Burger Mix Up

I walked out of the stall and walked to the sink to wash my hands. The sinks at school are pretty much the most deranged sinks I’ve ever encountered. The water doesn’t have enough pressure but then, out of nowhere, the water splashes out at me.

This was especially frustrating on Wednesday, the first day I was going to be teaching Professor O’Conner’s class. I pulled the bottom of my shirt away from my body and held it under the hand dryer. After a little while, the specks of water began to dissolve and I felt an instant relief. I wouldn’t look like an uncoordinated moron to kids who were only a few years younger than me. Well, at least not because I had water all over the bottom of my portofino shirt from Express.

I walked into class after taking a few deep breathes during the walk there. I had to ooze confidence. Otherwise, these kids would never take me serious. Then what would Professor O’Conner say? I just had to do well.

“Good morning, everyone,” I loudly announced as I placed my bag down on the chair behind the big, brown desk in front of the classroom. “I’m Ms. Lancer and I will be taking over for Dr. O’Conner while he’s out of town.” I could see a look of shock across most of their faces, but not disapproval. Phew, thank goodness there was no disapproval.

I went through the power points and only had a few questions. I was luckily able to answer most of them with ease, while I had to remain vague about the ones I didn’t know the answers to, saying things like, “well, the research might be inconclusive on that, but I’m sure associations could have been found between those two factors.”

When class was over, I felt really good about the upcoming week of classes. I checked my phone and had a text from Scott. “Hey there, professor ;). Wanna grab a bite tonight? I’m dying for a burger.”

I wrote him back and we agreed to meet at a burger place by his house later that night. I went home, took a long, well deserved power nap, and met him at the restaurant around 7.

Scott looked so good, still in his work clothes consisting of a button down, grey striped shirt and navy slacks. I felt like a tramp in my lace-sleeved black top and jeans.

“I didn’t know you were going for fancy tonight,” I said as he gave me a peck on the cheek.

“Sorry, the trains were delayed so I didn’t have time to stop home.”

He put his hand on my lower back and led me to a table near the window. We were chatting about our days when a waiter came over.

“Scott Crammer?” He loudly asked with surprise. I was mid chew on a piece of bread and my mouth kind of hung open in shock. I swallowed the piece of bread as I saw Scott’s eyes light up with recognition.

“Mark Sailor, how the fuck are you?” It was a good thing that I was done with that bite of bread, because if I hadn’t been, I would’ve choked at that very moment. I had never heard Scott curse before. It seemed like this friend of his brought out a different side to him.

“Not much, man. I’m still in school and working here for money,” Mark began. Scott started telling him about the accounting firm a little bit when his eyes averted back at me. I was politely sitting there but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little uncomfortable.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Scott said, reverting back to his gentlemanly ways. “Mark, this is…”

Mark cut him off in the worst possible way. “Jenna! So nice to meet you,” he did that awkward thing where instead of putting out his hand and waiting for me to shake it, he grabbed it from the table so I didn’t even have a chance to ignore the shake, or not to mention, ask who the FUCK Jenna is.

I tried to be polite and forced a smile on my face before darting my eyes over to Scott. He looked mortified, with a slight rouge taking over his cheeks, and it made me even more curious. His mouth hung open a little and his hand went out like he was going to say something, but didn't know what.

"Oh, fuck," Mark said looking over at Scott. I thought he picked up on his mistake, but instead he said, "you guys don't even have menus, yet. Let me go get them and I'll be back in a minute."

He walked away and Scott looked me in the eyes. "Listen, I'm so sorry," he began. "Jenna's my ex-girlfriend. I guess Mark just figured we were still dating."

Scott stopped talking as Mark approached our table with the menus. "I'll give you guys a couple minutes."

As he walked away again, I decided to interject. "Scott," I began as I smiled at him. "Listen, we both have pasts. Don't feel bad." Sure, I was curious about Jenna, the ex-girlfriend, and why Mark would think I was her. Wouldn't Mark have met her if Scott and her were dating that long? Maybe Scott just told Mark about her a bunch? How long had it been since they broke up? How serious was it? But I shook those thoughts from my mind. "Really," I said to Scott when I could tell he still felt bad about it. "It's not a big deal."

"Thanks, I'll correct him when he comes back to get our order," Scott said. I actually found it cute how Scott was desperately trying to make things right.

"That's not necessary," I insisted. Scott didn't argue the point and seemed to appreciate just dropping the subject. I ended up having a really nice evening with Scott. I definitely think I'm going in the right direction with this one.