Taylor waited patiently for the professor to arrive and as she did, she glanced at the faces around her. She didn't recognize any of her classmates to be; no doubt they were all religious studies majors and Taylor certainly was not one of those. She checked her watch once again and saw that the professor was due in another five minutes; he was apparently one of the foremost scholars of Islamic history so she was excited about meeting him and learning from him.
A pretty young woman sat down next to Taylor and smiled at her. The young woman was petite and blonde; she had gorgeous blue eyes and full, ruby lips and there was something about her that Taylor found instantly inviting and comfortable. For whatever reason, she thought that this girl could become a very good friend.
"Did you draw that?" The young woman motioned to the anime character Seth had drawn on the cover of Taylor's notebook.
"No my friend did—do you like anime?"
"I love it." The girl smiled excitedly and wrapped off her favorite movies and cartoons; they were all that Seth and Taylor loved themselves. "That's so cool."
"Yeah." She liked her enthusiasm. "I'm Taylor."
"Cordelia." She laughed at Taylor's surprise. "I know it's a strange name—my dad teaches Shakespeare at UMASS and Lear is his favorite play."
"I like it—it's different." They continued to talk about their mutual love for anime and as they did, Taylor could not stop thinking that this young woman would be the perfect girl for Seth. He had mentioned to Taylor over winter break that he thought he was ready to date again—if Cordelia was free then she would be great, or so she seemed. Taylor put the breaks on her enthusiasm as she realized that she had to find more out about this girl then just her love of anime.
"Are you religious studies major? I don't think I've seen you in a class before."
"No—Arabic and linguistics. My advisor told me I should take this to get a better understanding of Islam."
"Well Dr. White is amazing—I took his introduction to Middle Eastern religions last semester and I loved it."
"I heard he was a good teacher—is he tough?"
"He's really hard—but you learn a lot and it's worth all the hard work." Taylor liked the sound of that—she hated professors that were too easy on their students; to her, she didn't want her intelligence insulted by a person with a PhD who thought they were better than their students. "What do you want to do with linguistics?"
"I don't know—my advisor told me there is really good money working for the government—CIA or FBI." Taylor didn't really know what she wanted to do, but she knew that knowing Arabic and linguistics would be highly marketable careers.
"Yeah I have a cousin who works for the CIA—she isn't an agent or anything but she loves what she does—she has this fabulous apartment in Georgetown."
"That's what I want too." Taylor wasn't materialistic or a snob, but she was used to a certain lifestyle and didn't know she could survive not living that lifestyle. Obviously Taylor was too independent to ever marry a man just for his money and did not want to be under her mother's thumb for the rest of her life because of her money. Getting a high paying career would give her the independence she knew she deserved and craved. "My mom can be a bitch sometimes about my allowance."
"Same here." They started sharing war stories about their respective mothers but the arrival of Professor White cut them short. The two girls, and the entire class, gave their full attention to their professor. He was an older man, in his early sixties, and oozed intelligence and class. Taylor felt her heart instantly melt for him and as she smiled at Cordelia, she saw that her new friend had a school girl crush on the professor as well. Their exchanged smiles communicated to one another that he was intelligent and sexy and Cordelia's smile and wink conferred an apology to Taylor: she should have warmed her about that. It was no secret that many a young woman fell hard for this brilliant professor.
The class did not go long that day, and after wards the two girls left with another, giggling like two girls in middle school who have a violent crush on their just out of college teacher.
"Oh my god he's hot." Taylor had always had a thing for older men, just not a man this old. "I'm going to love this class."
"You'll have competition though—most of his female students develop a crush."
"Does anything ever happen?"
"There are rumors." She shrugged her shoulders; Cordelia had never let her crush develop beyond anything of vague daydreams. "Are you free for a while?"
"Another hour then I have Arabic."
"Want to get some coffee?"
"Absolutely." They went off and got their coffee, and as they did, Taylor told Cordelia more about her life and what she had done over the winter break. Newport had been quiet that Christmas. Summer was in Seattle with her father and Seth was in Berkeley with Ryan and the Cohens. She visited both Summer and Seth briefly over the break and had seen Ryan as well—he was still with Sadie and seemed happy, though Seth hinted that they had been fighting over small and meaningless things more and more often.
Taylor asked Cordelia about her life, if she had a boyfriend—a question she waited anxiously to hear answered.
"No—I was seeing this guy but we broke up around Thanksgiving. How about you?"
"Yeah—I've been seeing Gregg since September." They were going strong still, though Taylor was not in love and was starting to wonder if she would ever fall in love with him; she certainly did care a lot about him though. "He's really sweet."
"I'll have to meet him sometime." The more Cordelia talked about herself and her life, the more Taylor found her a good match for Seth. She would take it slow, spend more time with Cordelia and gauge her feelings about being set up and dating; if she was interested, Seth would have his chance. "Today's been a pretty good day so far." She smiled and told Taylor how lucky she was to have run into her.
"It has." She thought of Dr. White, of all the potential friendship with Cordelia and of Seth finding happiness. "A very good start to the semester."