my tuition if I want to go to grad school, which I surely plan on doing.”
I stare at him, slightly alarmed. “You’re leaving us?”
He cups my chin lightly. “Hey, we’ll still be together, and from what it sounds like, you may be getting your own gig as well.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you. But it just seems like everything’s moving so quickly. And I just feel sorta…” I struggle for the word, “scared?” I feel myself tense, slightly apprehensive about the future. “What if I get that job with Ajon and I turn out to be crap at it? I mean, compared to other seasoned tech writers, I’m probably not very good...maybe I should just stay where I am.”
“Maddy, please don’t get sucked into that black hole. Archie has worked in that call center for more than thirty years, back when Lightning Speed was just a phone company. Can you even imagine that? It may be something Arch enjoys, but I know you, Madison…you’re like a wildflower, a chrysalis trapped in the call center cocoon.”
A smile tugs at my lips. “What’s with all the flower and critter metaphors?”
“I’ve been reading Wordsworth,” he says with a crisp nod and I shoot him a look that says, ‘Get real.’
“I have,” he insists. “But not by choice; I had to read it for a class,” he finally admits. After a beat, he adds, “I even wrote a little poem about you.”
“You have? Read it to me!” I order.
He smiles at me sheepishly and squeezes my hand. “Okay, but promise me you won’t laugh.”
I lie, “I promise.”
He releases my hand and fumbles in his pocket. I watch him dredge out a crumpled piece of paper. “It’s a work in progress.”
“Go on...” I smile encouragingly.
After smoothing out the creases, he clears his throat. “It goes something like this…
When came the break of dawn,
Came to birth a delicate fawn,
She climbed up the hill so high,
But then heaved a sad, sad sigh,
For on the lake she saw swans,
And said to herself, ‘I am only a fawn,
Oh how I wish to be a swan.’
But she had grace and beauty so serene,
She had strength, agility and could run with the wind,
And the fawn soon grew into a majestic reindeer,
Sharp, witty and still so demure,
But she did not know, she would not believe,
That she could do anything her heart conceived.
Until one misty morning, she met a swashbuckling stag,
And together they journeyed to Lake Montague,
Said her stag, ‘Reindeer, reindeer, look in the lake and see…
You’re more beautiful and brilliant than a swan could ever be.’
He stops and looks up. “Um, that’s all I have for now.”
For a moment, I remain speechless. No one has ever written a poem for me before.
I tilt my head to the side. “You wrote that for me?”
He nods, slightly bashful.
“I love it!” I gush with gusto. “I’m a reindeer? Why?”
He smiles an endearing smile. “Reindeers are the only female deer with antlers,” he states matter-of-factly, spoken like a man who watches the Discovery Channel.
“You picture me with horns?” I make an exaggerated face.
“No! Not horns!” He laughs. “Antlers. Reindeers are gorgeous creatures,” he says, sounding bizarrely like the late Steve Irwin. “And I find their antlers so majestic, and so regal.”
I clear my throat. “In the poem, I…err…um, I assume that you’re my swashbuckling stag?”
“Art imitating life,” he admits with a lopsided grin.
Leaning forward, I peck him on the cheek. “Thanks. For the poem and for being my stag.”
Abruptly, he veers it back to work. “Maddy, if Ajon offers you the tech writing gig, take it. I know you’ll be good at it.”
I bite my inner lip and remain silent.
He laces his fingers with mine. “When the timing is right, and when you feel comfortable with the idea, how do you feel about us moving in together?”
I’m slightly taken aback. Mika is laying all his cards on the table. And he sounds so serious about committing. To me!
“You mean you’d want to move out of the dorms?” I tease.
“Well, you can’t live in the dorms when you are no longer a student,” he deadpans.
“Mika!” I shriek ecstatically. “When are you graduating?”
He smiles broadly. “In a month.”
My head is spinning with all this news.
“You’re graduating, you’re getting a new job and you want to move in with me?”
It’s a lot to take in.
Seeing my open-mouthed expression, he treads lightly. “Let’s just take it one day at a time, okay? You and me...”
I nod and toy with the crumbs on my plate.
“I’m getting another latte. Do