Reunion
As I waited in line to the cashier, I glanced at my shopping list and a bag of dog food for Otis struck me. How could I forget?
“Excuse me!” I turned my cart around, passing a line of at least 5 people that were behind me and aimed straight to the pet section all the way on the left side of the store.
A voice from behind stopped me. “Hello.” It sounded subtle yet pleasant, as if he did not want to startle me or he was trying hard not to be ebullient.
I looked up to my right. And there he was. Sparkling eyes, so attentive I wonder if he has peripheral visions. Blond hair cut. And no beard, like he walked right out of my fantasy.
“Hi, Mr. B!” I was so loud everyone else looked at me. I did not care. How is it possible that I would meet this man again? Sure I had a huge crush on him when we were both doing Teach for America. He had a girlfriend at the time and I never talked to him or showed that I looked at him. Those were the days, I felt like a teenager! As a 26 year old, I still feel this way sometimes despite my best effort to contain it and strive toward emotionless.
“How are you?” He was smiling. It was a different smile, more relaxed and more confident: not the kind that is macho but a smile that was mild and assured me that he was good to see me too. His lips were apart, much unlike his first smile on my first day at Lear High school: forced, lips tightly pressed. Between the two occurrences, the commonality, however, was his dimples apparent on both cheeks.
“Uh.” I struggled to find words to say as I felt his eyes fixated on mine. “I…what a surprise! Let me guess, are you an accountant now?” Going back two years, he had a girlfriend who was an accountant, making way more money than he did, more than I or any other teacher did, and basically on par with the principal’s salary. She was so rich that our department head would tease him, “Matt’s got a sugar mama.”
She loved him a lot. But I didn’t think she liked his job. During Christmas, she brought more stuff for him than he did her. On the faculty meeting on 1st of January, I overheard Matt going on and on about “a lot” of things she brought him. That Spring, she brought a house and they moved in together. It was a big house, located in the richest neighborhood in Houston. Such a fancy place that when you drove by, you could see awards in billboard size for making “Top Ten” lists in America by Newsweek and others. A white neighborhood.
I still do not like that neighborhood. Once I accompanied my parents to see open houses in the same location, and as we parked in front of the open house, a white woman, with the looks of a 70 year old, but anger of a 20 year old, vaulted from her door and yelled, “Get out of here!” Now, I do not want to talk about racism. After all this is the South and worst things have happened. Just last year, a Harvard-educated journalist of the elite New York Times, was shoved off by a white person in Upper Manhattan, “go back to your country!” If New York has stuff like this, I shouldn’t complain! That journalist was born in the U.S.
So I tucked away my skepticism from Mr. B because he did not choose to live to that neighborhood, where my parents eventually refrained from buying a house, it was his girlfriend’s decision. Besides, he was my crush! Who can be nasty in front of her crush?
When they bought the house, as he told the us audience about the renovated room for gym, another teacher spoke up, “and you will propose.” To which, he made no response. I was glad at the moment, secretly. How shy was I in front of opposite sex? He did not even know I existed.
He shook his head, “Mm hmm, I decided not to.”
“Don’t tell me you are teaching at Lear High!” I was told that I had a tendency to interject while other were still talking.
“Yup, teaching math.” His eyes casted to the side.
My energy level remained high. “So you are also coaching basketball?”
He nodded.
“That’s so cool!” I sounded like a crazy fan girl, star struck!
“Are you in med school?” He asked.
“Yes, I am.” My smile froze on my face. I was ecstatic to see my crush that no one, I was sure, could wipe away that smile off my face for the entire day!
“How’s that going?”
“Pretty good. Not as hard as being a teacher!” I paused as soon as I said it. Was that a joke? Was that offensive? God forbid I offended him!
He laughed.
He gets me! My smile grew bigger and I felt the corner of my lips touched my ears.
We walked together and our cars happened to park next to each other. This is like fate!! I shrieked inside.
“Well, what’s your number?” He pulled out his iPhone from the back of his jeans.
“Mr. B, uh, you have a girlfriend.” I looked down to the ground.
“No I don’t.” He enunciated that t.
“Yeah you do! I remember y’all were moving in together in this house. Everybody knew you had a girlfriend.”
“Oh, that’s over.” He held his iPhone out in his right hand.
“When… was that?”
“A year ago, I think.”
“I am sorry.” I looked down to the ground and looked to the side at the shopping cart.
“So what’s your number?” He asked again.
I could no longer holding myself back, but one more question, “So it’s been a year. So it’s really over.”
“Yeah.”
I looked up at his eyes. The edges of his eyes were soft. The sparkle in his big eyes from my memory faded a little, or maybe I did not remember correctly. Nevertheless, his eyes gave me confidence.
“It’s really over! What happened?”
He lowered his right hand. “It just didn’t work out.”
“So you are totally broken up then? Completely done?”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen her since. We are through.”
“So she’s gonna be seeing other people and are you available to see other people too?”
“Yeah!”
Ok, readers! I promise, one more question! “So if someone was to step in, it would be fine?”
He laughed.
“I am not asking for myself, just in general.”
“Yeah! Number?”
And I gave it to him. It was magical! We worked alongside on the same team, yet we never shared any contact information. And now he had my number. It felt vulnerable. Is that how losing virginity feels like? I am still a virgin and vowed to abstain until marriage. Everyone is fucking everyone else and everything that walks, I rather thought being a virgin was an accomplishment, so much so I put it on my medical school application before my roommate deleted it while proofreading.
That was it! The day that changed my life! In a good way. I could not feel a thing. The concrete underneath was fluffy clouds, bags of grocery were two teddy bears against my chest and I was caught singing in the kitchen by my roommate, also a MS1.
“What’s going on?” She walked across a bag on the floor and leaned against the open fridge. “You look like you saw Ryan Reynolds.”
“Better than Ryan Reynolds!” I realized the muscles on my face were paralyzed and I could not relax.
“Oh!” Emily smiled knowingly, “There is somebody! Tell me! Who in the world is better than Ryan Reynolds?”
We were both fans of The Deadpool. “Mr. B! No, wait. It is Matt now. I can say his first name.” It was official I finally shrank to a little girl!
“Who’s that?” Em asked as she bragged her favorite Chocolate milk from the grocery.
“You know, I think you told you about him. My crush of all time!”
“That teacher!”
“Yup! We were at Whole Foods and he was at the end of the line and I was in the front and I forgot Otis’ food. So I got out of line, which was the best action I’ve ever taken, because then we saw each other!”
“So where is the dog food?” Em emptied the last bag.
Damn it. I forgot all about it!
“My babe! I got to go back to the store now.” Otis was my dog, my favorite buddy. Due to med school work, I had to leave him at my parents’ house. My mother was convinced that if I let Otis stay with me, I’d fail out of med school and be a hobo with 300K loans never to be paid back. She promised me she’d give him back when I began residency! So it is my weekly ritual to visit Otis on Saturday, taking him to the dog park and visit his friends in various social events for dogs. My parents only bought Otis generic brand food from Sam’s Club. I wanted my babe to be healthy and I want to make decisions for him, so I chipped in and covered all expenses from food to vet visits to new toys. If I did not replenish Otis food on time, my dad would automatically get a bag from Sam’s, since Sam’s is his favorite store. That was my nightmare.
“The movie’s about to begin. Why don’t you pick one up on your way home tomorrow?” After exams on Friday, Em and I would watch movies together and catch up. Med school was no joke and sometimes we would go on several days without seeing each other. I was a morning person and she was night owl. I liked studying in the library and she preferred Starbucks. But Friday night was roommie time!
“Is Whole Foods open at 5 AM?” I began to panick. Otis’ first social starts at the animal shelter, where we adopted him, at 7:30 in the morning. And it’d take me an hour to drive home.
Em was ahead of me and googled the hours on her phone. “Nope! Not that one in our area!”
My sweet roommate decided to go back the store with me. We were sitting in her car and I continued to tell her about my “dreamy eyes!”
“Wait, he broke up with his girlfriend?”
“Yeah, for good! And now is my chance! They broke up a year ago. That’s pretty long, right? If it weren’t for her, I would’ve said hi and everything!” I replayed his dreamy eyes in my head, so attentive and soft. But I was not sure if those eyes were from two years ago or this afternoon.
“How can you know that she was the reason? If he didn’t like you then, why would he like you now…” Em were analyzing like she was back in English major.
“What are you talking about? Em, I have not felt this happy for a very long time. You know what, I never felt this happy. Ever!”
After a long silence, we arrived at Whole Foods. She pulled out her key and murmured, “this is bad.”
