Imagining Us

Chapter 7

After they dismissed the children, Esi stayed back to help tidy the hall and classrooms. She was very conscious of his gaze on her the whole time.
So, she tried not to be distracted by him while simultaneously trying to field questions about her and him from the other ladies. She said her goodbyes and exited into the main sanctuary to leave through the double doors at the front.

As she made her way out, she found that she was walking slower than usual behind the others with her eyes surreptitiously glancing around. There was a part of her that was looking for him—to see if they would talk more. To see if he had waited. As she filtered out of the doors, she waved goodbye to some of the other instructors and was about to walk down the steps when she saw him leaning against the rail.

He was looking down at his phone with his back turned to her. She shuffled on the spot trying to decide whether to talk past him or to say something to him.

Was he really waiting for her?

She decided on the safer option which was to quietly go down the steps and head towards her vehicle. Right when she was about to take the last step, her keys slipped out of her hand and the sound gave away her position. She groaned in disbelief as she bent to pick them up. When she straightened, he was looking right at her.

She blew out a breath. "Hi."

He looked amused. "Were you not going to say bye?"

Her mouth opened and then closed. "I was just bending down to take up my keys." He walked across towards her.

"Tsk. Tsk. Elizabeth." She would absolutely not dwell on how her name sounded coming from him. "You're just leaving the church hall and lying to me?"

She protested, " I'm not lying, I was picking up my keys." He raised a brow as if to say 'go on'" She conceded . "And yes...maybe I was avoiding you."

Porte invaded her space and she held her breath.

What is with him and not letting her breathe?

He leaned down towards her, and she was pretty sure that her heart was on a race track with how it galloped. She chided herself internally.

Hold firm, Esi!

In that low octave he murmured, "Now, why would you want to do that?" His eyes searched hers, and he found something in them. Something that made him pull back.

"Don't you want us to be...friends, at least?" A weight that she didn't realize she was carrying was lifted and she could breathe again. They could be friends. She could do that. She would ignore his last two words.

With a face void of expression, she said ,"I'm not really sure that we could be friends." His face dropped at that and she rolled her eyes. " You obviously have a very skewed outlook on the Bennett family. Mrs. Bennet...redeemable Really?"

His mouth twitched. "Yes, really. I bet I could convince you."

She faked a gasp and whispered conspiratorially. "Porte...betting on church property?" She turned her nose up. "I'm not sure we should be friends." She started to walk away, and she could hear him swiftly walking to catch up. "No no no. Don't try that. It's already been decided that we're best friends."

She whirled around to face him and saw the smirk on his face. That was exactly the reaction that he wanted. " I'm positive that's not how friendships work. You can't just self-appoint yourself as someone's friend or even worse best friend." She protested while he stood watching her. She was briefly taken with a sliver of hair that the wind blew across forehead. His hand moved to brush it back into place.

"Okay...fine. Maybe not best, but friends at least."

Esi shook her head at him, and sighed resignedly. "You really don't have much experience with friends, do you?"

Something flashed in his eyes.

"So...I'm gonna take that to be a yes." She heard the triumph in his voice. "By the way, what's your major, I don't think I got to ask you that earlier?" He thought he was slick, maneuvering the conversation away from her statement. Something about what she said rang true. Something about it bothered him. She decided to file that thought away. She would not forget it because she could tell that it was very important, and maybe it had something to do with why he didn't think that he would be a good role model.

"It's Global Affairs, and I'm actually working on my Master's now."

Porte looked at her incredulously, and she could feel herself ready to defend anything untoward. "For some reason, I pegged you as a Classics Major." She relaxed.

"Ugh. I wish. I really wanted to at least minor in it during undergrad, but it didn't really fit with my major. So, I minored in Language Studies instead."

"Oh. That's cool. So you speak more than one language...how many?"

She looked at him coyly. " A few. You can't know all of my secrets just yet, Porte. We aren't best friends yet."

He laughed at that. "Fair enough. But, can you at least tell me if you speak Danish?"

"Danish? That's quite random and very specific. Why?"

"Just curious. It's not a language that most people choose to learn." He shrugged.

"Well...Unfortunately, I don't. The closest that I've gotten to any Nordic language is ABBA's Swedish version of 'Waterloo'."
She paused to think. "Actually, one of our old neighbor's back in England was Swedish, and I learned a few basic words, but I barely remember now."

They were about three feet away from her SUV at this point, and she turned to ask him again 'why Danish', but he beat her to it.

"What about music? Do you play any instruments?"

She laughed. "I just told you that you can't know all of my secrets yet."

He raised his hand in surrender.

"I'm doing a comparison and I'm trying to determine how 'accomplished' you are."

Esi knew what he was doing. What he was referring to.

"How's it faring so far? Is my character aligning with Lizzie Bennet's ? Because...you know, friend..." she opened her door, and sat in the driver's seat. "I think I know exactly who your character aligns with in Pride & Prejudice." She paused for dramatic effect, and could see him anxiously waiting for the answer. She answered as seriously as she could muster.

"It's obviously Mr. Collins." If she could take a picture of the look on his face. But she couldn't, because of how hard she was laughing. She laughed so hard that she accidentally honked her horn and scared a smattering of pigeons that were lingering around the lot. The look of shock left his face, and he chuckled at her behavior.

They both calmed down and there was lingering silence in the aftermath.

Porte turned to her seriously." I will be seeing you around, Esi. I want to hear everything...about your major, about what it entails, about what you plan to do with it in the future. I really do want us to be friends." He smiled wryly and teased, "If not best friends yet, then just friends. Because, something tells me you're the kind of person that it would be a privilege to be friends with."

Nothing.

She could say nothing.

She did, however, nod her head as he closed her door and waved bye.

Something caught in her throat.

No one would ever know how much those words meant to her, because sometimes she didn't think that she was worth the bother.

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A/N
Happy New Year to everyone!!! Enjoy Chapter 7!

I'm trying to work on my spacing. Sometimes I forget it's not an actual book.

Vote, share and comment. I really want to hear your thoughts!

Evie x