A New Vista

Chapter 15

Paul stood in my room with round glasses on while he leaned against the windowsill, and I laid on my side in my bed looking up at him.

"I can't even play football, Liz." He said, almost sounding like he could cry. "My old man called up and was shouting at me. He was talking about how I'm useful for nothing and it's best I stop wasting his money going to college."

"What would you do if you didn't get your diploma?" I asked softly.

He kicked off his shoes and laid next to me, resting his head on my chest. He held my waist and pulled me closer to his body. "I'd go work on my dad's sports supplies store."

"He works in one?" I asked him. That didn't sound like a very well paying job. Paul would have so many more opportunities just finishing college, I thought.

"No, he owns one." Paul answered quietly. "Newman-Stern Co." Suddenly, my brain put two and two together.

"Are you telling me your father is a partner in Newman-Stern Co.?" I asked with widened eyes. I lifted Paul's head off of my chest so that he sat up and I sat up at well.

My eyes hit the silver brush on my side table and I pushed it to the side. Paul smirked as he picked up the brush and held it in his hands.

"Remember this?" Paul asked as he ran the length of the handle along his fingers.

"Paul concentrate." I spat at him. I picked up my small radio with both hands, and I flipped it so the face of the radio was down on my lap.

A copper plaque proudly displayed the name I knew so well but didn't realize belonged to Paul. NEWMAN-STERN CO.

I looked up at Paul and he had a pout on his lips. He would slightly throw my brush up in the air and have it flip, then caught it on the other end. He finally decided to speak. "You know, it used to be a radio part company. Now it's just a sports equipment store."

"Why'd they stop making radios? I love mine." I smiled as I held the little radio in my hand. I got it in a tiny store in New York and there was no other radio like it. This whole time I had a part of Paul before even knowing him.

"Well." He exhaled and then took my radio with both hands to set it back on the side table. "In the war they put restrictions on commercial manufacturing of radios."

"Did you serve?" I asked and he nodded yes as he sat on the edge of my bed.

"They didn't have me in the action. I tried to be a pilot, but then they realized I'm colorblind." He said as his blue eyes look at me.

"Those pretty blue eyes couldn't fit all of perfection in them, I guess." I smirked as I gazed into them. He chuckled and shook his head.

"I don't know about perfection. But I do know I would've made a real good pilot." He said looking down at his hands. "If I couldn't do the air, I said to myself 'why not water'. Got myself a spot in the Navy, even trained other guys too."

"So you're good at teaching?" I smiled as I placed my arms on his shoulders. I massaged his shoulders and he groaned in response.

"I'm good at doing whatever monkey work they put me up to." He joked and I laughed. He looked towards my closed bedroom door. "I'm surprised the girls let me in here."

"Everyone saw us together down at the bar. They say we're an item." I told him as I began kissing his neck from behind while rubbing his shoulders.

"We are an item, you're my girl, Liz." He grinned, turning himself around and grabbing my waist. He pulled my body into his lap, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. "You're all mine."

I laughed as he kissed my neck, then down to my chest. I rolled my fingers through his hair as he left multiple kisses on breasts. "What will you do without football?" 

He lifted his head, then sat up straight. I still sat in his lap. "You're asking about that now?"

"Paul, you have to do something. You can't just sit around." I sighed and rubbed my hand along the nape of his neck. He huffed and lifted my body and in one swoop I was sitting next to him.

Then he stood up and walked to the middle of the room with his back turned to me.

"Is it that bad?" I laughed behind him. "Come on, tell me!"

He turned around to face me and walked over to me. Placing both hands on my cheeks, his eyes looked frantic as his breathing changed.

"If I tell you, you can't tell anyone." Paul begged quietly. I nodded yes in response. He kissed my lips, then rested his head on my shoulder as he stood there bent over me.

"Thbrwr." He mumbled into my shoulder.

"What?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Thbrrbrr" He said again into my shoulder.

I took my hands and placed them around his face so he looked into my eyes again. "Can you say it coherently now?"

"Theater." He exhaled out. "I'm gonna act."

I rose my eyebrows at him and laughed in his face. He stood up straight, and watched as I laughed.

"What?" He asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"You? Theater? The class clown?" I asked with laughed. My laughing heightened as I thought about the image of Paul being on stage.

"I've been thinking about it for a while now..." Paul practically whispered while I attempted to catch my breath from the laughing. "You know what, Liz?"

"What?" I smiled as I wiped a tear from my eye.

"To hell with you." He mumbled and stormed out of my room. I stood there feeling stupid for not taking him seriously.

A few moments later I watched him pace back over to his house. I was the girl who laughed in Paul Newman's face when he told me he wanted to act. I don't know if I'll ever not feel like a fool because of that.