It was a Thursday night and my mind was tired. I had spent the day teaching back-to-back lecture courses and I was looking forward to a quiet night of reading at the coffee house around the corner from my loft. I looked at the stack of books and articles I needed to get through for my research, but instead grabbed a novel I was two-thirds through. Research can wait until tomorrow.
It was my first year as a professor and I was new in town. With some inheritance money I had enough for a down payment on a loft in a gentrifying downtown neighborhood. The neighborhood had several upscale bars, decent restaurants and cozy coffee houses that didn't seem to mind if you parked there for an entire day or evening. It was a nice life. I taught classes on topics that I found interesting and was able to enjoy a decent nightlife.
The coffee house I went to roasted its own beans and was open late. The evening crowd was a combination of downtown hipsters, a few students semi-productively studying, and regulars who lived in the growing collection of apartments, condos and lofts that were sprouting up throughout the neighborhood.
I walked in and it was fairly empty. Dan was working behind the counter and he immediately poured me a cup of decaf before I could even reach the counter. I laughed. It was good to know I was recognized, even if it was by the barista that I see three to four times a week. I grabbed the coffee and headed to my favorite quiet corner that was thankfully free. I sat down and started to read.
Non-descript jazz was playing on the stereo, muting the conversations around me. One group, sitting on the other side of a planter, was having a heated debate about some office politics. I couldn't quite make out what it was about exactly, but the blonde woman still in business attire had obviously felt aggrieved. I tried to go back to my reading, but was easily distracted as customers came and went.
The CD changed and some strange Icelandic electronica music started to play. The door opened and Julia walked in. Julia was a student of mine. She was enrolled in my Tuesday afternoon senior seminar. We were only four weeks into the semester, but she had already made a strong impression on me. She was from a coal mining town in West Virginia and her experience watching her town struggle through continuous bouts of environmental destruction had pushed her to be an outspoken advocate against mountain top removal. She was tall and thin with a strong jaw and she often wore a beat up cowboy hat to class. She was the type of student that makes an impression. She was also smart. Her understanding of the readings far outpaced her fellow students and the written work that I had seen was well crafted and insightful.
Tonight she wore her cowboy hat with her dark hair pulled back into a short pony tail. The rest of her attire seemed haphazardly put togetherβsome yoga pants, a pair of worn running shoes, and a white v-neck t-shirt. You could see the pink outline of her bra underneath the material. She ordered a coffee, grabbed it and started to walk over toward my corner. Without noticing me she sat down in the chair adjacent to me and pulled out the reading for next week's class. It was then that she noticed me smiling at her. She gave a startled look and then broke into a big grin.
"Professor Speck!"
"I was wondering if you were going to notice me." I said.
"Oh my god," she said, "I was going to spend the night here reading for next week's class."
"Don't let me stop you."
Noticing my book she asked, "What are you reading?"
I held up the cover, "Trying to stay current on today's culture."
She smiled and there was a brief awkward silence. Then the conversation began to flow. We talked about reading in my class, possible topics for her paper, my research. Eventually the conversation started to get more personal. How I liked the university. Her experiences in West Virginia. Why she chose her major. Whether I was dating anyone. Where I lived. Neither of us got any reading done and eventually chairs were being put on tables and it was clear they were nudging us out the door. We packed up our things and walked out together.
"It was nice talking to you," I said within earshot of Dan, "I will see you in class on Tuesday?"
"Yes," she said. "It was great talking to you too. It is nice to see the person behind the professor."
We awkwardly shook hands and walked off in opposite directions.