Mariella and Miguel: Meet-Cute by Marian Casillas, Ed.D.

 

Taking the empty seat across the table from Mariella, Miguel places his coffee and croissant down.

He politely inquires, “May I sit here?”

Mariella responds in the affirmative. What else can she say since he’s already sitting there.

Immediately after sitting down he publicly proceeds to close his eyes, and brings his hands together in the prayerful posture of traditional Catholics.

On his right hand he put his thumb, index, and middle fingers together, and holding his three fingers together he intentionally and inspirationally makes the Sign of the Cross, which symbolizes the Most Holy Trinity, and the two other fingers together representing Christ’s two natures, that Christ is fully man and fully divine.

Making the Sign of the Cross prominently; in his husky voice he prays while touching  his forehead saying, “In the name of the Father,” then moving down and touching the middle of his chest, saying “and of the Son,” and then touching his left then right shoulder stating “and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.” 

Bringing his hands once again back to the praying hands position he slowly and solemnly prays the traditional Catholic Prayer of Grace before Meals: “Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Mariella sarcastically inquires, “Are you through?”

He respectfully responds, “For now, until after I finish eating, then I’ll pray Grace after Meals”, his eyes twinkling, “I hope you’ll stick around for that.”

Baffled, not knowing how to respond, she looks at him quizzically, then sips her hot chamomile tea while he opens all together at once the three cane sugar packets and stirs them briskly into his black coffee.

He hungrily takes a big bite of his croissant and a gulp of his coffee.

Too much sugar, that’s probably what makes him so sweet, she thinks and immediately reprimands herself, what a most silly thought!

Since it looked like they would be having breakfast together, she introduces herself, “ My name is Mariella Del Rio.”

“I know”, Miguel responds, “don’t get creeped out, we are in the same pre-law class. Unfortunately I don’t think I made as much of an impression as you did when we introduced ourselves in class.”

“My name is Miguel San Angelo. Pleasure to make your acquiescence Mademoiselle Mariella. I would kiss your hand, but I dare not approach while you’re biting into your apple slices!”

Better not go there, she thought to herself. He speaks like such a sexist, but we’ll just keep it scholarly and sociable. Besides he might make a good study partner.

Wiping her mouth with a napkin, she gathers her trash and starts to stand up.

“You’re leaving without listening to me pray Grace after Meals.”

“Got to go, maybe next time”, she quickly regrets saying that. Did she want there to be a next time?

“I hope so!” she hears him say as she dashes off.

The next day in pre-law class. “Wait, but you’re not supposed to be here!”exclaims Mariella.

Miguel simply smiles sweetly.

Miguel is sitting next to her assigned seat. “We’re seated by alphabetical order and you’re “S” and I’m “D”. You’d better move before you get in trouble with Professor Justicia.”

Just then Professor Justicia walks in and Mariella quickly sits down next to Miguel, because 

their teacher demands dignity and decorum in her classroom as well as in her courtroom.

Mariella continues urging Miguel to move to his assigned seat.

Professor Justicia looks down at the seating chart, “Miss Del Rio is there a reason for you speaking out of order! “

Mariella turns embarrassedly in the direction of her teacher and meekly responds, “No Professor Justicia.”

Professor Justicia makes an annotation on the seating chart.

Miguel raises his hand. 

Professor Justicia  acknowledges Miguel, “Yes, Mr. San Angelo.” 

“With all due respect Professor Justicia, Miss Del Rio was admiringly commenting on how attractive you look in your elegant attire.”

“Miss Del Rio I appreciate your compliment, but neither the judge who is presiding in court, nor your teacher in the classroom will be dissuaded or moved by your complimentary comments. So in the future please remember to keep them to yourself and not disrupt the courtroom nor the classroom. Understood?” she inquires while crossing off what she had previously written down next to the name of Mariella Del Rio.

Miss Del Rio answered, “Yes” and throughout the class looked only straight ahead, not even once  glancing at Miguel.

Once Professor Justicia had dismissed the class, Mariela turned to look at Miguel and silently  mouthed, “Thank you.”

Mariella gathered her laptop and walked out of class.

Miguel followed behind her but did not catch up to her.

The next day in class Mariella entered looking for Miguel to be seated next to her, but she saw him seating at his previously assigned seat.

She thought that was chivalrous of him, considering he was the reason of her causing a scene in class. But then he did vindicate himself by salvaging her from being written up for disrupting the dignified decorum of the tightly controlled classroom environment.

The next time Mariella sees Miguel sitting solitarily in the university solarium. She slowly walks up to where he is sitting reading a book. How retro of hm, she thinks to herself, he reads hardcover books.

“I owe you for saving my neck in Professor Justicia’s class.”

“I shouldn’t have been so brazen and shocked you by taking a seat next to you. But I will take you up on that offer and invite you to dinner on Saturday.”

“It’s a date!” she bursts out, and then quickly adds, “it’s a date I’ll put in my calendar.”

“Great!” Miguel responds, and inquires, “You want to eat off campus?”

“That’ll be nice.”

“”La Casita Restaurant. I’ll pick up up at 6:00 pm.”

Mariella proposes they exchange contact information.

She takes out her sparkling cellphone. He takes out his flip-phone.

“Figures you’d have one of those!”

“That’s all I need, it gets the job done!

During dinner Mariella thanks Miguel for lying to Professor Justicia and getting her out of trouble.

“Well I really wasn’t lying because I’m sure you think, like all of us, that she dresses very elegantly and professionally. Maybe you even admire her and would like to emulate her. So if you hadn’t been so concerned that I would get in trouble for not sitting in my designated seat you might have said what I’m sure you would’ve been thinking.

“But how come she said your name even though you weren’t sitting in your assigned seat as written on the classroom seating chart?”

“Maybe I made a definite impression on her. You know Miguel San Angelo is a memorable name!

This time they both prayed Grace before and after Meals together; he robustly, she more reservedly.