Breakfast at Tiffany's
by CAP
Jamie rolled from bed stepping into a patch of sunlight peeking through the curtains. He admired his nude reflection in the full length mirror rewarding it with a wink as he worked out the morning kinks. Six months passed since his last football game and the mandatory workouts that accompanied it but he was still in great shape. If anything his body was harder. So much happened in life that he could not control. Whether or not he exercised was something he could. He did, habitually, compulsively.
He heard the shower stop a few minutes ago but he would wait for her to finish drying her hair. Even with the head start he will still finish ages before Tiffany did if past experience held true what with her careful application of cosmetics and weighing her apparel options. He knew that she had so much more to do than he did but seriously pick a dress, any dress. You look great in anything and you could not look fat standing next to a skeleton.
Two small Pekingese dogs peeked into the room.
"You fellas want out?" he asked.
They both scampered down the hall to the staircase. Jamie padded after them. As Tiffany's parents were gone for the weekend and her older siblings, Paul and Felicity, had long since left home his au natural state carried no danger of discovery.
She finished drying her hair by the time he returned. He could now begin his morning ablution. He snared his gym bag from under the bed that had among other things a change of clothes and a shaving kit. They had been dating for a while now but ending the night in her bedroom was not a given. He embraced the maxim 'be prepared' even if he was never a boy scout.
He squinted when he stepped into the bathroom. Movie sets likely had less lighting. A dozen bulbs in a long bank above the mirror poured a sea of light over Tiffany leaving no part of her in shadow. She sat before her mirror her dressing gown open applying cosmetics to a face that he thought needed no enhancing. He took in every inch of her. Nothing that she was doing was intentionally erotic but he found the tableau sensuous nonetheless. Despite the previous night's fervent activities he felt himself stirring.
"Hi," she drawled warmly.
He placed a gentle kiss on her ear. Mindful of morning breath he backed away before replying. "Good morning and, oh by the way, I love you."
She paused lowering her mascara brush. She studied him in the mirror for several heartbeats. A lazy smile finally sprouted on her lips. "I love you, too."
Grinning, he hopped into the shower stall. The smile fell away quickly as he once again took in the mosaic. It was simply a shower but the elaborate tile work and the added touches such as the shelving, built-in bench, and multiple shower heads drove home how much money her family had. Over the noise of the water he could hear Tiffany humming softly. A small pang of guilt shuffled through his conscience. She was heading for ArlingtonUniversity in a couple of weeks. Maryland State is where he would be matriculate. The situation demanded a conversation. One he thought that a decent man would have had before they got to the bedroom.
The two of them graduated from community college a few months earlier. It had not been easy for either. They both had to take classes during the previous summer term to finish in the conventional two years. In his case it was a matter of graduate in two years or forget about a shot at a football scholarship to an university. In the end the point was moot. Never being better than second string left him invisible to every scout that came to the games and practices.
On the other hand, football got him two years of college two more than he expected. Most of his classmates at Lawndale High School had not had to worry about how to pay for an university education. They were solidly middle-class or even more so. Their parents had the money to send them if not to Crestmore or some place along those lines at least to any public university in the state. His mom could not do that. She worked sixty or seventy hours a week since he was in the second grade or as he referred to it, 1 ADL, After Dad Left. She held down two sometimes three jobs but her earnings barely kept a roof over their heads and food in the house. A little goes a long way does not apply to minimum wage.
He, himself, did at what he could since he was ten starting with a paper route. The car he drove he bought. Insurance and maintenance was on him as were any of the extras and a lot that was not extra. Trying to pay for dates in high school was a juggling act. Not one that rivaled his mother's but impressive for a teenager.
One of the reasons he became friends with Joey and Jeffy other than being teammates was that their folks were in the same fiscal boat if not quite as precarious. Their parents were working class stiffs too. Lawndale might have an industrial park but most of the blue collar employees who worked there lived over in Oakwood or out in the county. Their kids were not haunting the halls of Lawndale High.
He caught Tiffany's blurred figure moving across the opaque glass of the shower as she leaned toward the mirror. His relationship with her was unexpected. They were friendly classmates from elementary school forward but they never really dated. Some group outings here and there but nothing as a couple. Maybe because they knew each other for so long. Hard to put the moves on someone who remembered you as a goofy six year-old missing his front teeth or as the kid who threw up on the bus on a fourth grade field trip.
After high school things changed. Practically everyone they knew left Lawndale. The girls she was tightest with all left the state and were rarely back. Quinn got into Pepperhill University in California. Sandi went to Middleton College up in Pennsylvania. Stacy, who surprised everyone by joining the Coast Guard three days after graduation, was currently stationed on Cape Disappointment in Washington.
His own buds put Lawndale in their rearview mirror also. Joey got a big time scholarship, New England Confederation University, one of the top college football programs in the country. Jeffy did not get any offers to play ball but left town before that last summer was over. He landed a job at a chemical plant outside of Wilmington, Delaware. As people say its not what you know but who you know and Jeffy knew some major stockholders in the company, rich people named Sloane who actually lived in Lawndale. Jamie did not know how his friend met them but was glad that Jeffy was doing okay. He was making pretty good money and even was going to the nearby University of Delaware part-time.
For him his one and only offer was from Chase a community college just a few miles from Lawndale on the road to Oakwood. Faced with such a plethora of options he leapt at it. So what if it was not even Lawndale State. It was nearly free and it was college.
Tiffany surprised him by walking into his Freshman Composition class during the first fall term. He had not seen her since the graduation parties. He could not even remember if they said more than 'hello' and 'congratulations' so he had no idea as to her plans. If he had given the matter any thought, Chase College would not have crossed his mind. Her brother went to Carnegie-Mellon. Her sister was in medical school at Johns Hopkins, top notch universities both.
Turned out that it was not money but her grades and PSAT score. Both were so low that community college was her only postsecondary option. It horrified her parents but if it bothered her Tiffany gave no indication.
As both were still in town they started carpooling to class. Somewhere along the line they began to date casually. Then the odd alchemy of attraction transmuted friendship into love. Nothing was formally agreed upon but for more than a year now they were exclusive neither dating anyone else.
A freshly showered, shaved, and dressed Jamie was puttering about the kitchen when Tiffany finally arrived downstairs an hour later. The two dogs broke away from their patient waiting game for tidbits to dance around her.
"You're just in time," he said.
"What smells so good?" she asked.
"I took advantage of your well stocked refrigerator to make a roasted vegetable frittata," Jamie replied carefully moving the dish from pan to platter. "Getting ready to cut it now. Coffee's ready too."
"Looks yummy," she said sitting down at the kitchen peninsula. Jamie's culinary skill surprised her. The first time he ever made her supper she sat down determined to put a good face on the evening. She liked him so if he served her grilled cheese and canned soup she have eaten both with a smile. Instead he placed before her a baked salmon with a creamy dill sauce that was as good as most anything that she ever ate in her life. He confessed that he often fixed dinner for dates as he rarely had the money for some place like Chez Pierre. Tiffany regretted that she was not one of those dates back then. Having to learn to cook for himself and his younger sister Debbie paid huge dividends.
He plated the frittata and poured her a mug. He remained standing on his side while both dove into the warm concoction. Companionable silence reigned as they polished off breakfast.
"Another slice left," he said gesturing toward the platter.
"It was good but no thank you," she replied daintily dabbing her mouth with a napkin.
"Where do you see yourself in ten years," he asked abruptly. His nervousness making the question a tad sharper than he intended.
He could not read the glance she gave him. "I dunno know." she absently replied reaching down to pet the dogs.
"Please, it's important," Jamie insisted. "C'mon, where do you see yourself in ten years?"
She sat back up a hard glint in her eye. "I hate that question," she snapped peevishly.
"What's wrong with it?" Jamie asked taken back by her angry reaction.
She took a calming breath before reaching for her coffee. Jamie gave her the time to proceed at her own pace mindful of the sudden flush under her makeup.
"Sorry," she said contritely. "I didn't mean...it's just."
"Just what?" he gently asked as the silence stretched.
"People have been asking me that forever. Paul knew he wanted to be an engineer by the time he was in middle school. Felicity always wanted to be a doctor," she said. "But I still don't know. People look at you like you're an idiot if you can't come up with anything when they ask."
"I don't have a solid goal either other than make a lot of money," Jamie replied.
"Yeah but you know what you're gonna major in," she said. "We driving down Monday to register for classes and I have no idea. I'm thinking maybe Fashion Design but its really just because I wouldn't have to take any math or science."
"Mom and dad...if I don't graduate...I mean I might as well leave. I'll just be a big waste of time to them."
"C'mon, they're your parents," he replied. "They love you."
She sighed. "Ever feel like you don't belong? Like you're a fake and everyone knows it?"
"Only every day of my life," he said.
"Me, too. Every day," she replied. "Remember Sesame Street? Which one of these things aren't like the others? That's me and my family."
"Why would you say that?" Jamie asked.
"Because I'm stupid," she growled. "And don't say I'm not. I barely passed high school. I barely got my Associate's Degree. The only reason I got into Arlingtonis Mom got some of her friends there to sneak me through admissions. She told me so with that long suffering look of hers I've seen since my first report card."
"I still don't think you're stupid," Jamie said. "Heck, you speak two languages."
"Three," she absently replied.
"Really? English, French, and what?" he asked.
"Vietnamese," she said. "My mom taught me. Its the only thing I've ever done that she's actually liked."
Jamie nodded. He knew that her mother was from Viet Nam although she moved to America with her family when she was a toddler. Her father was half Korean and half hodgepodge mix of European ethnicities that most white Americans had in their background. It always confused people when they first met her especially when she told them that she was not adopted. The last name and the face did not match in most people's mind.
She sadly smiled at him. "Maybe if I was the first kid it wouldn't have been so bad, you know, but Paul and Felicity come before me and they're brains. You know those guys in Harry Potter, the ones who had magic parents but they couldn't do magic?"
"Squibs."
"Yeah, squibs," she said. "That's me. Everyone in my family is magic and I'm not. I'm just me, you know, just...me."
"I'm dazzled by Just Me," Jamie said.
She leaned across the island and kissed him. "Thank you," she whispered. Jamie did not have a way with words she thought. He was not poetic. What he had was sincerity that was evident in every syllable.
"Why the questions?" she asked easing back upon the stool trying to shove the nascent gloom away.
"You'll be at ArlingtonUniversity in a few days," Jamie said. "I won't be."
"It's right across the river from DC," she replied. "You're going to Maryland State. That's not far away."
"Miles aren't the only way to measure how far away something is," he said.
She frowned. "The metric system?"
He shook his head. Subtlety was lost on her. Let me be direct he thought.
"Socioeconomics, to use a word I learned at Chase," he replied.
"I know the word, too. I took the same class you did," Tiffany quietly said suddenly worried where he was taking this conversation.
"I know," he answered. "The thing is I don't have any money. People say it doesn't matter but it does. Even with grants and loans out the ying-yang Maryland State is the best I can afford. Arlington is a school I couldn't ever consider."
"Jamie," she began.
"No, I'm serious," he interrupted. "Look, I'm not saying that you're shallow or anything but we're in a house that's worth pretty close to a million bucks. At this very moment I got seventeen dollars and forty-one cents in my checking account. I'm gonna get my business degree come hell or high water but when I'm thirty I'll probably not have much more then I do now. On my way to a better life sure but still I won't have much. Can you see yourself with someone like that when you're thirty?"
She looked him in the eye. "Are you breaking up with me?"
"No, I don't want to. I love you but, honestly, if you don't think that we have a future together it'll be kinder to end it now," he said nervously. "Maybe you can find someone at ArlingtonUniversitythat...that'll be the one for you."
Tiffany grabbed the last slice the frittata. The dogs clairvoyantly ascertained her plan. They excitedly jitterbugged about her stool as she cut it into quarters. She did not keep them waiting long but it seemed an hour to Jamie.
"Do you know what I want to be when I'm thirty?" she finally asked wiping crumbs from her fingers. "I want to be happy."
"Yeah," he murmured.
She nodded. He understood she mused. His own life had not been all that good what with his dad leaving and his mom never being around. Her parents were there but she felt their disappointment in her every moment. Why could they not believe her when she told them that she simply could not concentrate very long on anything despite her best efforts?
"I don't have a lot of happy memories," she said. "A lot of the ones I do have are from the last year with you and none of them has anything to do with money."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Really."
Jamie fell into a pool of relief. "I guess it won't be as far between ours schools as I was afraid of."