God, yes, keep those thighs conditioned.
“There’s a rowing complex not too far from here, and I go there almost once a week. Typically, I go on Saturdays.”
“Today is Saturday. Did you go this morning?” I asked as I opened the book and began to skim to the index.
“No, not today. When I go it’s pretty much an all-day thing.”
Wanting desperately to hear that I was the reason he didn’t go today, I boldly asked,
“How come you didn’t go today?”
“I wanted to spend time with you at the library.”
I had never been in love, so I didn’t know exactly what that felt like. But I was certain that I’d loved Elijah Henry Hamilton. He could have said that he had other errands to do, or that he wanted to work on his ancestry thing, but he didn’t. He’d said that he wanted to spend time with me. Yes, this was love.
“Thank you for wanting to spend time with me.” I pressed the pom-pom from the top of my pen against my lips to try to hide my face-splitting grin.
“Of course I want to spend time with you.” Elijah paused for a moment before adding, “After you graduate in a few months, we can go for coffee.”
Though I had no immediate plans for what I’d do after I graduated, I was suddenly very eager for that time to come. Elijah wanted to spend time with me. Maybe it made him feel a little better knowing that I was at least eighteen.
I helped Elijah find a book that he could work on finding info for his family, but I was so torn with wanting to spend every possible second looking at him or talking to him and searching for my own missing pieces. This went on for hours and hours. I’d stare at the book for a while, then the words and info became less important as I’d drift off into a daydream about him.
After three and a half hours of having small conversations with Elijah in between searching through the book, I found a piece of info that I had spent months searching for. As if Elijah would know exactly what I was referring to, I blurted out the name that brought tears to my eyes.
“Mateo,” I murmured while staring at the book. I looked at Elijah through misty eyes. A few tears ran down my face, and I smiled and quickly wiped them away.
“Who is Mateo?” he asked gently. His eyes were on me, and his soft tone showed me that he knew the name must have meant something important to me.
“Mateo Martinez. He’s my great-great-grandfather on my dad’s side,” I explained with a huge smile. “For months, I had been searching for him.”
Finally finding it was a major accomplishment and had made me feel proud. With the name Mateo, I now had the names of four generations on my dad’s side. I was even more excited that I had Elijah here to share the discovery with.
* * *
After our firstdate at the library, my relationship with Elijah grew. I truly felt as though he was a friend and that we really shared a common interest with ancestry. It was very easy for me to talk to Elijah at my weekly appointment, not only about genealogy, but about things at home.
Mom and Thomas started arguing a lot, and I didn’t even know what had really caused the arguments. I started getting paranoid about it because every now and then I would hear my name being mentioned. Each time I’d asked Mom about it, she’d said it wasn’t anything bad or for me to be concerned with. But I couldn’t help it.
I showed up to the Heritage Library one Saturday on the verge of tears after hearing Mom and Thomas argue over a party and me being at it. I thought I had my emotions under control by the time I’d reached the lobby, but when Elijah walked toward me, I felt my jaw quiver. Elijah asked what was wrong, and I started to cry. He wrapped his big arms around me and told me to let it out. Being held protectively by Elijah only encouraged me to cry more instead of stopping the tears.
Instead of going to do research, we went outside and walked around the adjoining park. I told him about the fight between Mom and Thomas and how upsetting it was to hear my name, yet be told that it was nothing. I’d felt like something was being kept from me.
During my next Friday afternoon visit, we only talked about my mom and Thomas. They had argued off and on that week about a party that was going to take place at our home tonight. Since I had told Mom and Thomas that I didn’t want to go to college after I graduated next month, Thomas said I could come work at the record label. He seemed to want me to start attending the parties so I could begin getting used to that atmosphere. I was totally fine with that and was looking forward to it. Mom didn’t want me in that atmosphere at all, especially not until I graduated.
“I’ll tell you all about the party tomorrow when we meet at the library,” I said as we wrapped up our hour in his office.
“I can’t meet tomorrow at the library,” Elijah began.
My stomach dropped, and I felt like I had been sucker punched. We’d been meeting almost every weekend lately, and my friendship with him literally had saved me from feeling like I didn’t have any friends.
“I have a reservation at the rowing complex tomorrow morning. It’ll be my first one in a while. I love our time at the library, but I need to get a hearty workout,” Elijah explained.
I nodded. I didn’t think he was lying or anything.
“Salem, you have my cell phone. Don’t hesitate to use it. I’ll be at the rowing complex from 9:00 to 2:00, so if you text during that time, my responses could be delayed.”
“Okay, no problem. I won’t bug you during your rowing time.”
