Page 31 of Life, Love, and Other Messes

“How?”

“The usual. Putting too much of myself out there and making her nervous. Getting jealous of everyone else she hangs out with. Smothering her.”

“That didn’t happen with Veronica.”

“Well, something did.”

“You’re getting better.”

I didn’t know about that. “Someone else did ask me out.”

Catherine looked surprised. It annoyed me. “And?”

“I panicked. What do you think?”

“You know, you need to learn to believe that you’re worthy of people’s interest.”

“The learning curve is steep.”

“Why did you panic?”

“She caught me off guard, mostly. And I don’t know if I’m interested.”

“You don’t know or you’re not?”

I paused to think about that for a while. “I’m not really sure.”

“How might you find out?”

“By hashing it over in my mind for another six months.”

Catherine closed her eyes.

“I know,” I said, steeling myself. “I’ll go out with her.”

Chapter Nine

I made up my mind: I was going to do this. Before my first class Wednesday, I went into the math and sciences wing for the first time ever. I had no idea where to go and I floundered for a few minutes, beginning to sweat as students arrived. I finally asked a lanky boy with a bad mustache where the engineering classrooms were. He pointed me in the right direction, and I hurried from door to door, looking for Maudie’s name on one of the schedules.

I finally found it. She was in room one fifty-seven for first and second hours. My plan was to hurry back to that wing after my second class and catch Maudie on her way out, but back in the foyer, I ran smack into her.

Well, I was not prepared for that. Fortunately, instead of asking why I was coming out of math and sciences, she just smiled. “Hey.”

“Hey. I was kind of looking for you.”

“Oh?”

Now what? Students were streaming past us by then. I beckoned her toward the wall and worked my way through traffic. She was at my heels. “Look, I felt bad that I was busy the other day and I wanted to ask if you’re busy this weekend?”

She looked shocked. “I’m free Friday night.”

“We could maybe…I don’t know, get dinner or something.”

“I’d like that.” She took a pen from behind her ear and scribbled her number on the back of my gradebook like we were in middle school. “We better get to class.”

I nodded. I was always early and I was sure my students would find the locked door and leave. When I finally got there, though, seven of them were huddled in the hallway. “Sorry I’m late.”

“You’re not late,” Latrice said. “We just thought you must be dead or something.”