texted Waltraut to see if she could not show that part, but her response was evasive. I totally get it. I mean, what we gave the network was ratings gold, especially since so far Ben and I have done little more than fight when we’re on the air. It’s just that, with our relationship so new, I don’t want to come out to the whole country before we know if we have staying power.
Ben is coming over tonight, which gives me an entire day to visualize my apartment through his eyes. I’m more than a little nervous. It’s not that my overstuffed furniture and eclectic knickknacks aren’t perfect; they are. It’s just I imagine Ben’s apartment is sterile and totally lacking in imagination. Which leads me to believe he won’t appreciate my extensive assortment of Native American dream catchers or my decorative hookah collection. I even briefly consider taking down the beaded crystal curtain I use in lieu of a bathroom door.
My front door bursts open with a crash and Charley charges at me like I’m a bullfighter and she’s ready to do battle. “You’re home! Tell me everything!”
“What would you like to know? NASA was really cool, and I even got to go into a retired space shuttle.”
“Who cares? How did it go with you and Ben?”
While advanced beyond her years, my young friend is still only fifteen, so I’m not going to go into great detail. I answer, “He kissed me on national television. It’ll probably air on Monday.”
“What!?” She flops down on the couch next to me. “Did he kiss you kiss you or just kiss you?”
“What’s the difference?” I’m pretty sure I know the difference, but like I said, I’m not going to volunteer anything.
Charley kicks her feet up on my coffee table and scoffs. “Did he kiss your hand or your mouth?”
I point to my mouth and laugh when she jumps up and starts to dance around. “OMG, are you dating? Are you in love? What?”
“I think we’re dating,” I tell her. “Obviously, we aren’t in love, as we just started dating…”
She holds her hand up. “Stop. I’m a firm believer in love at first sight. Rom-Coms are my life. I will not have you disparage the voodoo of insta-love before I even go out on my first date.”
I can’t contain my laughter. “The voodoo of insta-love?”
She nods her head forcefully. “Having an IQ of one seventy-five doesn’t deter me from romantic notions. In fact, I would argue that I need more magic to balance out all the real data. As a Libra, I’m sure you get that.”
“Kid,” I tell her. “Believe in all the magic you want. I’m a total fan.”
“You’re never going to guess what I did yesterday,” Charley says.
“You went to Coney Island and overdosed on footlong hot dogs.”
“I wish. Try again,” she orders.
“You walked to Brooklyn all by yourself to check out the Bushwick Street art.”
She releases a long sound like a buzzer going off to indicate I’m wrong again. “I was interviewed by The Post!”
“What? Zay never told me. How did it go? When is it going to run? Tell me everything.”
Charley grabs a donut hole off the plate in front of me before saying, “It was great. Shelby’s mom is so cool. She’d already interviewed people from my school and they may have mentioned how amazing they all thought I was.”
Raising my eyebrows in question, I say, “Nice. What kind of things did they say?”
“She wouldn’t tell me that. She just said they really seemed to love me.” Charley releases an involuntary shiver of joy. “If it’s true, I might go back and take some classes even though I’ve already graduated. You know, I could do theater or pottery or maybe even learn another language.”
“What a terrific idea,” I tell her. “It might help you acclimate to Yale better to be as social as you can before you go.”
“I have a confession,” she says quietly.
“What’s that?”
“Sometimes I wish that I were a normal kid with a normal IQ so I could have had a normal educational experience. A lot of times I really hate being different.”
“I get it,” I tell her. “But being different is what makes you special. Would you rather peak in high school or peak when you’re an adult?”
“That’s an unfair question. Obviously, I want success for as long as I can have it which would mean waiting. But I also want to have normal high school experiences too. I want a first kiss, I want