Page 70 of Single Malt
“Did your class let out early?” I asked before taking a bite of an onion ring.
She looked confused for a moment. “What? Oh, right, I was here first.” She made a dismissive gesture. “Class was canceled. Dr. Worth ended up with food poisoning after his husband tried a new sushi recipe last night. He spent the night vomiting–”
I made a face. “Trying to eat here.”
She laughed. “Sorry.”
I finished my onion ring and washed it down with my soda, gesturing for her to keep talking. She wouldn’t be rude if she thought I really wanted to talk about why she’d arrived early, but I’d just wanted to make certain that she hadn’t forgotten about her class today, and that question had seemed like the politest way to get the answer. She had a bad habit of getting so engrossed in something that she missed simple things, like the passage of time.
“So, yes, class was canceled, and I was able to get here before you.” Aline took another bite of her sandwich, chewing hard. “I was able to utilize that extra time today to confirm a few details. I didn’t want to tell you until I’d made it official, but now I have.”
I racked my brains, trying to think of what she could possibly have been planning that I wouldn’t have noticed. Had she asked me about anything over the last couple weeks?
“I’m going to Iran!”
My jaw dropped, and my brain froze. I struggled to find the words to form all the questions running through my mind. Any of them, really. Fortunately, Aline didn’t seem to notice and kept talking.
“Professor Clark gave this great lecture two weeks ago about her experiences teaching English as a second language in foreign countries. She went with this amazing group called Neutral Ground. They put together people from all sorts of different fields, not just education. Doctors and nurses for first-aid work. Construction workers and engineers for building schools and hospitals and digging wells.”
The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t recall any specifics, not when I was still staring at Aline and trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about.
“So, I spoke to Professor Clark and made a few calls, and it turns out that they were just putting together their team for a trip to Iran in October. One of the things they were looking for was someone with an elementary education focus to work with teaching children to speak English.”
She was serious, I realized. She actually thought she was going to go teach Iranian children this fall.
“With the extra time I had today, I finished filling out the paperwork and submitted it. All I need now is for it to be approved. Once that happens, I can get started on everything else.”
“You want to go to Iran to teach English.” I finally managed a sentence.
Aline nodded, her face practically glowing. “I’ve been thinking about where and when I wanted to start looking for a place to teach, and then I heard Dr. Clark’s lecture and realized that I have a unique opportunity to do some good. I can afford to put off finding a teaching position and take the trip in October while a lot of other people wouldn’t be able to do that.”
Dammit. I knew that look. It was the same look she’d had when she was ten and insisted on our parents letting her carry her science fair project on her own even after they’d explained that it was too heavy for her.
She’d stuck to her guns and tried to pick it up from the table by herself. She’d made it two steps before she’d lost her grip on it. If our parents hadn’t been right there, we would’ve had a huge mess on our hands. That hadn’t been the only incident where she’d dug in her heels and refused to budge. Sometimes, they’d ended well. Most of the time, they’d been a wash. A few had…notgone well.
Aline wasn’t going to give up on this idea. The best I could hope for was that her application would be rejected, and I’d be able to shift her focus to preparing her resumé and going through her top school choices rather than looking for another organization. My intuition, however, told me that I wouldn’t be that lucky. Which meant I needed a plan because, if Aline thought I’d let her go to Iran by herself, she was mistaken.
That was when it hit me. My only real option was to go with her.
Fuck.
“Does Neutral Ground hire interpreters?” I picked up another onion ring, even though I was no longer hungry. “If I went with you, we could work together on your lesson plans since I speak the language.”
Her expression brightened even more. “That’s a wonderful idea!” She picked up her phone. “I’ll send you the link.”
Maybe this would actually be for the best, I thought. It’d look good on my resumé, give me some practical language experience, and I’d be able to keep an eye on Aline. It wasn’t as if I’d had any specific employment opportunities I was working on at the moment. I could just shuffle my plans to adapt to this new after-graduation schedule.
I could handle that.
Forty-Six
Brody
I’d been awayfrom the office for five days, the longest I’d ever been gone without actually leaving San Ramon. Having Adela here to handle everything had been such a relief, and I planned on getting her a token of that appreciation as soon as I figured out what would be big enough.
I didn’t know how I would’ve been able to get through these past few days if I’d had to worry about Shannon’s too. The flowers I’d brought for Adela this morning would be a nice start. Well, not really flowers. It was a cactus, but not because I’d grabbed the first potted plant I’d found. She liked cactuses.
The moment she saw me, she came around her desk and gave me a hug, nearly poking herself with the cactus I was carrying. It was times like this I had to acknowledge how rare our relationship was that, in this moment, neither of us had to even think about whether or not the other person could read something into the embrace. We were simply two people giving and receiving comfort. I needed simple right now.