“Please don’t cover up your smile,” he says, smiling back at her for a positive reaction. She drops her hand now trying to hold back a huge smile in reaction.
“You have to try the grits. You wouldn’t think it, but we are back there cooking so they are pretty good.”
“I’ve never had grits, but I’ll try it out since you told me and let you know.” He grabs the paper from her desk. “I’ll see ya around” as he exits the classroom. She sits there for a second, much happier with that interaction than the previous but now wonders how a black man has never had grits before. “What planet is he from?” she thinks. She packs up her things and heads off to a class of her own following her T.A. period.
That weekend Niecey makes her way back home to get a night's sleep in her own bed, which is much better than the dorm room bed she has on campus for the summer. She has to work one afternoon in the bookstore but the bus ride to and from campus is worth it to get that good night of sleep. Plus, she wants to see her sister at her new home and talk more about the mystery guy. She promised her mother she would be home for church and Sunday dinner as much as possible, which means every Sunday to her parents. Outside of those events it is an uneventful weekend, but she gets a chance to update her sister who now seems to be completely sold that he is interested in Niecey. Of course, Niecey doesn’t want to jump the gun and get excited about this guy. She is focused on her goals and aspirations for school and knows she doesn’t have time for distractions with such a busy summer schedule after adding a double major to her pre-med curriculum. On the other hand, she is about to be 18 very soon and has never had a real boyfriend. The thought alone that there is someone who likes her in that way is extremely intriguing to her. Even if it is just her sister’s intuition telling her there may be something there.
To start the next week Niecey is in the cafeteria bright and early working again. Only this time she isn’t on the register like she was last week. She has been moved to working the line running food from the kitchen or scooping food at certain stations. For some reason this job feels a bit more embarrassing to her than collecting money at the register. As mature as she may be when it comes to her academics and striving for her goals, she is still just a 17-year-old girl with a crush on an attractive guy. She tries everything she can to avoid being the one serving the grits that morning. Constantly looking for things she can volunteer to do that are in the back or out of sight of all the seats in the cafeteria. She keeps her head on a swivel trying to make sure she will see him enter the cafeteria before he can possibly see her carrying food to one of the stations or even worse scooping out food for the people getting a plate to eat. After about halfway through her morning shift, she begins to think he isn’t going to show up. It doesn’t make any sense but that is even more disappointing than her having to serve him food. She takes a bathroom break and is overthinking the situation, feeling crazy to be sad he didn’t show up at a time when she hopes he doesn’t see her. She thinks to herself, “this is why I don’t worry about boys. They make you nuts.” She goes back behind the line, gets some new gloves and makes sure her hair net is right. One of her coworkers gets her attention to tell her some food they are about to run out of and as she turns around, she sees him walking towards her only a few feet away at this point.
He smiles as he approaches the counter. “So, the grits were different, but I liked it. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to get the sausage or the bacon with it, so I tried both. It tasted like there was a little bit of cheese in it, too.”
“Where are you from that you’ve never had grits before?”
“New York.”
With that she realizes why he isn’t anything like the guys she is used to in Washington D.C. New York is like a different planet. He is the first person she has ever met in person from there. He asks her if she is from D.C., and she confirms. “So do you have any suggestions for what to get at lunch?” Just wanting to entertain the conversation she plays along and tells him about her favorite items from the cafeteria and then mentions another location where students go on campus to buy food that may be good, too. She is shocked when he responds, “So you do go to school here? So, you’re an upperclassman then.” His body language becomes less confident at the thought that she is an upperclassman. He is intimidated by the thought that she is an older woman, and she can feel the change in his energy. She is surprised at the reaction.
“You didn’t realize I went here too? So, what did you think?” she asks.
“Well, I’ve only seen you working either in here or in the classroom. So, I really didn’t know.”
She was confused by his lack of understanding. “I’m doing work study over the summer, so I have to work in between my classes in the summer session.”
He seems a bit bewildered, as if he’s taking in new information he’s never heard. “So, when do you get a chance to sit down and eat?”
“I come in here for lunch and dinner most days, but I don’t eat with people who haven’t even told me their names yet.”
He gets a look of shock and embarrassment after realizing that he has yet to actually introduce himself to her. The truth is that he has been so nervous himself, he has mainly been saying what he thought of prior to them talking and not deviating for fear of saying something stupid. To her he seems cool and collected, but inside he is anxiously trying to impress this beautiful girl in a foreign city on a foreign school campus. And now he realizes he made a misstep. “I’m so sorry. My name is Lucas.” He puts his hand out as if to shake her hand and she quickly snatches the rubber glove off her right hand popping herself with it and reaching her hand out to him. Only he doesn’t give her a normal handshake, he grabs her hand the way he would as if he were about to kiss it and then he places his left hand over his heart and briefly bows his head as if he is asking for forgiveness. It is different for her, but the message is conveyed. His name stands out to her because not only is it the first time she has met someone with that name, but it is also biblical. “All my friends call me Niecey and I generally come in here late for lunch because I have classes until 1 o’clock.” Now he is the one grinning from ear to ear.
“Well, hopefully I will see you in here and you can ‘school’ me on what I should eat for lunch.” He says goodbye and exits the cafeteria, leaving her deep in thought and happy the crush she is developing isn’t a one-sided thing. It is making her lose all thoughts of ignoring him to focus on her main priorities at school. She will just have to make it work now.
It isn’t until a couple of days later that Lucas is finally able to run into Niecey in the cafeteria when she is actually there to eat lunch. He arrives with some of his classmates and after picking some seats they are walking up to the line to get food when he sees her walk in. He instinctively falls back to wait to get a chance to talk to her before getting his food. He walks up to her as she is picking a seat. “If you need somewhere to sit you can come sit with us” he says, gesturing to the group of classmates he is with.
She pauses. “I don’t know. It’s a lot of y’all.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he says quickly. “I don’t want to share you with all of them anyway. Let me go get my stuff and I’ll sit with you.” He walks away before she even has a chance to respond and quickly comes back with his books to place in the seat next to hers. They get in line making small talk and he even introduces her to a couple of the people in his group. She notices they all seem younger than what she is accustomed to seeing on campus. They all look her age. So, when they get back to the table and begin to eat, the first thing she asked him is “how long have you been going to school here?” He informs her that he, and the group he is with at lunch, are all in the pre-college program for high school graduates they are trying to get to commit to the biomedical engineering program at the university.
They have all just graduated high school at the beginning of that month, and it is their first taste of college life. She immediately realizes what that means and says, “So that means you and your friends are all around my age.”
With a surprised look he responds, “I turned 18 earlier this year.”
“I still have almost two months before my eighteenth birthday.”
He is shocked because he hasn’t even actually started college yet but is pleasantly surprised to find out that he is older than Niecey. Noticing his confusion, she bashfully tells him “I graduated high school a year early” hoping it doesn’t make her seem like a nerd to him. He is impressed and slightly intimidated. They continue to talk and she learns that he is still undecided about where he will go to college because he has multiple offers with scholarships as well, but his mother really is struggling with letting him go away. Which is a big reason that he jumped at the opportunity to attend the summer program away from home. He is hoping it will show his mother that it won’t be so bad for him to go away.
Niecey finds the biomedical engineering major intriguing since it is still in the same area as her pre-med major. Lucas is impressed with her being pre-med. The idea of a black doctor is astonishing to him. He can’t respect her any more than he does in that moment, learning just how smart and driven she is as she describes why she ended up in the summer school work-study program. At this point she thinks it was foolish to ever worry that he would think less of her for serving food in the cafeteria. She feels like he relates to who she really is the more they talk about their respective journeys. The lunch is short lived, but it feels like the only thing that matters that day. They part ways hopeful that they will be able to have lunch together again that week, knowing that if nothing else they will see each other in class when Niecey has to work as a teacher’s assistant.
As it would happen, they don’t see each other until that class at the end of the week. After the class ends, they walk together talking about what they have planned for the weekend. Lucas, still only having been in Washington D. C. for two weeks at this point, doesn’t have much to do beyond exploring the city surrounding the university with classmates. Something he is hoping to change once he talks to Niecey. Unfortunately for him, she only speaks about going home to her parents’ house and attending church with her family. He doesn’t want to get rejected so he doesn’t say anything about them possibly hanging out. She doesn’t even consider an alternative. She knows how important it is to her family, so it is just automatic for her. It isn’t until that conversation that anything else ever crosses her mind.
When Niecey gets home for the weekend she immediately calls her sister to see if she is home and makes her way over to her house. Reesa’s husband, Marvin, is there watching television when she arrives but quickly sees that they are going to be gossiping over Niecey’s love interests and quickly exits the room wanting no part of the discussion. Reesa, on the other hand, is engaged like she is living vicariously through Niecey. Reesa is ready and waiting with the “I told you so” responses, telling her sister she should never question when she gives her advice about a guy. Reesa knows her sister has always kept her focus on the books but quietly envies those who seem to have luck in love. Niecey hasn’t even come close to a boyfriend yet. Not because she isn’t cute or doesn’t have boys she likes, but most guys are intimidated by how smart she is, how calculated and planned her life seems to be. People from the area they are from aren’t accustomed to seeing someone skip a grade in high school and still be arguably the smartest person in their grade level. She always feels misunderstood and always seems to have plenty of time to herself. Because of that, both Reesa and Niecey are very excited at this potential love interest who seem to be just as interested in her. Reesa has been telling her for over a year, since her senior prom date, that college will be different for her, and she makes a point to remind her of that fact at this moment. That prom date wis such a disappointing situation for Niecey that she just stopped holding out hope on love for a while.
The one thing Reesa doesn’t understand is why Niecey doesn’t stay at school when she thinks Lucas wants to hang out with her that weekend. Every chance she gets she brings it up to her saying things like, “you could’ve stayed at school this weekend” or “You would have something to do right now if you didn’t come home.” She even tries to scare some sense into her by saying, “you better hope someone else doesn’t snatch him up before you do.” By the time Niecey is getting packed up to go back to school on Sunday afternoon she almost feels foolish at never considering staying at school for the weekend to hang out with Lucas. She tells her parents that she may have a lot of schoolwork upcoming and to better stay on top of things she may not come the next weekend. They respond by telling her that is fine as long as she is at church that Sunday morning when they get there. She doesn’t even try to get around it. She takes it as a win. The buses will get her there in plenty of time and it will give her Friday night and Saturday night to hang out.
She gets back to campus early that evening and begins to work on the homework she hasn’t completed over the weekend. As she works, she realizes it is going to be a long night and that she may need something to snack on a little later. So, before the cafeteria closes, she heads over to grab something she can eat if she gets hungry again, since they eat dinner earlier than normal after church on Sundays. She arrives at the cafeteria surprised to see there are so many people still having dinner on campus. She enters and goes directly to where they hold the chips and other packaged snacks and drinks hoping they haven’t already sold out of her favorites. Luckily for her they have most of the things she wants so she stocks up on a couple of things that can hold up in her room for a while. As she is paying, she looks out into the people seated in the cafeteria scanning the room for familiar faces. That’s when she notices Lucas. He is sitting at one of the larger tables with a group of people she doesn’t know. But what she does know is there is a girl on both sides of him and there are also four girls and three guys at the table, and no one seems to be eating. Just a bunch of talking and laughing. She instantly thinks back to her sister saying she better not let someone else snatch him up and begins to feel insecure. He has no commitment to her. She can’t be the only girl that sees how attractive he is. What if they are more his type than she is. What if one of those girls spent time with him over the weekend in her absence. He has no reason to sit around waiting for her.
As these thoughts begin to rush into her mind, she quickly makes her exit from the cafeteria hoping to avoid an awkward or embarrassing situation. Only halfway down the stairway to the exit she hears her name being called out and comes to a complete stop. She already knows it’s Lucas. She can already begin to recognize the low timbre of his voice. She turns to face him, looking back up the stairs as he starts to make his way down towards her. “You didn’t see me sitting in there?” he asks.
“I did. I didn’t want to interrupt you hanging out with your friends. You looked like you were having a good time,” she replied.
He has a confused look after hearing her response. “You could only make it better” he says, looking intently into her eyes. He holds his hand out for her to take and puts one foot on the next step up, gesturing for her to come back up with him. She takes his hand but is still hesitant. “I don’t want to interrupt anything.” He pauses for a second looking for the right words to say and then replies, “if they are keeping you away, YOU are not the one interrupting.” She tries to hold it back but can’t help but smile.
She starts to take a couple of steps back up the stairs and then remembers all the schoolwork she has to do and stops again. He feels her stop and turns back to her saying “I want you to come up.” She explains “No, it’s not them. That’s not it. I just came in to get a snack while I finish all this schoolwork I have to do tonight.” She then watches as his face turns into a look of disappointment but only briefly before he straightens up to mask it.
“I understand that. I know you have a lot going on with summer courses. Let me walk you to your room then.” She assures him that it isn’t necessary saying “No, I’m good. I promise. I’ve already pulled you away from your friends for too long.” At this point he has calmed her insecurities and made her feel much better, and she is trying to seem confident. He pauses for a moment and continues “Well, are you going to be working at the cafeteria in the morning?” She confirms that she will and mentions that she has to be there when it opens. “Okay, well then I will see you bright and early.” He steps back down the steps towards her, and she tenses up thinking he may be trying to give her a kiss. Or maybe she is hoping for that, but he isn’t nearly that forward. He bends down and opens his arms towards her for a hug and she leans in and hugs him, feeling completely engulfed in his arms and shoulders as she exhales. As the hug ends, she says goodnight and he waits there as she walks down the stairs and exits the door. It is still somewhat light outside, and the weather is great, so she takes her time walking back to her room replaying the conversation back in her head. She knows she has to get to work when she is back in the room, and she just wants to live in the moment for a while.
The next morning, she is at the cafeteria for work as it opens, just as she told Lucas. And just as he told her, he comes in not long after it opens. The earliest she has ever seen him in the cafeteria, in fact. That morning he stays in the cafeteria longer than he ever has before. Long enough for her to find a few opportunities to come over to his table and talk to him. Even sneaking him some grits once. He just wants to know how her weekend was and she is even more interested in his weekend. He barely eats most of the time he is there. It is obvious that he just wants an opportunity to talk to her more. So, while she is in the back one time, she grabs a piece of paper and writes down her dorm room telephone number and puts it in her pocket with the intention of giving it to him before he leaves. As he sees time passing away, he knows he is getting close to having to go to one of the classes for his summer program. So, before she ever got a chance to offer, he surprises her by asking her if he could call her later on. Of course, she said yes and as he pulls out a pen and paper from his pocket, she read off her phone number to him never revealing that she has already written it for him in her pocket. She doesn’t want to come across as eager and doesn’t want him to think he is moving too slow for her. They actually seem to always be at the same pace. Reaching the same steps at the same time. It makes her more comfortable around him than any other guy she’s liked before.
When she gets to her room after classes that day, she has to call Reesa to let her know everything that happened during the last day. Reesa immediately warns her that when guys get your phone number they generally don’t call for the first couple of days. She is trying to save her from disappointment. She knows that If Niecey’s hopes are too high her feelings may get hurt. So Niecey gets dinner with another one of the girls in her dorm for summer school but as they walk through the cafeteria she sees no signs of Lucas. She quickly eats and gets back to her room to go over some of the material from her classes last week. As it begins to get later that evening and she delves more and more into her studies she is startled when she hears the phone ring. It is Lucas. He has gone to dinner late and didn’t see her, so he called to talk to her instead. This is one time she is happy that Reesa is wrong. They stay on the phone for nearly three hours talking that night. And follow that up with similarly long conversations every night for the rest of that week.
They really begin to learn more about one another that week. Lucas is quite impressed with Niecey’s intelligence and is shocked when she tells him how some people are intimidated by it. He isn’t going to have that problem as he is well accomplished himself with two scholarships on the table for him. And his biomedical engineering interest are why he is placed in the science class Niecey works in as a teacher’s assistant. They are both studying different sides of the medical science world. The ability to match each other intellectually really helps their connection. Naturally they also shared personal information with each other. She can’t stop talking about Reesa’s pregnancy and how she can’t wait to be an aunt and teach the baby everything she knew. He can’t stop talking about being the first in his family to go to college, setting an example for his siblings, and most importantly making his mother proud. They also both come from very similar neighborhoods with Niecey being from D.C. and Lucas from Queens, New York.
They share their motivations, their interests, and their aspirations and after a week they begin to feel much closer than they should be in the amount of time they have known each other. So, by the time they get to the weekend there is no way Niecey is going home again. She wants to finally have the opportunity to spend some real time with Lucas and not be working or in a group of people in the cafeteria. It is also the weekend before Independence Day, and she knows that he will be going home for the holiday, so it is now or wait a couple of weeks. That Friday is their first official date. He shows up to her dorm room wearing the best outfit he can put together with the clothes he brought down for the summer. It isn’t much but it is enough for her to see that he is trying to look his best and she appreciates that. She wears a summer dress that she hates but Reesa has always told her she looks really cute in and urged her to wear it that evening. She doesn’t think much of it until she notices how impressed he looks with her as his eyes get bigger when she comes out of the dorm. She isn’t thinking about the fact that she isn’t wearing the glasses she normally has on and has let her hair down which normally only happens for church on Sunday’s or on special occasions.
They go to a restaurant that Lucas discovered in the first few weekends at school that summer. He doesn’t know a lot about D.C. yet, but this is one place he discovered on his own that he is falling in love with and wants to share with Niecey. As he hoped, she is unfamiliar with it, so he is able to introduce her to something new, which is a personal goal for him. The decor isn’t the greatest and the prices aren’t expensive but that’s not what it is about for either of them. They are broke college kids, the food is great, and the company is, too, that is the most important thing. They sit and talk in the restaurant for hours as they ate. They have a similar sense of humor where they are able to laugh about trivial things that some people take too seriously. They also both have a bit of a competitive drive, which is probably part of why they are so successful academically, and they begin a running joke about whether D.C. or New York is better. All the objective evidence is on Lucas’ side of the debate since he is the only one to see both cities, but Washingtonians never lack confidence in their city. It is a beautiful night so as they finish dinner, they decide to take a walk in the city near the campus and take in some of the sights. Both being into the movies and Star Trek, Lucas wastes no time taking the opportunity to ask Niecey if she wants to go out to the movies the next night. She didn’t want to assume that he doesn’t have anything else to do with his weekend, so she is happy to see that he also wants to make sure they spend time together this weekend. She is really excited about the Wrath of Khan movie that has just come out earlier that month and they are once again on the same page.
As the night grows late Lucas begins to walk Niecey back to her dorm. When they get to campus it is quiet and feels like the moonlight is lighting a path for them making for the perfect evening stroll. They continue their playful banter, taking opportunities to make physical contact all the way up to her dorm's doorstep. Then they stand outside talking for over an hour. Neither of them wants the night to end. They don’t know what their future dates will be like but this one feels perfect. No expectations. No pressure. No awkwardness. Just being able to be themselves around someone who really appreciates it. Eventually Lucas looks at his watch and realizes how late it has gotten and in shock saying “Okay, I can sit out here talking all night if you let me. I know you have to get up and do some schoolwork tomorrow before you go to the bookstore too. Plus, I don’t want you falling asleep in the movie tomorrow.”
She just grins back at him. Some would have thought he was making excuses but all she sees is that he was paying attention to all the things she told him are on her schedule throughout the week. Plus, she knows it is probably quite late at this point. They share a long hug and Lucas stands there until he sees her disappear through the dorm's front door. When she gets up to her room, she is shocked when she sees it is almost 01:00 AM. She has to be at the bookstore when it opens at 10:00 A.M. And she has to get up to do schoolwork before then. But she wouldn’t change a thing. It has all been worth it for her.
