Taking Chances

Chapter 20

            Ryan dismissed his last class and went back to the English Department office. His thoughts were still running a mile a minute from the incident at lunch. As he walked, he was hyper-alert to the sounds around him. Running in the corridors, a surreptitious swear word. Yelling from the playground.

"Hey Ryan," said one of his colleagues, Lewis. "Check your e-mail. Janice called while you were in class. Said to tell you."

Ryan,

Thank you for the e-mail. Come in to see me before you go home.

Janice

Ryan rubbed his chin with his thumb before closing his laptop and left the office.

A gaggle of older students came out of the gym as Ryan went in. Bec was standing by the backdrop for the individual photos. Her head bent over her camera as she reviewed the shots she'd just taken.

She wore a pair of professional looking slacks, blouse, and jacket that accentuated the curve of her hips. She looked athletic. It was a look Ryan found appealing and it jolted him out of his pensiveness.

A tinge of nerves fluttered in Ryan's gut and he nearly walked back out. Should he do it now? He was supposed to be on his way to see Janice, not asking Bec out on a date. Anyway, what would he say? And there was the fact that Bec had just gotten out of a bad relationship.

Too late. Bec looked up, saw Ryan, and smiled that wonderful smile that lit up a room.

Ryan walked over, "Hi. Busy day?"

Idiot. Of course it was a busy day.

"Yeah. But it went surprisingly well. You've got some great young people here. I thought you were coming in with the Year 11 class."

As she talked, Bec packed her camera away in soft-lined case.

"Sorry about that. There was an incident with a couple of students."

"Mmm." Bec started wrapping cables up and packing them into boxes.

Ryan asked, "How were the helpers this morning?"

Bec started to pull down the back drop where the individual photos were shot. "Really good. One in particular, Adam, I think his name was. Seemed really into photography."

Ryan began helping Bec pack away the equipment.

"Careful with that! It's getting old and the clips are worn," said Bec.

Doing his best to be gentle, Ryan glanced at Bec. She moved confidently, as if she had worked a lifetime with the equipment.

Ryan laid the folded backdrop on the floor and accidentally knocked a lighting stand. It rocked and Bec rushed over to steady it.

"Watch what you're doing. This stuff is not cheap, you know," chided Bec.

"Right. Sorry. Um. What are you up to after you finish here?"

Stupid!

Bec went back to collapsing the equipment. She said, "I'm going to upload all the photos to the studio computer, go home, and have a drink." She stopped and put her hands on her hips. "Can you carry some of that stuff to the van?" Bec pointed to the folded backdrop sheets.

Ryan picked them up easily and walked out to the van. Bec followed him with a suitcase full of camera gear in each hand.

They did two trips like this. On the last one, when they were loading the last of the equipment, Ryan asked, "Um. So, I was wondering if – "

Bec was half in the van, trying to fit some cases in so they wouldn't fall. "Just a sec," she said.

She extracted herself and looked into Ryan's face. "You were saying?"

"Yeah. So, I was wondering if, you know, if you wanted a better job done on the towel rail."

Bec raised her eye-brows and tried tried to suppress a smile. "That's all you wanted to ask? About the towel rail? It's fine. You did a great job."

C'mon Ryan! You can do this.

Absent mindedly, he rubbed his cheek with his thumb and said, "That's good. Just checking."

He kicked at a pebble and sent it skipping across the car park. Bec said, "Well. I need to get going."

"Yeah. Sure. Um. Are you going to the Billy Cart Bash?"

"I don't know. Seems a bit young for me." Bec got in the car. She looked through the window at Ryan and he said, "Yeah, well, safe drive."

She waved and drove off, leaving Ryan standing in the car park feeling foolish.

You bloody idiot, Ryan.

He went inside to Janice's office.