As Marissa approached the bookstore, she squinted against the dark. The gas lanterns never provided enough illumination to make out the faces of strangers, and she seemed to have more problem than most in discerning sights from a distance.
The fact shocked her, then, that as she slid off of her bike and began to walk it toward its home, she easily recognized the tall, broad-shouldered form of Tony Garner, silhouetted against the path light. Though she tried to be beyond obsessing over boys, she couldn’t quite suppress her fascination, and her thoughts of Tony took more of her attention than even others – she didn’t understand why. Tonight, Tony had joined a small gathering of young adults, and he and the other men were unloading boxes from the back of a truck.
If he were any other young man, she might have noticed the strength of his shoulders as he lifted the boxes or the way he spun back to help the young lady who lost her footing in the grass, but with Tony Garner, she could only hope he didn’t notice her. Why did he always notice her? There he stood, surrounded by much more stylish and sophisticated ladies, and he would probably still somehow see her.
She inched toward Professor Garner’s office, working to conceal herself among the trees, but keeping Tony in sight so she could avoid his gaze. For a moment, she paused to watch the little group and listen to the exchange among them. Who was this Anthony Garner?
“I’ve given each of you only twenty pamphlets,” he was saying. “These are targeted toward people most likely sympathetic to Jerome’s campaign. We’re nearing the final two weeks, and he could really use support from our community.”
Seeing Tony stand among a group of apparent peers registered as foreign to Marissa, strange and unexpected. In that light, he seemed a different person. The group consisted of three young women and four young men, and they chatted and laughed as Marissa neared their location.
She paused to assess for a moment, and she couldn’t help watching Tony’s interaction with the group. Tony seemed…popular. Unlike Sam, Tony did not seem to lead the group, but every person, save one girl who bore an obvious preference for the man next to her, stood angled toward Tony. Tony – the man who had leaned shyly against the wall at a dance. Now here was a completely unexpected aspect of a more complicated person than Marissa had imagined.
For once, she could not write Tony Garner off as simplistic or one-dimensional. Every time she had encountered him, he had hovered around her, as if he waited for some opportunity to push himself forward into her attention. Tony Garner standing in the lamplight at the edge of the park, favored in a group of peers, rendered him rather more intimidating than annoying.
Truth be told, Marissa had always seen him as intimidating – though for thoroughly different reasons than at the moment. Primary of which were his swarthy good looks and quick mind. If she had encountered him anywhere but among the Garners, she would have classed him with Sam – a charming, handsome playboy. With the Garners he seemed…like the youngest brother, dismissed and undervalued. Even Barbara had acknowledged the lack of respect his family offered him.
Well, Marissa would not offer him any more consequence than he deserved, but she would pay closer attention. She would figure out if she should pay him more respect than she had caught from his family and those who took him most for granted. Certainly, Leonard and Doris respected him immensely, and the realization convicted Marissa.
As if he had heard her promise, Tony peered around, encountering Marissa where she hovered by a tree in indecision. When he paused his friends’ discussion, Marissa almost dodged past him to her waiting doorway.
Tony, though, intercepted her trajectory a few feet from the small porch entry.
“Marissa!” he hailed, and she found herself curling into as small a form as possible when his friends turned to appraise her. “Hello, Marissa.”
She managed a barely audible, “Hello.”
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