The Professor Ch. 07

"Oh baby you didn't miss anything I had this terrible turmoil going on in my stomach like your parents might tell me to go to hell or some such thing...I...I...oh Steven," she wept and I got out and went around to her side of the car and leaned in to hug her. Bucket seats and consoles didn't make for easy hugging.

"Lissia, sweet baby I wouldn't have let anything happen to you even if it is my parents. I had to trust what my Dad asked me to do...you know?" I asked her as she sobbed and nodded her head. She was trying to talk in little gasps, inhaling and talking with crocodile tear running down her cheeks. I pulled the linen handkerchief from my blazer pocket and started dabbing her tears, "Here baby let me hold you."

She stepped out of the car and threw her arms around me, "Oh God thank you for my Steven." She held onto me very tightly. We drew more than a few stares from drivers pulling in to get gas. One car of rowdies yelled, "Get a room asshole!"

"Let's get out of here baby. These guys are not behaving properly," I told her as I guided her to her seat with my hand on the small of her back. I left the area abruptly watching the speedometer needle climb to 75 and backed off a few notches. This was neither the time nor the place to get stopped by the police. As we drove along on the gulf Freeway I could feel her eyes on me so I quickly glanced at her -- she was smiling so sweetly, "What is it?"

"I can't believe how calm and confident you are. I didn't know families got along like that. Our home is loud and boisterous with six kids. By the way where were you brothers?" she wanted to know.

"The oldest is Harold and he'd got a fulltime girlfriend who's causing his grades to fall so he's probably with her; my younger brother is George who also has a girlfriend who probably has him cornered on her parents' sofa and his grades are lousy from being lazy. You don't want to meet them yet they're pretty ruthless with their remarks and behaviors," I grimly told her. "We'll get them another time."

We talked and drove until we got off the Freeway at the university exit and then pulled into Pino's parking lot. We got more than a few stares as we walked up the steps hand-in-hand. Pino met us at the door and welcomed us like long overdue family, "Buona Sera il mio cuore (good evening my loves). Come, come sit over here so you can look over the university and talk quietly. He held Lissia's chair and a waiter brought water and a red rose for Lissia. She held up the rose and thanked Pino. He took her hand and kissed it, "Prego (thank you)!"

As we sat and talked we drew some stares and hard looks but we ignored them, "Lissia this has been a long day hasn't it?"

"Yes it has Steven. I'm on cloud nine. I don't know what to say right now," as she wove her fingers with mine and I lifted her left hand with both of mine holding it and kissing it while watching her face. "This is not what I expected yesterday standing at the office door trying to teach you something...I feel so foolish," she admitted.

"You need to let go of that feeling Lissia. You acted toward me the way you have protected yourself from the also-rans at school. We've long since left that area to the whiners and weenies," I told her.

Then she blurted out, "I go to church on Sundays. Would you like to join me?"

"Sure," I told her, "but you'd better warn your pastor." I smiled to her. She rolled her eyes as we finished our meal with spumoni and espresso. It was a very unusual day indeed.