by Laura Domino
If he could bring more crossword puzzles and play hangman with her by using her newest vocabulary words, he could keep her busy. She was having fun learning quickly.
But he also had to give Benita plenty of business-related vocabulary words to learn before she figured out his poem. It was too romantic for their current relationship. He was hoping the relationship would catch up by the time her Spanish skills enabled her to enjoy the point of the words. He didn’t yet want her to know that he was helping her memorize a Spanish love poem.
When Adam decided to help Benita learn Spanish, he thought it would be incredibly easy. He remembered how easy it was to pass a couple of Spanish classes to complete the foreign language requirement for his college degree. But now that he was teaching, he needed to brush up on his skills. It had been a while.
She was a good student. The time they spent together yesterday went by too quickly. He kept his mind on Spanish, which is a beautiful language, but not as beautiful as the woman who pursed her lips in front of him to say certain words. When she asked if she was saying it correctly, he was always tempted to answer with a kiss.
Benita had studied enough already to ask necessary questions in any Spanish-speaking country. She could ask where the airport was or the bathroom or the bread and milk. He’d been hired to further her education so she didn’t sound like a tourist. However, if she repeated the love poem to the wrong crowd, it could be bad. She probably would not be seen as a tourist. He should definitely switch out that poem for a different one for now.
Tonight, he’d try to be a better teacher. He’d have to be on his toes because Benita was very sharp.
They should do things differently tonight. Adam found the box that had stored his DVD collection while he lived at his mom’s house. He didn’t own very many movies, but the ones he owned held his interest. He pulled the movies, one after another, out of the box. The last two he pulled out were his foreign films. One in French, and one in Spanish.
He wanted to offer help in a way that allowed him to spend a lot of time with her. The more time he spent with her, the easier it would be for her to trust him. The more she trusted him, the easier it would be for him to help her fall in love.
XOXO
Living in an apartment close to work gave Benita the freedom to walk back and forth to work without worrying about catching a bus or train or getting caught up in traffic on the highway. She loved the freedom. Her only problem was getting her feet wet in puddles along her way. On days when she didn’t think it would rain, the weather often outsmarted her and rained anyway. She had, at times, relied on paper towels in the office bathroom to dry off her skin and shoes before tackling the day’s workload.
Today was one of those surprising rain days. The forecast showed about a ten percent chance of rain in the area. It wasn’t supposed to rain at all in her area, but it did. Maybe that forecast should have said ten percent of the area was going to get rain. Really hard rain. Maybe that forecast should have warned her the rain was going to leave everyone else alone, but it would seek her out and find her and rain on her.
Because it rained pretty hard on the way home, her shoes were soaked. She felt like a duck waddling up to her door in wet feet.
Adam was at the door with a sympathetic smile. “Oh, no. Look who got caught in the rain.” Standing to the side of her door, he held a small duffel bag. He probably had another book to share with her.
“Hi, Adam.” He had come to help with her Spanish, but she was a lot more interested in a hot bath, soup, and an early bedtime. “You escaped the wrath of the storm.”
“No. See this?” He pointed to one raindrop on his red cotton shirt just above his chest pocket. “I got a drip too.”
“A drip? I got more than a drip.” She unlocked her door and motioned him to follow her in. “Adam, I know you’ve come all the way here, driving through a storm, just to help me out, but…”
“It’s my job. I have to be here. I’m getting paid to be here.”
“I’m okay with paying you anyway because you did show up, and I didn’t give you any warning, but…”
“Not a problem. The storm apparently didn’t give you any warning, either.”
“Adam, I don’t feel like being tutored tonight. I can study on my own.” Benita wondered if she was being a little too vain or prideful.
“Come on, Benita. Really? You have a deadline, remember? Did I help you at all yesterday?”
“It is true that you helped me build my vocabulary more in one lesson than I could on my own. But I’m so miserable.”
“I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but you need tutoring tonight whether you feel like it or not.”
The air conditioner turned on. Benita shivered and rubbed the goosebumps on her arms.
“I can tell you’re having trouble getting the language down, but I’m here to make you push through the tough moments. And this is a tough moment.”
“I really appreciate your patience.” Right now, all she wanted was to be a little girl again and snuggle with her mom on their old living room couch in front of the TV. Her mom had died when Benita was a teen. The snuggle blanket had been thrown away many years ago. Even the image of her mom in the back of her mind was fading.
She didn’t have very many moments like this—moments when the little girl in her longed for comfort. Time to shake it off. There was work to be done. But the urge to avoid studying was powerful, especially as she stood by her front door in wet shoes.
Rest would only delay her success. She had to dig deep and find the work ethic she was known for. She was on the clock. Her insides groaned at the looming deadline. Was she going to make it?
Adam’s expression was difficult to decipher. He looked puzzled, like he was working on a solution for her, and the details hadn’t been worked out yet. “I have a surprise. I brought something to help out with pronunciations. I think you’ll like it.”
“Please. Not a book with phonetic—”
“Not a book.” He set the duffel bag on the floor near the TV. “Have you had dinner yet?”
She breathed in deeply. Her stomach rumbled, on its knees, begging for food. “No.”
He took her backpack and set it on the coffee table, not two feet away from her. “Benita, you’re tired, wet, and hungry. I can call for pizza while you go change clothes. I’m not going to put you through the vocabulary drills. Let’s just watch a movie.”
She raised her eyebrows. “A movie?”
“You’ll like it. Now go get changed.” He gave a brief nod in the direction of the only hallway off the living room, the hallway which led to her bedroom.
“Thanks.” No other words came to mind. The quick trip to her bathroom gave her a few seconds to think about the warm, comfortable clothes she would soon put on. As she piled her wet clothes on the counter by the sink, she had enough time to take a quick shower. The bedroom door was locked, and Adam was ordering pizza. She could be clean, dry, and in her comfy jeans before the pizza guy parked his car.
After blowing her short hair until it was almost dry and touching up her minimal makeup, she headed to the kitchen to put drinks in glasses for the two of them. When she reached the dining table between the bedroom hall and the kitchen, Adam put a fork beside the plate closest to her. The other side of the table already had a plate and fork. The glasses had already been filled with ice water. What a great guy! Adam even had the movie on pause. Stunned, she wordlessly sat in her chair.
Adam sat across from her, smiling. “The idea came to me this afternoon to share the Spanish movie I used to watch with… well, when I was practicing Spanish before going on a mission trip.” He looked down at the table as if mentally strolling through a memory. “If it worked years ago, it could still work now.”
“You used to watch this with someone? Sounds like a story to me.” She could listen to him talk all night. His calmness was good for her.
“No stories for now.”
“By the way, while we’re paused, I can get s
ome money and pay for the pizza.” She glanced over her shoulder to locate her backpack.
“I don’t mind paying this time. You can pay another time. Who knows? We might do this again later.”
“I should pay, Adam, unless you’re made of money. You never told me what you do for a living.”
“I’m not made of money, but I do have a very small inheritance.”
“Wow. You’re full of stories.”
“No stories. I don’t want us getting distracted. We’re watching a movie here.” He pressed the remote.
Two minutes later when the pizza guy showed up, Adam didn’t let her get up for it. He paused the movie, paid for the pizza, and served it to her at the table. “Be careful. Don’t get any sauce on that tan shirt.”
“I don’t usually. Why would you say that?”
“That’s the tan shirt you wore in the bookstore when we first met.”
“No. We met in the coffee shop. Remember?”
“No. I was in the bookstore looking at magazines and you stepped in front of me to get a tech magazine. Before the coffee shop.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“You wore that shirt. You looked good in it, so don’t get pizza sauce on it.”
Benita laughed. “Thanks. I’ll try to behave tonight.”
Adam pressed the button to continue watching the movie and paused it occasionally to explain a few language details.
This was turning out to be a much better evening than she had expected.
After the pizza was gone, they relaxed on her beige sofa to watch the rest of his movie. “Thanks, Adam. I feel much better.”
“I feel pretty good too. This fabric feels pretty good.” His hand caressed the fabric on the other side of the sofa, away from her.
“Silk chenille. Not cheap, but also not ugly.” She stretched her hand over the back of the sofa between them, smoothing it with her fingers, enjoying the softness.
Adam looked at the feet of the sofa, straining his neck. “Ball and claw. Classy. I figured you didn’t want us watching the movie here while eating pizza.”
“Aren’t you thoughtful? Very unlike most guys I know.”
His face turned away just for a moment. “Now that we both feel better after our warm meal, we can get back to business. Are you able to connect with the story and what the characters are about to do?” He pointed out differences in the full sentences she’d been learning and the fragmented sentences in the dialog.
“I might have to borrow the movie and watch it again to let the language sink in.”
“Okay. We’ll see how you feel about it when it’s over.” Adam was being patient and extremely helpful. Although they sat fairly close on the sofa, he was acting like a teacher should. Not once did he try to make moves on her like he was her boyfriend.
The movie was enjoyable too. Some of the male actors might be handsome enough to make her sit through the whole movie twice.
But Adam was handsome too.
Before he started it up again, he swiveled toward her and put his fingertips on his own collar bone. “Adam es el maestro o el tutor.”
Ah. A pop quiz. “Some words are so easy. You’re saying that you’re the tutor.”
He reached over and touched the top of her shoulder. “Benita es el estudiante.”
She couldn’t hold back her smile. “And I’m the student. This is too easy.”
He leaned back against the sofa, relaxing, murmuring, “Ella está aprendiendo rápidamente.”
“Okay. That was too fast. Didn’t get it. Something about being rapid, which I’m obviously not.”
“Too easy, she said. Ha!” His playful grin warmed her more than that pizza did. “Benita, you’re doing a great job. Let’s finish this movie.” He pushed the remote and set it down between them.
The puppy-cute stage was over. He was confident and charming. His consideration for her when he saw her arrive home in her wet clothes was a memory she’d keep for a long time. How many true gentlemen were there in this cold, dark world? At least she knew of one.
In fact, if he wasn’t careful, she might fall for him.
XOXO
Adam kept the discussion going after the movie ended. She was catching on quickly.
Benita grabbed the remote from the sofa cushion and turned off the TV. “My mouth is getting used to rolling the R’s and shaping those vowels differently. And my accent is better, I think. Don’t you think so?”
“Yes, it is.” Adam didn’t want to say what he really thought.
“Okay. I hear it. There’s a but coming.” She rested her head in her hand, propped up by leaning her elbow on the dark wood trim on the back of the sofa. Hair, shiny and dark, filtered through her fingers.
“You look tired. We should call it a night.” Of course, he didn’t want to. But common sense forced the suggestion on him.
“I’m not tired.”
“You are tired. You sound just like my brother.” Oops. He hadn’t intended to lead into that discussion. Hopefully, she’d ignore it.
Leaning up and looking into his face, she made her request quiet and polite. “Please, tell me about your brother. Does he live near you?”
The serious look on her face tempted him to tell her everything she wanted to know. But it was a long and painful story. “It’s late.”
“No, Adam. Stay. Tell me about your brother.”
That face. Who could resist? “Okay. Two years younger than me. A goofy troublemaker. We had so much fun growing up and getting into trouble together. Our mom tried so hard to create a pleasant, loving household environment for us.” He laughed. “She had almost no control over us.”
Benita laughed with him.
“Mom had her hands full. Poor thing. She tried to encourage us to behave and be the best that we could be. All we wanted was to have fun.”
Benita’s face showed her interest. “Do you get to see him often?”
His heart clenched as his face slowly sobered. “He died several months ago.”
“I’m sorry. Does it help to talk about him?”
“Not yet.”
“I’m sorry.” She touched his shoulder.
Her gentle warmth shot straight through his shirt, right to his heart. “You’re going to regret saying you’re not tired. You made me think of my brother falling asleep in church on a rainy Sunday morning.”
“This is the perfect day for that memory. Right?”
“Well, he had been up early trying to catch frogs and bugs in the yard. When Mom found his bed was empty, she tore out into the yard, looking for him. She grabbed him up and pulled off his pajamas on the way into the house. He’s screaming the whole time she’s pulling at his clothes. ‘I almost got him!’ Mom didn’t know what he almost got. She was trying to get him in and out of the bath, dressed, fed, and in the church pew on time.” Adam’s eyes were wet with laughter.
“Oh, no.” The sound of her laughter made him continue.
“He ate half of a waffle at the table and three white powdered donuts in the car on the way. She dusted the white powder off his clothes when she got him out of the car. She had my hand, his hand, and an umbrella as we walked into church.”
“Talk about a juggling act.”
“All three of us were damp and cold on that church pew. After about a quarter of the service with all the songs and readings and prayers, my little brother’s eyes were half-closed. Mom put him on her lap and held him as he nodded off to sleep, saying, ‘I’m not tired.’” Blinking, Adam held back the tears trying to well up in his eyes. He took a breath and swallowed. “I miss him.”
Benita nodded. “Yes, I’m sure you do. How wonderful to have great memories.”
“Plenty of good memories.”
“You probably don’t want to hear it, but as long as we’re telling stories, I have a church story.”
“Let’s hear it.” Adam took another breath and smiled.
“This story’s amazing to me. Did you know that I’ve been proposed t
o?” She slipped a coy smile across her face.
“I’m not surprised. Most beautiful women get proposals.” It wasn’t what he meant to say. At least, not out loud.
Her expression changed from coy to amused. She hesitated, glanced down for a second, and then continued. “Well, I have. I was dating a handsome guy who was everything a girl could want. He was athletic, funny, and handsome.”
“You already said handsome.”
“Because he was. And he could always make me laugh.”
“You already said he was funny.”
She lightly slapped his shoulder. “Stop. You’re interrupting my story.”
“Sorry.”
“He liked the fact that he could always make me laugh, except when he proposed while on a date.”
“Why would you laugh?”
“The thing I found funny was the fact that he actually thought I’d say yes to a proposal in church. He whispered, ‘Will you marry me?’ during the Scripture reading.”
“He didn’t.”
She nodded. “It was disrespectful. It was not romantic. That’s not how a proposal is supposed to be.”
“Poor guy.”
“I never said I wouldn’t marry him.”
“I wouldn’t have married him.”
“Stop.” She laughed and slapped his shoulder again. “I couldn’t help myself. I just started laughing uncontrollably and left. Never saw him again.”
“He stayed in church praying for God to have mercy on you.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“You left his miserable broken heart bleeding out on the church pew.”
“He was fine. He got married the next year to someone else.”
“Probably didn’t propose in church again.”
“You might be right.”
Chapter 13
Benita was blocked from her office by the crowd gathering around lunchtime at Jane’s desk. Someone had printed out a small banner to hang on the wall behind her. “Little Janie’s Getting Married.”
Jane was twenty years old and cute as could be. Her friends had been gushing their excitement for Jane’s party all week. So, of course, news had spread to other departments in their building. Women from another department joined in the fun at the back of the crowd. They would probably be the first to leave when it was mostly over.
