As I brought the food out to the table, I heard Evanne chattering about the house. She proudly talked about her video game scores and how hard I worked in my office and how many books and toys she had and how big the bathtub was, and on and on. Lumen barely got a chance to reply, but I heard her laugh a lot and that did nothing for my resolve to stop thinking about Lumen in ways that could never be.
Focusing on the food helped me get under control so that when I finished, I was able to appear nonchalant when I found them in front of my room, Evanne talking animatedly about how much she used to jump on my bed until her mom told me I couldn’t let her do that anymore.
“Daddy says that sometimes Mommy’s rules have to be followed when I’m here, but other ones don’t. Like how he lets me eat breakfast for dinner sometimes even though Mommy says chocolate chip pancakes aren’t a real dinner.” Evanne lowered her voice to a whisper as she took a couple steps into my room. “But sometimes, he still lets me jump on the bed, as long as I don’t tell Mommy.”
Lumen appeared to be torn between embarrassment on my behalf and amusement. When she heard me coming, she blushed, her eyes darting from my face to my feet.
“It’s all right,” I said with a smile. “I know how Evanne likes to overshare things.”
“Daddy, the next time Ms. Browne comes over, can we have breakfast for dinner?” Evanne came running out of my room as soon as she heard my voice.
I glanced at Lumen, wondering what she thought about Evanne’s assumption that there’d be a second dinner, but she wasn’t looking at me.
“Let’s enjoy tonight, all right?” I smoothed my hand over Evanne’s hair.
“The food smells wonderful,” Lumen said as we made our way to the dining room.
“I hope it tastes wonderful,” I responded.
“I’m sure it does,” Lumen said. “Everything is lovely.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, faintly embarrassed. I didn’t have my mother’s china that had been passed down for generations – it was at the family home in San Ramon with my father – but I’d used the nice, matching dinnerware my parents bought for me as a housewarming present rather than whatever random stuff was clean.
Evanne pulled out Lumen’s chair for her, something I’d occasionally done for her. She’d always giggled about it, but I hadn’t realized how much she’d been paying attention.
“Thank you, Evanne,” Lumen said, stifling a laugh.
“You’re welcome, Ms. Browne,” Evanne replied, the picture of politeness. Her eyes, however, still held that familiar spark of mischief.
“Nice work making me look like a model dad,” I teased in a stage whisper. “Remind me to give you a raise.”
“Okay,” Evanne agreed readily as she took her usual seat. A seat that just happened to be strategically placed between mine and Lumen’s.
Once the ladies –myladies, my mind insisted – were settled, I offered Lumen some chardonnay. She accepted and then Evanne started to talk, taking the pressure off Lumen and me to keep up a conversation. I thought about asking Lumen how long she’d been a teacher so that she’d actually have room to speak, but as soon as I thought of the question, I realized Iknewhow long she’d been teaching. She’d only left her massage therapy job a few weeks ago. It’d be insulting to both of us to pretend we didn’t have a history.
“Take your time chewing,mo chride,” I said when there was a break in Evanne’s chatter. She’d rushed through the last couple bites so she could keep talking and do it without her mouth full.
She nodded, and I watched her until she was eating at a better pace.
“You have a lovely home,” Lumen said during the silence. “Very spacious.”
I thanked her and took a sip of my wine.
“What do you, um…do for work?”
The hesitation in her voice suggested she still wasn’t sure if she could discuss personal details with me, but if we were going to have a casual parent-teacher relationship, it would be weird not to know anything about each other. Asking about work would be a normal question for a teacher to ask the parent of a student. It was only what had happened between us that made it strange. Besides, knowing more about me might help her teaching style for Evanne.
“I run a business that organizes conferences around the world,” I said. “My da came from old money, but he wasn’t content to sit back and spend it like his parents. They weren’t bad people, but he wanted to do more, even when he was young. He wasn’t even twenty when he acquired a small publisher and grew it into the McCrae International Research Institute, one of the top companies in our field.”
“So you bring people together,” she said.
“Aye, I’m a real matchmaker.”
She smiled. “I knew the company name, but not what you did. It’s good stuff.”
“But not as important as being an educator,” I said, tipping my glass in her direction.
“I’m sure some of the conferences you organize are very educational.”
