Me too. “Don’t be ridiculous. Okay, well, this is the dining room.” I walked through the archway into the dining room. It was simple, just a table and chairs and some pictures on the walls.
He walked over to the wall and looked at a picture of me hugging a tree with bright red leaves. I couldn’t believe my mom still changed the pictures in here depending on what season it was. In a few months it would be me sitting by the Christmas tree in probably just a diaper or something super embarrassing. At least I was clothed in my tree hugging picture.
“You’re so adorable.”
I laughed. “I’m really glad there aren’t any pictures of my awkward stage in here. I begged my mom to stop putting them all over the house. Maybe she finally listened.” I looked over at the china cabinet and then snapped my head back toward him. I had spoken too soon. Please don’t go over to the china cabinet.
As if sensing the aura of terrible images of me, James walked over to the china cabinet.
“Don’t you want to see the kitchen?”
He leaned down and looked at a picture of me smiling with braces.
Kill me now.
He looked over at me and smiled. “Super adorable. I have no idea why you’ve never had a boyfriend before.”
“Oh shut up.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the dining room.
“Seriously, Penny.” He pushed my back against the doorframe between the kitchen and dining room. “You’re beautiful.”
“Not in that picture.”
He placed a soft kiss against my lips. “Well you should have seen me in junior high.”
“You were probably always sexy.”
He laughed. “I’m sure Rob will love showing you picture evidence of how that is so not true.”
“I’m excited to meet him.”
“It’ll be fun having him around.” James released me and walked into the kitchen. “I like your house. It’s… warm.” He smiled at me.
That was a good way of describing it. I felt safe here. “Warm. I like that.” I lead him into the family room.
“Garage and back door. Noted.”
“James, you’re not going to have to make an escape. It’s not like you’re my super old professor. You’re not even that much older than me. Plus you aren’t even my professor anymore. It could be so much worse. And I think they just want me to be happy. You make me so happy.”
“Hmm.” He gave me a small smile.
“Come on, we haven’t finished the tour.” I showed him the living room, the office, and bathroom. “And that’s the basement,” I said, pointing to a door. “And the laundry room.” I pointed to a different door. “And that’s it.”
James looked over at the stairs. “Well, what’s up there?”
“My parents room, two guest rooms, and two more bathrooms. Oh, and my room.”
“I think I’d like to see that.”
“You want to see my room? I’m not allowed to bring boys upstairs.” My parents had never really needed to state that as a rule. No boyfriend, no boys upstairs rule needed. I tried to give him an innocent smile.
“Is that so? Maybe I can convince you to bend the rules just this once?” He raised his left eyebrow.
“How much time do we have before they come home?”
James looked at his watch. “Half an hour.”
“Okay. But really quick. I do not want our discussion to start out that way. Absolutely no funny business.”
James lifted his hands up to either side, acknowledging that he’d behave.
I bit my lip and turned toward the stairs. I was hoping he’d abandon his resolve. I suddenly felt young and giddy. How many times had I imagined having a boy in my room? And I wasn’t just bringing up any boy. I was bringing up my sexy, brooding, rich, successful professor. Maybe my parents would just be happy. James was a catch.
I made my hips sway more than usual as I walked up the stairs. I could feel his eyes on me. I tried to remember what kind of disarray I had left my room in. Hopefully it wasn’t as bad as I was picturing.
“You’re kind of a slob.” He laughed as he stepped over some of the clothes on my floor and walked passed me.
“I’m a lot better when I have a roommate. A lot of it was from when I was packing. It’s hard to know what to bring to school when you only have so much space.” I picked up some of the clothes and put them into a hamper in the corner.
James walked over to my bookshelf and looked at the titles. “Jane Eyre? Are you a fan of all the classic romances?”
I laughed. “No, actually. I read it for my senior thesis. Jane and Mr. Rochester drove me crazy. Clearly they should have been together the whole time. It made me so mad.” I tossed some more clothes into my hamper. I just realized the irony of what I had said. I had told James that I had wanted to wait. Was I really as annoying as Jane Eyre?
James was smiling at me. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“Honestly, I think I’m done reading classics as soon as I’m done school. I prefer reading books like Harry Potter.” I hoped that didn’t make me seem too young.
“I prefer books like Harry Potter too.” He put his hands in his pockets.
“Really? You’ve read Harry Potter?”
“Why is that so surprising? I’m pretty sure that Harry Potter was actually my generation’s thing, not yours. And who doesn’t love the concept of magic? Besides, there was this cute little red headed girl in it that I loved reading about.” He smiled at me.
“I was Ginny Weasley for Halloween last year.”
“Quite the leap from Ginny to sexy Poison Ivy.”
“Yeah, well I started dating this sophisticated, older gentleman. I was trying to impress him.”
“You don’t need to change for me. I love you just the way you are.” He looked over at my bed. “Stuffed animals and all. Geez, that’s a lot of stuffed animals.”
I laughed. “Yeah, well, I didn’t have my boyfriend’s sweater to snuggle up to at night. Or the man himself.”
James walked over to my bed and sat down on the edge of it. “The Beatles?” he asked, nodding his head toward a poster on my wall.
“I’m an old soul.”
“You’re full of surprises, Penny Taylor.”
“I hope that’s a good thing.”
He smiled at me. He looked so out of place, sitting on my unmade bed full of teddy bears. But he looked surprisingly comfortable. He looked happy. “What is the wildest fantasy you had in this room?”