Darcy ran her finger down the list, trying to figure out what she could do in addition to the scuba lessons. Gourmet cooking lessons? She remembered Saturday night and the fact that she didn’t have anything in her refrigerator except for milk to go on her cereal and some ketchup. There might have been some olives as well, but she wasn’t’ sure.
A few more clicks on the computer and she came across a community center that had a host of hobby classes. Within ten minutes, she’d signed up for a basic cooking class, a pottery class and a horseback riding class. The cooking class was Monday night, pottery Tuesday, Scuba diving was Thursday nights and horseback riding on Saturday mornings.
Was that enough? Would that qualify for “living” in Michael’s mind, she wondered.
She pushed that thought aside and looked at her computer. “Oh no!” she gasped. She was late for a meeting, which normally wouldn’t be much of a problem, but since she was leading it, she needed to hurry to the conference room.
“I’m sorry I’m late everyone,” she said as she took the only seat available. “Okay, let’s see where we are on this proposal,” she started. Darcy forced herself to concentrate on what the people were saying but each time someone walked by the doorway, she tensed, wondering if Michael was still on the hall. The hour dragged by and at the end of it, she felt as if someone had put a sleeping pill in her coffee.
The following two weeks were hectic but extremely satisfying. Darcy threw herself back into her work schedule. Half of her wished she’d never met Michael. His kiss had ignited something inside her that no other man had ever stirred. She thought about him constantly, wondering what he was doing. Each morning, she dressed carefully in anticipation of running into him in the hallway somewhere.
She’d dated other men before. Many in fact. But none had ever gotten into her head like he had. She’d always been very careful about what she said around them. None had made her laugh the way Michael had when he told her funny stories. None challenged her as he’d constantly done ever since their first meeting. None of her previous boyfriends had ever made her look at her life and help her to understand that she wanted so much more out of it than she was currently getting.
The worst part, and she’d never realized this before, was that she’d never thought about any of her previous boyfriends when they weren’t around. Once the date was over, she’d gone on with her business until the next time they called. They had always been a separate part of her life, one she didn’t want to interfere with other aspects. In fact, phone calls from them had only irritated her.
With Michael, she didn’t have a choice. He’d already interfered with every aspect of her life. His words made her think and those thoughts had produced actions. In that way, she was very happy to have met him.
She loved her cooking class. In the very first class the teacher had guided them through the basics of cooking such as measurements and the science behind the food. The idea that there was actually math and chemistry involved in cooking had piqued her technical mind and she’d thrown herself into the process whole heartedly, loving every minute and each new discovery.
Unfortunately, after her first pottery class, she decided that she hated working with the medium. She didn’t like the feel of the clay inside her fingers and thought the whole business was too messy for her tastes. But she persevered through the lessons thinking that there had to be some redeeming value to the pursuit if so many other people liked it.
She started cooking meals at home on the nights she didn’t have a class and was thrilled with the results. She found that she loved trying new ingredients and savoring their results. Some of her trials were a success and those she brought into the office to share, since she always made too much for just one person. But others were a whopping failure. Those she just laughed off and tossed into the garbage. She’d had no idea that cooking could be so much fun and so interesting.
The best class of all was definitely the scuba diving classes. She wished she had done this years ago. She had always loved swimming but had never taken it any further than just hanging out at the pool with her friends during the summer months off between grade school Scuba diving was a wonderful experience and she was eager to try out her new skills in a real life setting instead of just in the university’s large pool. She was a little nervous about the mechanics of the gear, but as the classes progressed, she became more confident that she could handle herself under the sea.
The absolute worst class so far was horseback riding. But she knew it was great exercise so she pushed her way through that as well. Unfortunately, she only took the class once a week on Saturday. So each Monday, she hobbled into work, enduring the jokes from her coworkers that she looked like a little old lady. After the first few classes, she realized that the pain was not getting any better and knew she’d have to work on getting in better shape.
Darcy joined a gym and started working out on the nights she wasn’t taking a class. She worked with one of the instructors initially to get a good, well-rounded work out. The first few work outs were difficult. But after the first week, she could definitely feel a difference in her energy.
Although she was expanding her horizons with her new classes and exercises, her workload did not diminish at all. This was another area in which Michael had been proven correct. Because she had a creative outlet to balance her technical side, she came into work each day refreshed and challenged. She felt she was able to handle her deadlines. Sometimes, as deadlines approached, she felt worn out but that didn’t slow her down. She had too much living to make up for.
Darcy had been living off of about four hours of sleep for the whole week when Michael decided to call a meeting to get up to speed on the status of the current proposals across ATI. It was Friday afternoon and she was exhausted and resentful that he would call a meeting so late on a Friday afternoon. Didn’t he have anything better to do? She wanted to yell at him to go out and get a life, but she didn’t have the courage.
As everyone settled down, she pulled her reports together and tried to become as inconspicuous as possible in the back of the conference room. She hoped he wouldn’t remember that she was in the room so she could slip away afterwards unnoticed.
Michael went through all of the proposals in progress, asking questions and handing out recommendations on how to proceed if necessary.
When he came to hers, Darcy sat up slightly, but didn’t acknowledge him in any other way. He asked questions of her and offered some advice, but otherwise, congratulated her on being on the right track. The meeting adjourned and Darcy bolted for the door, furious with herself for her accelerated heart rate simply because he talked to her and said she was doing a good job.