“Or maybe she’s just happy he’s leaving her alone because the last thing she wants is another kid to look after.”
The two friends laughed.
“No, but seriously,” Sabrina said. “Did I interrupt something? Did I hear you had a date with the boy-toy?”
“Shut. Up,” Lori-Anne said. “That’s crude.”
“Did you not see him? He’s gorgeous. If you don’t want him, I’ll take him.”
Lori-Anne flipped the light switch off and locked the door. “I didn’t say I didn’t want him. He asked me for coffee and then you showed up so we had to reschedule.”
“Forget about us, go get him.”
“As much as I’d love to,” Lori-Anne said as they reached the outside doors. She zipped her jacket, put her hat on, and slipped her hands into her mittens. “He’s gone.”
“You like him,” Sabrina said. “You didn’t look this horny when you were fucking the English professor.”
“Shut up,” Lori-Anne said again. “Someone could hear you.”
Sabrina looked around. “No one here.”
“Still, I don’t want Miles to get in any trouble. In a way, I probably knew it wasn’t going to last forever.”
“Just a couple months ago you were planning when he was going to leave his wife.”
Lori-Anne shook her head. “I don’t remember that.”
“Uh-huh, yeah.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” she said. “I’m so done with Professor Halfpenny, so let’s just go out and have a good time. Let’s PARTY!”
But as they drove off to go get the other girls and get ready, Lori-Anne hoped that soon her weekends weren’t going to be about getting shitfaced with her girlfriends, but were going to be spent with Mathieu.
That’s how sure she’d become of her growing feelings for him. The attraction was undeniable, and she knew it was mutual. But it was more than that. With Miles, she’d felt sinful, like his dirty little secret. She didn’t want that anymore. She wanted to love and be loved.
And there was something in the way Mathieu presented himself, the way he looked a bit shy but not meek, confident but not arrogant, safe but with an adventurous side.
And as Sabrina had said, he was gorgeous.
* * *
Mathieu spent the weekend studying, but took a break Saturday afternoon to help his grandfather who was building a fifteen-foot trestle kitchen table made of reclaimed mahogany. After they’d run all the boards through the planer and then the jointer, they glued the planks together to form the table top and left it aside for now.
Mathieu was now working on the base while his grandfather tackled a couple of benches. Six chairs were planned too, but would take the longest, so for now they’d been relegated to later.
“This is going to look awesome,” Mathieu said. “You know, Grandpa, maybe someday I’ll open up my own shop.”
“You’ll definitely do well,” his grandfather said. “You’re well on your way to becoming a craftsman.”
Mathieu wiped a brow.
“Getting kind of thirsty,” his grandfather said. “And I’m sure your grandmother will be calling us in for dinner soon. Whatever happened with that young lady?”
“I was going to ask her out on Friday, but a friend dropped by and interrupted.” Mathieu put his tenon saw away. “We’re supposed to meet Tuesday for coffee.”
“You talk to her father?”
Mathieu grabbed a rag to wipe his hands. “I did.”
“You didn’t get the response you’d hoped.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“That’s what I’d figured but since you didn’t bring it up, I left it alone.”
“Hasn’t deterred me,” Mathieu said. “The more I see her and talk with her, the more I feel she’s the girl for me.”
“That’s how it was with your grandmother. To tell the truth, her father didn’t think much of me either. And I didn’t let that stop me.”
“Great-Grandpa didn’t like you?”
A longing smile crossed his grandfather’s face. “I was a bit of a wild one before joining the army. Drove a motorcycle, so he wanted me nowhere near his daughter. He was probably the happiest chap around when I shipped out.”
“And when you came back?”
“I’d changed. Grown up. I never went to battle, but I saw things in England that made me realize how precious life was and how horrific men could be. I left a boy and came back a man.”
“And?”
“Your great-grandfather still didn’t like me, but I didn’t give a rat’s ass. I loved your grandmother and I wasn’t going to let that old fool stop me from marrying her.”
Mathieu laughed out loud. “You know, Grandpa, I don’t think one generation is much different from another.”
His grandfather put an arm around his shoulder. “I think you’re probably right. Let’s get us a couple beers and see what the love of my life made for dinner. I’m starving.”
* * *
Saturday night Lori-Anne was sitting in the reading room in a comfy pair of flannel pyjamas, a fire going and a book in her lap. What a disaster last night had been.
First, she’d had a hard time getting into the party mood. Then around midnight, the other girls started doing tequila shooters.
She’d wanted no part of that.
So there she was at a bar on a Friday night with three girlfriends and she wasn’t having any fun. Instead, she wanted to be with a boy she barely knew, possibly doing something as mundane as grab a coffee at Tim Hortons and talk about simple things like books they liked, or movies they’d seen, and whatever else they might find they had in common.
What was happening to her?
Just a few months ago she would have been the one challenging the others with who could drink the most shooters before passing out, but last night she’d been content sipping a Diet Coke so she could drive everyone home safely. And before Professor Half-you-know-what, she probably would have hooked up with some cute guy for the night and done the walk of shame back to her place the next day hoping not to run into her father, who would question her like she was a pre-teen instead of an adult woman old enough to make her own decisions.
Those shooters had been a terrible idea. Sabrina was so drunk her eyes seemed to be spinning in her head and before Lori-Anne could get her to the washroom, she was covered in Sabrina’s puke.
A coffee with Mathieu would have been so much better.
Smelling like dead fish roasting on a beach, Lori-Anne had dragged her friend to the ladies’ room to clean up as best they could.
“I’m soooryyyyy . . .” Sabrina kept saying.
“I know.”
When the two of them came back to the bar, Lori-Anne had wanted to go home but the other girls weren’t ready to leave. So she’d left with Sabrina and dropped her off at her place.
Sabrina had called a little while ago to apologize again and ask Lori-Anne if she wanted to go out. Her treat.
Not a chance.
She took a sip of wine and tried to read, but after going over the same line three times, she put the book down beside her.
Her thoughts were elsewhere.
* * *
Tuesday, January 14, was a miserable day. The snow began overnight and by the time rush hour arrived, there was over twelve centimetres of it on the ground already, with another fifteen to twenty forecasted. Traffic was a nightmare and Mathieu was almost an hour late for his first class.
In fact, there were only seven people in attendance, so the professor had turned the class into a catch-up-or-ask-questions session, which pretty much was do whatever you wanted.
So Mathieu grabbed his stuff and wandered toward Lori-Anne’s little office hoping to find her there.
The door was open.
He stood in the doorway, noticing that she was wearing her hair down today. She also wore a pink sweater that matched her lipstick, and her smile was warm and
inviting.
“That colour looks good on you,” he said. “I mean—”
“Thank you,” she said and tucked her hair behind her left ear. “I was wondering if you’d bothered coming in with the weather and all.”
“I wasn’t missing our date.” He saw her face get even more beautiful. “I have an idea. Why don’t we just go get that coffee now, since not much is happening anyway?”
“I’m all yours” she said.
* * *
Lori-Anne heard herself say I’m all yours and felt her face blush and hoped she hadn’t sounded desperate, or worse, lecherous.
She stood, grabbed her bag, and walked up to him. “I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”
Mathieu grinned. “It came out just perfect.”
She gave him a light tap on the arm. “That right?”
“Oh yeah.”
“You’re a bit full of yourself,” she said.
“I think the present company is messing me up,” he said. “Not a bad thing.”
“I’m glad.” She locked the door. “Lead the way, dear sir.”
Like a gentleman he offered his arm and they headed to the Tim Hortons on campus where there was a good crowd, everyone getting the same idea. They both grabbed large coffees and muffins, and found a table by a window. They settled into an easy conversation about Canadian literature, then moved on to current films and world events before getting to personal things.
“What were you like growing up?” he asked.
“Wow! That’s a tough one,” she said. “I used to love dance. I took tap, ballet, and jazz, and I thought I wanted to become a ballerina.” She laughed. “I don’t think I have the lithe body for that anymore, if I ever did. In high school, I did a lot of track and field, had the best time in the sixteen hundred meters in grades ten to twelve, and I was a pretty decent swimmer. My best was field hockey. I was a bit of a meanie.”
An amused smirk spread on Mathieu’s face. “I don’t believe that.”
She swallowed a sip of coffee. “True story. I grew up with three incredibly competitive brothers, worst one my brother Cory—who turned out to be gay.”
“Seriously?”
“I think he was playing the magician for my dad’s benefit.”
Mathieu popped the last of his muffin into his mouth. “Magician?”
“You know, magic is all about illusions, watch the right hand and forget what the left hand is doing.”
“Your dad’s a man’s man?” he said and she nodded. “So if your brother was the best in sports, he figured your dad wouldn’t pay attention to his other life choices.”
“Exactly,” Lori-Anne said. “Didn’t work, though, and my dad went ballistic. He and Cory don’t really speak.”
“That’s too bad,” Mathieu said. “I get the impression that you support Cory.”
“We have a close relationship,” she said. “My brother Brad is out in Vancouver and I doubt he’ll come back. He and dad get along, but it suits Brad better to have the distance. And he’s got a girlfriend out there.”
“Any other siblings? Any sisters?”
“The oldest is Jim. He and dad are cut from the same cloth, as the old saying goes. They are so alike that they could be twins. No sisters. You?”
Mathieu shifted in his seat. “Just me.”
“There’s been times when I wished I was an only child.”
“It has its moments.” He paused. “But I think when the time comes, I’d like to have a big family.”
“I guess I can’t really complain that much,” she said. “Most times it was nice hanging out with my brothers. A sister might have been great though. Yeah, I can see myself with probably three kids. I still want a career. I want it all!”
“Modern curse.”
“Probably,” she said. “My dad drove us all hard so it’s ingrained in all of us kids to become successful. But I want balance too. I have no problem getting pampered and having fun. I believe in a couple working together, complementing each other. My mom ran our home and my dad ran his business. But it always seemed like there was some kind of disconnect, that they never had an equal relationship.”
“I grew up in a very balanced environment so I totally agree with you. I don’t know anything different.”
“I look at my brother Cory and his partner, and even though it’s not traditional, there’s passion. I know my mom loves my dad, and I’m sure he does too, and maybe the years is what caused their passion to . . . I won’t say die, but it’s not burning bright.”
A silence lasted a little too long.
“Have I scared you?”
“Not at all,” he said. “I think we’re looking for the same thing. I didn’t really know what to expect today.”
Lori-Anne pulled her lower lip into her mouth and tucked her hair behind her left ear. She hoped that Mathieu couldn’t hear how loud her heart was beating right at that moment. Something about him felt so right and she didn’t want to do anything that might spoil the moment.
“And?”
“I think I’d like to go out on a real date,” he said. “Whatever that might mean. It can’t be a movie though. We need to be able to talk and get to know each other some more and we can’t do that when we’re staring at a screen.”
“Let’s go bowling,” she said without thinking. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he liked the idea. “I’m really bad. The few times I’ve played.”
“I’ll take it easy on you then.”
“You play often?”
“Not really. I’ve gone a few times with my grandparents. It’s a good time.”
“You’re lucky to have them,” she said. “Mine are all gone.”
“I just have my dad’s side,” he said. “So we’ll do bowling and then dinner?”
Wow! An actual date.
She could fall for this boy. This man, really. She was tired of mistakes, of feeling lonely. Part of her was afraid—afraid of getting hurt, afraid of passing a good thing.
And those lips, God! She wanted to taste his lips so badly, feel his arms around her. The attraction was so strong that it left her dizzy with fear—fear that this fantasy she was building in her head would vanish like smoke in the wind.
“That sounds wonderful.”
Mathieu looked at his watch. “I guess I should get to my next class. Maybe there’ll be more students in that one.”
“I should get to my economics class too.” She grabbed the two empty cups and muffin wrappers and threw them in the trash. “I’ll see you later.”
“How about tonight?”
She pulled a pen and piece of paper from her bag and wrote down her number and address. “Pick me up at seven?”
“No snowstorm will stop me,” he said.
Lori-Anne walk away, the smile on her face so big it could have swallowed her, the excitement bubbling inside of her as wonderful as the Christmas her family had spent at Disney World when she was seven.
* * *
The day couldn’t have dragged on any more than it did, and by the time Mathieu got home, he felt like he barely had time to get ready.
It was only 4:32.
He jumped in the shower, shaved, tried to do something with his hair but then decided to just leave it as is. By the time he was done it was just 5:00 p.m. and he had two hours to kill.
“You’re pacing like an expectant father,” his grandmother said as she prepared dinner. “You must really like Lori-Anne.”
“It’s been a long time.”
“I know, dear,” his grandmother said. “I’m happy for you.”
Lori-Anne was the first girl since Janet who’d made him believe that falling in love might actually be possible again.
“I hope we’ll get to meet her soon,” his grandfather said, sitting at the table and reading the paper. “She must be special.”
“I think so,” Mathieu said.
His grandmother touched his
cheek. “You’re a fine young man.”
“I hope she sees that,” Mathieu said.
“She wouldn’t have agreed to a date if she didn’t,” Grandpa said.
“Just relax and be yourself,” Grandma said. “No sense pretending to be someone else because eventually you need to show her who you are. Honesty is the best way to a woman’s heart.”
“And a good stew is the way to a man’s heart,” his grandfather said and winked at his wife. “Your grandmother is right though. I never pretended to be anyone other than Léon Delacroix. Show her who Mathieu Delacroix is and I’m sure she’ll like what she sees.”
He knew they were right, but who was Mathieu Delacroix? He was an orphan raised by his father’s parents. He’d been a great hockey player but now was a bit of a loner who loved to write and was really good at making furniture. He didn’t have a clue what he was going to do with a degree in English Lit, except to write the next great Canadian novel.
Or end up a teacher making a measly salary. How was he going to support a wife and three kids on that? From what he’d seen, Lori-Anne’s dad was a successful businessman. Maybe she was used to a certain standard of living. He’d grown up in a tiny bungalow that was barely a thousand square feet with three small bedrooms and one bathroom.
What if she was so out of his league that he was setting himself up for getting hurt worse than when Janet dumped him?
Mathieu headed to his room. He sat on the edge of his bed, handcuffed by doubts.
“You okay?” his grandfather said.
“What if I’m not good enough for her?”
His grandfather sat down beside him. The two men stared ahead, as men did when getting personal.
“Before I asked your grandmother to marry me, we’d been seeing each other almost three years, but I still doubted if I was going to be the man she deserved. I knew I could be the man she needed, but could I be the one she deserved?”
Mathieu rubbed his hands.
“You’re a bright boy. You’re a capable boy. I have no doubt that you can be the man any woman needs. What you have to decide for yourself is whether you can be the man that Lori-Anne deserves.”
Mathieu turned to look at his grandfather.
“How am I supposed to know what man she deserves when we’re just getting to know each other?”
We Became Us Page 4
