Once Upon a Time Warp

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An old-fashioned lass magically lands the man of her dreams.
15k words
4.26
14.4k
13

Part 1 of the 2 part series

Updated 12/13/2021
Created 03/03/2014
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Smokey125
Smokey125
617 Followers

SMOKEY SAGA #16: "Once Upon A Time Warp" (holiday tribute #4)

***

February 11th, 3:49 p.m.

It was an especially chilly Tuesday at 26°F. The sky precipitated lightly, just enough so that the city was tucked under a thin blanket of white, but just not enough to close offices or schools. An extra wave of sound was added to the atmosphere by the otherwise silent cars zooming down the wet, slushy highways. The ombrophobes, who greatly preferred snow, were happy to leave their umbrellas behind and put on their heavy coats and boots along with everyone else. It was a relatively light snow-drizzle, though the snowfall was slightly more aggressive on the north side of town than the south.

The city was essentially draped in one gigantic heart at this time of year. The greeting card publishers and candy manufacturers were active around the clock. That little extra dash of love had been fanned into the air, descending on the city population and gently soothing it into a more than usually romantic mood.

At the Denmore Academy, one of the more prestigious schools in the Midwestern metropolis, the hints of romance were as strong as anywhere else. The buildings, hallways, lecture rooms, labs and auditoriums were more than a bit sporadically lined with hearts in the form of illustrations, paintings, cutouts, paper chains and the like. Most of the school's body of students, which majored—no pun intended—in age on the late teens and 20s—but ranged up to the 50s or even beyond—were looking at least to a moderate degree forward to Friday, many already setting up dates with their significant others and better halves.

Some of them were not so jazzed, that mainly was, those who hadn't to this point in their lives become fortunate enough to have discovered someone with whom to share a significant chunk of their lives. Some of them weren't affected very much at all one way or the other, those who considered the Day just another twenty-four hours in the month of February which were inflated into a big deal by the aforementioned advertisers and greeting card companies.

One single young lady in particular was a bit excited, though she had neither plans nor a man to take her out for dinner or a movie. Her name was Nina, Nina Sidler, and she could pretty well be described as a classic "girl next door," in both looks and personality. She was 20, 5'5", light brunette, eyes a color halfway between sapphire-blue and emerald-green, average size, average weight, average measurements. Nothing too out of proportion. She was a nice person, good-hearted, a few of what some would call personality flaws, but nothing severe. She was a pretty garden-variety, run-of-the-mill unattached college girl.

Her friend Steph Reed, however, with whom she had a few classes together and met up before and after other classes, was not considered quite as average. Steph was very pretty. Blue-eyed blondie, pleasing measurements, long legs she liked to show off whenever she could—and she was a nice girl too. Comely and sweet. Young (and older) men were drawn to her almost magnetically. Nina was a little jealous of her, but not very. For the most, Nina wasn't actually attracted to guys her own age. This was a quirk of hers that stood out: she was particularly nitpicky with choosing a potential mate.

There was a number of reasons. 20-year-old men, she found, were of course all different, but while some were immature, some had seemed to mentally mature a little too much. Some were less than cute, others were so handsome Nina considered them out of her proverbial league. A lot of them were really nice guys, some were the notoriously known "bad boys" with whom she was familiar, but didn't really grasp the attraction. She'd occasionally see a girl practically faint and fall all over herself chasing a "bad boy," and when she got him, inevitably sooner or later he'd demonstrate his "bad"ness, and it was over. Nina didn't get it. What was the point?

And she was equally confused about why a lot of the guys conversely seemed to chase the "bad" girls. It wasn't hard to see why they pursued the "looser" girls, but why, Nina wondered, would anyone want to be with someone who treated them badly? She was a nice girl, she thought. Did that mean she was supposed to go after a "bad" guy? It didn't make sense. She didn't want a mean person. Call her crazy, but she wanted to be in the company of someone who was good to her, and to whom she could be good back. What a novel approach to courting, she thought.

But the biggest reason she didn't date guys her own age was that she was drawn to older men. She couldn't explain why, but they turned her on wildly. Maybe it was all the combined life knowledge they'd accumulated, maybe it was the way age could be read in their appearance, the wrinkles and laugh lines in their faces, their strong, pilose hands, maybe it was that they were more collectively grown-up and behaved like gentlemen. Or maybe it was because she found a little greyness around a man's temples incredibly sexy.

And her attraction to them went yet deeper than this. Older men seemed to know how to...well, as just described before, behave like gentlemen, and regard the women in their lives as ladies. She didn't see a lot of dudes her age pulling out a girl's seat for her to sit, or standing up with her when she got up to powder her nose...but then again, she also didn't see a lot of chicks her age curtsying or watching their language or asking a guy politely for something she wanted. She thought it only fair that if a girl expected a guy to be a gentleman and treat her like a lady, she should behave like one, and vice versa. She eventually arrived at the unfortunate conclusion that such displays on either part would appear bizarre to her peers here in the 21st century.

Nina might not've been fortunate enough to have been born and brought up in an age where manners and class were more prevalent, but she did her best to be ladylike when in public. She looked after her hygiene, she tried never to curse in front of people if she could help it, and she wore a lot of dresses—though that was more because she liked them and thought they were pretty. She may not have had legs quite as "amazing" as Steph's, but hers were shown off a good bit too. In the winter they just added pantyhose to their wardrobes, which may have been kind of aggravating, but enabled them both to wear their dresses and not freeze to death.

Nina liked to have her presence acknowledged if some sort of inappropriate or misogynistic behavior was being exhibited, and someone discouraged it, explaining, "There's a lady present." She appreciated it, but she didn't really like that it only went the one way. She had a group of friends to whom she and Steph belonged, with both men and women around, and now and then one of the girls might slip over Nina's line of comfort with a misandric remark or dirty joke, at which point she felt obligated to pipe up, "Uh, hey, watch it; there're gentlemen present." But then she would have to explain to them that no, she wasn't kidding.

Steph was her best friend of the lot, so she knew Nina pretty well, knew her characteristics and interests and pet peeves like these. They'd known each other for close to eight years. So Steph respected Nina's feelings about these subjects when they were hanging out together, even though they weren't affected so much by the same things. Steph was more concerned with checking out guys, still living with her parents, working someplace other than Burger King one day and doing well enough academically to get her degree and maybe getting to work at, say, Burger King's corporate office instead. Nina didn't have a job right now, but she actually really liked still living with her parents, for several reasons, and her folks still loved having her around. And this was the area in which Steph was jealous of her: Nina's parents had money. They didn't just have money; they had money.

Nina didn't know if or when she might be needing, wanting or getting a job, but for now, they were still working their way through school. Nina didn't have that much trouble doing well in school, in most subjects. Steph didn't have all the trouble in the world either, but she did have to work a little harder than Nina to be successful academically. Luckily, they had the benefit of each other's help when roadblocks were encountered.

They were both a little indecisive on their majors. Nina had started out as a music major, but was now leaning more towards art. Steph had started as a drama major, but was now leaning more towards she didn't know what. Her interest in acting had started to dwindle, and she wasn't sure yet what she wanted to do, but in the meantime, there was one course shared in their respective curriculums, which was Fine Arts.

Today was the day of the week they both had the class together. Steph also had it on Mondays and Nina also Wednesdays. The class was, on the surface, directly up Nina's alley, as her interest in art had been developing more and more all the time since she hit her 20s. Yet, ironically, this turned into a class in which Steph wound up needing to help Nina out quite a bit. The reason was, the course was taught by a man named Gerald Watkins. He had been in the teaching game for a good long time now, he was 50 years old...and Nina was irrepressibly in love with him.

On the first Tuesday of this semester, when Nina met him for the first time, her mind worked up a little crush on him. It had only been a month ago, but Nina was a born romantic; this was how fast her heart worked once it took the wheel. Today, February 11th, would be the eleventh time she sat in his classroom. Around class seven or eight, Nina decided she was intensely enamored of this man, Gerry, as she affectionately referred to him. He was in remarkable shape for 50: good build, lanky frame, broad shoulders. He had that touch of grey around the temples that Nina found so captivating, and a deep, rich voice that turned her knees into Jell-O.

On January 28th, it had seemed to Steph that Nina was acting a little strange, but by February 4th she knew something weird was up. Suddenly, it seemed to her, Nina was no longer taking notes or paying attention to what Professor Watkins was saying. Steph looked over at Nina in the seat beside her, and the notebook was open, but nothing was written in it. Nina had her elbows propped on the desk, an idle pen between her fingers, and her chin in her hands, gazing dreamily at the professor.

Steph waved a hand in front of her. She did nothing. She just sat with that lovesick expression written all over her face. This was more than an adolescent crush. Nina had learned quite a bit in her teens, and she knew what she liked—and now, what she wanted. Gerald wasn't at all aware she was feeling this way—if he noticed her specifically in the midst of the thirty of so other students in the room, chin on her hands, a silly smile of adoration on her face, eyes glossed in hopeless devotion, he would have guessed she merely needed more sleep. Fortunately for her, Gerald didn't usually call on anyone to answer a question who didn't have a hand up, so she needn't worry about being called on and caught in a bubble of romantic adulation.

During the previous week, Steph came over to Nina's house on Wednesday evening, the 5th, with the plan of doing some studying and then watching a movie or something. But as it turned out, they didn't get any actual studying done. Nina was normally capable of thinking about things other than Professor Watkins, but when the topic of their Fine Arts course arose, so did her rush of love for the teacher. Their entire study session that night consisted of the following conversation:

"All right, so, on Monday we talked about how the different arts can influence both historical and pop culture, and yesterday we expanded on it and talked about how we can relate to it with stuff in our own lives."

*sigh* "Oh, yesterday...yeah...didn't Gerry look awesome in that suit and tie he had on yesterday?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a prince. Now come on, huh? What can we use to relate to what this is talking about?"

"Y'know, today he had on his blue tie instead of his red one."

"That's swell. Now can we get on with it here?"

*lovestruck sigh* "Oh...I love you, Gerry."

*exasperated sigh* "Oh, geez...Nina, you wanna pass this or not? Look, I'm trying to help you, but you gotta help me back."

"I am."

"I bet you didn't even take any notes today either."

"Well...sure I did."

"Yeah, right. Let me see your notebook."

"But—"

"'Mrs. Nina Watkins'?? Oh, for God's sake, Sidler! What are you, twelve?!"

"I can't help it, Steph! He's just...so gorgeous...and so smart...and so amazing..."

"Yeah, he's also so married and so 50. Forget about him, Nina! Snap out of it! You're a grown woman, for crying out loud!"

"I don't care...I cannot stop thinking about him."

"LISTEN to me, Nina Elizabeth Sidler. Again...the man...is thirty years older than you. And, he's got...a wife. There is no chance...whatsoever...that you will ever have this guy...as anything more...than a professor, Nina. Did you get any of that at all?"

*lovestruck sigh* "Oh...tell it to my heart."

*exasperated sigh* "All right, fine, Taylor. I'll just study by myself."

"Who's Taylor?"

Today on the 11th, as the class was coming up at 4:00—the last course of the day for both girls—Steph was trying to prep Nina before they got into the classroom. "Now you'd better take a look at my notes here," she said, trying to drill some information into Nina's head before Gerald came into the room and Nina undoubtedly let her heart flutter away once more. She had finally just about gotten Nina to focus on the course material and start committing a few things to memory before the professor strolled on in.

"Oh, God, he's wearing his light lavender-colored shirt today," Nina again gushed for what felt to Steph like the millionth time. "He is so adorable..."

"Oh, would you knock it off with the goo-goo eyes already?" Steph pleaded. "He's half a century old. You...are a fifth of a century old. There's a pretty significant difference! Oh, and I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but, uh, he's also married!!"

The words fell on hearing-impaired ears. The hour the class lasted progressed more or less like normal, and Nina settled in for another good long drink of the tall glass of water standing at the blackboard.

Unbeknownst to Steph, contrary to her belief, Nina actually was paying attention to what Prof. Watkins was saying. True, she did so with love-glazed eyes, a big, infatuated grin on her face and an inactive pen...and the less interesting lecture segments were a little quicker to go in one ear and approach the other, but overall, she was in the loop. Yes, my darling...go on, Nina urged him in her mind, Talk to me about the beauty and the nuance, about the culture and the imitation of life. Talk to me forEVER. She could listen to him and watch him teach this class all day and night. Heck, she could listen to him talk about almost anything all day and night.

When it was time to leave and head home, and everyone was getting their belongings together, Steph turned to Nina and asked, "So you wanna do anything tonight? You wanna go shopping?"

"Uh...m-maybe tomorrow," Nina stammered, half gathering her things and half watching Gerald erase the day's material from the blackboard. "But y'know what, here..." She opened her purse, took Steph's hand and subtly stuffed a bill of a particularly generous denomination into her palm. "There. You go ahead; have a good time."

"NI-na," Steph objected, not wanting to take money from Nina no matter how rich she was or how jealous Steph was of her.

"Insisted," Nina replied. "Go ahead, really, buy yourself something nice for me. You're a good friend; you deserve it."

Steph could see that Nina was absolutely heels over head in love, and she was going to spoil her because she was so happy. There wasn't any point in arguing. "Well...a'right," Steph departed. "Sweet dreams."

Nina waited until everyone else had gone. Everything now put away in her backpack and purse, she slipped the former over both her shoulders and the latter over her right, and walked up to where Professor Watkins was sitting, going through a few papers before he too left for the day. Eventually, he looked up and saw her. "Oh, hello," he said, "Something you wanted, Miss Sidler?"

Yes. YOU. Nina could feel her heart pounding. She quickly threw together the words she wanted in her mind. She began with a smile. "Oh, call me Nina, please." ...Gerry, my love, she parenthetically added. "Well, eh..." She idly played with her backpack straps. "There was something I wanted to ask you, and, uh..."

"Hmm, can it wait till tomorrow?" he asked. "I have a couple of things to take care of at home, so I'd better be running." He stood up with his own portables.

"Oh, well, I c—...maybe I could, um...w-walk you to your car...if you'd like?" she offered.

"Well, I suppose that would be okay," he said, putting a smile on Nina's face.

They left together and he locked the door. When they reached the building entrance, he held the door open for her, to which she responded with a, "Thank you, kind sir," and he led her to his lot spot.

Nina knew there was only a limited amount of time before she had to bid him adieu for the day, and she wanted to say something to him, but she didn't have anything prepared. She didn't want to look at his hand. She knew what was on there, and she didn't need or want to remind herself he was married. She knew she couldn't ask him to go out with her, but she didn't want this short trip to his car to be completely devoid of any verbal exchange. Come on, SAY something! she ordered herself.

"So what did you want to ask me?" he asked her first.

Oh, shoot, she thought. The truth was, wanting to ask him something was more of a bluff, more just a reason to spend a quick moment with him. What did she want to ask him? She wanted to ask him, "Will you run away with me and sweep me off my feet and into your arms and let me stay there forever and love me for the rest of my life and never ever let me go?" But that wasn't exactly an option. Anyway, several seconds were elapsing, and they were nearing his vehicle. She knew she had to do something.

"Um..." she briefly stalled, then came up with an appropriate question. "Oh yeah," she said, making believe she'd just forgotten her query momentarily, "Did...you say that's a take-home exam you gave us?"

"That's right," he replied, fishing out his keys and unlocking the car doors with its remote. "'S take-home, open-book. Mostly essay. 'S due next Tuesday," he finished as he opened the door, tossed his briefcase into the passenger seat and climbed in.

"Thank you, Gerry!" Nina said before her mind could filter it. "UH—Professor Watkins, I meant," she quickly corrected herself. She thought it best to keep it formal, even though Gerald personally didn't care one way or the other. As far as he was concerned, college students were fellow adults and no fancy titles were necessary. She gave him a big smile and a friendly wave as he started up the car and shut the door, and in the next moment, her mind fluttered again and she blew him a kiss.

Glancing in her direction, he briefly double-took when he thought he saw the blow-kiss. Again, she put her emotions back in check and returned to her simple smile and wave. He was off.

Smokey125
Smokey125
617 Followers