A surprising Revelation

The groans and grinding sounds of gears filled the air until both elevator doors opened and a gang of guys spilled out and filled the lobby entrance with boisterous laughter and raised smack talk. Hearing those sounds, Alice played it cool keeping her head down and buried in the book she was reading while working at the front desk of Delahoussaye dormitory, one of the male dorms on the university campus.

“Man, these elevators gonna get us killed bruh, fo’sho,” Brian declared in his thick New Orleans accent stumbling out with the guys who were all carrying a binder. The guys were the dorm counselors for each floor including the assistant dorm director.

  “Hey Alice,” Chris called out walking to the desk to greet her. At the sound of her name, she lifted her head meeting the blue eyes of the person who spoke to her, fighting the urge to search out a specific set of eyes. “You’re here again? And so early in the morning? You’re gonna have yourself a nice check. Are you gonna treat us since you’ve been here with us for a week now?”At that question, five guys crowded around her begging and pleading with her making her smile and laugh while one guy stood off to the side quietly and smiling. The attention that the guys gave her was new and foreign. She was unaccustomed to having guys fawn and dote so much attention on her.

This was her first college job since she’d graduated high school four months ago. She tried to slow down her breathing and erratic heartbeats because she could feel the eyes of the object of her affection focused on her. Matthew Ricard. Medium height. Chocolate brown complexion. Naturally curly brown hair. Honey brown eyes. Brilliant white teeth set off with a drop-dead gorgeous smile. To top it off, he sported a trimmed, well-groomed stylish mustache for his age of twenty-one years old.

To say that he was sexy was an understatement. Alice was as far from sexy as could be. Her face still had some remnant marks from the acne her skin started to sprout four years ago. She wore silver rectangular-shaped prescription glasses. And she was a full-figured young woman who had been teased about her weight since kindergarten. She had neither attended her high school prom nor had her first boyfriend in these eighteen years. While she’d had crushes, none had ever expressed interest in her and she was too shy to admit her feelings at the fear of rejection. Besides, she was a fat girl. Beautiful people attract other beautiful people. She'd never end up with the hunk or the guy that other girls lusted after.

Matt spoke up strolling behind the desk to stand next to Alice wrapping his arms around her shoulder. “Hey ya’ll lay off our faithful desk worker,” he chuckled smiling. “Ya’ll gonna end up running her away. She's the only worker we can call in at the last minute when other workers don't come in for their shifts. Plus, ya’ll know that if no worker is here at the desk, then,” he pointed at the guys and himself, “it’s our responsibility to sit here at the desk, answering the phone.” The guys laughed and backed off from Alice thanking her for willing to make that long walk from her dorm to theirs to work.

Matt casually removed his arm from around her shoulder because he knew that the guys’ eyes were discretely on him. Since the third day Alice had first come to work at the dorm, he’d found himself downstairs chatting more with her laughing and joking around. Talking about their favorite television shows and movies. He'd discovered that, unlike any of the girls he'd ever dated, none loved action movies as much as he did. That one night of boredom had led to a developing friendship with Alice and his nightly appearances while she was working. Two days later, he found that Chris, Brian, and Trey, three of his fellow counselor workers, had approached him casually stating how they'd seen how much he talked to Alice, how bright his smile was, and how they both seemed so comfortable around one another. Like the best of friends. The workers continued slyly indicating they could see a work romance in the brew. Matt carefully denied the assumption and proceeded to duck out of their presence to avoid more talks about Alice and him.

A door behind Alice opened. “What a rowdy bunch this group is being,” Peter, the dorm director said, locking his door behind him. Peter greeted Alice and ushered the guys to take off before their daily counselor meetings began. Matt was last to exit and turned to face Alice meeting her eyes. “Remember Alice, if there’s any trouble, you have the university police number and Peter's beeper number. Don't hesitate to call." Alice smiled and promised him that she would do that.

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“Come on Alice,” Brian urged her dancing and strutting around in front of the desk, "You can't tell me that you don't see that Matt likes you. I know, for sure that you like him. Don’t tell me I’m lying.” Brian had brought his mini radio downstairs to listen to music to keep Alice company tonight. Since only the dorm counselors had moved in before the semester had started, the phone hardly ever rang and visitors were slim besides the workers who came to make any repairs or guys along with their parents who wanted information on how to switch their dorm assignment.

Alice sighed and rolled her eyes looking at Brian nonchalantly. “ He does not Brian and neither do I. So, you need to stop this before somebody hears you and gets this all twisted and it gets back to Matt.” She reclined back in her chair, trying to play it cool with her body language glaring at Brian. "I don't like Matt and he surely doesn't like me." While her heartbeat raced a million miles a minute, she kept her voice steady and calm.

Behind the blackness of the night and the still broken outdoor lights, the front glass door opened, and in walked Matt toting McDonald's bags and a cup holder.

He greeted them, walked behind the desk, and deposited everything on the desk. He slid one bag toward Alice and removed the drinks from the holder. “Big Mac, extra sauce, no pickles, large fries, and a large chocolate shake for you, Alice," he smiled looking at her before taking a seat behind the desk and took his food out of the bag.

Alice sat there in shock staring at the food but feeling Brian's eyes upon her. She was conscious of hearing Brian ripping into Matt that he hadn't brought him any food since they worked together.

Matt chuckles taking a sip of his drink, spreading his arms open in surrender. “Come on man,” he replies, “Alice has been here since before eight o’clock this morning and it’s after nine p.m. and she’s still here. Wanted to treat my girl.”

Alice blushes and looks at Matt, “Thanks but you didn’t have to do this. I had ordered myself a pizza some hours ago. So, I did eat lunch."

Brian excused himself while Matt settled back and started eating. “Thanks again Matt for the food,” she said eating several fries. “You remembered exactly how I like my sandwich prepared and my favorite shake drink.”

“Yeah, I remembered,” he replied after taking a bite of his Big Mac. "When we were on the phone the other night watching TV together and the McDonald's commercial came on, we talked about the sandwiches we like and you told me how you like yours. Plus, you're always going on about how much you love chocolate." He flashed her a closed smile and they ate together talking more and more about their favorite episodes of  The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and A Different World.

           When it was time for Alice to get off from work, Matt offered to drive her to her dorm but instead, she said she was okay with waiting for the campus shuttle bus to pick her up. He walked her outside into the darkness to the dorm’s parking lot where she boarded the van after they embraced. As the van pulled off, Alice’s thoughts drifted to the first time Mike had called her. It was the night after their first conversation. The shuttle had dropped her to her dorm after getting off from work and Matt had bid her a good night.

           She had showered and was relaxed on her bed not tired flipping through channels for something to watch. When her phone rang, she was shocked because she’d never had anyone call her this late plus she didn’t have a roommate and no friends yet. She picked up the phone and answered with a cautious hello. "Alice, it's Matt. Were you asleep? I hope I didn't wake you." The sound of his voice was like warm buttermilk biscuits enticing her to moan and sigh in contentment. She didn’t know how he could have her number until she remembered that all dorm counselors were given a list of all desk workers in case, they needed to call in someone at the last minute.

           “Uh, no,” she had stammered flustered with a soft laugh. “I wasn’t. I was looking to find something to watch on TV." Matt had told her he wasn't sleepy and wanted to keep talking to her. For the next two hours, they watched and talked about the episodes of In the Heat of the Night that were watched on TV. They ended their call after three because she had to be at work at his dorm in five hours. Every night after that, they talked on the phone after she’d settled in for the night.

           Matt watched the campus shuttle drive out of the parking lot before returning inside and locking the doors. After he’d settled down and was reaching for his phone, someone knocked at his door. He opened it to see Chris who asked if he could come inside. Matt smiled and stepped aside allowing him inside. He offered Chris a soda and they sat down. Chris struck up a conversation about some of the new dorm counselors and they talked about who they felt would and would not make it as dorm counselors. They continued talking reminiscing on some of their past coworkers and residents.

           Matt tried to hide that he was diverting his eyes to his clock because he was worried he wouldn't get to call Alice tonight if Chris stayed much longer. But Chris did notice that after a while he was losing Matt’s attention. Chris stood stretching and finishing off his drink. “Well, man. I'm gonna turn in for the night." Matt stood thanking him for stopping by. Chris walked to the door, stopped, and turned to Matt.

           “You know,” Chris started, “when I started dating my girlfriend two years ago, I was scared that she was playing some game with me. I was nineteen and she was thirty-five. I thought she wanted some young guy to make her feel young again, but she didn't. I thought the whole age thing would be a problem, but it wasn’t.” Matt tried to say something but Chris held up his hand urging him with his eyes to let him finish.

           Matt stopped and looked at him in resignation. "You can deny to all of us that you don't like Alice but don't lie to yourself. Now I don't know if it's her age. The fact that she's a freshman and you're a junior. Or if it be her weight.” Chris shrugs. “I don’t know what it is but the bottom line is that I’ve worked with you for two years and have never seen you so much into a girl as I see you into Alice. I just wanted to say that man and hope I didn’t step over a line.”

           Matt shook his head. “You didn’t. I appreciate it.” He embraced Chris in a manly hug slapping him on his back and closed the door behind him. He looked at the clock and quickly called Alice. Luckily, she answered wide awake. On this night, instead of watching TV together, Matt wanted to talk more about themselves. He shared how close he was to his mom, that he was the oldest with two younger sisters, and how he'd get past by during P.E. in school because of his height.

           Alice shared that she had a younger sister who was born handicapped. There was a five-year difference in their age. She had passed away five years ago. At first, she felt self-conscious sharing some of the treatment she experienced from others at school because of her weight, but Matt reminded her that he hated his height for a very long time. He made her feel better about herself telling her how funny, smart, and beautiful she was. Just the way she was.

When it was time for them to call it a night, they said their good-nights but Matt chimed in before hanging up. “I don’t think I can truly be happy unless I marry a plus-sized woman."