The Smartest Girl in the Room (7 page)

~~~

When she opened them, there was a steaming
mug of tea in front of her and Mitch was sipping his coffee.

She sat up and blinked. "How long have I been
sleeping?"

"Five minutes."

"Ugh." She sipped her tea. He’d put just a
little milk and sugar in. She smiled. She really liked him.

"What’s your plan with Zainab?"

"I don’t know." She looked up to see him
smiling at her. She wished they could stay there all day. "Care to
make a wager as to what time she got back last night?"

Mitch looked at his watch. "I’m going with
three-thirty only because everything is closed by then."

"What about the frat party?"

"Hmm. That could have gone a little longer.
Maybe we should call her."

After about eight rings, Zainab picked up.
"Hello?" Mitch said after waiting thirty seconds in silence.

"Mitch?" a voice finally managed.

"Zainab, is everything alright?"

"Everything’s alright."

"Where did you guys end up last night?"

"Last night? Where did we end up?"

"Did you go to the club?"

"The club."

"Did you go anywhere else?"

"Anywhere."

Mitch looked at Emily, then back at the
phone. "Where are you now?"

"Now."

"Zainab, what are you doing right now?"

"Talking to you."

"Right, but where?"

There was silence for a moment. "Um, on the
wall."

"Why are you on the wall?"

"Because it’s flat and I can sit."

"Why don’t you go to bed?"

"It’s too far away."

"Okay, Zainab, you go back to sleep,
okay?"

"But I am sleeping."

He hung up. "I think she made it to the frat
party. I’m not sure how she made it home."

"What was that about a wall?"

"I think she fell asleep on the wall."

Emily stood up. "Let’s go."

Twenty-five minutes later, they pulled up in
front of Zainab’s apartment. Mitch looked at Emily for minute. She
bit her lip and kept her gaze on his mouth. "So," he said at last.
"Friday night. The dork from your favorite class."

"You are going to be so unthreatened, you’ll
be disappointed."

"Just so you know, I think the word you’re
looking for is ‘relieved’."

She smiled and shook her head. "Why don’t you
help me with these bags?"

She buzzed Zainab’s apartment. No answer. She
buzzed again, growling in frustration. She buzzed one more time,
and finally Zainab answered. "Hello?"

"Hello, study buddy!" The door buzzed after a
second, and Emily pushed it open. Mitch pushed in her bags.

"Do you want me to help you upstairs with
those?"

"I don’t think Zainab’s awake enough to
process that."

He looked down at his feet. "So I’ll see you
on Friday?"

"Yeah," she nodded quickly. "Next weekend- I
mean, part of next weekend-"

"Next weekend sounds good." He looked up.

A thousand things she wanted to say. She
settled on: "Yeah, sounds good," then lightly tapped his shoulder
as she turned to walk in. "Thanks for dinner, sort of, and the
ride."

"Next time will be even better," he said as
he walked away.

Emily couldn’t wait.

Friday was a good day, because on Thursday he
had to attend an organizing meeting for his trip to Ireland. It was
the first time all of the participants were scheduled to meet, and
afterwards they were going to dinner. He had been looking forward
to this before, but now he wished he could get out of it. Or maybe
bring Emily with him. But that would be weird, especially since he
hadn’t said anything about Ireland yet.

The more he thought about it as he drove
back, the more he thought that three months wasn’t a big deal, and
that Ireland wasn’t so far away. He could call, she could call,
they could Skype. It could be done. And maybe it was better that
way, because they could take it slowly. And then when he came
back... he smiled.

His mother looked at him with a mixture of
relief and exasperation when he finally walked in the door at
eleven. "Jesus, Mitch! Where have you been?"

"I’m fine. I might need to be hospitalized if
you offered me some coffee, but otherwise I’m fine."

"Okay," she said slowly, glancing at him
sideways. "Do you want something to eat?"

He touched his stomach and turned away in
disgust. "Right now, all I want to do is sleep until tomorrow." He
climbed the stairs to his room then fell onto his bed face
down.

~~~

Mitch woke up at six-thirty that night. He
changed his clothes then came down to dinner.

"Everything all set?" his father asked as
Mitch munched some bread.

"Still all set," he mumbled between
bites.

His father cast his eyes down as he smiled,
and Mitch smiled a little to himself as well. His trip was as
important to his father as it was to him. "So, dad, any places I
need to go while I’m there?"

"I don’t know. Your grandmother told me the
same stories so many times that I got used to tuning out the
details," he laughed. "Just make sure you get to County Cork, and
tell them you’re from the Rowley’s line. You should be just
fine."

"Good enough," Mitch said as he resumed
working on his bread.

Emily had let Zainab sleep for three more
hours before they studied. She could have used the sleep too, but
instead she showered, changed and straightened Zainab’s apartment.
When Zainab woke up, Emily had lunch ready. "Why do I let you leave
again?" Zainab asked as she started to eat.

"So you can sleep on the wall?"

"What?"

"Your phone call with Mitch?"

"What call with Mitch?"

"Very funny."

"No, you’re the joker here. What are you
talking about?"

Emily laughed but stopped when she saw the
serious look on Zainab’s face. "Do you really not remember talking
to Mitch on the phone and telling him you were sleeping on the
wall?" Zainab looked stunned. "What time did you- oh screw that.
How did you get home?" Emily asked.

Zainab opened her mouth as if she were going
to say something then closed it. She sat back. "I don’t know," she
said after a moment.

"Okay, Ms. Pharmacy Major, is that what you
call a blackout?"

"Stop."

"I’m not going to stop. You’re scaring me and
I don’t want you to do it again."

"Good, I’m not going to."

"Good, because if you do, I’m going to follow
you around and be your designated Jiminy Cricket."

"And that’s different from the usual
how?"

"It’s different because if I always did that
we’d be studying now."

They were heads down in their books for the
next five hours. Emily quizzed Zainab on her toxicology notes
before they broke for dinner. Through her own exhaustion, Emily
could tell that Zainab, once she got going, was really into
chemical interactions and the effects on the body. The theory of it
at least.

"So you haven’t told me about what happened
last night," Zainab said as she ate the pasta and broccoli Emily
made for dinner.

"We talked, we ate bread and cheese, we
talked, we got mochas, we talked, we got cannoli and espressos, we
talked, we fell asleep on a bench. You know- your typical Friday
night out."

"That sounds kind of romantic."

"Everything but the caffeine."

"And...?"

"And nothing. That’s it. Then we stumbled
back to the Pru and found out you were sleeping on your wall."

"Anyway! Now what?"

Emily looked down at the table. "How would
you like to go to Drew’s party with us next Friday?"

"Drew’s having a party?"

"Well, he invited me to a party. His Solar
Car friends or whatever are throwing it."

"So which of them are you trying to make
jealous?"

"Neither! But maybe it wouldn’t be a bad way
for Drew to get the hint that I’m not interested."

"Or you could just not go to his party and do
something else with Mitch."

"I think I want to be around people."

"People who are going to be talking about
engineering?"

"Sounds like they like to drink as much as
everyone else. Does that sound better?"

Zainab frowned. "Since I’m such a lush, sign
me up! And you know who else loves free beer? Joe. I bet he’d love
to come."

"Oh, come on!"

"You want me to wingman at this thing, that’s
my price."

Emily groaned. "What do you see in him
again?"

"He’s... funny."

"So am I."

"He’s smart."

"No, he’s not."

"Sorry, we mere mortals are easily impressed.
And he’s cute."

She didn’t see it…at all. "Is it the hair?
The eyes?"

Zainab shook her head. "No, it’s the smile.
Especially when he talks to me."

Emily was going to say something when the
image of Joe trying to work that crowd popped into her head. "Okay,
bring him. Please." No matter what else happened, that was going to
be worth watching.

Mitch had wanted to call Emily every day
after Saturday. He thought about her smiling, pretty, exhausted
face, laughing at his bad jokes. He thought he should have kissed
her. He thought about taking her somewhere where they could be
alone. He thought about spending every minute he could with her
until he had to leave. And then he thought about leaving. The more
he thought about it, the more he dreaded it. What if she didn’t
want him to go? What if he didn’t want to go? What if she didn’t
care if he went? What if this was all a big mistake on his part? He
should do the calm, rational thing and tell her that he had to go
before anything started. But hadn’t something already started?

He walked into the conference room on the
third floor of Ayers Hall at five-thirty on Thursday night. The
director looked at his watch five minutes later. "Let’s get
started. Thank you all for coming out tonight. Hopefully we’ll be
able to use this time to clear up any last minute questions. And
then I hope you’ll be able to join us for dinner. As you may
know-"

He was interrupted when the door swung open.
A tall, thin young woman with wavy reddish brown hair stood in the
doorway. "Sorry I’m late," she said breathlessly. "The trains were
running a little bit behind."

"Quite all right, Ms. Allen," the director
said, although there was a tone of annoyance in his voice. "Please
have a seat."

The director resumed his introduction, and
the young woman found a seat next to Mitch in the back. "Did I miss
anything?" she whispered as she took off her coat.

"No, not really. He just started."

"Good! I’m Kyra Allen, by the way."

"Mitch Graham."

The director’s talk lasted for about thirty
minutes and then five or six of the participants had enough
questions to last another half hour.

People stood up at seven and Kyra walked over
to some other women. Mitch lingered at the table with the brochures
on his way to the exit.

"Anything good?" someone asked cheerfully.
Mitch looked up from the table and recognized Martin Shepard from
last quarter's Politics in Eastern Europe.

"Hey! I didn't know you were on this
trip."

"Sort of a last minute decision. It was
either this or Christmas with my parents. I’m assuming the food
will be better."

The dinner for the group was at a restaurant
that was a five-minute walk from the university. When Mitch
arrived, Kyra waved to him. Martin slapped his back. "I’ll catch up
with you later." Before he could say anything, Kyra called his
name.

He walked over to her table. There was a
green purse on the chair next to her. Martin was already at a full
table.

"Is this seat taken?"

"I’m saving it. For you," she said.

"Thank you." Anything else would have been
rude.

"And why are you going to the Great Green
Isle?" she asked as Mitch took his seat.

"Hoping to experience my grandmother’s
culture, as well as see some of the sites. Maybe get in some
credits while I’m there. You?"

"It seemed like a good opportunity to travel,
and I keep missing Ireland."

"You’ve been to Europe before?"

"Oh, sure," she said lightly, leaning back so
he had to turn his neck to look at her. "Spain, Italy, France, the
Netherlands. You?"

"Very first time to Europe. First time out of
North America, actually."

She put her hand on his knee. "You know what
they say," she said.

"What do they say?"

"First time for everything."

She squeezed his knee, then let go. Mitch
thought he should get up and go find Martin and ask about classes
this quarter or talk about politics. But instead he stayed in his
seat, half-heartedly participating in a conversation with two other
people near him before dinner came to an end. Throughout, there was
only one word he was thinking: Ireland.

When dinner was over, Kyra turned to Mitch.
"Are you joining these guys for drinks after?"

He shook his head. But he didn’t get up. "No,
I’ve got to drive home."

"Too bad. What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?"

"Friday. Are you busy?"

His choice. He had an easy option and a hard
one. "No," he said, and he wasn’t sure which one he’d picked. "I am
free tomorrow." They exchanged numbers before she left. He stayed
about ten minutes afterward to say goodbye to some of the other
people, then left himself.

She’s pretty
, he thought as he sat
down in his car and adjusted his mirror.
And she’s not beating
me up with her cleverness. That’s good, right?

He turned the ignition.
I’ll go to
Ireland, I won’t be lonely, and she won’t be either. She doesn’t
have to suspend life for three months.
And didn’t he hear Kyra
say something about junior year? So wouldn’t she be about
twenty-one? No promises were made to Emily...right?