"You two are worse then a couple of children." I said laughing at them. They were about to say something but there was knocking on the door. Mrs. Diaz was about to get up but I stopped her. "I can get it for you." I said as I pulled myself up I grabbed my cane and walked to the door. There was another knock on the door which was more frantic and I answered the door.
"Hello." I said to the man who was standing there. He looked a little taken back that I answered the door.
"Um, hello." He said brushing passed me on his way in he knocked into me and I had to steady myself. Well isn't he charming.
"Abuela, are you ok?" He asked Mrs. Diaz.
"Rafi, I am fine but you are being rude to my guest. You ran right past her. Be nice, Rafi, introduce yourself." She ushered him to me with her hands. "This is my grandson, Rafael Barba he's a DA." She says smiling.
"Abuela, I am not the DA." He tells her smiling.
"Not yet." She says.
"Hello I am Adelee Jones." I saw walking over to him. I offer him my free hand and he shakes it.
"She's about your age, Rafi." Mrs. Diaz says. I have now figured out what they are up too. This is when the awkward part started to settle in; we both looked at each other and he made this really funny face and I'm pretty sure that I mirrored it on my own face. It was a mix between confusion and 'oh no.' I had no idea what to say and the four of us were in total silence for a good minute until he spoke up.
"Well, she looks a lot better then me if we're the same age." He said. I laughed at him, maybe he's not so bad.
"It's the baby face." I told him smiling.
"Do you know that my bambino has a PhD? She teaches history and religion." My grandma just had to throw that in. My face burned again. "She is also very good with children and do you see those fianchi they're made for making children." Oh my god. This cannot be happening! Really grandma, really? I have to get out of here. I can't believe that they're doing this. I thought.
"Um you know I total forgot grandma that I have a...um…meeting at 6. So I'm going to have to leave…um yeah." I told her. I was so embarrassed that my grandmother was trying to set me up on a date with someone who I am pretty sure does not want to be set up either.
"What kind of meeting is at 6, bambino?" She asked me with a glint that told me that she knew that I was lying.
"A dinner one?" I was just sounding stupid now, was I asking a question.
"I will see you later nonna, I love you. It was nice to see you Mrs. Diaz and nice to meet you Mr. Barba." I got out of there as fast as I possible could without looking like a frightened deer.
I started to climb down the many flights of stairs that I needed to get down to the first floor. I had only made it down one flight of stairs when someone grabbed my arm. It scared me so I reached up to hit whoever it was in the face but before I could he grabbed my other arm.
"I am sorry I did not mean to scare you." Mr. Barba said.
"Mr. Barba, what can I do for you?" I asked him as he let go of my arm.
"I am sorry about my abuela." He said leaning against the railing.
"Its ok. In case you don't remember my grandma helped too. I just wish she would stop doing that." I said as I leaned against the opposite rail. "Why did you come after me? Wait, did your grandmother tell you too?"
"How did you know?" He asked smiling.
"It was a guess. Those two are like little kids. I think they meant well but I can do fine with out my grandmother setting me up on dates."
"I don't doubt that." He said smiling.
"I doubt you have any trouble either Mr. DA." I said smiling, my face turning a little red.
"I am not the DA I am an ADA." He told me, I think I saw his face turn a little red.
"It was nice to meet you Mr. Barba but I better start making my way down all of these stairs." I turned to continue down when he stopped me again.
"You can call me Rafael." I turned around and smiled at him.
"You can call me Adelee."
"Adelee, can I walk with you out?" He asked. I nodded
"If you think you can keep up." I said smiling. We made it down a couple of steps before he decided to ask me a question.
"So Adelee. Your grandmother said that you are a teacher."
"Yeah. I'm a college professor at NYU." I told him. "So you're an ADA? What do you do with that?" I asked.
"I work with the Special Victims Unit. SVU works with rape and abuse victims mostly." He told me.
"So you prosecute the abusers? I beat that's hard, so you have to know everything that happened to them?" I asked. That sounds like a difficult job to have.
"It's hard but I know that I can do it and I feel like it is something that I am meant to do." He said.
"I can understand that. I have worked with SVU before." I said as we continued moving down the steps. "I volunteer at a church that has several group sessions with abuse survivors. One of them confided in me and I was her voice for the trial."
"Oh wow. So you teach at NYU and you work with abuse survivors, do you have free time?" He asked me.
"Yeah." I said smiling.
"Well, with this free time would you like to get dinner with me?" He asked. I laughed, hard.
"I am sorry but that was smooth, Rafael. You've made me laugh more in under an hour then I have all week. So yes I would love to get dinner with you." I said smiling. We stopped because we had managed to reach the front door.
"Do you want to go to dinner now? I know this great little place." He said. I smiled.
"I would love to go to dinner now, but you might want your jacket." I told him.
"Right. I'll go get it." He said smiling and with that he turned around to go back up all of the stairs that we had just come down.
I smiled to myself. I looked down at my right leg. Maybe this will be different.
Thank you all so much for reading this new story. I hope that you all like it. Thank you for all of the reviews and favorites and follows. I really appreciate it. Thank you all for reading I hope that you all enjoyed it.
-Marydidlaugh
