Finding A Place

Finding A place 💟 Episode 2

"I'd be glad to." I stuck out my hand. "Brendan Carruthers."

"Sheila Mitchell," she smiled, shaking my hand. " Oh, Brendan, thank you. I'll be eternally grateful. "

"No problem. When do you want to do it? "

"Are you free tonight?"

"Sure." I gave her my dorm and room number, and we made plans for her to come up at about seven.

Jake had some football thing going on, so I was alone when she showed up. " Brendan, I can't thank you enough. I'm doing fine in my other classes, but this is really losing me. "

"I'm glad to do it." And I was. I didn't mind helping people at all with classwork. I found it flattering.

We pulled up a chair, and I talked her through some of the stuff we had been doing. As she worked on it, I took a look at her. She was wearing a tee shirt and shorts. Her legs were long, muscular, and very tanned. Her arms looked like they had prominent muscles, too. I could tell she was broad-shouldered. Her face? I think most people would describe it as "cute". She had long, straight blonde hair, a cute turned-up nose, and freckles, visible even with her tan. What I liked were her eyes-they were deep blue and seemed to sparkle. After a while, she seemed to be picking things up a bit better. I suggested a little break. "You want something to drink?" I asked.

"Love it. Do you have any diet coke? "

I helped her out a few times in the next couple of weeks. She wasn't dumb, not by a far long shot-she was very smart, actually. She just wasn't intuitive about math, and the professor didn't help. It was a good thing I was intuitive about math, or he would've lost me.

So, I helped her. I didn't see it as anything more than that. Though I did enjoy her company. We always took breaks to de-calculate our brains, and I enjoyed chatting with her. But that was it. I was helping her study, that was all. That we got along decently just made it easier.

That's why I was surprised when, about three weeks after I had started tutoring her, she came to where I was sitting in the dining hall and plopped down in front of me. " Hi! Want company?"

"Sure," I said, surprised.

"You looked lonely sitting over here all by yourself," she giggled.

"I usually eat with my roommate, but he's in Oregon at the moment."

"Oregon?" she asked.

"Well, you're a hell of a lot better looking than he is," I said, surprising myself. She just giggled again. "However, if you want to talk sports-which is what Jake talks about most of the time-be advised that, while I know a lot about football, I know little about swimming."

" Well, what's to know? It's a rather uncomplicated sport "she smiled. " You get in the pool, you swim, whoever swims fastest wins. Football's a lot more complicated. '

"Especially here," I grinned. "Jake's playbook is bigger than our Calculus textbook."

"Welcome to Stanford," she laughed, "where they even expect the athletes to know how to think." I got up the next morning, did some laundry, went to brunch. By the time I got back from brunch and retrieved my laundry, it was still only 11:30. I had an hour and a half to kill before Sheila came over to study. I ended up walking down the campus-and somehow ended up at the aquatic center.

There were stands-swimming was an important sport at Stanford, our team was always nationally ranked, and the meets actually got respectable crowds. So, I parked myself a few rows up and watched. There were a number of people swimming, but I picked her out immediately.

I'd known she was a swimmer, and I knew what swimming entailed. And I'd seen her body-well, under a tee shirt and shorts, but I had an idea about her muscles. But I wasn't prepared for how she looked powering her way through the water. She was doing the backstroke, and she moved faster than I ever could've imagined. I'd seen swimming at the Olympics, of course, but seeing it on TV didn't come close. Watching her backstroke through the water was like watching a motorboat-except this motorboat was powered by sheer muscle. It was riveting.

I shouldn't have come. That was my first thought. If I was intimidated by her before this-and I was-this was even more intimidating. I thought about leaving-but I was riveted. After I came to the decision that I was going to leave, Sheila came out of the pool for a break, and saw me.

"BRENDAN! Hi! " She yelled, and then came over to me. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, I was wandering the campus, killing time, and I decided I wanted to see you swim."

"Cool!" she said. " I'm glad. What did you think? "

"I'm flabbergasted," I said. "It's so much faster in person."

"Everybody says that," she giggled. " Are you going to stick around? I just need to do a few more laps in a couple of minutes, then we can go study. "

"OK," I said, trying to convince myself.

We had our first calc exam on Monday. I didn't have any problem with it. After class, Sheila walked by me and said, "I think it went well. We'll see."

On Wednesday we got them back. We were sitting on opposite sides of the class, but when she got hers back, I saw her light up with a smile, then she turned around, found me, and grinned at me.

When class was over, she came running out of the lecture hall-and grabbed me in a hug! " Brendan! You're a damn miracle worker! " She held up her test-which said 91. "I can't believe I did this well!"

"I'm glad," I said-which I was, but I was also thunderstruck that she was hugging me!

" Oh, Brendan, you did this for me! I'm so excited! Look, how can I repay you? Anything. Anything at all. "

I said it before I even thought. "Well, how about going out with me for dinner Friday?" And then immediately wanted to take the words back.

"I'd love to!" she said happily.

WHAT?

"Really?" I stuttered. "I mean, well, great!"

"I was waiting for you to ask," she grinned. WHAT?!?!?!? "We can go wherever you want, I have a car-I know you don't." Oh my Jesus, did I just do that?

Oh, Christ. Now I have two days to go out of my mind.