red wine. He handed the flowers to Victoria, and the wine to Harlan, who opened it and poured them each a glass, and then they went to sit in the living room. And the two men got on like a house on fire. They never stopped talking until dinner, which was an hour later. And Harlan had set the table nicely with place mats and linen napkins, and candles on the table in the dining room. He had gone all out. And by the end of dinner, Victoria felt as though she were intruding on a date, and left them alone. She said she had papers to grade before school the next day. She closed the door softly, after telling Harlan she’d help him do the dishes later, and she turned on her TV and lay down on her bed. She was dozing when John knocked on her door to say goodbye and thank her. And when she heard the front door close, she went out to the kitchen to help Harlan clean up.
“So, how was it?” Victoria asked him with a smile.
“Wow!” Harlan said, smiling broadly. “He’s the most terrific man I’ve ever met.” He was twenty-eight years old and seemed extremely grounded, serious, and responsible and was fun to talk to as well. Harlan said he’d had a great time.
“He likes you too,” Victoria commented as she rinsed the dishes Harlan handed her.
“How do you know?”
“Anyone can see that,” she reassured him. “His face lit up every time you looked at each other.”
“I could have talked to him all night,” he said dreamily.
“Did he ask you out?” she asked, enjoying the romance starting right beneath her eyes, and she loved the idea that she had introduced them.
“Not yet. He said he’d call me tomorrow. I hope he does.”
“I’m sure he will.”
“We have the same birthday,” Harlan said as she laughed.
“That must be a sign. Okay, now you owe me big time. If you two wind up together, I want a street named after me or something.”
“If I end up with him, you can have all my autographed baseball cards from when I was a kid, and my grandmother’s silver.”
“I just want you to be happy,” she said kindly.
“Thanks, Victoria. He seems like such a great guy.”
“So are you,” she said warmly.
“I never feel that way about myself. I always feel like everyone is better than I am, smarter, nicer, better looking, cooler.” He looked nervous as he said it.
“So do I,” she said sadly. She knew the feeling, and why she had it. It came from years of her parents telling her how inadequate she was, and her father letting her know that he thought she was fat and ugly. It had undermined her confidence and self-esteem since birth. And it was a cross she had to bear now. Deep down, she always believed that he was right.
“I guess our parents do that to us early on,” Harlan said quietly. “I don’t think he’s had an easy time of it either. His mother committed suicide when he was a kid, and his father won’t see him because he’s gay. But he seems pretty healthy and normal in spite of that. He just got out of a relationship he’s been in for five years. His partner cheated on him, so they broke up.” Victoria was happy for Harlan and hoped that something came of it for both of them. He thanked her profusely again, and then they turned off the lights and went to their rooms. It had been a delicious dinner and a lovely night. And she had enjoyed talking to both men, although not as much as they had enjoyed talking to each other.
She left early the next morning, and didn’t see Harlan that day, or the next. It was Wednesday when she ran into him in the kitchen when they both got home from work. She was afraid to ask if he had heard from John, in case he hadn’t, but he volunteered the information very quickly.
“I had dinner with him last night,” he said, beaming.
“How was it?”
“Amazing. I know it’s too soon to say it, but I’m in love.”
“Just go slow, and see how it goes.” Harlan nodded but didn’t look capable of following her advice.
She met John again in their kitchen that weekend. He and Harlan were cooking dinner, and John had brought over his wok and offered to leave it with him. They invited Victoria for dinner, but she said she had other plans, and went to a movie by herself so they could be alone. And they were out when she got back. She didn’t know where they’d gone, and she didn’t need to know. This was their story now, and their life. She just hoped it would turn out to be a loving relationship for both of them, and it looked that way for now. They appeared to be off to a terrific start. She smiled to herself as she thought about it and went to her room. As usual on the weekends, everyone was out. It reminded her that she hadn’t had a date since she’d been in New York. No one had asked her out since the summer before in L.A., at least six months.
She didn’t go anywhere where she was likely to meet men, except the teachers’ conference where she’d met John. Other than that, she didn’t go to a gym or belong to a club. She didn’t go to bars. There were no single, straight, age-appropriate teachers at her school. No one had introduced her to anyone, and she hadn’t met anyone on her own. She thought it would have been nice if she had, but so far all she had to fill her life was her work. And this time it was Harlan’s turn, and John’s. She was happy for them. And she knew that sooner or later she would meet someone. At twenty-two, it was unlikely that she would be alone for the rest of her life, no matter how overweight her father thought she was. She remembered her grandmother’s old saying that there was a lid for every pot. She hoped that Harlan had found his. And with luck, she hoped that one day, she’d find hers.
Chapter 12
In March her parents and Gracie came to visit Victoria in New York during Gracie’s spring break. They stayed for a week, and the two sisters had a ball, while their parents visited friends and kept busy on their own. And several times they had dinner together. Victoria picked the restaurants from a guide someone had given her, and they enjoyed them all. And Gracie loved being in New York with her. She stayed at the apartment with Victoria, and their parents stayed at the Carlyle, which was just down the street from the school where Victoria taught. The school was on spring break too so she had lots of time to spend with them. They came to her apartment several times, and met her roommates. Her father liked Bill, and thought Bunny was beautiful, but neither of her parents was enthused about Harlan. Later, over dinner, Jim made several negative comments about his being gay, and Victoria sprang to his defense.
By the time they left, Gracie was convinced that she wanted to move to New York too, and even go to college there if she could get in. Her grades were not as strong as Victoria’s had been, and for the moment Victoria doubted that she’d get into NYU or Barnard. Still, there were several other great schools in New York. Victoria was sad to see her leave at the end of a week that had been fun for both of them.
Two weeks after they’d been there, Eric Walker called her into his office, and she felt like a kid who had done something wrong. She wondered if someone had reported her, or one of the parents had complained. She knew that several of the parents thought that she gave too much homework, and had called to negotiate with her. She was nonnegotiable. Her students had to do the work she gave. Helen had taught her well, and her motto was “Be tough.” Victoria was never as tough as Helen was, but she made her students toe the line, and they had come to respect her for it in the past six months. She no longer had problems with any of them in class, thanks to Helen’s good advice.
“How do you think your classes are going, Victoria?” the headmaster asked her with a pleasant expression. He didn’t look angry or upset, and she couldn’t imagine why she was there. Maybe he was just touching base. The school year was coming to a close, and her time at Madison would be up in June.
“I think they’re going well,” she said. She sincerely believed they were, and hoped she was right. She didn’t want to end her time there in disgrace. She knew that if they didn’t hire her for the coming year, she would have to start looking for a new school soon. But she was going to hate leaving the job she had. Madison was just her kind of school, and she loved how bright the kids were. She was going to miss them all.
“As you know, Carla Bernini is coming back to school in the fall.” He went on, “We’ll be happy to have her back, but you’ve done a great job, Victoria. The kids all love you, and they rave about your classes.” And he’d had good feedback from the parents too, despite her fears about the homework. “I actually asked you to come in today,
