“Are you a tough professor, Mr. Quinn?”
“I try to make them respect me.”
“I like it.”
I said it. I can’t take it back now.
“My students don’t.”
I sigh, relieved by the way he brushed past my words.
“I’m keeping you up. You probably wanted to go to sleep, and…”
“No, no. Not at all,” he says, interrupting me. “It’s okay. I like talking on the phone.”
“Me, too.”
Silence. Breathing.
“W-With you,” he adds. “I like talking on the phone with you.”
Another silence – only this time, no one breathes.
Don’t say it. Don’t fuel this thing. Don’t turn this into an enormous, uncontainable disaster.
“Me, too, Mr. Quinn,” is what I say. “I feel the same.”
14Sean
We meet outside Keogh’s Café on College Street and sit at one of their outdoor tables – the only ones free at this time of day. It’s not too cold; there are heat lamps and a large awning keeping the warm air in. Besides, it’s one of those bright, dry winter days, the weak December sun towering in the clear sky.
We order two club sandwiches – mine with fries and a latte, and his with salad and black coffee – then sit in silence, each studying the other.
It’s weird sitting here, in a café, after our unlikely dates, and after our nocturnal phone call. I say nocturnal because it went on for hours before either of us had even realised. And now we both find ourselves facing the embarrassment of the morning after.
“I’m sorry I’ve dragged you into this whole mess with my family,” Eric says, uncomfortable.
“I agreed to it. So it’s fine – you have nothing to be sorry for.”
The waiter brings over our drinks, telling us that the food with be along shortly. We thank him and wait until we’re alone.
“It must be weird for you,” I say.
“Mmm?”
“Eating out.”
“I actually almost never eat out.”
“Don’t you trust other people’s cooking?” I ask.
“That’s part of it. But I don’t get much time – I’m basically always on the dinner shift.”
“Of course.”
“And…” He takes a sip of his coffee. “I never really go out with anyone, as I told you. Not at the moment.”
In spite of the cold, I feel heat rush to my face.
