“Thanks for suggesting dinner,” Verna said. They stood in front of her building. “I can’t remember the last time I was out on a weeknight. You really didn’t have to follow me home.”
“No worries. It was my pleasure. I enjoyed myself tonight.”
She glanced away from him. “Well…I better get inside. Another long day tomorrow.”
“Me, too.”
They faced each other, and Verna was sure Ronald felt as awkward as she did.
“I’ll see you this weekend?” he asked.
“Sure.” She didn’t work weekends, but if it meant seeing him, she’d make the sacrifice.
“Great. Well, good night.”
“Night.”
Ronald turned away and walked to his car.
Verna went up the steps to her front door. When she got to the top she glanced over her shoulder and saw Ronald looking up at her. Her heart thumped. He waved again and got in his Honda. She stuck her key in the door and for a moment she wished she’d asked him to come in for coffee…or tea or something.
The Honda peeled away from the curb, and the moment and Ronald were definitely gone.
“Morning,” Nichole said, sidling up to Verna in the kitchen. She reached for her mug, dropped in a tea bag and poured in the hot water.
“Hey, how are you?”
“Now that we have the inspection behind us, I’m great.” She leaned her narrow hip against the counter and peered at Verna. “You okay? You seem kind of…distracted.”
Verna turned halfway toward Nichole. “Um, remember when I told you that I met someone at the conference who seemed interested in volunteering?”
Nichole nodded.
“Well, he came by yesterday. You were already gone.”
“And?” Nichole took a sip of tea.
“We, uh, went to dinner last night.”
Nichole’s brows shot up and she grinned in delight. “Get out! Is he cute?”
“Very.” Verna bit back a smile and couldn’t meet her friend’s steady gaze.
“Well, don’t leave me in suspense. What happened?”
“Let’s talk in my office,” she said, looking around as sounds of the building coming to life filtered into the kitchen.
Nichole hooked her arm through Verna’s and headed down the hall to her office.
“Tell, tell,” Nichole said, settling down in a chair.
“Not much to tell. He wants to volunteer. Really nice guy.” She fidgeted with her mug.
Nichole waited, but Verna didn’t offer any more information. “I know you didn’t bring me in here to tell me he’s a nice guy.”
Verna felt uncomfortable. “It’s just…strange.”
“Strange how? What does that mean?”
“From the time we met there was this…connection.” She suddenly found it difficult to express herself.
“Why don’t you tell me what it means to you,” Nichole gently coaxed.
They’d known each other for years, Verna thought, but this was about as close as she had ever come to revealing anything really personal about herself.
She glanced toward the window. “What it is, is ridiculous. I mean, I don’t know the man. Not really. He’s great to look at, he’s funny, intelligent, loves his job.”
“Doesn’t sound bad so far.”
“I know,” Verna said, her voice strained. “It’s been a while since…well…since I’ve been involved with anyone.” Even to her own ears, Verna sounded as if she was exaggerating the whole thing. She sat up straighter. “I’m being silly and totally getting ahead of myself. It was just dinner. Two colleagues.”
Nichole leaned forward and covered Verna’s hand. “Sweetie, it’s really okay to be attracted to a man. It proves you’re human and not superhuman.”
That made Verna laugh and the tightness in her stomach slowly eased.
“So tell me about him?”
Verna smiled. She told Nichole about meeting Ronald at the conference and how it had felt to see him again.
Her friend shrugged. “I don’t see the problem. You’re both adults. Take your time and see how it goes. From what you’ve told me it sounds like he’s just as interested in you as you are in him. He’s here on the weekend and you don’t work weekends. If it’s something worth pursuing, you’ll both have to make an effort.”
“True,” Verna said. “The main thing is that we have a new volunteer. Heaven knows, we could use the help.”
Verna had been mentally castigating herself for her babbling confession. That was so out of character. She’d always made it a point to keep her personal life away from the job. Not that she had much of a personal life. But she wasn’t one to share her feelings, her hopes and fears with someone else. Her life had been filled with people who didn’t stay. By the time she was ten she knew she could never depend on anyone to be there. She could not share her secrets or talk about her future because that would mean getting close to someone. Getting close always brought hurt. By the time she was twelve she’d grown tired of being hurt one time too many. So she had to find a way to protect herself. And she did. She stopped opening herself up to anyone. It was safer that way.
Ronald went to work the day after his dinner with Verna feeling oddly renewed. Inspired. No challenge was too big. He could handle whatever was thrown at him. He slid into his seat behind his cluttered desk and the simple organization of Verna’s work space came to mind. He glanced around at the stacks of folders. His habit was to review folders, make notes and set them on a pile on the desk. That stack had overflowed to the chair, which he always had to clear if a student or teacher dropped in. But that was going to change as of today.
He began sorting and organizing and two hours later his office looked as if it belonged to someone else. He laughed out loud at the transformation. He’d even found the pocket calculator that he’d lost.
A knock on the door drew his attention.
“Hey, Cara.”
“Wow.” The assistant principal put her hands on her hips and looked wide eyed at Ronald. “Did you hire a cleaning service or what?” she teased.
“Very funny. And the answer is no.”
“You do have a chair!” She crossed the small room and sat down, bracing her arm on the clutter-free desk.
“You’re full of jokes today, I see.”
“What brought all this on? Who are we going to tease in staff meetings now?” She ran the tip of her manicured finger across the desktop and it came away dust free.
“You’re going to have to find someone else to pick on. And to answer your first question, I…guess you could say I had an epiphany.”
“Really?” She looked skeptical. “Board of Health?”
“No.”
“Department of Education sanction?”
“No.”
“Mary, the cleaning lady? She threatened you, didn’t she?” Cara said, leaning forward to press her point.
Ronald tossed his head back and laughed from deep in his gut. “No. None of the above. And I’m wounded you would think I needed threats or professional intervention.”
“Okay, okay, I give up. Who is she? Because only a woman has the power to change a man.”
Ronald couldn’t help grinning.
“It is a woman!” She pointed a finger at him in triumph. “Well, it’s about time. Who is she? Come on, tell me,” she demanded, not giving him a chance to respond. Her voice rose to a hoarse whisper. “Is it someone from here?”
“Cara…” He got up and went to the file cabinet, leaning against it. “Must you know everything about my life?”
“Yes,” she said with all seriousness. “That’s what nosy best friends are for.”
He chuckled and shook his head. He and Cara had met in grad school while they were both studying education and counseling. They became fast friends. Their classmates used to call them the odd couple. Cara was barely over five feet and Ronald topped six. They were always arguing over some point the professors made, but they were inseparable. And it was pure chance that they wound up at the same school, Ronald as a guidance counselor and Cara as an assistant principal.
“If you must know…yes, it is a woman.”
“I knew it!”
“We met at that conference I went to a couple of weeks ago. She was the presenter.”
She snapped her fingers, trying to conjure up the name. “Um, Scott. Dr. Scott. She runs that facility in Bedford-Stuyvesant for troubled teens.”
“Right. Someplace Like Home.”
Cara crossed her legs and settled back to listen.
Ronald talked about her inspiring presentation and their meeting afterward and how uncanny it was that they simply seemed to hit it off. “Like a vibe. Know what I mean?” he said even as he struggled to make sense of it himself.
“I know exactly what you mean. I married my vibe, remember. So then what happened?”
“I went to take a tour of the place and…well, I was hooked. It’s phenomenal.”
“And apparently so is she.”
“It’s something I can’t put into words.” He crossed the room and sat down. “To make a long story short, I volunteered to work at Home on the weekends.”
Cara looked at him for a moment. “Now, is that because you’re really passionate about the program or because it will give you a chance to see more of Dr. Scott?”
He exhaled slowly. “To be honest…a little of both.”
“Wow. She must be special.”
“I think so. But I really am looking forward to the work. I met some of the kids, saw what goes on there, and it’s something that I want to be a part of.”
Cara leaned forward and placed her hand on his arm. “If there’s one thing that I’ve always admired about you, Ron, it’s your passion for helping kids. They’re lucky to have you.”
He grinned. “Thanks.”
Cara pushed up from her seat. “Be careful you don’t overdo it. We still need you here at one hundred percent.”
“I know. I figure a couple of weekends a month. Just to help out.”
“Hmm.” Her murmur echoed the skepticism in her eyes. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”
She turned to leave, glancing back at him, then around at his transformed space. “Amazing,” she murmured on her way out.