Jamie shrugged. "It"s just community college. But even there it"s like . . . I dunno, I don"t feel like I fit in with many of the students when I"m in cla.s.s. A lot of them don"t have to work; they haven"t gone through what I have."
She took a sip of her drink. "It"s like so weird that you and I became friends. I mean, on the surface we couldn"t be more different. You being Amish, and me being regular-well, I know you call us Englisch, and we"re Americans, not British. But we have so much in common."
Mary Katherine nodded. Jamie had walked into St.i.tches in Time to browse and had stayed for hours. She"d said she was taking a fabrics arts cla.s.s at the community college and just wanted to look around. When she stopped and stared at one of Mary Katherine"s quilts hanging on a wall, they"d started talking about it. Since then they"d met for coffee, and Mary Katherine had looked at Jamie"s art cla.s.s textbooks, visited her apartment for long talks, and shared personal stories.
Jamie"s father could have been related to Mary Katherine"s father, he was so stern and unsupportive. Her mother was more a.s.sertive than Mary Katherine"s, but still deferred to her husband whenever a conflict arose. So Jamie had moved out as soon as she graduated from high school and had found a job and an apartment.
Mary Katherine was just a little in awe of Jamie. There were very few Amish young women who did such a thing. And higher education? She didn"t want to go to college like Jamie, but those art cla.s.ses-the ones that had to do with fabric- Mary Katherine secretly harbored a desire to sit in on one and learn.
So far she"d kept it to herself, but she wondered if Jamie had figured it out. Last week she"d given her a tote bag of textbooks and magazines she said she was giving away.
Mary Katherine had stayed up late every night since then reading and reading and reading.
They were so engrossed in talking, Mary Katherine didn"t realize that somebody was standing by the table until he said her name.
She looked up, and there stood Jacob.
Jacob couldn"t believe his eyes.
He"d walked into the popular restaurant with his friend Ben to have a pizza, and as they looked for an empty booth, he thought he heard a familiar voice.
Then he saw Mary Katherine.
He came to a screeching halt, and Ben b.u.mped into him from behind when he couldn"t stop in time.
She wore Englisch clothes-a soft gray sweater and jeans. Jeans!
And her hair. He couldn"t take his eyes off her hair. It flowed around her shoulders, full and soft and shiny. He"d known it was a sort of auburn color, but with it uncovered and brushed out, there were glints of gold and bronze.
Her mouth was moving. Ben elbowed him, and Jacob forced himself to pay attention. Mary Katherine was saying h.e.l.lo and introducing him to her friend. James. No, Jamie. Then she looked at Ben and introduced him to Jamie.
"You guys want to join us?" Jamie asked.
Mary Katherine looked shocked and cast a wary glance at her friend.
Jacob hesitated.
"Really, it"s okay."
"Heads up, it"s hot," said the waitress, moving between the men to put the pizza down on the table.
"That looks good," Ben said.
"If you like pepperoni, you could start eating now and order another one," Jamie said.
"Sounds great," Ben said, and he slid into the booth next to Jamie. "C"mon, Jacob, I"m starving and the place is busy. This is a perfect solution."
Then he turned red. "Well, I mean, it"s not every day that I get invited to eat with two pretty girls."
Jacob took a seat next to Mary Katherine. "You don"t get that kind of offer anytime," he said, and he saw Mary Katherine smile for the first time since they"d walked up to the table.
The pizza was quickly transferred to plates, and drinks for Jacob and Ben were brought to the table by the waitress.
"We"re having a girl"s night out," Jamie said as she served Jacob another slice of pizza.
"Guess we kind of spoiled that. I"m not sorry, though." Ben was grinning at Jamie, completely ignoring his pizza.
Jacob wondered what was going on. Mary Katherine was sitting here looking like an Englischer, and Ben was . . . flirting with this Jamie? He wondered if he was seeing things. "So, guess you"re not going to a singing dressed like that," Ben said suddenly, looking directly at Mary Katherine.
"Uh, no." She blushed.
"I don"t get the whole thing about clothing," Jamie said. "Why do the Amish dress different than us Englisch?"
Ben shrugged. "Just part of us being Plain. The Ordnung- the rules-in each community decide how we dress, all sorts of things."
The locals were used to seeing the Amish mix with the Englisch in the community, but there were still stares from some people-probably tourists.
It didn"t bother Mary Katherine. She was used to it. The men were too busy eating to notice. And Jamie? Hmm. She was too busy taking surrept.i.tious glances at Ben.
Interesting, thought Mary Katherine.
5.
Mary Katherine just didn"t understand.
Jamie had invited her for pizza and a movie. But after the pizza, she"d asked if they could just go to her apartment and watch a movie there. Mary Katherine was fine with that. She was more interested in the company than the movie, anyway. But Jamie"s mood had changed, and she didn"t quite understand what had happened.
"You can pick one from the movie rental store on the way home," Jamie said.
"I don"t know much about movies. I"ve only seen a few."
"Pick what looks interesting to you. If I"ve seen something and it"s not good, I"ll tell you."
The store was like a candy store to Mary Katherine. She"d never seen so many videos of so many types. There were rows marked with signs that said "Action Movies" and "Romantic Comedies" and "Mysteries" and "Horror"-the pizza she"d eaten nearly came up at the sight of some of the pictures on the video covers. She decided she liked the aisle marked "Romantic Comedies" the best.
And there was candy, too, big boxes like the kind Mary Katherine had bought when she went to a real movie theater sometime back. She bought a box each of the kind she liked- she remembered Jamie liked Raisinets-and picked up a box of microwave popcorn. It didn"t taste as good to her as the kind her family popped in the fireplace, but Jamie didn"t have a fireplace in her little apartment.
They settled in on the sofa to watch the movie, but Jamie seemed bored. She kept texting on her phone and seemed to get more and more tense. Mary Katherine tried to ask her what was wrong, but Jamie waved at her for quiet.
Actually, the reason Mary Katherine hadn"t minded watching a movie at home was because she was hoping to talk to Jamie, something that wasn"t allowed in theaters. In one, she"d heard people shushing others who were talking during the commercials for the new movies coming out.
"What a jerk," Jamie muttered and threw her cell phone on the coffee table.
"Something wrong?"
"Yeah, my boyfriend says someone texted him that he saw me out with another guy at the pizza joint."
"He was spying on you?"
Jamie glared at the movie. "I dunno about that. He could have just gotten lucky seeing me there. My boyfriend"s friend, I mean. But Robert made it sound like you and I were out double-dating."
Mary Katherine stared at her, shocked. "We weren"t double-dating!"
"I know that and you know that, but my boyfriend doesn"t."
"Then I"ll tell him."
Jamie stared at her. "Yeah, he might believe you. The Amish are known for being honest, aren"t they?"
She shrugged. "We"re not perfect. But I know that I don"t lie."
Well, she always claimed she didn"t care about dating. She wanted to get married one day. Far into the distance. Maybe a couple decades from now. When she felt like she"d know for sure not to marry someone as autocratic as her father-a man who wouldn"t try to crush the creativity out of her. After all, her grossmudder had found one. Surely there had to be one that G.o.d had set aside for her. Someday. Somewhere.
Schur, said a cynical little inner voice.
Schur.
Double-dating. Jamie"s boyfriend had thought they were double-dating. Mary Katherine found her attention wandering. She"d seen the way Jacob had been staring at her, and even while she seldom got those looks from the men she knew, she could tell he was interested in her in a way he"d never been before.
He hadn"t been able to take his eyes off her hair. Or her body. Her face flamed as she remembered. She glanced at Jamie, afraid that she might have noticed the color in her cheeks. But Jamie was staring at the movie.
Her thoughts wandered again, down the path that led to Jacob. She wondered why he"d never married even though he was popular with the girls at their school. One of them was always hanging around him at singings or trying to get him to give her a ride home after the gathering.
He"d always been nice to her-quite a contrast to Daniel back in schul-but had never paid her any special attention. But she had to admit she didn"t have the confidence to do what some of the other girls did, either. Oh, the Amish girls weren"t as forward as Englisch ones, but the Amish girls knew how to get attention in their own way.
One of them was to do the usual things like flirt and put themselves in a position of needing a ride and things like that. And one of them was to use that old wile of getting a man through his stomach.
She frowned. That hadn"t worked with Jacob. His mother and sisters were always taking him food. She"d observed their buggies parked in his drive and seen them carrying in baking dishes and pie carriers and baskets covered with checked cloths.
Jamie glanced over. "You watching this?"
"Yes. Why?"
She shrugged. "You just seemed to be someplace else."
"You, too."
"Yeah, well, I"ve seen it about a dozen times."
Mary Katherine sat up straighter. "Why did you let me pick it if you"d seen it?"
"It"s good, and besides, you hadn"t gotten to see it. Might never get to." She picked up the remote and paused the movie. "We don"t have to watch it if you"re bored."
"I"m hardly ever bored," Mary Katherine told her. "Is there something else you"d rather do?"
The cell phone vibrated on the coffee table. "Yeah, get Robert off my back."
But instead of ignoring the call, she picked it up. "Yeah? Listen, I texted you about this. Enough already."
She glanced at Mary Katherine and then got up. "Wait a minute. No, not for me to tell a guy to be quiet," she snapped. "I want to turn the movie back on for Mary Katherine, who is not, and I repeat, not sitting here with me and any guys, for your information. Not that it"s any of your business." She picked up the remote, pressed the b.u.t.ton to resume the movie, then stalked off to the kitchen, where Mary Katherine could hear her arguing with him.
Boyfriend. Mary Katherine could admit some envy when girls she knew had boyfriends, but lately she felt a little uneasy at how the man who was seeing her cousin Naomi seemed . . . possessive. And Jamie"s boyfriend. She didn"t know him- hadn"t met him-but all she"d seen was that he had upset her tonight with his texts and now the phone call that was obviously not pleasant.
She glanced back into the kitchen and saw Jamie pacing, angrily punctuating the air with a cigarette in her hand. And her words . . . well, Mary Katherine had never heard some of them before. When the noise level increased, she studied the remote in her hands and wished she knew how to make the movie louder.
Jamie came out of the kitchen and threw herself on the sofa. "Jerks. Guys are jerks." She looked at Mary Katherine.
She lifted her shoulders and let them fall. "I wouldn"t know."
"You don"t have a boyfriend?"
Mary Katherine shook her head.
"Have you ever had a boyfriend?"
"No."
"Well, that guy who joined us tonight? Jacob? He sure couldn"t take his eyes off you."
"He"s just a friend."
"You sure he doesn"t want to be more than a friend? He just about jumped into the booth when we asked if he and Ben wanted to join us."
"Do you want to watch the movie?" Mary Katherine asked her, uncomfortable with where Jamie"s questions were going.
"Nah." Jamie slid down on the sofa, put her legs on the back, and stared at the ceiling. "Guys are so hard to understand." She twirled a lock of hair around her finger.
"Is your father a jerk?" she asked suddenly, looking over at Mary Katherine. "Mine is. I"m repeating the pattern of my parents."
"Pattern?"
"Mom said she liked the way Dad was this take-charge guy. Trouble was, later all he wanted to do was tell her what to do."
"My father is like that," Mary Katherine said slowly. "I think his favorite thing to do is tell other people what to do. And my mother always does what he wants."
Jamie studied the ceiling. "My mom"s always saying, "Can"t live with "em, can"t live without "em." D"you know they say one in two marriages ends in divorce in this country?"
"No, really?"
"No. It"s actually not true. It"s like one in eight. I found out in one of my cla.s.ses."
"We don"t believe in divorce."