Flirting with Fifty

“It’s not fine. It was immature. I’m em—”

“—barrassed, I know, but don’t be. We’re friends. You can be yourself with me. Warts and all.”

“I have no warts, thankfully.”

He smiled reluctantly. He wasn’t mad at her, not anymore. If anything, he felt empathy. It must be awful thinking you had to be perfect to be liked. Respected. “I saw that you don’t have much in your fridge. Can I go do a quick shop for you? Milk, yogurt, veggies, anything?”

“That’s nice of you, but I’m good. I think I have a couple cans of soup still in there and some bread in the freezer.”

“Tinned soup? That sounds awful.”

“I like soup.”

“In that case, I’ll be off. But if you change your mind, call or text. I’m just fifteen minutes away.”

She walked him to the door. “We never talked about the students you’re worried about. Is there a reason you wanted me to look over the papers?”

“I just wanted to keep you looped in.”

“If that’s the case, I’m good without looking at the papers; you know what you want to see. But once you’ve uploaded the grades, maybe we should see who is struggling. I have a few students who aren’t doing well on statistics quizzes and exams, but they might not be the same who didn’t do well on your paper.”

“I can pull the low grades later tonight and then maybe tomorrow after class we can go through them, if you’re up to it.”

“I should be,” she said. “On Mondays I have office hours right after class, so what about two thirty?”

“Sounds good. See you tomorrow,” he said.

After locking the door behind him, Paige returned to the kitchen and then forgot why she was there. Her thoughts were scattered, and her emotions were mixed, but underlying everything was a sense of gratitude. Paige was used to doing everything herself, and accustomed to problem solving for everyone, and yet today she didn’t have to figure it all out. Jack was her partner, a very capable partner.

She might actually like being on a team after all.