handful of things that happened to me during my tenure at Vandy,” he began, after a sip of his port. “It doesn’t mean that I’m right in my analysis, but what I’m about to tell you may have some merit nonetheless. There were a few young female students in my classes over the years who developed crushes on me.” He turned and gave his wife a knowing smile and wink. “And I never kept any of that from Susan. I was determined to nip these things in the bud.”
“I’m sure his nipping was effective, too,” she put in. “A wife can usually tell if her husband is fooling around.”
“Anyway, none of those young ladies ever got anywhere with me, but I got pretty good at picking up on the signals. Sometimes, they’d come up to me after class and tell me what a deep speaking voice I had and ‘why didn’t I go into broadcasting’ and yada, yada, yada. Or other times it was how much they liked the clothes I was wearing—mostly the sweaters and ties that they didn’t know Susan had picked out for me. I always thanked them for their compliments but otherwise played dumb, of course.”
Maura Beth was frowning now, trying to follow the implications of his story. “What made you bring up the crush angle?”
He finished off his port and said, “Because that’s my field of study. Psychology is all about predictable human behavior, and I listened carefully to all the emphasis you put on the comments your councilman kept making about your beautiful red hair. The way he carried on about it, and especially that line about your innocence that you said made you feel uncomfortable. It sounds a lot like my experience in reverse, but at a much higher level of expectation. I think it all probably means the man wants you around at all costs, despite this business about closing the library. It’s a roundabout way of setting things up in typical male fashion.”
The three other women sitting around the table, all of whom happened to be married, exchanged glances, and it was Becca who finally spoke up for them. “I have to agree with Paul. Regardless of what happens with the library, I think it would be a huge mistake for you to go directly to work for Councilman Sparks. You don’t know what kind of pressure he could end up putting on you for—you know what.”
Maura Beth bit her lip as she shook her head. “I can be such a naïve girlie-girl at times. The thought had crossed my mind that he might be hitting on me, but I didn’t want to believe it.”
“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Connie said. “You did the right thing. You turned him down and told him you were going for the gold. You have nothing to be ashamed of. The big question now is how to get that gold.”
“Right!” Maura Beth exclaimed. “So now it’s idea time. First step is to reschedule the To Kill a Mockingbird meeting and get into an honest, meaty discussion of Harper Lee’s work. No more indulging the war between the sexes. At least Councilman Sparks has promised me he won’t be doing that sort of thing anymore—that is, if I can take him at his word. But how do we get more people interested in participating?”
Becca waved her hand in front of her face a few times. “The Becca Broccoli Show could go with the downsizing recipes full-time, for starters. And I could keep on pitching To Kill a Mockingbird as our upcoming food for thought in the club. Stout Fella could talk about getting his body in shape with my new recipes, and his brain in shape by reading and thinking about Harper Lee’s work. I could invite my audience to come to the book club meeting to have a little bite and discuss literature with Becca Broccoli, Stout Fella, and everyone else. Just how far out were you considering scheduling this thing, Maura Beth?”
“A month? Maybe five weeks at the most? We can’t wait too long, though, or we’ll run up against the budget approval.”
Becca nodded enthusiastically. “That should be enough time to get Stout Fella in some sort of reasonable shape—oh, and to get him to read the novel.”
Then an inspired Connie stepped in. “I was thinking that Douglas and I could talk things up to all our new neighbors out at the lake. We’re just now getting to know some of them.