When she looked up to see whether or not her student was getting what she was trying to say, Angelina jumped in her seat. Jeremy had come in and was sitting quietly in the chair at the far end of her office. He had on a casual suit that showed off his athletic shape and sat with one ankle propped up on the other knee, casually taking it all in. Angelina couldn’t react with a student at hand, but she would have a word or two for Dr. Bell in a moment.
“I think I understand,” Annette, her student, was saying. “I need to show that Douglass is not only using the epic tradition but using it as a form of resistance.”
“Yes, I think that will deepen your argument and honor the complexity of Douglass’s narrative strategy. And I raised that point in lecture, so you can draw from lecture notes to boost your argument.”
“Who was the critic you mentioned about the master’s tools?”
“Audre, A-U-D-R-E, Lorde, with an e.”
“Can I use her in my revision?”
“Yes, by all means. And don’t forget to add textual evidence of Douglass’s use of the epic and of the way it serves as resistance to the dominant ideology.”
“Okay. Thank you, Dr. Lewis.”
“I’ll see you in class on Monday.”
Before Angelina could stop and formulate a few choice words for Jeremy, her next student walked in and took a seat. She glared at Jeremy but decided to continue with her office hours.
“Hi, Dr. Lewis.”
“Peter, right?”
The young man nodded. “I have questions about the History of the Black Atlantic and about my paper.”
“Did you bring your paper with you?”
He pulled out his paper, and Angelina flipped through it.
“You didn’t do well here. Half of what kept you back is an incomplete understanding of the text. The other half is the prose. Let’s address both.”
“Well, to be honest, I hadn’t finished reading the book when the paper was due.”
Over the student’s shoulder, she saw Jeremy’s shoulders shaking in silent laughter, and she got angry with him for making her want to laugh.
“That explains it. If you want the grade, you have to do the work.”
“What I really need to know is what I can do to bring my score up.”
“How much of our class have you missed, Peter? Honestly.”
“Well, I have practice late at night, so I miss sometimes.”
“Student athletes are only excused when the team is away. I asked because I don’t see you all the time, and if you were in class, you’d know that you can revise the first paper and the first take-home exam.”
“Can I come back to go over it?”
“You’re here now.”
“Yeah, but I have to see another teacher at four across campus.”
“Well, I’m sorry I kept you waiting. Come back Monday afternoon. If I don’t see you, I’ll take it as a sign of lack of commitment.”
“I’ll be here, Dr. Lewis.”
The next student came in and sat down.
“Hello, Dr. Lewis. I wrote about gender issues during slavery, and I didn’t do well.”
“Marcia. I remember your paper because I’m so interested in your topic. Take it out so that we can go over it. What you needed was more evidence to support your claim. You can’t overgeneralize about circumstances for everyone based on the experience of one or two people, so you had a great deal of inaccuracy. You have to remember that both Douglass and Jacobs were, in some way, exceptions to the rules. I can give you several sources that will help you fix those inaccuracies and produce a stronger piece. Like here, where you say that women worked in the house. On plantations, most slaves, male and female, worked in the fields. Remember our reading about Sojourner Truth?”
“Yes, but if I have so many inaccuracies, maybe I don’t really have an argument anymore.”
“You don’t. You’re going to have to start by qualifying your argument and your subpoints, but I can give you some ideas on how to do that successfully.”
After Marcia left, Angelina waited. No other student came in, so she finally turned to Jeremy, who smiled at her, got up and came over to take the chair she had been using with her students.
“Actually, Dr. Lewis, I didn’t read the book before I did my homework.”
He laughed, and she couldn’t help but chuckle.
When the moment was over, though, she returned to herself.
“What are you doing here?”
“I took off early to catch you and take you to dinner, maybe do a little window shopping before that. I need to get something for my brother’s birthday.”
“No. I need to get dinner ready at home, and I have laundry to do, not to mention—”
“I called home. Philly is doing fine, and Alex is willing to look after both him and Aunt Rose for a few hours. He didn’t even want the babysitting money I offered him.”
She started to shake her head and was about to say something else, but he cut her off.
“I’ll get you home in time to do laundry, and you can take a couple hours off from paper grading and prep and...whatnot. You have to eat, and we’ll get some take-out for the family on the way home.”
One of her colleagues, Dr. Albert Jones, poked his head in the door.
“One moment, Jeremy. Yes, Dr. Jones?”
“Sorry to interrupt. I’m wondering if you’ll be able to make it to a Curriculum Committee meeting next Wednesday at three.”
“Yes, I will. Can you let me know where? Oh, and I have the information on best practices that I was supposed to collect. Do you want to see it beforehand?”
“It’s in Room 426, but I’ll email with confirmation once I get a quorum. And just bring the information.”
“Dr. Jones,” Jeremy said, “help me convince Dr. Lewis to take a few hours off.”
Angelina was appalled. “Never mind, Dr. Jones.” She waved her hands. “It would take too long to explain.”
As soon as her colleague left, Angelina glared at Jeremy. “Don’t embarrass me at my place of work, or I’ll have a restraining order taken out on you.”
“I’m going to say that to everyone who comes in unless you say yes.”
“Then let’s get out of my office.”
While Jeremy chuckled, she stood and started packing her books.
“This is your side of town,” he said. “Where would you like to eat? And where can I look for something for my brother?”
“What do you want to get him?”
Jeremy seemed perplexed and shrugged.
“How old is he?”
“Twenty-five.”
“Does he like art?”
“Not enough to have any.”
“Cars?”
“Yes, actually.”
“How about a GPS system for his car—one of those things that tells him where to find stuff?”
“That’s a good idea. Where around here can we get one?”
“That’s a good question.”
They chuckled.
“Wait,” Angelina said. “Let’s check the internet.”
They found an electronics store nearby that carried GPS navigation systems and hit the store before deciding on a restaurant. It didn’t take Jeremy long to select one, and then they headed to a small, family-owned Italian restaurant that Angelina knew.
They were seated at a little table for two and offered menus.
“I already know what I want,” Angelina said.
“And I’ll have what she’s having. I can tell from the look in her eyes that it must be good.”
“It is,” Angelina said.
“And do you have garlic bread?” Jeremy asked.
“Coming right up.”
Angelina looked at Jeremy and shook her head. She was here; she might as well try to enjoy it a bit. At least he wouldn’t try anything with her in public.
But looking at Jeremy made her long for those days on the cruise when she could smile at him, when he would put his hand on the small of her back and make her shiver, when she could touch those firm broad shoulders and peer into those warm brown eyes. If only it hadn’t all been a mistake; if only the waking fantasy she’d had was true. For a moment it flooded back—all that she’d started to feel when his fingers were intertwined with hers or when they toppled on the floor of the roller-skating rink and couldn’t stop laughing or when...
His voice cut through her reverie.
“So how long have you been looking after your brother?”
“My mom had me young, but she had Philly later in life. They couldn’t control her blood pressure, and she died in childbirth. That was six years ago. My father was devastated, and I was still at home. I went to school from home, so I looked after Philly a lot even then. Then my father died in a car accident two years later, and Philly became mine. And so did Aunt Rose.”
Jeremy reached over and took her hand. It sent a tingle up her spine. She ignored it, yet she didn’t remove her hand.
“I’m sorry to hear about your parents. Does Phillip call you Mommy?”
“Sometimes he does, usually when he’s upset or sleepy or scared.”
“Your sister is twenty-three. How old are you?”
“Twenty-nine. That’s why Philly became mine. She was seventeen when my mother passed and nineteen when my father passed. She was still in college, and she’s not really...domestic.”
“Shouldn’t she help out more?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. She has such life, such spirit. I don’t want to see that taken away.”
“And your life, your spirit?”
Angelina took a breath and shook her head. There was nothing to say to that.
His fingers were caressing hers, and a shiver ran up her back. Still, she didn’t pull her hand away.
“What about Alex?”
“Alex is our cousin. His branch of the family didn’t fare as well as ours. He needed a place to go when his mother started dating someone a couple years back. It was a bad situation, and he’s family. You take care of family. He’s a good kid. He just needs to find his way, as you said.”
“How about your career? Have you been able to advance at all? How can you with all these demands at home?”
“I have an article I need to get done now, and I’m behind in publishing. When I come up for tenure in a couple of years, it will be a question. Teaching and committees make it impossible to get much done during the school year, and over the summer I usually teach to make the extra money. I start something, and before it’s done the school year has started again.”
Angelina found herself looking down at the table setting in front of her. She hadn’t really realized what a sore spot her career was for her. It was embarrassing to have to admit such deficiency.
Jeremy took her chin with his free hand, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. Even though she knew he only meant to be soothing, goose bumps ran down her back.
“Ang, you’re raising a family, taking care of an elderly aunt. Cut yourself some slack. It will come.”
“I know.” She shook her head to rid herself of the fallen mood that had come over her and of the shivers that were still running over her spine. She took her hand back as he removed his fingers from her chin. “What about you? How old are you?”
“I’m thirty-two. Both of my parents are still alive. I want you to meet them. And I have one brother, Edward, who’s—”
“Twenty-five.”
“Yes.”
She set her hands back on the table, and he took one of them again, looking at it as he laced his fingers through hers, caressing them. It was a simple gesture, but it sent a thrill through Angelina’s body and lit a fire in the pit of her belly. She sucked in her breath and pulled her hand away, hoping that he hadn’t noticed anything.
Over dinner, they talked about her teaching and his work, her great-aunt and his parents. Near the end, he ordered two more of the lasagnas they’d had so that she could take them home for Philly and Alex, and he ordered a chicken dish for Aunt Rose, hoping it wouldn’t be too spicy for her. While they waited for the take-out order, he turned the conversation toward their relationship.
“Angelina, I want to see you. Go out with me again.”
“I don’t really date in real life. I’m too busy with work and home. And the accusations you made show me what you really think of me. It’s as bad as what your friends were joking about.”
“I was angry, and I didn’t know any better. Especially after finding out that you weren’t who you said you were and hadn’t told me. It was easy to believe that you also hadn’t told me other things.”
“Maybe neither of us is who we were on the cruise. I know I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. You’re smart and beautiful and vivacious and erotic and playful and all of that. You just won’t let yourself be.”
She hated it when he was sweet. It made her want to rid herself of caution when she knew she couldn’t.
“Maybe it’s the way I cope with a hectic life. But I can’t change that, and neither can you. Let it go.”
“Like I said, I can’t.”
She took a breath and stretched her head from side to side.
“Tired?”
“Yes, very.”
“I would love to massage you to sleep.”
She looked at him. He didn’t seem to be getting fresh, only saying what had come to mind, but the thought sent a warm gush into the pit of her stomach, and now that they were getting ready to leave, it made her a little uncomfortable. She didn’t want him to try anything, especially not with the conflicting emotions moving through her.
When the take-out order came and the check with it, he handed over a card.
“You don’t have to pay. Most of this was mine.”
“I have it, Angelina. Let me treat you, all of you. I’m not here to make things harder. Remember?”
She sighed and let it go, knowing that he could afford it in a way that she couldn’t.
He walked her back to her car, carrying the food.
At her car he put his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. She thought he would kiss her and was ready to protest, but he didn’t. He simply hugged her, said good-night and moved off to his car.
She drove home in silence, her head spinning. She was tired, but she also wished that something of her time at sea was part of her life now—some of the freedom, some of the romance, some of the choice.
She didn’t really know why she had gone out with Jeremy. He hadn’t actually strong-armed her. But that was part of it—wanting more than she had now.
Then she remembered the gift he’d left for her. She’d forgotten to mention it. She’d meant to tell him that he had to take it back. If not, she needed to thank him for it or to say something. It was a gold bracelet with a ship charm along with an apology card in which he’d written a sweet note.
Maybe she was just afraid.
Chapter 16
Jeremy watched the florist load the two filled vases into a bag and separate them with tissue paper, but he was thinking about Angelina—the way her body shivered when he’d caressed her fingers over the table, the way her face had leaned toward his touch when he ran his thumb along her jaw. Her body was so responsive to his touch that he’d had to control himself in the restaurant and at her car to stop from seeking more.
He took the handles of the bag and braced the bottom to keep the vases steady. The short, fat one with yellow lilies and while calla lilies was for Aunt Rose, and the tall, thin one with pink and red roses was for Ange
lina.
He was on his way to Angelina’s on a Saturday. He wanted to see her again, and since she wouldn’t invite him, he was just dropping by. He had given her a little time, trying not to crowd her. He remembered from medical school what it meant to have too much on your plate and what it was like when someone else didn’t understand. He didn’t want to be that person to Angelina.
Jeremy heard the television from outside the front door and rang the bell. Alex opened the door and straightened up when he saw Jeremy.
“Hello, Dr. Bell.”
“Call me Jeremy.”
“You’re here to see Angelina? Is it Philly?”
“No new news on Philly. I’m just here to see Angelina.”
“Come in,” Alex said, stepping aside. “She’s in the shower, but I’ll let her know that you’re here.”
Jeremy entered the living room and found Aunt Rose in front of the television, watching an episode of The Golden Girls.
“Here’s the young man who brought the pastry. How are you, dear? Tell me your name again.”
“I’m Jeremy, Jeremy Bell, a friend of Angelina.” He got her flowers out of the bag. “These are for you, Aunt Rose.”
He held the flowers in front of her for her to see and then placed them on the table beside her and sat down on the couch next to her easy chair.
“When my husband and I lived down on Eastbrook,” she said, “there was a flower shop in the next block. That man used to bring me flowers every other week when he got paid. These here is lilies—yellow lilies. They pretty as the ones I used to get. Thank you, son.”
“How have you been keeping, ma’am?”
“Oh, it comes and goes. Nothing to talk about.”
“How long ago did you lose your husband?”
Aunt Rose sat up and started calculating. “Now, let’s see. That was a while ago. I was sixty-four. That was some twenty years ago now.”
“I see. I’m still sorry to hear it.”
“Thank you. What else is in them bags you brought?”
Love on the High Seas Page 14
