“I felt a little out of my depth,” Ember admitted.
“Well, it’s not complex math equations, so you kind of were, but I’d say you held your own.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want to embarrass you.”
Ember held open the door for Eva who preceded her into Windy’s but then waited because she’d never met Charlie and Hailey and needed Ember to guide her over toward them.
“I’m glad you came by. It was fun.”
“I liked seeing you in your element. You were born to teach.” Ember pointed in the direction of a back table she’d asked Grace to hold for them and ushered Eva along with a hand on the small of her back.
“Did you actually find any of it interesting or did you just read it all for me?” Eva asked as they approached the table where two women sat chatting, oblivious of their arrival.
“I enjoyed some of the books. Some, I could have done without.” She winked at Eva. “Hey, for the record, I’m on time. You two were early,” she said as she greeted Charlie and Hailey.
“Hey, Em.” Hailey stood and reached out to hug her. “And you must be this Eva we’ve heard so much about.” She hugged Eva and then Ember sat across from Charlie.
“Hey, Em,” Charlie greeted her.
“Hi. Eva, this is Charlie and the hugger is Hailey.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” Eva said, and Ember wrapped an arm around the chair behind her.
“You two are adorable,” Hailey pointed out.
“Okay. Calm down,” Ember replied.
“What? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you just throw your arm around a girl before.”
“Really?” Eva glanced at Ember.
“I didn’t want you guys to meet so you could give me a hard time,” Ember said. “Talk about other stuff.”
“Ember tells us you’re a doctor. Professor?” Charlie began.
“Yeah, American lit,” Eva answered and took her coat off with Ember’s help.
“And that you’re the reason our little Ember is finally growing up,” Charlie added with a chuckle.
Ember promptly threw an unshelled peanut in her direction.
“I think I’m in need of new friends. Can I borrow Alyssa and Hannah?” She laughed and glanced at Eva.
They ordered drinks and food and Ember enjoyed the polite conversation between three of the most important people in her life.
“So, how did you figure out Em was a super genius?” Hailey asked Eva.
“Hails…” Ember implored.
“What? You are, right?”
“She is very smart.” Eva placed her hand on the back of Ember’s neck and massaged gently. “And I don’t know how I figured it out. She talked. I wondered, so I asked and she answered.”
Charlie looked over at Hailey and then down at the table. Her smile had disappeared from her face.
“Charlie? What’s up?” Ember asked and placed a hand on Eva’s thigh.
“We’ve known you forever. We never figured it out. Did you feel like you couldn’t tell us or something?”
“It wasn’t like that. It’s hard to explain.” Ember felt the massage on her neck deepen. “No one was ever interested in it before. I kind of went on assuming no one would be.”
“Well, we are,” Hailey responded.
“Okay.” Ember’s raised hands and tone declared that she was done with this part of the conversation.
“And what about North Dakota?” Charlie turned the attention to Eva. “We heard you had an interview.”
Ember lowered her head until the hand on the back of her neck told her to lift it back up. She did and turned to Eva.
“They offered me the job,” Eva confessed. “They gave me until the end of the month to decide.”
“That’s not a lot of time to make that kind of decision,” Hailey declared.
“They offered me the job pretty much right after the interview.” She looked at Ember.
“What?” Ember pulled back. She had expected Eva to tell her as soon as she knew either way. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I’m not taking it.” Eva smiled at her. “I just haven’t had the guts to call them yet.”
“You’re not taking it?” Ember felt immediate relief.
“No, I’ll call them tomorrow. I’ve been putting it off because I have a job offer and even if it’s not the one I want, it’s something, and it will get me moving in the right direction. But it’s not what I want, which means even if everything else was true, I still wouldn’t be happy there.”
“Ember’s here so how could you be happy anywhere else?” said Hailey.
Eva smiled and moved her hand to cover Ember’s on her thigh.
“Any other offers yet?” Charlie asked and sipped the last of her wine.
Eva’s eyes returned to Ember.
“Yeah, I actually had a pretty good day today. I kind of need to talk to you about that though,” she told Ember.
“What happened?”
Eva shifted her glance to Charlie and Hailey.
“You know, I think I’m going to call it a night,” said Hailey and gave Charlie a knowing look. “Charlie?”
“I’m good.”
“Charlie?” Hailey repeated. “It’s late. We should go now,” Hailey insisted.
“8:30 pm is late? Since when?” Ember asked.
“It was nice meeting both of you,” Eva told the women across the table and after a quick exchange of goodbyes, Hailey and Charlie departed.
“What’s going on, Eva?”
“I got a call back from Tulane and another from St. Mary’s.”
“Oh,” Ember replied and lifted her hand off Eva’s thigh to take a long drink of her beer.
“St. Mary’s offered me a position, and Tulane offered me a position and relocation money if I accept.”
“Wow! That’s great,” Ember said, faking enthusiasm. “You’re amazing. The offers should roll in.” She believed what she was saying.
She’d just witnessed how great Eva was at her job, but hearing that the same job might take Eva away from her made her heart hurt.
“They’re great offers, Em.”
“I’m sure they are.” Ember looked away. “Do you want to catch a cab back to my place instead of taking the train?” She tried to divert the conversation.
“November, look at me please.” Eva placed her hand on Ember’s cheek and turned her back. “We need to talk about this.”
“I know.”
“I applied at Tulane because I went to school with someone that’s there now and they recommended me, but I never expected to get it.”
“But you did. Tulane is a good school.”
“Tell me what you’re thinking right now.”
“It’s not about me. It’s about what you want and what’s right for you.”
“You’re what’s right for me,” Eva replied immediately. Ember had to stop to focus on that moment. “I want to hear what you think about this and not just what you think I want to hear.”
Ember finished her beer and put the bottle down but used her free hand to play with the peeling label while her other rested against Eva’s thigh again.
“I don’t want you to go. I hate the idea of you leaving Chicago. I really hate it because I just found you and I don’t want you to go, but I can’t hold you back either and I won’t. If you take a job outside of the city, I’ll have to deal with it somehow,” she let it all out in one breath.
“St. Mary’s is in South Bend. It’s only two hours away. We could make that work, right? And I wouldn’t start until the fall.”
“Sure.” Ember stared at the beer bottle.
It was the same brand she’d delivered to Eva the last time they’d both been at Windy’s. She was so happy, because she thought she’d never see her again after that night at the restaurant, and then Eva had appeared at her brother’s bar out of nowhere. She thought she had lost her again, and felt so stupid for feeling so connected to someone she hardly knew, but then she�
��d gone to Windy’s and Eva had been there. Eva kept appearing in her life for some reason. She knew that reason was an important one and that she should pay attention.
“Babe, I want this. I want you and me together. I wasn’t expecting to lose my job. I definitely wasn’t expecting to meet you, but I did, and I know that I want you.”
“But you have to go to the place that offers you the best chance, Eva. Is that Tulane or St. Mary’s?”
“I don’t know. I researched both schools before the interview, but I didn’t look into the cities they’re in or if I’d even want to live there.”
“You applied to Tulane because of a friend. Why St. Mary’s?” Ember asked her.
“Because of you,” Eva answered. Ember lifted an eyebrow. “I applied there right after we got back from the wedding. They had an open position in the fall. It was close to Chicago, but Em, I also applied for two positions here. I just haven’t heard back yet.” She paused. “You know I want to stay here, right?”
Ember’s whole body softened.
“Yes, I know that. I know,” she repeated.
“I have two weeks to decide on the positions they offered. I’m going to take that time and hope that a Chicago school wants me, okay?”
“Okay,” Ember told her. “Can we go?” she asked.
“Are you okay with all this?”
“I’m okay.”
Ember was trying not to lie. She was okay because logically, she understood that Eva had to do this, but she also wasn’t okay because she didn’t want to lose her. Ember had never been in a real relationship, let alone a long-distance relationship. She wasn’t sure if she could. Even a two-hour drive or train ride to South Bend seemed like it might make things hard for them. Ember worked nights and most weekends and Eva worked during the day. When would they see one another? How could it even work? And if she chose Tulane or another school just as far away, they’d see each other even less.
“Your place tonight?”
“Sure.” Ember stood and helped Eva with her coat.
◆◆◆
Ember woke up in the middle of the night with her brain running wild. She checked the clock and saw it was 2 am. She looked to see that Eva was sound asleep and made her way naked toward her dresser. She threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and went out to the living room after quietly closing the bedroom door so as not to wake Eva. This type of thing happened often to Ember. She’d be enjoying a nice sleep and her brain would wake up, fully charged and ready to work. The only thing she could do to quiet it was to work out whatever it requested of her. She turned on the overhead light which illuminated the entire space and erased everything on the chalkboard wall.
“Babe?” Eva’s voice was husky when Ember turned to see that she was leaning against the corner of the wall that connected the bedroom and living room.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?” Ember lowered her chalk.
“I woke up and you weren’t there.” Eva clutched Ember’s robe to her body and Ember smiled at that sight. She was likely naked underneath and that made her smile for a completely different reason. “What are you doing?” Eva lifted herself off the wall and moved next to Ember to look at a completely covered chalkboard.
“Sometimes, I wake up and I have to work stuff out if I’m going to get back to sleep. I’ll come back to bed in a minute.”
“I’ve got to start getting ready for work.”
“Work?” Ember looked to the window and noticed the sun was up and then she turned to see the time on her cable box read 08:15 am.
“What time did you get up to do this?” Eva rested her head on Ember’s shoulder.
“Two,” She confessed.
Eva’s head lifted immediately.
“Ember! You’ve been at this for six hours?”
“It happens,” she revealed. “Kind of something no one has ever had to deal with before, so I hope you’re okay with it.”
“Babe, you’ve got to be exhausted.”
“No, I’m okay. I’m used to it, but I should get moving. I have coffee with Charlie and Hails, and I’ve been good about being on time lately.”
“What is it? Can you explain it to me?” Eva pointed at the board and placed her head back down.
“I don’t think you want me to.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it’s the same analysis work I did for Charlie, but for you.” She paused. “I worked through Tulane, St. Mary’s, and NDSU even though you said you were turning them down. I put in variables like cost of living, the rankings of their English departments against schools of similar sizes, housing markets in each area, the average number of years professors in similar fields take to get tenure, and some other stuff.”
“Babe…” Eva lifted her head and stared at Ember, but Ember’s eyes remained locked on the chalkboard.
“Do you want to know what it says?” Ember checked with a gulp.
“You aren’t exactly jumping out of joy here, so should I assume your math says I should go to Tulane?”
“I need some data from the schools you applied to here to do a complete analysis, but-”
“Em, that’s not the data you need,” Eva told her.
She didn’t know what data Eva was talking about, but what she’d just spent six hours working on revealed that Tulane would be the best location for Eva. Ember hated that she’d revealed it with logical applications of proven mathematics.
Eva took the piece of chalk in Ember’s hand and walked to the chalkboard. She wrote on top of all the symbols in large, white letters that appeared clear against the evergreen background. Then she turned around, walked back to Ember, and placed the piece of chalk back in her hand before kissing her on the cheek.
“That’s the only data you need.” She stood next to Ember who was still staring at the board and rested her head back against Ember’s shoulder. “And I’m turning down Tulane,” she said.
On the chalkboard, she’d written in all caps:
“I love you, Ember Elliot.”
CHAPTER 19
She’d said it or rather written it on a wall, but it was out there now, and there was no taking it back. She loved Ember and now Ember knew. As she stood there with her head resting on Ember’s shoulder staring at this wall that she’d just covered with her declaration of love, she felt Ember’s hand take her own, and they stood even more linked now. Ember hadn’t yet said a word. Eva squeezed her hand in hopes that Ember understood that no matter what happened next, the words on the board wouldn’t change.
“No Tulane?” Ember finally said to break the silence.
“I thought about it last night after you fell asleep.” Eva leaned closer to her. “I don’t know about the other places yet. I still can’t promise I’m staying in Chicago, but I don’t want to move to the south. It just comes down to that for me. I’m going to limit my search now to schools north of Tennessee and go from there.” Eva lifted their clasped hands and kissed Ember’s hand. “I know this is a lot when we’re just starting, but I love you. I love that you did all this.” She motioned to the board. “But I do feel like you missed a pretty important piece of information there, genius.” She turned to Ember, who after another moment finally turned toward her.
“I love you too,” Ember let out in a near whisper.
“You do?” Eva replied with surprise.
“Yeah.” Ember looked down.
Eva lifted her head and kissed her hard. No preamble, no warm up. She attacked her mouth with her own. Ember nearly toppled backward with the force of it. Ember finally laughed after a few moments and then Eva pulled herself back.
“I am really happy right now,” Eva said.
“Me too.”
“I know things are in flux, but we’ll figure it out, okay?”
“We will,” Ember replied. Eva felt like she could sense a little more confidence in that statement. “I hate to do this, but-
“You’ve gotta go. I know. Coffee awaits.” Eva stepped back. “I’m going to get my
stuff and head to my place to get ready. I’ll be on campus most of the day, but I want to see you after work tonight. Can you come over?”
“It might be late.”
“I don’t care. I’ll leave the key this time, I promise.”
“I’ll be there.”
◆◆◆
Ember had been cautiously optimistic during her coffee meeting with Hailey and Charlie. She’d shared the exchange of words between Eva and herself and Hailey hugged her twice. Ember had never said those words to anyone before. She’d also never heard them directed at her. Ember was cautiously optimistic because if Eva moved, they’d be dealing with distance.
Though Ember would be leaving the restaurant, she had no plans for her next job and figured she’d likely work at another restaurant or for Zack or even at Windy’s. She would have something to do, bring in money, and then take time to figure things out. That meant she’d be working most nights and weekends. Eva would be busy during the days. Even with a two-hour difference, things would get hard. They’d make plans to do the trip every other day at first, but that would get to be too much. Then, it would be a few times a week at most. Then, only on the weekends, and then less, and less. That, of course, was assuming she chose St. Mary’s. If she went somewhere else, the distance would be even greater.
Still, she smiled as she made her way to the restaurant because Eva loved her. Eva Dash, the woman she’d been crazy about since she first saw her, loved her and Ember loved her back. She was happy. They’d have the next four months together before Eva would have to move if it came to that. Ember was smart and so was Eva. They could figure this out.
“Hey, mom,” she greeted her mother who was standing behind the bar cleaning the espresso machine.
“November, will you please end this feud with your father already? This is getting ridiculous.”
“I just walked in the door. Can you give me like five minutes before you get upset with me?”
“Ember, you’re not quitting the restaurant. This is your restaurant.” Francine stopped cleaning and turned to Ember who sat on one of the bar stools.
“I am, mom.” She shrugged one shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I am. I want to do something else with my life. I don’t want to work with dad anymore. I tried to introduce him to my girlfriend, and he scolded me like a child.”
The Best Lines Page 22
