by Dani Hoots
His bright blue eyes scanned the train-cart to find that the only seats left was the one across from mine or the one next to an old lady who reeked of cat. He smiled lightly, his teeth just barely showing. “Do you mind if I sit here.”
A gentleman, of course. It wasn’t like I owned the seat, it was a public train after all, yet he still asked. I waved him on. “Not at all.”
“Thanks,” he lifted up his luggage and placed it on the storage unit above our seats. He took a few deep breaths as he sat down. “Almost missed the train, had to run all the way here.”
I found his complaint amusing, especially since it appeared he was just trying to start up a conversation. “Should have left a bit earlier then.”
He chuckled. “Sad part was that I did, but I didn’t know the station I usually used was closed today. Had to run a few blocks to the next station and then the whole subway car was full and had to wait for the next one which was also full. Ended up squeezing in though. And then made it here just on time.”
I inspected him closely. If he had taken the underground, then why was he wet? There was a covered passage between the underground and train station, and even if he had to run a few blocks for the other station, he should have dried off somewhat. He must have noticed my suspicion because he gave me a puzzled look. “What?”
“Then why is your hair and jacket wet if you used the underground?” I asked.
“Oh, well,” he pulled out a small paper bag. “There is this really good cookie shop just across the street from here. I couldn’t pass that up so I hurried and got a few. Care for one? They are all snickerdoodle.”
I laughed. I couldn’t believe that he would almost miss his train for just a couple of cookies. Then again, to each their own. “Sure, I’ll take one. I won’t pass up free food.”
As I grabbed a cookie, I watched as we began to move forward out of the station. English weather was dreary, as the grey sky met us on our way out. I hoped that by some miracle, Scotland would be a little bit sunnier. I knew that wouldn’t happen, but a girl could wish, right?
“So, what’s your name?” the man asked as he took a cookie for himself.
“Christina, but most people call me Chris. And you?”
“My name is Oliver,” he held out his free hand. “Please to meet you, Chris.”
I shook his hand, after wiping off the cookie grease on my jeans. “Likewise.”
“So, Chris, what brings you to England? I take it you’re from the U.S.?” Oliver leaned back in his chair, as if trying to get comfortable, which was hard in these seats. I wanted to tell him his dress shirt was going to get wrinkled like that, but I knew that would be weird since he didn’t even know me, nor did I really think he cared. His dark pants were a bit worn and his shoes looked as if he had owned them for years. He definitely needed a new pair. I turned my attention back to the conversation, half not believing that I had just been critiquing his entire outfit.
“Yeah, I am. Just came here for vacation. I have a lot of interest in the country’s history, so I wanted to check it out for myself.”
“Ever been here before?”
I shook my head. “Nope, first time.”
“Well, it’s a great place. I’ve been coming here most summers for a while now. I can’t stay away.”
“I hope to live here one day, honestly. But that will be way in the future. I guess right now it’s just a dream,” I let out a chuckle under my breath. “That sounded way more amusing than I wanted it to. Sorry.”
“No, no, it’s fine. I love hearing about people’s dreams. It’s even a lot more fun to watch them come true. My word of advice to you is to never give up. Dreams aren’t out of our reach as long as we believe.”
Usually people laugh at my dream of wanting to move to another country, they always talk of how I couldn’t be able to afford it, how I wouldn’t know anyone there. But this man didn’t judge, he understood what it was like to dream. And that was a very rare thing, to grow up and still believe in dreams.
“So, do you have any plans for when you get to Edinburgh?”
I shrugged as I glanced out the window. We had finally gotten to the city’s edge and most of the buildings that surrounded us were old style homes and shops. “Was going to check out some museums, just walk around the area as well.”
“There is a really neat underground tour in the heart of the city, which is one of my favorites. You should check it out.”
I perked up. That sounded wonderful, definitely something I would be interested in. “Where is it? I don’t know the layout too well yet, haven’t actually been there and all.”
“How about I walk with you there? I need to go in that direction anyway.”
I nodded. “That would be great, thank you.”
“No problem. Just promise me one thing,” he leaned forward a bit.
“What’s that?”
“After your tour, you let me take you out to dinner. I mean, you did say you couldn’t say no to free food after all.”
I bit my lip and nodded. “Sure, that sounds great.”
“And so Oliver took you out to dinner, and you had no idea that he was to start work here that fall,” Dr. Ralan asked.
“How could I of? I mean, I did see that new professors had been hired, but I didn’t really read those emails closely, being on vacation with practically no internet for a while,” I explained.
Dr. Ralan turned to Oliver. “And you had no idea she was a prospective student?”
“Would I hit on someone whom I thought I would be teaching?” Oliver retorted. He was as frustrated as I was with everything, especially since this all started before we were working together. It just wasn’t fair. I glanced up to find Dr. Michael and Dr. Madape’s quiet eyes still examining and judging us. They hadn’t spoken a word, letting Dr. Ralan take charge since he was the director of the department.
“No, but we are trying to figure out how you two didn’t know that you were a professor of this university and that you were a student.”
“It was because...” Oliver began then turned quiet.
“What?” Dr. Ralan demanded.
“Because we both agreed not to talk about our real life, and just spend two weeks together as a fling, and nothing more,” I explained quietly as the memories came flooding back.
We ended up having dinner that night at a little pub just down the street called Deacon Brodies Tavern. It definitely felt like something on T.V., small, cozy, and everything on the menu sounded British. It was very loud inside, as people enjoyed their beers and unwound for the day. I couldn’t believe how loud some of them were. I had no idea what to order to drink either, other than Guinness, which is what I ended up ordering. Luckily Oliver ordered the same thing so I didn’t feel as out of place as I already did.
“So,” Oliver began the conversation after he ordered our drinks at the bar. “How was the tour?”
My eyes widened. “It was fantastic. I can’t believe the city used to be that crowded and dense, and the fact that they simply decided to build on top of it. It’s crazy to think about, that there are streets and an entire city under us as we sit here. Kind of nerve racking actually. I found the ghost stories to be quite creepy as well and was glad nothing happened while we were down there. I’m not sure what I would have done.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I find the underground to be fascinating as well. Can’t put a shovel in the ground here without hitting some kind of artifact.”
I didn’t know why I hadn’t told him I was an anthropology student yet. Maybe it was because I had been sick and tired by that point of everyone giving me a look of either no understanding of what that field was, or if they did, how I would never survive on an anthropologist’s paycheck. Although Oliver had shown that he didn’t care about things like that, that he believed in dreams, I still didn’t feel comfortable talking about what I did, or about myself really. In fact, I didn’t even know what he did, we only talked about our interest the entire way here, and a bit a
bout Harry Potter and Doctor Who. I may or may not have seemed like a nerd to him, but he didn’t seem to care, he was still taking me out to dinner after all.
“Yeah, I bet contractors hate working here, or they are probably used to it. In the U.S. they wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
“That’s for damn sure.”
We both laughed, knowing that the U.S. struggled with keeping up with historical preservation. I swore other countries were probably laughing at how we handled things. I just hoped that one day that would change, especially before it was too late. The bartender brought our drinks out and each of us took a sip. I couldn’t believe how thick the Guinness was here. I have had it before, in a bottle, and it wasn’t like this at all. It was definitely better here.
Oliver placed his drink down. “So I actually have a few days off, if you want I can show you around the area. I wouldn’t mind revisiting some of the museums around here either.”
I thought about it for a moment. I wanted his company, that was for sure, but I also didn’t want him to take it the wrong way. “Look, I just went through a nasty break up a few weeks ago and I’m not interested in starting another relationship that I know isn’t going to work. Odds are we live in completely different areas and are in completely different parts of life, which I have a feeling is why neither of us have mentioned where we live or what we do for a living.” I could tell in his eyes that he felt the same way. “We both know that the moment we say something, our mind will destroy the relationship in a second so that we don’t get our hopes up.”
He nodded, his eyes a bit sad that I had given up so soon. “I understand.”
I bit my lip. “But I wouldn’t say no to some company at the museums. Just understand it would a platonic partnership, but we could still have some fun together, for however short. I understand if you want to say no so don’t feel like you have to agree to it.”
“I would still like that. I can be at your hotel at 9am to begin our little adventure. I presume it is the same one where we took your luggage?”
“You would be correct in thinking that,”
“Great, that’s settled. Now, what should we order to eat?”
Dr. Ralan glanced at the other two professors that were seated next to him and let out a brief sigh. “I presume that this relationship didn’t stay platonic during the trip?”
We both shook our heads. No, it did not. For a few days it had, but on the last night in Edinburgh, the status changed. We couldn’t keep it platonic any longer. There was a bond between us that we couldn’t deny. It was too much for either of us to handle, which is why we were at the place we were at now.
“What happened after that?” Dr. Michael asked.
“I joined her on her vacation, as I didn’t have any more meetings for a week, and that was back in London where she was going to be heading by then anyways,” Oliver whispered and looked over at me. “I didn’t want to let her go, even if I knew I could only have her for a short amount of time.”
Although this wasn’t where I wanted to hear him confess how much he cared about me even in the beginning, it was still sweet to hear. I wanted to hold him close for all eternity, to not care what was going on around us, only knowing that our love for each other was true. It was hard for that to happen when both of our careers were at stake. And, unfortunately, mine hadn’t even started.
Dr. Ralan cleared his throat and went on. “But you didn’t say anything when you did find out and that is why you two are in the trouble you are in now. If you would have just came out in the first place, we could have figured something out.”
“And say that I had slept with one of my students already? And that we didn’t know because we didn’t exchange that much information when we met?” Oliver’s voice began to rise and took a few deep breaths. “I thought I could handle it fine.”
“Well, turned out you couldn’t and you are in more trouble now than you would have been then.
Dr. Ralan was probably right, we shouldn’t have kept it a secret, but I felt embarrassed to say that I had slept with a guy I hardly even knew. It was difficult, to say the least, to have had to stare at him every day as he was giving lectures or helping me research, or just in meetings I had with him. We were able to keep it up for a while, but we finally both cracked. That was later in the story, though. There was a lot that happened before then that led up to that moment, like when we first realized we would be working together...
My alarm buzzed. I was already awake and quickly turned it off, my heart racing. Honestly, I doubted I had gotten any sleep. It was the first day of graduate school after all.
Well, it was the first day of orientation. I would meet everyone in the program and meet the professor I would be working with for the next five to seven years, which was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. I was worried whether or not he would like me. I had a fear of rejection and didn’t want it to be obvious in the way I acted. I would be a completely socially inept and I knew it.
I actually had just received an email the week before, saying that a new professor was coming to OWCU and he would be my adviser. He was interested in health during the Industrial Revolution in England. My exact research topic. It sounded perfect.
I had also received a full ride, as most PhD students did, assisting Dr. Riley. I would be his teaching assistant, doing research for him, and he would be my adviser. I hoped he wasn’t rude and that we would get along. They said he had just transferred from University of Tennessee, one of the leading universities in forensic anthropology. He had to of been one of the top in his field to have been coming from that school. He had also graduated from that school about eight years before as well, and received a research and teaching position that he had just left to come to our school. Although OWCU was one of the top in its field, I still found it fascinating that he would leave UT for this little school.
I made my way down the street towards campus. There weren’t many people on campus yet, since PhD students were to come two weeks earlier. I couldn’t believe it though, that I was on my way to getting a doctorate.
I found the building with ease. The three story building made of beige brick with large trees in front making it look very grand. It was beautiful. I went up the steps and found my way to the administration. There were only five students selected for doctorates a year and each of us got a personal tour with our mentor. The administration was going to show us to our mentor’s office. I was the first one there, of course. I may or may not have shown up about thirty minutes early.
“How about we show you to your mentor’s office now? Give you two time to talk before the tour starts,” Mr. Clarin said.
I nodded. “That would be great.”
He led me down the halls. We passed office after office until we arrived to Dr. Riley’s office. Mr. Clarin knocked on the door as he stepped inside.
“Dr. Riley, I would like you to meet your new student, miss Christina Jennings”
Dr. Riley stood up from his desk and I froze as he did for a moment. It took everything not to blurt something out as Oliver walked to me, holding in the fact that he knew me. He held out his hand.
“Hello miss Jennings,” Oliver smiled.
I tried to hold my composure, my heart feeling as it was going to jump out of my chest. I couldn’t believe Oliver, the man I spent my summer with, the man I had fallen in love with, the man whom I knew I would never find a replacement for how I felt about someone, was standing right in front of me. I glanced over at Mr. Clarin. He didn’t seem to notice as I took Oliver’s hand and shook it. “You... can call me Chris.”
“I will let you two get to know each other, you will be working very closely for the next few years,” Mr. Clarin left us standing there. I looked at Oliver and wondered how I would work any closer with him than I already had.
“So, uh...” he began but stopped.
“Yeah...”
He motioned to the seat. “Please, sit.”
I sat down and swiveled in m
y chair. The room was quiet. “So you’re a professor.”
He nodded. “I am. Just transferred from UT.”
“And you’re an anthropologist.”
He nodded again. “And you are my student.”
“And I’m... your student. How old are you exactly then?”
“Thirty-eight this spring.”
I gulped. So fifteen years older. I did not see that coming, I truly thought he was in his twenties, maybe thirty. I didn’t know what was more surprising, that I found out he was my professor or that he was a lot older than I had realized.
Professor, for sure.
“So tell me, Chris,” he sat down across from me. “What are your interests?”
“Um... I’m interested in English history, especially when it has to do with health....” I shook my head. “No, wait, that’s the first thing you ask me? Nothing else?”