Imagining Us

Ch. 21- "Not a Date"

Relief flooded her as she realized that he was already there waiting on her. She smiled and wove her way between tables to get to him. If she was really thinking, she would've walked around the tables instead of directly through them.

She had already said sorry at least twice because her hips had accidentally knocked against someone's table much to their disgruntled reactions. The third table she knocked against happened to be one of her Global Relations class group members, Anya. They greeted each other and briefly recounted a joke from their group chat.

As she continued on to the table, she realized that Porte had already begun working—sort of. He had an open spiral bound notebook, and from where she stood, she could see the makings of some sort of floor plan.
Porte was watching her make her way towards him. His feet uncrossed, and he straightened his body to welcome her. Esi allowed her eyes to roam over him.

Then, he did something that not only grabbed her attention, but also the tables around them.
He stood to greet her, and Esi wondered if he didn't realize that this wasn't a runway. He was dressed in a cognac colored leather jacket with a cream turtleneck and dark pants.
Porte pulled out her chair for her, and she sat as quickly as she could, realizing the attention that he had drawn from that action.
He then proceeded to remove the jacket and hang it over the back of his chair.

It was a crime.

"Thank you," she said softly, and a bit out of breath. He smiled at her, and it soothed Esi's nervousness.
She didn't know why she felt this way—as if she was on a first date. Of which this was not one.
They made small talk about the day and the weather. Then, he asked her what she wanted to eat.

Esi looked at the small, folded menu on the table. "I'll probably take the club sandwich, and—
"They don't have won't have an earl grey latte here," Porte inserted with an amused look.
She looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "Why did you think that's what I was looking for?"
Porte gave her a look filled with sarcasm, that if she had to put it into words could only be read as "Really?"
"Oh whatever," she huffed, a small smile playing on her face.
"What about a chai latte?" He offered. That was exactly what she was thinking.
"I think that'd be great, thanks."
"Okay. I'll go order," he said.
Before he could get up, she reached out to stop him.
"I'll pay for it," she said.
Porte began to protest, but Esi held out her hand.

"Porte...You bought me a latte when you picked me up from the train station. And since then you've brought me one after my Wednesday evening classes almost every week," she reminded him.

That development was something unexpected that she hadn't even fully processed—and it had been at least four weeks! She had briefly mentioned her schedule to him, and one Wednesday evening, there he was, waiting for her outside of her class. She was not by any means ignorant to the fact that her classmates, who usually did not linger around after such a long class, had stopped to watch them. Porte had found it amusing when she tried to quickly usher him away from the building.

The fact that he didn't even have to be there made it even more special. He had gotten his Masters two years ago and was only on campus because he assisted in an undergrad class.

"And?" He sighed. "We're friends, Elizabeth. We don't have to take turns...we can just take care of each other."
Esi felt chastised even though she knew that he didn't mean it in any way.
"I know, but could we start after I pay for this meal," She sent him a cheeky smile.
Porte stared at her incredulously, as if he couldn't believe that she still went there.
He shook his head, his mouth–those pink lips that she noticed but still didn't notice– slightly tilted up at the side.
"Fine. You're ridiculous, you know that?"

She shrugged uncaringly, glad that she won the round, and handed him a fifty dollar bill.
"You can put the change in the tip jar. Thanks, babe," She teased and sassily instructed him. Her mouth fell open with a fake gasp when she felt that he pulled the money from her hand with a bit of force.
While he was gone, Esi took the time to take her notes and her laptop out of her bag. To actually make it seem like they were going to do work instead of it looking like a date. Also, she wanted to actually get some work done before the food came because that would be another distraction.