Well! It has been a very busy night. It just so happened that all four of my charges went out on dates tonight, and so I have been back and forth and around and around all evening. I think, however, that everything has gone well.
I started out with Brooke and Morgan, who had a Skype date. Both of them got dressed up and ordered in their favorite takeout, and they ate it together while talking about their days. I was with Brooke, watching carefully to see if I could see any trace of the despair I saw when she left Morgan, but she was cheerful. Aside from a slight wistfulness as she told Morgan about Houston and listened to her talk about her rehearsals, she was perfectly content. I wanted to dig a bit deeper, but I had to move on if I wanted to catch the others, so I will have to save that for another night.
Jonathan and Lauren had a picnic this evening, supplied with nice items from Jonathan’s store. Lauren’s goal with this was to get Jonathan to relax—she’s noticed that though he clearly enjoys being with her, he stays very tight-laced and calm whatever she does. She was determined to change that, but I’m sorry to say that she failed. Despite being plied with good wine and the undoing of Lauren’s top two buttons, she still had the feeling that he was hiding something from her. It took some persuading to keep her from saying anything about it, more so because I feel that she is right. But I do not think it is anything bad. Jonathan is simply a very private man, and the very fact that I find him so hard to read attests to that. It will take time before he is ready to open himself completely to Lauren, and already I think he is getting there. My task will be to keep her from growing impatient or wary with him.
As soon as I felt they were safe, I went to check on Myrtle and Jaquinn. The two of them have been a bit stiff with one another, as Myrtle still has not said anything about Jaquinn’s proposal that they move in together. She is thinking about it, of course, but she is not ready to give him an answer, and he is beginning to wonder what that might mean. Still, they have been together long enough now that I am not overly worried: it will take more than this to drive them apart.
Finally I went to join Pamela, on her first date with Daniel. I saved this one for last, knowing that the end of the evening would be more important with these two than the beginning.
I found them over their after-dinner drinks, their conversation light and easy. They had exhausted the subject of teaching, which surprised and encouraged me, as Pamela has talked of little else for some time. But clearly she is intrigued enough by this man to rein in her own chatter, and when I found her she was listening to him tell her about some of his travels.
“—came back from Budapest, which is just a beautiful city,” he was saying. “And you know, I would never have thought to go there, but I’m so glad I did.”
“What is it like there?” Pamela asked.
He smiled, his teeth bright in his dark face. “The river runs right through the middle of everything, and then on one side there’s a steep hill from where you can look down on the whole city and feel like the lord of all you survey.” He laughed a bit at his own wording, and his hands drew the shape of the land, the river. “There’s an angel who stands over it all, hands outstretched, and when you look at her you feel like you could fly just the same way she surely will.”
Pamela sighed. She loves the way he has with words. It made me worried, suddenly, that she was falling too fast. In turn, Daniel’s eyes were fixed on her face, his aura full of contentment and admiration and something else I couldn’t quite name. As much as I appreciated their connection, I wasn’t sure it should be quite so easy.
Fortunately, a bit of awkwardness can slow down any evening—I learned that from Ramona. As Daniel reached for Pamela’s hand, I gave her a flash of shyness that made her move it, and she did so quickly that she knocked over her wineglass.
“Oh!”
“Uh-oh. Here,” Daniel said, offering his napkin.
A waiter hurried over with a towel, and in the resulting kerfuffle[1] Pamela had a moment to catch her breath and regain her composure and a measure of caution. When Daniel had paid the bill and proposed that they go, she answered with a calm smile and, while she held his hand on the way out, she kept a proper distance between the two of them.
He drove her home, and once at her apartment building, he walked her to the door, clearly reluctant to say good night. She turned to him with a smile that said she understood, and he leaned forward and kissed her, lightly, gently.
“I had such a wonderful time this evening,” he said, running one hand down the side of her face. “I can’t tell you how much of a relief it’s been to spend time with you, Pamela.”
There was such fervent truth in his words that I realized what it had been in his aura at the restaurant, what I hadn’t been able to identify: gratitude. He sees Pamela as an escape from something bad, but what could it be? I could not see that in his thoughts.
“Then we should do it again sometime,” Pamela said, looking up at his face. Thanks to Lyle, the feeling of someone’s arms around her was not a strange one, but she still reveled in it, seeing in Daniel’s face a possibility for the future that she did not see with Lyle.
“I would love that,” Daniel said. “How about tomorrow night?”
“How about Saturday?” Pamela laughed.
He leaned in to kiss her again. “Saturday would be wonderful. I can’t wait.”
Though he clearly wanted Pamela to invite him up, she was firm, and I am glad. I can see how genuine his feeling is for her, and she does need someone who will care about her the way he does, but I want to be certain that he is right. Pamela is one of my more vulnerable charges, and I will not let anything happen that will hurt her.
All in all, it was a good night, though a busy one. There are problems to be dealt with, but there will always be problems, until my charges are safe in the Father-King’s court. I look forward to the challenge of solving them, and the joy that will come after.
[1] Jonathan used this word recently, and I absolutely love it.