“When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.”
CHAPTER 5
Ember waited until the morning to text Eva. She stared down at her phone as she sat on her living room sofa and waited for the reply. She clicked her phone into the locked position and then moved to set it on the table in front of her next to the coffee she’d made but had yet to drink. She thought better of it and kept the phone clutched in her hand.
“God, what is wrong with me?” she asked herself.
She’d thought about Eva all night. She specifically recalled the feeling of her thigh and her shoulder when she’d touched those parts of her body. She’d done it so instinctively and hadn’t planned on either touch. She worried for a moment that Eva might not have wanted to be touched or at least not by Ember, especially after Ember had confessed to her old ways. She’d also regretted her near outburst when Eva had been making suggestions about how Ember could become an actuary. Ember hated how she’d gotten frustrated with the woman who knew so little about her and her past. It wasn’t Eva’s fault that Ember’s intellect had been a sore spot for her throughout her life.
She hadn’t planned to tell Eva that she was what they called gifted. No one outside of her immediate family even knew. Charlie and Hailey knew she was smart, but she always downplayed her intelligence. Even when they asked questions she knew the answer to, she made sure not to answer right away or to allow them to answer first. With Eva though, it just came out. A simple question about a square root caused her mind take over and then her mouth uttered the answer.
Her phone chimed, and she flipped it over with a smile. Eva had replied and given her the address to her office. If she wanted to be on time for once, and she did, she’d need to leave now. She walked into her bathroom and took a look at herself. She’d put on a pair of worn jeans and some good winter boots for her walk. She had a t-shirt on under the hooded sweatshirt she’d stolen from Hailey one night. It had Northwestern written in big, black font on it. She thought it was appropriate for moving things out of an office and it showed she didn’t try to get dressed up for their day. She grabbed her winter coat, which was a puffy one that kept her warm but did nothing for her figure. She decided that she’d wear it there, but remove it before going inside so Eva wouldn’t see her in it. Her hair was up, but she’d braided her ponytail, so it at least looked different. She put her wallet, keys, and other essentials into the inside pocket of her coat, kept her phone in her front pocket, and headed out the door.
◆◆◆
The campus was busy as students and professors alike moved briskly around her on the snow shoveled sidewalks toward their destinations, wearing their messenger bags and backpacks. She overheard a conversation between two students about their mid-term paper for a philosophy class, and she looked around at four buildings that all looked the same. She checked the signs, found the one she was looking for and made her way toward it.
“Hey, you’re early.” Eva approached with a smile from her side.
“Oh, hey.” Ember cursed herself for being early. She was still in the puffy coat that she’d only worn for warmth, but definitely not to maybe flirt with a woman. Maybe she’d move somewhere warm year-round. “I’m never early. This is a first for me,” she admitted.
“Well, I’m honored.” Eva held an empty box and had apparently just parked her car. “I guess we should go in.” Her smile faded.
“Let me take that,” Ember offered and held out her hands for the box.
“It’s empty.” Eva’s smile nearly returned.
“It’s a gesture, Scout.” Ember took the box.
“I need a new nickname.”
Ember thought of a few nicknames she could give her, but they were all inappropriate for the moment.
“How about Dash?” Ember tried as she walked up the icy steps.
“That’s what my friend Alyssa calls me.”
“So, it’s off limits?” Ember asked as she held open the door for Eva.
“No, it’s not. She’s just the only person that calls me that.”
“Do most people call you Dr. Dash or Dr. Eva Dash?”
Eva considered that for a moment as they walked toward the staircase and she started up it out of habit. She turned to see that Ember was following without question, so she just kept going.
“On campus, it’s either professor or doctor usually, yeah. My family calls me by my first and middle name together, and Hannah, that’s Alyssa’s fiancée, calls me Eva. Alyssa is the only one that calls me Dash and I think that’s about the extent of the people in my life.”
“You went right on past your middle name there,” said Ember, as they arrived on the second floor and she followed Eva to her office. “What is it?”
“What’s your middle name?”
“Celeste. November Celeste Elliot. You know the story of my first name. Celeste is after my grandmother. Your turn?”
Eva took out her keys and unlocked a large dark wood door and then pushed it open before looking back at Ember.
“Eva Rose Dash. I was named after my aunt and my grandmother,” she added. “It’s a funny story, actually. Well, it’s a funny and then not funny story,” she continued and turned to take in Ember who was looking around the room as if in awe. “What?”
“So many books,” Ember stated and met Eva’s eyes. “You have so many books. I don’t know what I was expecting, but wow.” Ember looked to the left. The wall was floor to ceiling books. The shelves were full and took up the entire side of the room. On the other side, there were even more stacks, though the shelves were only waist high. “Do all of these have to go with you today?”
“Some of them do, yes, but most of them I plan to leave here. I’ve made a list of what I want to take. I emailed a few of my grad students to come remove the rest and they’ll donate them to the library or keep them for themselves.” She paused and looked around.
“You’re not keeping them?” Ember set the empty box on one of the chairs in front of the desk.
“The ones I want, I’m keeping. My real collection is at home. These are meant to be consumed by the students. I basically had my own library where they could come, borrow a book and return it if they wanted to or replace it with a different one. It took on a life of its own.” She leaned back against her desk and unbuttoned her overcoat. Ember reminded herself to remove her coat and unzipped it. She folded it over the back of the chair and felt more comfortable as she listened to Eva talk. “It turned into this thing where the students would write notes and mark sections they found impactful, then the next student would pick it up and add to it.” She glanced at Ember. “I can’t take that away from them. The students I emailed will see that it continues. I would have asked Dr. DeWitt to do it, but I don’t think she’ll find it as important as the students do.”
Ember just stared at the woman in front of her. Eva’s cheeks were red from the cold, but she was dressed in a cream V-neck sweater, jeans and boots. She had crossed her arms after initially leaning against her desk, but then as she spoke about her books and her students, her arms opened, and she smiled. Ember had no data to back up her opinion, but she somehow just knew that Eva was an excellent teacher.
“Where should we start?” Ember asked after a moment of silence between them.
“I guess with the stuff in the desk. That’s probably easiest for you. Everything in there is mine.” She pointed behind her.
Ember glanced over Eva’s shoulders. There was no computer, which Ember assumed Eva had already taken with her, but there were a few odds and ends and a small cactus in the corner.
“A cactus?” Ember pointed and grabbed the box, moving around Eva, and set it down.
“A student got it for me. She said it was because she wanted to bring me an apple, but knew I hated apples and that I also wouldn’t be able to keep any other kind of plant alive.” Eva smiled.
“You hate apples? Who hates apples?”
“Me,” Eva answered. “Sh
e was one of my TAs, so she knew me well.”
“How well?” Ember lifted an eyebrow at her.
“Not that well,” Eva replied and moved toward the bookshelves.
She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and began pulling books off the shelves and placing them on the floor as she went.
“So, when do I get the funny yet not funny story about your middle name?” Ember asked as she worked on the items in the desk.
“Oh, I forgot.” Eva paused for a moment and then placed another book on the floor. “My mom’s sister was named Eva, but she was named after Ava Gardner. She was my grandmother’s favorite actress, but my grandfather didn’t know anything about movies, and he was the one that told them the name for the birth certificate. He told them to spell it with an E. My grandmother never let him hear the end of it. Originally, they’d pronounced it Ava, but everyone just kept saying Eva, so that stuck.”
“That is funny,” said Ember.
“Rose was my grandma’s name.” She paused. “My aunt died when she was fourteen. My mom was sixteen at the time. I never met my aunt. She got a rare form of bone cancer and well, back then, medicine wasn’t what it is now. My mom named me after her since I was the first girl.”
“I’m sorry,” Ember said.
“So, that’s the etymology of my name.”
“Big word there, doc,” Ember teased.
“Thank you for doing this.” Eva leaned against the shelves.
“It’s no big deal. I wasn’t doing anything this morning.” Ember tried to play off the fact that she’d wanted to see Eva again soon after their shared dinner last night.
“It is to me though. This should be harder than it is right now. You’re distracting me, so thank you.”
“Oh, then you’re welcome.”
“I’m sorry. Am I interrupting?” Kayla DeWitt stood in the doorway.
“Dr. DeWitt, I thought you were in class.” Eva stopped and turned to face her.
“I canceled the section today.”
“You canceled it? They had discussion group today and their first drafts were due,” Eva said.
Ember walked around the desk to move closer to her.
“Yes, I canceled it. I have a class myself, so I couldn’t do both today. Your TA, or my TA technically now, is out sick.” She paused and glanced in Ember’s direction. “Do I know you?”
“No,” Ember answered directly and looked over at Eva.
“You look familiar.”
“What are you doing here, Kayla? Your office isn’t on this floor.”
“I was just here to see if you’d moved out yet. I’m going to take this office once you’re out.”
“Why? Your office is bigger than this one.” Eva voiced was strained.
She seemed to be getting frustrated. Ember went to stand a little behind her and placed a hand on the small of her back.
“This office is in a better location and it has the wall to ceiling shelves.” Kayla pointed at the wall. “I didn’t know you’d be here. I’m sorry. I’ll come back later.”
“Monday,” Ember said.
“Excuse me?” Kayla said.
“Come back on Monday. We’ll be here all day. Come back on Monday.”
“You look so familiar to me. Why is that?”
Ember didn’t want to give Kayla the satisfaction of telling her they’d met twice before when she was trying to get Hailey into bed.
“Maybe you saw me at the restaurant the other night,” she said instead.
“The restaurant?” Kayla looked at Eva and then back to Ember. “On Valentine’s Day?” Kayla said. “You were there.”
“I work there,” Ember replied. “That’s where I met Eva.” She stepped closer to Eva and watched Kayla’s eyes flash in recognition.
“Well, that was fast,” Kayla said.
“You had to know someone would want to treat her right.” Ember sent daggers with her eyes. “She’s remarkable.” Ember hoped Eva wouldn’t read too much into it.
“I’ll come back on Tuesday. I won’t be here on Monday.” Kayla turned to go.
“I have a lecture on Monday,” Eva shot back. “You have a lecture on Monday.”
“Your TA is giving your lecture, Eva. Honestly, I am sorry you lost your job, but it’s not your lecture anymore, and your TA will deliver it. I am presenting at a conference in Detroit on Monday morning, so I won’t even be teaching my own classes that day.” She delivered these words in an exasperated voice. “Good luck,” she said in a way that wasn’t rude, but it also wasn’t genuine. She turned again and left them alone.
“You okay?” Ember asked.
“How do you do that?” Eva turned, and Ember dropped the hand on her back after realizing it was still there.
“Do what?”
“Just fire back like that. Just know what to say.”
“I don’t know. I didn’t do anything, really. I don’t like her, and I knew if she thought something was going on with us, it would piss her off.”
“Well, it did. That’s for sure, but God,” she exhaled. “I wish I could do that on the fly like that. I wish I could just know what to say to people like her.”
Ember stared at her and noted that there was hardly a height difference between them. She liked that.
“We should go get a fish,” she finally stated.
Eva laughed. “What?”
“A fish. We should finish up first and then go get a fish from the grocery store. We leave it in the desk drawer and then lock the drawer, and you take the key. Then, we close the door to the office when we leave. By the time she gets back here on Tuesday, the place will smell like rotting fish, and it will take her forever to figure out why or how to get it out.” She smiled, and her eyes widened at the thought of the prank.
“Oh, my God! How old are you?” Eva teased with a light slap to Ember’s shoulder.
“Thirty, but I have an older brother, so I’m basically a perpetual twelve-year-old too.”
Eva laughed again. Ember just kept putting items into the box as she watched Eva remove a few more books from the shelves.
◆◆◆
Eva brought another box up from her car to help with the additional books that she hadn’t planned on taking, but could no longer part with now. When she returned, she stood in the doorway and watched as Ember stood in front of the shelves with a book in her hands. Eva watched in disbelief at first as Ember appeared to be skimming each page, but at second glance, she was really scanning it. Her fingers slid from the top to the bottom of each page and then she turned to the next one in a matter of seconds. Eva recognized this as a speed reading technique. She stood in stunned silence as Ember appeared to finish the book she was reading, replace it on the shelf, and pick up another without realizing Eva was watching from only ten feet away.
“Oh, sorry,” Ember apologized when she did finally notice and hastily replaced the book.
“They’re there for reading. I have one you might really like.” She made her way to one of the smaller shelves on the other side of the room that she reserved mainly for books she knew she’d likely never read. “Here.” She picked up a paperback and Ember took it from her.
“Weapons of Math Destruction?” She met Eva’s eyes. “I heard about this one on one of my podcasts, but I haven’t gotten around to picking it up.” She opened the first few pages and noticed the signature.
“The author lectured here and left us a bunch of copies,” Eva explained when she noticed Ember’s eyes on the page. “Take it.”
“What? No, I can’t. You’ve already given me a book.” Ember glanced up at her.
“And you finished it in what? Ten minutes?” she teased. “Besides, you’ve bought me drinks and a meal. I think I can give you a book I’m not going to read.”
“Okay. Thanks.” Ember smiled.
“Of course.” Eva paused and thought about whether or not she should ask her next question. “How fast do you read?” she asked.
“I don’t know,
” Ember tried to deflect and placed the book on top of the full box of items taken from the desk. “Faster than some people.”
“Do you really not know or are you not telling me because you don’t want to talk about this?”
“Both,” Ember replied honestly. “Is there anything else?” She looked around the room. “It’s 11:45. Aren’t you meeting your friends?”
There were no clocks in the office. Ember wasn’t looking at a watch or phone when she said that, which made Eva wonder more.
“Oh yeah, crap.” Eva pulled on her coat. Ember did the same. They each hoisted a box and made their way out of the office. “Thanks. I would have forgotten. I’ve been pretty spacy lately.”
“I’ll help you get this to your car,” Ember offered, and they headed to the elevator.
“Can I ask you another question? You can say you don’t want to answer.”
“Okay.”
“Do you always know what time it is?”
“What?”
“You knew it was 11:45 without checking the time. That’s a thing that a lot of geniuses can do.”
Ember laughed loudly as the elevator doors opened and she walked out.
“I checked my phone before you got back. I don’t always know what time it is,” she informed Eva.
“Okay. Sorry, I was just curious.” Eva pushed open the door to the outside with her back.
“You are curious a lot.”
“I guess so.” Eva turned right as they exited.
Ember followed her in the direction of her car. They were silent until Eva put the box on the hood of the car and clicked the button to unlock it. Ember helped her load the boxes into the trunk of the small car. Eva closed the trunk and stood facing Ember.
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