my waking time on the alarm clock be an even number, I love running and the feeling of not doing drugs or drinking alcohol, and I like kids.” With the slightest shortness of breath, Michelle took a break from speaking, not expecting any immediate reply from David since she hadn’t finished with a question. Looking quite relaxed for just going on a rampage, she picked up her luke-warm panini and before biting into it said, “Okay. Now, what about you?”
David looked away, clenched his right fist, and put it on the table next to his tray. After ten solid, eternal seconds, he looked up at her, finally ready for eye contact. “Why are you doing this? You can’t just come here, sit down next to me, and purposefully make me feel awkward. I’m not the type of person who can whip up a fresh, flowing batch of discussion on a whim like you. You want to know some things about me?”
“I really would.”
“Fine. I’m neurotic, I’m quiet, I avoid eye contact unless I’m making a point, I’m controlling when I care about something and apathetic when I don’t, I’ve flossed to the point of bleeding gums once or twice, and I don’t give a shit what time my alarm is set for.”
She sat motionless with the grilled spinach and cheese still in hand, then putting it back onto her tray neatly, she pushed back the chair she was sitting in, scratching the concrete, and stood up quickly, all the while maintaining perfect posture. “I think we both have class in ten minutes.” She stood above him, and he didn’t want her to leave after what he’d just said, or really, how he’d just said it. He didn’t want his outburst to drive her away. Never breaking eye contact, she made him a proposition. “Here’s my offer. You go do whatever it is that English majors do these days, and I’ll meet you back here in front of this deli when you’re done. And just for my own records, when will that be, Dave?”
“When will what be?”
“When will you be done with your class?”
“At two.”
“Well I’ll wait for you here until 2:13, but not a minute longer.” For the first time that day, Michelle looked vulnerable, not knowing if Dave would show up or not. Smiling softly, she realized that she’d miss him over the next hour. Then she spoke, and for a change, it was gentle and quiet. “I only asked because I like you, despite the smell of your breath. Should I be expecting you or not?”
Dave proceeded to choke lightly on some quickly inhaled air and then nodded in her direction. He managed to squeeze out the words, “I’ll be here,” with a smile not only inside him, but on his face before she turned around briskly, heading in no general direction, leaving her flowing blonde hair to do whatever it willed on her shoulders.
