Hank paused on the stair landing. “What language was that?” he asked.
“Italian. Isn’t she Italian?”
“I think she is, but I’m not sure what your language was.”
“Oh. Greek, perhaps,” Amanda said helplessly. “Maybe Russian. Maybe Latin.”
He looked at her and it was all he could do to not touch her. He could feel her tongue in his ear. “Go fix your hair,” he said, “then come back to work. We have another train arriving at two. Your father advertised for workers in three states. The more people he gets, the greater the competition for the jobs. He can fire hundreds and still have enough workers to pick the crops. Go on now. One look at you and everyone will know.”
Amanda hurried up the stairs to the restroom. The mirror showed her flushed face, her hair about her shoulders and puffy lips from having kissed so much. She did the best she could to repair the damage. At least no one would be able to see her torn underwear. For a moment she leaned back against the door. It seemed that all he had to do was touch her and she came apart. She did outrageous, shameless things.
Taylor, she tried to remind herself. She was in love with Taylor and she wanted him to think of her as a woman. That was her goal.
She left the restroom and went back to the hot office which was filled with people who were trying to understand what a union was. Amanda was to explain to them that they would not lose their jobs if they asked for a drink of water.
She glanced at Dr. Montgomery before she took her seat. The back of his hair was mussed and she wanted to smooth it down, but as she watched, Reva’s hand ran over his hair and straightened it. As Reva walked past Amanda she whispered, “Why do you have to have two men? Give me one of them, will you?”
Guiltily, Amanda gave her attention to the Hindu family before her. She needed to find a common language so she could talk to them. She didn’t look at Hank again.
But Hank couldn’t keep his eyes off Amanda. There were times when he couldn’t remember what a union was. He thought of how he’d believed her to be a prig, an anxious, nervous, judgmental little prude. But then he’d touched her.
Reva annoyingly kept reminding him of his work and Hank had to stop daydreaming.
“Is anything going on around here?” Hank asked. “Something I could take a girl to?”
Reva gave him her most becoming smile. “There’s a fair outside of Terrill City, and I’ve been dying to go,” she said as a hint.
“A fair. Great.” Hank wrote a note to Amanda, slipped it in between some other papers and had Joe put it on her desk.
Amanda was talking to a Spanish family when she saw the note and, after days of translating everything she read, she read Hank’s note aloud in Spanish.
The pretty young mother smiled while the handsome father said he’d be glad to go to a motion picture with her tonight and a carnival tomorrow night. Amanda blushed to the roots of her hair.
At 4:30 Hank stopped by her desk. “Well?” he asked.
“I’m engaged to someone else. I can’t date you.”
“I thought I might teach you how to act on a date so you won’t make a fool of yourself with Taylor by lecturing him all evening.”
“Oh,” she said. She wanted to go with him, wanted to see a motion picture, wanted to sit next to him. And she was very aware that in another few days he’d be gone. “Yes, I’d like to go.”
“And the carnival tomorrow?”
“Yes,” was all she could answer.
Reva stood not far away, watching and listening. It really wasn’t fair that Amanda should have so much while she had so little. Then she smiled. She wondered what Amanda’s fiancé would have to say if he knew where Amanda was spending her evenings.
For the rest of the day Amanda felt as if something wonderful were about to happen. A few times she reminded herself of Taylor, but she told herself she was doing this for him.
At six, Hank came to her desk. “Ready?” he asked. “There’s a show starting at 6:30.”
Amanda picked up her handbag and left with him.
Reva stood staring at the door.
“Jealous?” Joe asked, laughing at her.
“Yeah, maybe I am,” Reva said. “The rich get everything.”