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“I look stupid,” I groan, almost undoing my hair that Zoe’s tied back but her nimble hands are too quick and she stops me.
“You look great,” she affirms, pecking my cheek with her freshly painted lips, using the red to brighten my cheeks a little.
“Who’s gonna see anyway?” She challenges me. “It’s just me,” she adds, frowning. Looking a little more than hurt I haven’t praised her handiwork.
“I love it, daaaarling!” I lie, trying to imitate her best over the top expressions and movements but doing nowhere near as good a job as her impressions of me.
We both burst out laughing and she goes first, urging me to follow her down to the kitchen to eat.
I feel stupid, embarrassed. Having Michael, Professor Grayson see me all dolled up like this. It’s not what I would’ve planned myself.
But he doesn’t laugh, and he doesn’t make fun of me.
He tells me I look beautiful, and like everything he’s ever told me when he looks me right in the eye. I know he means it.
Even though I don’t feel beautiful, hearing him say it is enough to make me want to hug him.
But I don’t.
Zoe is hungry and her dad can eat more than a whole football team in one sitting, so she encourages me to hurry up and get some.
But Michael seems put off his food, not piling his plate high like I’ve seen him do in the cafeteria.
Nowhere near as interested in his plate as he is in avoiding my gaze every time I catch him staring at me.
Zoe ignores us both, eating like someone who never gains a pound from food, and educating us both on her latest achievements in between mouthfuls.
“I auditioned for a performance of Romeo and Juliet,” she announces, after giving an account of her stand up, no-show date with Todd Freeman.
“What part?” her dad asks, deadpan but manages to shoot me a sly wink as he wipes his mouth to hide a smile.
Finally, a smile for a change.
He’s been so serious tonight for some reason, almost more serious than he is in his lectures.
Zoe makes a face. “As a tree, dad. I auditioned for the part of the tree that Romeo takes a whiz on… satisfied?” she retorts, making us both crack up laughing.
She’ll make a great actress one day, and only because she’ll never have to even try. Zoe is the best.
“I don’t remember a tree in Shakespeare’s version?” Michael teases her, looking thoughtful before kindly threatening to look it up.
“I’m sure I haven’t packed those books yet. I’ll have a look after we eat,” he adds, showing me where Zoe gets a lot of her sass from.
“Dad?” Zoe whines. “Can you be a little more adult, please? I went for the part of Juliet, and I hope I get it. Thanks for your support,” she pretends to huff.
Making her best sulking face, which both her dad and I know is just another of her finest achievements as an actress.
We both break out into spontaneous applause and after a moment of shocked protest, Zoe laughs aloud and stands up to take a bow.
Somehow we manage to avoid the elephant in the room.
The fact that this is probably the last time we will all sit down together like this.
For me and Zoe it’s a familiar scene, but one we haven’t been through in a long time. Not since she and Michael moved away long before I applied for college.
But there’s the unspoken sadness I feel too, at losing not just my favorite Professor, but the man I know I have more than a crush on.
As stupid as it might sound, I love Michael Grayson, in my own weird way. I have for years. I just wish things were different.
Wish maybe I’d met him when I was his age twenty years ago.
He might have been genuinely interested in me then. Or at least I might have had a chance.
I’m trying to keep my spirits up, and being so close to Michael even though he’s on the other side of the table, is a thrill.
Zoe keeps us entertained until her phone chimes, and both her dad and I figure it’s Todd calling to apologize, and it is.
She takes the call in her room, leaving me alone with Michael.
It’s the second time in four years I’ve been all alone with him. The first was just an hour ago.
I should be nervous, scared even. But his whole demeanor seems to relax once Zoe leaves. He even smiles and piles his plate higher with more food, urging me to eat.
“Between me and Zoe, we can both eat,” he cautions me, advising me to eat up while it’s still there.
But I can’t focus on food with him so close.
With everything changing so suddenly.
“So… You’re not exactly sure when you’ll be going home?” he asks, his face becoming serious again. His eyes absently move towards the doorway and to the hall beyond it.
