Paint Me True by E.M. Tippetts Read Free Book Online

overreaction to call a locksmith and change your locks?”
    “No. That’s the easiest thing to do, isn’t it? Yes, why don’t we do that?”
    I nodded and went to find the phone book. I heard Nora move into the sitting room and plop herself down.
    “Sorry,” I said, “we were talking about Paul. How did you guys meet?”
    “I came over here for my junior year abroad. Did you know that?”
    “Huh-uh.”
    “Yes, I came over here for my junior year abroad. I was studying English and the outfit that organized this put us up in a house off the High Street, but I did some of my tutorials at Balliol College. You know the one? It’s on Broad Street.”
    “Right by the intersection of Cornmarket?” It was a fairly well known college, though I couldn’t conjure up a picture of it just then. I joined her in the sitting room, the phone book tucked under my arm.
    “Yes that’s the one.” She put her feet up and turned another page in the catalog she was perusing. “Paul was a student at Balliol.”
    “Oh, he studied here too?” I settled into one of the armchairs with its cushions so soft that it felt like I was being held in a plush embrace.
    Nora nodded.
    “But he lived here at the house?”
    “He lived in the college.”
    “Do you remember the first time you ever saw him?”
    “Oh yes.” She smirked. “I was at the Porter’s Lodge, you know the little front gate of the college? The porters are the ones who prevent just anyone from going in to wander, and that porter thought I had no business there at all. He kept saying that Balliol didn’t take American study abroad students, though that’s where my tutorial was.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I was there arguing with this pompous man- you have to remember, I’d never been on an airplane before I came here.”
    “Seriously?”
    She shrugged, as if embarrassed to admit the fact. “I was so far out of my depth. You’ve seen the small town I’m from. I might as well have gone to a whole different planet.”
    “I can’t imagine.”
    “Anyway, I was there arguing and trying not to cry. I felt so lost. Paul stepped into the lodge from the quad and took my breath away.”
    “Did he talk to the porter for you?”
    “Oh no, didn’t even look my way. Stood for a whole five seconds, reading a piece of paper, and then he walked on past and out onto the street.”
    “So what did you notice about him?”
    “He had the most intense eyes. Blue-gray, like mine, and he carried himself with such confidence. He was tall and muscular, and even though he wore the same kind of sweater that every other guy seemed to be wearing, with brown corduroy trousers, on him they looked right. He could have been a model for that kind of clothing. And the way he looked at the paper was just so... I don’t know. Brooding. He smoldered, if that makes sense. No, I guess that sounds silly.”
    “I get what you mean.”
    “I’ll never forget the first time I saw him. You know that feeling when you really notice someone. They just stand out to you and you want to get to know them?”
    I nodded.
    “Well this was that, times a million. I mean, I was speechless after he walked through. I never thought in a thousand years that I’d meet him, let alone date him. It was love at first sight.”
    “I guess I’ve never felt that.”
    “Which is a pity. True love is all about those once in a lifetime moments when you don’t just find yourself a good guy who’s nice enough, but you find that man who’s beyond your wildest dreams.”
    I cast my mind back to the first time I’d met Len. I’d joined the singles ward when I’d moved to Portland and my very first week there, I’d seen Len. He was already in his seat in the front row, wearing a tie that was coming apart. I didn’t know that ties could be worn out like that, but his had been. The inner liner showed through several holes around the knot. He had a PDA in his hand and was poking away at it with his stylus – that’s how old