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"Aren't you supposed to introduce yourself before asking another person's name?" I asked.
He chuckled, "Rosemary Etiquette School?"
That was the place my parents had enrolled me to learn proper etiquette.
"Yeah, you attended?" I asked, my interest piqued.
"Not really, I wasn't that interested," he said with a yawn. "Too stifling. Who cares about the kind of spoon you'd use for soup? I don't even like soup, except…"
"Gumbo?" My eyes sparkled.
"Yes," he turned to look at me. "Gumbo."
His gaze made me giddy, so I looked away, grinning to myself.
"Can I know your name? Or are you okay with Gumbo?" he asked.
"Natasha, please not gumbo," I said as I shook my head negatively.
"I'm Ethan," he said.
I had heard the name before. Comes from a very rich family if not richer than mine. He had an intelligent older brother named Benjamin Sullivan. People loved Ethan. In a way, we were from the same kind of family, and yet…
"Ethan! There's a party this weekend, should we have someone pick you up?" a student asked, one of the common folk.
You think people of higher castes would mingle with lower classes?
"Sure thing, but no overnight drinking. We're doctors, remember?" Ethan replied, flashing a big grin.
"Says you, bet you'd be drunk before the rest of us," the student replied as they turned to leave. "Six pm."
"I'll be there," Ethan said then turned to me. "Would you want to attend?"
"But they're common folk. Won't they expect us to pay for their drinks or something?" I asked.
"Wow, looks like you attended the extra classes at the etiquette school," he laughed as he got to his feet. "This is school. You need to associate with a lot of different people to know how they think. When you become a professional, you won't be attending to higher classes of patients alone. Most times, it's the lower classes that become sick. How would you know how to attend to them when you discriminate against them?"
"I never thought about it like that," I admitted. I felt ashamed and muttered, "I'm sorry."
"For that, you have to come. And you pay for our tabs," he said.
"Are you serious?" I raised a brow.
"Six pm," was his reply as he turned to leave. Then he stopped to add, "Do you know which direction Dr Jones's office is?"
"That way," I said and pointed in the right direction.
He was lost. How could anyone get lost? We were in the second semester, and it was amazing how he still didn't know the place.
*****
The party had some people from my department present as well. Getting to know them made me realize how much I had missed out on not socializing properly.
"You know, I thought you were a prissy brat, but I apologize," Daniel, one of my course mates, said.
He wasn't the only one with that remark. Everyone else thought I saw myself as better than the rest of them. In reality, I did. That night, I watched Ethan accidentally break cups and wine bottles, without fazing anyone. Even the bar owners seemed used to the whole thing.
That wasn't all that drew me to him. It was like he was a social magnet, the way he carried himself so elegantly; and yet, despite his clumsiness, everyone seemed to like him. My parents didn't want me to suffer the consequences of failing. And to be honest, I had yet to experience failure.
