Perilous Assurance

  ******

  Mattie inserted her student's essay into the folder, and was in the process of reaching for another paper to grade when the phone rang. She reached over from her cozy spot in the corner of the sofa and picked up the beige receiver.

  "Hello?" She set the paper in her lap and fiddled with the red pencil in her hand.

  "I had to hear your voice, Mattie. I just got your letter." Clay's voice was warm, and a little hesitant. "I'm calling from the post office, by the way."

  She leaned back on the sofa cushion, smiling softly. "It's good to hear your voice, too, Clay." She'd mailed the letter the week before and really hadn't expected to hear from him. Now it was May, and classes were winding down. "Only three more weeks and I'll be in Cape Breton."

  "I'm glad you changed your mind....and forgave me for being such an ass." His voice was low. "I rented the cottage after I got your letter. I can get in next week, I think, and get it ready for us."

  "It sounds wonderful." She pictured him in her mind, standing at a counter in a dim, wood-paneled room, although she had no clue what the post office looked like there.

  "How did they take it there? That you weren't going to teach classes this summer."

  "Well, I talked to personnel, and just told them that I would be out of the country," she laughed. "And, that was that. That's all they needed to know, in my opinion."

  "You're beginning to sound like me," he laughed. "Be careful, I don't want you to become cynical."

  "I'm not, Clay, not at all. Just realistic." She laid down her pencil and twirled the cord. "And you were right. I don't really want to stay cooped up here on a small college campus all summer."

  "You'll fall in love with Cape Breton, Mattie, I guarantee it."

  "Umm...as easily as I fell in love with you?" She could tell that he was smiling and she imagined herself running her finger down the crease in his cheek as she gazed into his dark eyes, and sighed, leaning her head back on the cushion. Hearing his deep voice again was going to make the wait all that much harder now.

  "Ah..h, but I fell in love with you the first time I saw you that night, if you remember," he laughed. "You know I had to coax you along with my outstanding cooking and riding skills."

  "Don't forget the Jeep," she teased him and he laughed.

  "What were you doing when I called?"

  "Grading my students' final essays."

  "Was there a general topic?"

  "They had three choices. The Role of the Church in Michelangelo's Paintings and Sculptures, Architects and Inventions Relevant to the Building of the First Skyscrapers, or Forbidden Love in Impressionist Paintings."

  "I would definitely have chosen the Forbidden Love topic. The title is shorter."

  "And to think that I added the architecture topic just because I was thinking of you at the time," she laughed.

  "Well, I have to go now," his voice was low. "They're closing up here, and are frantically motioning for me to get off their phone," he laughed. "I miss you, Mattie, and can't wait for you to get here."

  "It won't be long." Mattie sighed. "Goodbye, Clay."

  "Goodbye, Mattie."

  She replaced the receiver softly on the cradle, and sighed. Only three weeks. Three weeks that would seem like forever.