Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Although I arrived early, I did not see Max until after 3 p.m. He had been in his supervisor's office down the hall from the faculty area. He was in his ninja black again with a Looney Toons tie. When he opened the door and I heard his voice, I was relieved. I turned to see him walking toward me. He looked haggard and began to explain that he had driven Blayre, his daughter, to California over the weekend. I had another piece of the family puzzle. He had taken the previous day off to rest. He began to tell me about a flat tire on the way back. I thought this might be the deal breaker since the tone he used seemed to indicate that tire changing had been a serious ordeal. I really did not like to be the mechanical one of the couple. He said he was planning to take off early. I asked him if he could write a few questions for me. In a few minutes he returned with a fabulous list. Before he left he asked me what I was going to do for the next term. I told him I had not been given a contract, but that I might have other offers at other schools. I had gone on several interviews at high schools. He leaned on the partition next to my computer and looked pensively out the window with his arm on the upper edge, his thumb propped against his mouth. He wished me luck and then seductively whispered, "Can I call you?" The previous week I had deliberately called him from home so my mumber would be on his phone. I was just letting him know I had e-mailed some postings for Rex and a reminder about the coming mock interview. He seemed irritated and told me he was in the library working on a computer, but before the brief conversation ended, his tone changed and he asked me if the number on his caller ID was my cell number. I told him it was my home number, that I did not have a cell phone. He asked me if he could store it, and I quickly responded with a yes and ended the call. That went better than I had expected. It even made me feel orgasmic. I responded to the current request with a whispered affirmative feeling equally orgasmic. As he walked away from the faculty area he noticed a garment in the lost and found that seemed to match my skirt. He lifted it and compared the two to realize that they were not an exact match. That left me feeling that he had more than a normal amount of sensitivity. He then mouthed that he would call and almost stumbled over a chair as he left. Even this nervous clumsiness did not detract from my knowledge that the man is surprisingly smooth in dealing with women. Either that or I was gaining skill in romantic manipulation. Just before class I went to the student break area to find Rex. This was where I usually found him at this time of day. He was not there, so I went to the library. He was there and I almost saw him smile while he was reading a MySpace page. I had never seen him fully smile. I was not sure what his teeth look like. I walked over to him and said, "Rex, your dad is awesome-and-a-half." I had him move to the table we had shared the day we met. I began the interview with a firm hand shake and began to go through the questions. As he answered, I noticed that his speech pattern was the same as his dad's when Max was in his professional mode. I also noticed that Rex occasionally and rapidly slid his tongue across the lower part of his upper lib from left to right. I looked for similarities between his face and his father's but could find none. This led me to believe that he favored his mother and to believe that Max had at one time been in love with a beautiful woman. Rex was beautiful and his voice was melifluous. This made him perfect for the help desk job he now had. I also noticed that he seemed to have tiny gaps between all of his teeth. This may be his reason for never giving a broad smile. The previous week his dad had mentioned that the Rex's car was not running because he was installing a new cam and we talked about that some. "The Iskenderian variety?" I asked. He seemed shocked but impressed that not only did I know something about cams, but I also knew the full name of the manufacturer. That was the night for final exams. Rex still needed to submit a major assignment and motioned to me that he would e-mail it as he signed out and left after his final. I was sad that this was the last time he would be my studetnt, and he seemed sad to be leaving before me. I did not receive the project in my e-mail, but he had and all the others had already demonstrated real-life skill in everything required in the project. I based his score on what he had done as a real employee, just as I would have for any of the other students in this blow-off, busy work class. The sadness of his departure was eased by the knowledge that I would be free to accept any offer Max might have for me.