he passed by me, I noticed he was carrying a sunflower in his hand. He placed it on the desk in front of me then leaned over and whispered into my ear, “A sunflower for my Sunshine.” Then he gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I could hear a collective gasp from the back of the room. Aaron gave me a big grin then took his seat behind me.
Dr. Griffin looked right at me and said, “Rainy, would you please see me after class in my office.”
I gulped. “Yes, Professor.”
She nodded then began her lecture.
When class let out, the two pretty girls from the back of the room made a point of walking past me.
They were both whispering to each other then one of them said loudly, “Can you believe Aaron gave that girl a flower?”
“She must have a golden snatch,” the other girl taunted and they both laughed as they exited.
Aaron got close to me and whispered in my ear, “You’re beautiful and they know it. They’re just jealous.” Funny, I always thought of them as being so much better looking than me. But their nasty attitudes made them ugly. Aaron continued, “I’ll see you later, Sunshine.”
I watched as my beautiful man walked out the door. My beautiful man? Really? It didn’t seem real. It was both exciting and scary.
Then I went to face Dr. Griffin. I had no idea why she wanted to see me and I was scared to death to find out.
I took a deep breath as I entered her small office. The entire room was cramped from floor to ceiling with art books. The bookshelves, which were probably long overcrowded, had spilled out everywhere. It was like a little piece of heaven on earth.
“You wanted to see me,” I managed to squeak out.
Dr. Griffin looked up from her laptop. “Have a seat, Rainy.”
I sat on the one chair she had in her office. I guessed she could never see two students at once, or one would have to stand.
I waited for her to continue. “You’re probably wondering why I called you in here today.”
I nodded.
“I’ve been teaching at this university for nearly thirty years and you are only the second person to ever earn a perfect score on the midterm examination.”
I smiled.
She continued. “The first person to earn a perfect score on my exam is now an art professor at Princeton.”
She hadn’t asked me a question yet so I waited for her to continue. I knew I was beaming, though.
“If you continue to do as well on the final examination and your final project for the class, I would like to offer you a research internship next semester. I’m working on a book on female impressionists and I think it would be good experience for you to assist with the project.”
“Our final project is on Mary Cassatt,” I blurted. My enthusiasm was no longer in check.
Dr. Griffin smiled. “Just keep up the good work in my class. I really would like to have you assist me.”
“It would be an honor.”
“Good,” she nodded. She seemed to have more on her mind, so I didn’t make a move to leave.
“Now that that’s settled, there’s something else I would like to talk to you about. I hope you don’t think I’m being to forward but Aaron has displayed quite a bit of affection for you in class, so I don’t think your relationship is a secret.”
I gulped. I didn’t have any idea where the conversation was headed and that made me nervous.
“You seem to be a little less enthusiastic and more apprehensive about the relationship than Aaron is,” she said.
I nodded. Could she really see all that? My dad always told me I wore my heart on my sleeve. And I
always thought that was such a corny expression. But I guess there was some truth to it.
“I don’t normally involve myself in the love lives of my students but, as you’re already aware, Aaron has been a friend of the family for years. My husband and I don’t have children so we were like a second set of parents to the Donovan boys. So as you can imagine, I don’t want to see Aaron get hurt.”
I could feel my eyes grow wide. Did she just say Aaron get hurt? I think she had the equation all wrong. I was the one, who was worried about getting hurt.
Dr. Griffin looked at me with a very serious expression. “I can tell you’re a very strong young woman, Rainy. No matter