Chapter 2: In Which they Both Express Distaste for Coffee

Lisa began exchanging text messages with Julie soon after the reunion. She started using her little breaks at work to send fun and sometimes silly texts. Julie had a

summer job as a clerk in a bookstore near the campus. Whenever there were no customers in the store for a few minutes, she would check her phone, smile at Lisa’s latest and send a quick reply. Lisa tried to keep it light, not wanting to come on too strong and scare Julie away. Julie had a lot of time, as she shelved books and waited on customers, to think of clever responses to Lisa’s texts. After about a week of these exchanges, Lisa decided it was time to contrive an excuse to be near campus on an afternoon and she invited Julie to meet her for coffee. Julie was quick to accept, and they agreed to meet at the bookstore as Julie finished her shift and then walk to a coffee shop on the same block. Lisa arrived at the bookstore to find Julie in one of the comfy chairs intently studying an art book. Julie looked up and smiled.

“Good book? What’s it about?”

“German Romantic painters. I love their work.”

“There are romantic Germans? I always thought they were all such no-nonsense, practical people. At least that’s the stereotype.”

“No, silly!” Julie laughed. “Romanticism was an artistic movement in the 18th and 19th centuries that emphasized emotion and individualism. It went up against classical ideas that everything had to be orderly and harmonious. Did you ever see a Greek sculpture with a frowny face? Or even a happy face? The classical artists would tell you that showing emotion like that detracted from the beauty, but the Romantic artists thought that those emotions were where the real beauty was. They loved the beauty of wild things and places, as well as wild people.”

Julie held the book up so that Lisa could see some of the plates in the book.

Lisa tried to suppress a chuckle.

“I’m sorry, Julie. I just had an image of a Greek statue making a really silly face.” Lisa then contorted her face into a comical expression, with crossed eyes, puckered lips, and sucked-in cheeks.

Julie started laughing out loud and then struggled to stifle her laughter as she realized that the bookstore’s patrons were noticing them. Julie then tried to make a similar face and Lisa started laughing so hard that they both realized they had to get out of the bookstore.

Julie put the book back on the shelf and they left the bookstore to walk to the coffee shop down the block.

As they went through the door leaving the bookstore, Lisa felt a sudden impulse to put an arm around Julie’s shoulders and hold her close, but she resisted it. Something about the way Julie laughed and made faces like a crazy woman had taken away the last doubt she had that she was falling for her. She just didn’t think it was time to make a move like that yet.