by Mya Wood
“Well sure,” Bianca told them, “but those are just the tools you work with. It’s like in math. I don’t teach you what the numbers are, or make you memorize them for tests. I want you to actually use them.”
“And what do we use the dates in history for?” Another student spoke out.
Bianca held her breath. Luis Gonzalez was the hardest case in a school of hard cases. If she could convince him…
“We use them to find out ‘why’. That’s what’s most important about history. Not when things happened or where. But, why! What made those events occur? And what were the consequences? What happened because of those events? And can we use that knowledge to stop something from happening again? Or perhaps to make something happen again? That’s the question I’ll be asking you on the test. Why?”
Bianca hammered it into them. Here are the facts, she would say, handing them a sheet with the dates and basic information. Don’t bother memorizing it. You can bring it to the test. Now, why? Why did these people come to this country? Why did they settle here instead of there? Why did they do this or that? Why? Why? Why?
At first, Bianca had to tell them why. And it always surprised them. Yeah, that made sense. Fleeing from repression. They could get down with that. She never made a parallel with their own lives – she always let them do it. But whenever they did, she let the discussion go on.
Eventually, they caught on to her style of teaching and way of thinking, and they started figuring out ‘why’ themselves. Bianca knew she had them when, one day, a girl gave an answer in a discussion, and it was another student who said, “Yeah, but why?” and the rest of the class all nodded expectantly.
Contrary to what Bianca had thought in the beginning, her principal did expect her to survive. He thought he recognized a natural-born teacher in her, and he kept a careful eye on her and finally relaxed and smiled in satisfaction the day he walked past her classroom and heard Luis Gonzalez say, “…because they paid for it in blood, and they weren’t going to let anyone take it away.”
But it was hard work. Bianca put her all into every class and went home exhausted at the end of each day, where she would throw a prepared dinner in the microwave and do her lesson plans. She would then turn to her computer for a quick check of her email, and then she would make up any worksheets she needed for the following day and would often be in bed by eight o’clock sharp.
She used weekends to tidy the apartment, do laundry, and get a jump start on the next week’s lessons. She tried to see the big picture and plan a unit at a time, but it was hard.
Kids didn’t always do or say what you expected, and they often veered off the planned path. Sometimes their path was much better than the one Bianca had prepared, and she just went with it. Most of the time, though, she had to pull them back to her plan.
Valerie finally took Bianca in hand at the beginning of October and told her that enough was enough. Bianca was running herself ragged.
“You have to have some social life,” insisted Valerie. “You have to go out on Saturday nights, at least. If you don’t, you’ll never get over him.”
Bianca sighed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, waving off her friend’s concern.
But it was a bold faced lie and she knew it.
When Bianca first returned from her stay at the Hampton Inn, she had no idea what she was going to say to Valerie. She knew she had to tell her something, as she couldn’t ever hide anything from her, she just wasn’t sure what kind of spin she wanted to put on it. And she also wasn’t sure she even wanted to tell Valerie his real name.
When Bianca got home that day, there was a message from Valerie saying, “Come on over for dinner. I know you won’t have any groceries and stuff. I’ll be home by six.”
When Bianca arrived at her place, Valerie was boiling water for pasta and had set the table. She was sipping a glass of wine and immediately went to pour some for Bianca.
“No, thanks,” said Bianca, putting her hand over the glass. “I’m doing without that for awhile.”
Valerie gave Bianca a questioning look but didn’t pursue it. She listed the other beverages she had available and then served Bianca a club soda. Valerie said she was sorry she didn’t have any limes, and she wondered why that made Bianca twitch.
“So are you a teacher or a retailer?” asked Valerie, tasting the pasta sauce and then dropping in a couple more red pepper flakes.
Bianca picked up the bread knife and started cutting a baguette into chunks. “I’m a teacher,” she said. “I start next Monday. I gave my notice at the office today.”
Valerie nodded. This was all good. “That’s wonderful, Bianca. I think you’ve made the right decision. So how smart was I, then, to send you off to that beach to think it over?”
“Yeah, you were smart. It was a good thing to do,” said Bianca.
Well, if it was such a good thing, thought Valerie, how come you look like you’re in pain? She served the pasta and set the wide, flat bowls on the table.
Bianca set the basket of bread on the table and took her seat. “So what have you been up to since I’ve been gone?” she asked, unfolding her napkin and putting it on her lap. “Meet any good men?” She looked up to see Valerie blushing. “You did! Tell me!”
So Valerie told her about going to the karaoke bar the previous Monday and Bianca raised her eyebrows.
“I know,” said Valerie, spooling up a forkful of spaghetti, “that is so not me. But a bunch of people from work were going, and it was sort of a farewell party for one of the technicians, so I felt obligated. Anyway, there was this guy there, Rob, he’s a friend of Paula’s. Anyway, we sort of spent the evening eying each other from opposite ends of the table, and then he came over to talk to me…” Valerie shrugged. “…to rescue me, actually.”
“Rescue you?”
“Yeah, everyone was nagging me to take a turn at the karaoke thing, and I didn’t want to. You’ve heard me sing.”
Bianca nodded. Valerie was an enthusiastic but very off-key singer.
“Anyway, the more we drank, the more they insisted, and the more I balked. So finally, Rob gets up and comes over to where I’m sitting. He pulls up a chair and starts talking to me, really intently, and every time someone would suggest I sing, he’d wave them away and say, ‘later’ and move his chair a little closer.”
“Wow!” said Bianca. “So what did you talk about?”
Valerie was glowing. This was such great news for her, thought Bianca. It had been a while since Valerie had a good man in her life.
And it also stops you from having to discuss the delectable Mr. Hampton, said the part of her brain that never let her fool herself.
Valerie laughed. “Damned if I know what we talked about. All I could think about was how great he smelled.”
“And…?” said Bianca.
“Well, he asked Paula to find out if I would like him to call, and of course I said ‘yes’, and…” Valerie shrugged. “We’ve seen each other every night since.”
“Oh, Val, that’s great. I’m so happy for you. Any…uh…fade to black…?”
Valerie smiled a very contented smile. “Last night, as a matter of fact…”
Bianca looked at her watch. “I’d better get out of here then…”
“No, no,” said Valerie. “I told him I couldn’t see him tonight. I knew I’d be seeing you. He wants to meet you, by the way. Apparently, I talk about you a lot. So, what about you? Meet any good men?”
Valerie wasn’t expecting Bianca to say ‘yes’. She hadn’t exactly gone to an area full of singles bars. Valerie wouldn’t have been surprised if Bianca had said ‘yes’, though. Bianca had a way of meeting men, and there was something about her tonight, something Valerie couldn’t quite put her finger on. So, she wouldn’t have been surprised by either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. But she was totally surprised by Bianca’s response.
Bianca burst into tears. Valerie was totally blow
n away. She had never seen Bianca cry.
“What happened?” she asked in alarm.
Bianca waved her hand at Valerie, signifying that it was nothing, but she couldn’t talk and cry at the same time, and crying was definitely taking precedence at the moment. Valerie handed her some tissues and waited her out.
Bianca sobbed and choked out phrases like “I’m okay…this is so stupid…hormones…”
Finally, she got herself together. “There,” she said, blowing her nose. “I guess I needed to get that out of my system.”
“Who is he?” Valerie asked.
“I don’t even know why I did that,” said Bianca, brushing past the question. “Yeah, there was a guy, but it was nothing really, strictly a physical thing…I mean…we both knew we were just passing through…I guess it was just the whole life-changing decision-making thing.”
Keep babbling, Bianca, said her brain. Maybe she’ll forget what she asked.
“Who is he?” repeated Valerie, who knew Bianca very well.
“Just a guy – the owner’s nephew, well, the owner’s wife’s nephew, to be perfectly accurate. He was taking care of the place at night. His uncle had some surgery, so they were over on the mainland…” Bianca’s voice trailed off. “He was just a guy,” she finished lamely.
“Well does this guy have a name?”
“Yeah.” Bianca took a deep breath. “His name was Landry. Landry Hampton.”
“The Landry Hampton?” spluttered Valerie.
Bianca nodded.
“As in…the Gators’ Landry Hampton?”
Bianca nodded again.
Valerie was dumbfounded. “He was just a guy?! Are you crazy?!”
Now that the initial outburst was out of her system, Bianca quickly reined in her emotions. “No,” she answered calmly, “he wasn’t just a guy. He was a great guy, and we had a wonderful time. But…”
“My God! Landry Hampton!” Valerie was still trying to grasp it.
“Valerie…you won’t tell anyone about this…?”
“Who would I tell?” asked Valerie, offended by Bianca’s question.
“Oh God, I’m sorry. It’s just been a very emotional day. I know you wouldn’t tell. It’s just that…he…it’s not…it wasn’t a publicity thing. It was private, and he’s kind of paranoid, but…he told me a lot of weird fan stories.
“So now I’m a weird fan?” asked Valerie, who wasn’t really upset. She was just trying to push Bianca’s buttons. Valerie knew if she could keep Bianca off-balance for a bit, she would get the whole story.
And she did.
Valerie listened as Bianca talked. Bianca was a good storyteller, and she didn’t sugarcoat it. She was brutally honest about her own failings, getting drunk by herself the first night, being rude, saying stupid things.
Valerie was both amused and horrorstricken by the fact that Bianca hadn’t recognized Landry, and she laughed until it hurt when Bianca described the scene in the restaurant and the look on the waiter’s face. But then her heart broke over the description of the day with the dolphins.
Still, Valerie could see what Bianca could not. Or more like…would not. Whether she knew it or not, this wasn’t just a physical thing for her. And somewhere out there, a certain football player now owned her heart.
Chapter 15
The guys stared at Landry. Landry stared back. As always, it was Nick who couldn’t keep silent.
“Jeez, Bro. Sounds like you two really had something going.”
Landry shrugged it off. He didn’t want to talk about it. “Just two ships that passed in the night,” he said.
“More like two ships that collided,” said JT.
“Look, it was weird circumstances. We knew we would only be together for a week. It was intense, and it was great, but it was only for that time and place. Yeah, I came this close to falling in love with her, but…we both knew…”
“I’d say you came more than close if you said that to her,” said Mason. “What was it? ‘How will I ever live without the taste of you?’” The others nodded.
Landry sighed. “I didn’t say that to her. She said it to me.”
“Well…damn,” said Nick. “How could you let her go? Where does she live, anyway?”
“Fort Lauderdale,” said Landry.
“She lives in Florida?” JT yelled it. “Shit, that means she's practically a neighbor!”
“Stop it!” said Landry. “Look! It was incredible. It was beautiful. But it might not translate that well in the real world. And besides, it was two months ago. It’s over.”
“If it’s so over,” said Nick, “how come you’re still mooning about it?”
Landry sighed.
He didn't have an answer for that.
The guys worked out for a few more hours, and near the end of the session, Mitch Cranston came into the room. He was part of the publicity team at the stadium. “Hey, does anybody want to go see a movie or something?” he asked.
Landry’s head snapped around as if he’d been slapped. Everyone looked at him and then at each other.
“Because there's this new Jason Statham…” Mitch’s voice trailed off as Landry pushed past him and out the door. He frowned. “What did I say wrong?” he asked the others. “I thought you all could use a break.”
They shrugged. They didn’t know either.
Mason got up and followed Landry out of the gym. He found him in the locker room pulling a bottle of water out of his locker. Mason leaned up against the door and crossed his arms. He never said a word. Instead he just waited. Eventually Landry looked at him defiantly, shaking his head. He didn’t want to talk about it, but Mason refused to budge.
Landry sighed and rubbed his face. “She was just a girl I met in August. That’s it.”
“So tell me about her,” said Mason. Landry narrowed his eyes.
“No, no,” said Mason, “I’m not going to try and talk you into anything. I’m just wondering about her. It sounds like she had quite an effect on you. I mean, you said you only knew her for…what was it, a week?”
“Four days,” said Landry, and his mind went to a faraway place for a moment. Then he blinked and looked at Mason with a grin, “and four nights.”
Mason nodded. Short, sweet, and hot. He’d been there, done that, and enjoyed every minute of it.
“So her name was Bianca?” Mason approached a bench and sat down.
“Yes, she’s a teacher…at least, she is now, she wasn’t when she was there. I mean…” and just like that Landry started telling Mason about her, about how she was trying to decide about her life, about the shower breaking, about how she didn’t know who he was, and about how she’d went to the library to find out.
Landry talked for fifteen minutes straight, spurred on by the occasional nod or innocent question from Mason. He finished it up by saying, “So there you are. It was just a physical thing. Nothing more.” He shrugged.
“Interesting,” said Mason, rising to his feet.
“What?” said Landry.
“Well, you just talked about her for fifteen minutes and you never mentioned anything ‘physical’.” Mason headed out the door. “See you later, Romeo.”
Mason met the others as they were leaving the gym.
“Is he okay?” asked Sean.
Mason smiled at them and nodded. “Yeah, he’s all good,” he said, and then he laughed. “But he’s got it bad. Real bad.”
When Landry came out the door a few minutes later, he was surprised to see Nick leaning up against a column. He pushed himself off and came over to Landry.
“Hey, Man, you want to go get a beer?”
“I thought you left with the others.”
“Nah, they’re all so…married. They’re wrapped up in wives and weddings and babies. I guess we’ll get there some day, but right now we’re free and easy, so let’s go raise a glass to singleness.” Nick furrowed his brow. “Or is it singlehood?”
Landry shrugged. A beer sounded good, but he didn’t need any more pep talks about his love life. “Did Mason tell you to do this?”
Nick looked confused. “No, why would he tell me to…? Hey, if you don’t want to, that’s cool.”
“No, let’s do it. Where do you want to go?”
Nick suggested a bar that they had gone to a number of times. It was a neighborhood bar – a man’s bar. Very few women ever came into the place. They drove over separately and took a booth near the back. They didn’t say anything for the first few sips.
Then Nick started. “So, that must have been some girl.”