It made sense of course, once he thought about it, that Sheila would need to go to France a little early to give herself some extra time to settle in before school started. Nonetheless the news that she was leaving the next day, that this would be the last they saw of each other for who could say how long, had caught Carter off guard. He had just assumed that they would be leaving for Europe at more or less the same time, and that there were plenty of days left before they said goodbye. Now that the moment had come upon him so unexpectedly, he found himself strangely crestfallen and felt a sad, sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Despite it, he forced a smile.

“Wow, I guess you must be excited,” he managed to say.

“I am,” she told him, “in a frantic sort of way, if you know what I mean.” She nodded to the package in his hands. “Go ahead, open it.”

Carter carefully untied the ribbon and opened the package. Inside he found a DVD box, which he held up to the light.

“Cinema Paradiso,” he read aloud.

“It’s one of my favorite foreign movies,” said Sheila. “It’s all in Italian, which I thought you’d like, since you’re studying the language, but you can also watch it with subtitles if you want. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy it a little more than that last movie you rented.”

“I doubt I could enjoy it any less,” noted Carter, a rueful smile curling his lips at the thought of his last encounter with Italian cinema. Then, looking at her with grateful eyes, he added, “But I’m sure I’ll like this one.Thanks.”

“De rien,” she said, fixing him with that old familiar gaze of hers.

Carter smiled warmly.

“In Italian you’d say prego,” he told her.

“Prego,” she said, returning his smile.

Carter looked down at the DVD and turned it over in his hands for a moment.

“Feel like watching some if it?” he offered.

“I’d love to,” said Sheila, “but I can’t. I have a lot to do in the morning, so I need to finish packing tonight. Besides, the ending always makes me cry.”

“Oh no,”said Carter, playfully feigning a groan. “Don’t tell me you got me a chick flick, and now you’re going to make me watch it all by myself.”

“Don’t worry,” she told him. “It’s not a chick flick, honest. It’s just a really sweet story. I know you’re going to like it.” Then Sheila looked down at her hands and gave a little sigh. “Anyway,” she said, looking up again, “I’d love to stay and watch it with you, but it’s getting late.”