A Little Something Different

September (Pam - Inga's wife)

Pam- Inga’s wife

“Now that we’re a few weeks into classes, I have to know, who is your couple of the semester?” I ask as we sit down to dinner Friday night. It’s rare that we both sit down at the table to eat, but if it happens it’s going to happen on a Friday night.

“I can’t believe I haven’t told you,” Inga says, her eyes lighting up. “They’re a boy and a girl this time, Gabe and Lea. When I tell you they’re adorable, I mean they are adorable.”

“That’s what you say about all of them,” I say, leaning back and sipping my wine.

She rolls her eyes. “They are all adorable, but there’s something special about these two. I feel like I would have picked them out anywhere, not just in class.”

“I’ve heard you say that before.”

“I know! But they’ve been giving me some great material. She read a short assignment in class the other day and I think he definitely drooled.”

“Maybe he just got back from the dentist.”

“Why do you insist on teasing me?” she asks, glaring at me. “They have a story. I’m telling you, there’s no way they don’t have a story. They have this chemistry that’s impossible to ignore. I don’t even know what it is. But I’m going to do whatever I can to get them together.”

I shake my head even though I can’t help but smile. My girl has a passion for matchmaking.

“Or to at least talk to each other.”

“At the very least,” I agree, teasing her. She doesn’t even notice and just keeps on going.

“They sit next to each other almost every class. Or sometimes Victor sits between them,” she says making a face.

“Curse you Victor!” I say, thrusting my fist in the air. “Who’s Victor?”

“He’s one of those kids who have to take the class for a requirement.”

“Oh, one of those.”

“He had the balls to come see me at office hours and request that I change something on the syllabus because of his own personal time table. I wanted to smack him.”

“There’s always one.”

“He kind of reminds me of that Indian kid from Mean Girls...”

“Kevin G.,” I say without missing a beat.

“Yes! Except scarier, because this kid is not happy about being in this class. I’m a little bit scared he’s going to set something on fire. He’s like a cesspool in the midst of my creative writing oasis.”

“I know the type.”

“Anyway, sometimes they do that thing. Where one of them looks over at the other like they're going to say something and then looks away just as the other senses someone's looking at them so they look up.”

“Ugh, the bad timing thing.”

“It's the worst. But Gabe and Lea will fall in love, mark my words,” she says, tapping her finger on the table to punctuate her statement.

“These words, they are marked.”

We’re quiet while we eat for a few minutes.

“So what’s new in the world of astrophysics?” she asks.

“We’ve been married for five years and you still have no real concept of what I do with my days.”

“No, I really don’t.”