A Table for Two (10 page)

"I brought some utensils and a few unusual kitchen gadgets," Jimmy said. "I thought I'd show them how to use them and I also thought I'd do some carving."

"Jimmy's an artist when it comes to carving fruits and veggies into flowers and birds and any number of things," Dana said. "He thought that would be fun."

"What a great idea," Ridley said. "Thanks a lot, Jimmy."

"That's okay. Maybe I'll let a few students give it a try."

Ridley jumped all over that idea. "Just don't let them cut their fingers off. Our school nurse will kill me. And let me choose the students. I don't want you to get saddled with the trouble makers or the class clowns. They're always the first ones to volunteer."

Jimmy grimaced. "I didn't think of that."

"Don't worry. That's what they pay me for," Ridley told him.

DURING THE CLASSES, Ridley sat in the back of the room under the guise of being able to keep an eye on the students like a good teacher should. As true as that was, she also wanted to sit back and feast her eyes on Dana without being obvious about it. Her position assured her that no one would take notice of the way her eyes followed Dana as she moved around the room.

Dana's physical attributes were pleasing enough, but what drew Ridley to her even more was beyond the physical. Whatever it was, it was far more compelling and it touched her where nothing and no one had touched her before. As she watched Dana and Jimmy entertain the tenth graders, she knew one thing with total conviction. Her feelings for Dana were not going to fade away with time or distance or anything else and this raw aching attraction was not going to ever leave her alone. Not ever.

The class periods flew by and before Ridley knew it, the second session had come to an end. When the dismissal bell rang, the students jumped out of their chairs, seized their belongings and stampeded out of the gym like a herd of wild ponies pushing through a broken fence.

"That was certainly a big hit," Ridley said after all the students were gone. "Thank you both for doing this. I try to make things interesting for the students and I like to introduce them to something outside the boundaries of their narrow little world. Most of them never venture away from the ten block radius where they live and they don't know much about anything else."

"We were happy to help, weren't we Jimmy?" Dana said.

"Oh, man, it was fun. Did you see the bird that one girl carved? Couldn't have done it better myself. They paid attention, especially when we talked about the jobs you can get in the food industry. After the first class was over, one of the boys came up to me and said he wanted to be a chef. I told him he had to finish high school first and then I gave him some advice about what he should do after that."

"They don't always show that much interest. Maybe you'd think about coming again and doing a couple of other groups? The students switch for the second half of the year, so I'll have different students in the spring."

"We could do that, couldn't we, Jimmy?" Dana asked.

"Yeah, we could do that," Jimmy confirmed. "Just set it up and we'll be here. Do you need any help straightening up your classroom?"

"No. The students will help me tomorrow. I'm ready to get out of here." Ridley helped Dana and Jimmy carry their things out to Dana's car. It was only three-fifteen and she wanted to think of a way to spend more time with Dana although she didn't know what to do about Jimmy. Since Jimmy had just closed the trunk and they were about to leave, she came up with the first thing that popped into her mind. "Let me thank both of you by taking you out to dinner."

"Sorry, but I can't go," Jimmy said. "My wife made me promise to come right home as soon as we were done here and I'll be a dead man if I don't. I'm not home that much in the evening, so she's kind of possessive when it comes to my free time."

"That's okay. I understand," Ridley told him.

"I guess I'll see you another time, then." Jimmy went to the back of Dana's car and began loading the bags and containers into the trunk.

"Will you have dinner with me?" Ridley asked Dana. "I'd love it if you would."

"Uh..." Dana's face became tense for a moment and then it relaxed. "Okay, but I have to run Jimmy back to get his car and I want to put the left-over fruits and veggies away. I'd also like to change my clothes. I can't go out in this chef's outfit or they'll put me to work."

"Tell you what. I'll follow you to your place and help you take the stuff inside and put it away. Then you can change or do what you need to do. Why don't you leave your car there and come with me? I'll bring you home whenever you want me to."

WHILE DANA CHANGED, Ridley waited for her in the living room. Being in Dana's personal space filled her with a contentment that could only be described as coming home. The hopeless attraction she felt for Dana was one thing she'd have to deal with, but beyond that there was something more, something stronger and ultimately more significant. When she was with Dana, Ridley had a sense of being exactly where she was always meant to be.

She wanted and needed to be near Dana. They'd only known each other for a matter of weeks and yet Ridley couldn't change the direction her feelings had taken any more than she could change the direction of the earth's rotation.

Dana strolled into the living room wearing a pair of faded jeans and a long sleeved blue shirt with the cuffs rolled up a couple of times. Her dark hair had a slight curl to it and she deposited little whiffs of a pleasant scent here and there as she walked about the room. "I hope I didn't take long getting ready."

"We're not in a hurry," Ridley said as she inhaled Dana's intoxicating scent. She felt as lightheaded as she had the other times she'd been near Dana and she wondered how she managed to rise to her feet and get her legs to hold steady beneath her. "Are you ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Dana said.

"Where would you like to eat? I've never given any thought to where a chef might want to eat or even if you enjoy going out to eat at all. It must be hard to find good places after the kind of food you make."

"It can be, but I enjoy eating out just as much as everyone else. I try to put the chef in me aside when I go out. The thing is, I haven't been to a restaurant since I moved here, so I don't know where to go or what to suggest."

"I have an even better idea. Why don't I make dinner for you at my apartment? I'm sort of famous for my chicken taco salad and you wouldn't have to lift a finger. I'd just have to stop at the store for a few things on the way."

"I like that idea. Are you sure you feel like doing it?"

"Yes, we've got plenty of time and I'd really like you to see where I live."

"That would be nice. We can get to know each other a little better."

"I'd really like that," Ridley said.

WHEN THEY GOT to her apartment, Ridley unpacked the groceries while Dana sat at the kitchen table and observed.

"Can I get you an iced tea or soda or something?" Ridley offered.

"Some iced tea would be great."

Ridley poured two glasses of iced tea, added a slice of lemon to each and set one on the table in front of Dana. "I have to grill the chicken so it can cool down before I make the salad." She opened the package of boneless chicken breasts, patted them with paper towels and spread them out on a platter. Then she sprinkled them with seasonings.

"What's that you're putting on the chicken?" Dana asked.

"It's a standard Tex-Mex spice blend. I mix my own and keep it in this spice shaker. Wait until you taste my lime vinaigrette. My mother gave me the recipe."

"I love limes and Tex-Mex." Dana searched the kitchen. "Where's your grill?"

"It's out on the balcony." Ridley opened a sliding door and stepped out onto a narrow balcony with the platter of chicken balanced on the palm of one hand. "I'll leave the door open so we can talk while I start the grill and get the chicken going."

Dana raised her voice so Ridley could hear her, the way people automatically do when they can't see the person they're talking to. "This is a nice apartment. You live close to your school and close to Karen and Laurie."

"I lived far from the school I was in last year. It took me forty-five minutes to get to work and that was only if there weren't any delays on the expressway. Now it's a short drive and if I had to, I could walk. I can also walk to Karen and Laurie's house which is nice." Ridley came inside and sat at the table. "I have to let the grill warm up."

"Tell me more about yourself, Ridley."

"What do you want to know?"

"How did you get the name Ridley? It's kind of unusual."

"I get asked that a lot. It was my mother's maiden name. Her name's Victoria Anne Ridley Kelsen. She wanted me to have her last name as my first name and she told me she thought it would be unique."

"She was right. Do you have a middle name?"

"I wish I didn't." Ridley had to pause to think. She'd never told anyone her middle name. Only Laurie knew and she wasn't sure she wanted to tell Dana. Her middle name was benign enough by itself, but when you put it together with her first and last names, it sounded terribly hokey. "It's Jean after my mother's sister." Before Dana could comment, Ridley jumped up. "Have to put the chicken on," she said as she escaped to the balcony.

"Ridley Jean Kelsen. That's so cute," Dana yelled.

"You think so?" Ridley hollered back. After she put the chicken on, she came back and sat at the table next to Dana. "You don't think it makes me sound like a country western singer?"

"Well...maybe just a little." The corners of Dana's mouth turned up. "I'm sorry. I just had an image of you on the stage at the Grand Ole Opry. I couldn't help it."

"See, I told you," Ridley said.

"How long have you been a teacher," Dana asked.

"About eight years."

"How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I'm thirty-one, almost thirty-two. How old are you?" Ridley asked even though she'd already figured out Dana had to be Karen's age since they went to high school together.

"I just turned thirty-three." Dana paused as if to consider what she wanted to ask Ridley next. "Do you find it hard working in the city schools?"

"On a bad day, I'd have to say it was close to impossible."

"And what would you say on a good day?"

"On a good day I'd have to say it was worth it."

"I'd have to say it was worth it every day," Dana said. "How could it not be?"

"I appreciate that. A lot of the students in the inner city schools come from some pretty awful home situations and many of them live in abject poverty. A lot of them have behavioral issues and all sorts of physical and mental problems."

"God, that's awful."

"Many of them aren't healthy because their mother's were drinking heavily or taking drugs while they were pregnant with them. They probably didn't get any pre-natal care or take vitamins or eat a healthy diet, either. Thank God we have a full-time school nurse or we wouldn't know what to do about their problems or the constant physical complaints they use to get out of class. And students get injured almost every day from fighting and fooling around."

"I wouldn't want her job," Dana said.

"Me either. Her name's Erin Lafferty. I don't know her that well yet, but so far, I like her. She knows all the students and she is so patient with them. Even though she's around our age, she's like a mother to them. You should see how she handles them when they get out of control and start acting crazy. I think she has a gift."

"I'm not sure I could deal with them at all," Dana said. "I'm not sure I'd want to."

"Some of them are tough to handle, that's for sure, but we do have a lot of great kids in our school. They have more than their share of hardships, but somehow they rise above it all. They remind me of fragile but beautiful little flowers that push their way through tiny cracks in the sidewalk and grow even though they've been rooted in the worst possible place."

"What do you think are the biggest problems they face?" Dana asked.

"I don't have to think about that. It's poor parenting or no parenting at all. A lot of students were born to mothers who were children themselves and many of them are on their own as soon as they learn to take care of themselves. The worst situations seem to happen when the parents are addicted to alcohol or drugs or they're incarcerated. Then there's abuse. Physical and sexual abuse is bad enough, but how can you begin to deal with emotional abuse?"

"Good Lord. Is it bad?"

"Bad enough and more frequent than I would ever have thought. Some students have one or two parents or somebody who cares about them, but many don't. It's common for grandparents or aunts to be raising them and I don't even want to tell you about some of the foster parents we come across. Erin told me that the city has thousands of kids who need homes and they can't place them, let alone be too fussy about who takes them in."

Dana grimaced. "God, I never knew that."

"I've had students tell me a parent was murdered in front of them or their mother died of AIDS or she's living out in the streets because she's a drug addict and--well, you get the idea. You name it, I've heard it. Every day I see students who act out because they can't keep up with their school work and some of our students can't read above a third or fourth grade level. A lot of them struggle for three or four years in the ninth and tenth grades until they finally give up and drop out completely."

"How do they get to high school without being able to read? That's shocking in this day and age and aside from that, you don't stand a chance without a high school education."

"You don't stand much of a chance with one. And another thing that drives me nuts is that they keep having unprotected sex. Teenage pregnancy is a bigger problem than ever and so are sexually transmitted diseases. I go over all those things in my health classes and the nurse gives them classes, but they still don't get the message. Erin brings the public health department in to do voluntary STD testing."

"What happens if they have something?"

"The health department comes back to the school and treats them. They don't have to tell their parents, either. It's all confidential."