crossed the line of yes, yes, yes and looked seizure-like. He gave the man-head-nod to the foreign student who responded by giving a boy-grin back. The two of them could have been an ad for Big Brothers and Sisters.
And then it was her turn. She sat up straighter in anticipation, and he held out his hand. "We haven’t met. I’m Ty."
She shook it. "You are."
He laughed as if she’d made a joke and wasn’t commenting on his effect on the crowd. "I’m Gwen."
"Gwen Melissa," Mranda jumped in. "It’s very confusing. I had her on my floor." Mranda laughed and waited for Ty to join her, but he didn't.
"Well, she’s with us now. Isn’t she, Annie?"
Annie jerked an inch off the couch.
"Guy?"
"Oh," Gwen looked at the international student, relieved to be able to call him by his name. "I didn’t catch that your name was Guy."
Guy nodded.
Ty sat down next to her. The dent wasn’t large enough to have her roll into him or for Annie to sail from her end, but she was sure they both wanted to. "It’s not exactly his name. He doesn’t speak any English and Guy is as close as we can come. He’s here for math."
"His country sent him," Mranda shook her head like that was a crazy thing for a country to do, and that attending a university in another language wasn’t impressive at all.
Gwen turned to Ty not just because he was far prettier than Mranda, who was nothing to sneeze at, but because he was already one-hundred-percent nicer. "What country is he from?"
"We think Taiwan."
"Doesn’t he…" What did she want to ask? Doesn’t he have a translator? Draw maps? Was the language of texting universal? Maybe they could hand him a cell phone.
"Keeps giving us his village’s name. We think." Ty laughed as if he’d tried hard enough that failure to understand was finally funny. "What are you studying?"
Oh, god, she didn’t know there’d be questions at the meeting. Who are you? What are you doing here? She wasn’t prepared for questions, especially questions from a late-twenties, beautiful man. Soap opera star beautiful man. In fact, the level of aesthetic skill he possessed had always seemed like an oddity to her. When she’d been in the presence of it before, man or woman, it felt like something was wrong. Too much of one thing had to leave a deficit somewhere else. But this man had smart eyes and a really nice smile. Not just a nice smile but a nice guy smile. And a… "do you have an accent?"
He shrugged in apology. "My family lived in Australia when I was in elementary school. It comes out in certain words."
Of course he’d have a hint of an Australian drawl. How many males had been short-changed to give all the good stuff to Ty?
Mranda shoved a folder towards her, and Gwen took it to prevent losing an eye. She noticed Mranda leaned very close to hand one to Ty but set one down next to Guy, who didn’t look up from his silent TV flicking. She dropped the last one as close as she could towards Annie without actually going near her. "Let’s go over some dorm policies. Rules are an important part of your fun here at Craig Hall."
Insomnia might be the other part of her fun at Craig Hall. Rules and sleeplessness, they just might describe a good portion of her life. Gwen rose from the well-appointed bed. She’d made sure of that for Missy. A new start, a new life ought to begin with well-appointed. She’d even bought new clothes for Missy, jeans and t-shirts, a couple of sweaters, some adorable flats, and a suede jacket. It felt beyond weird to see them hanging in the small closet and know that after another day in her own clothes, she would have to wash her one outfit while she was naked or wear the wardrobe intended for her daughter. Underwear even. Print, tiny ones.
She turned on the desk lamp, the halogen burning brightly. What would Missy be doing at… she checked the clock, a music docker, minus the player Missy had taken with her. Midnight. Missy would be closing down the restaurant if she had a late shift. Gwen remembered locking up a store or two, the Dairy Haven in high school and full-time retail selling housewares before Missy was born. Steve’s commissions were more than enough by then. And hadn’t the plan been to put their energy into his insurance career?