Chapter 24. No More Lessons, Stephanie

“Tom?” Stephanie froze in the doorway, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. She looked at me as if she were seeing me for the first time. “You’re unusually early today. Did something happen?”

“You could say that, Stephanie. I’ve got more than a worthy reason to celebrate. So today I decided to change our traditions. Instead of a lesson, I booked a table at a restaurant for the two of us.”

“Wow…” She paused, tilting her head slightly and narrowing her eyes as if trying to spot a catch. “You’re inviting me to a real restaurant? Tom, this’s so unexpected… and honestly, it’s not like you at all.”

“I acknowledge my mistake,” I said with a short nod, maintaining a formal tone. “I should have warned you in advance so you could adjust your plans. If your evening is already occupied, I can call the administrator and move the reservation to any time convenient for you.”

“Don’t even think about it!” Stephanie leaned forward, almost grabbing the sleeve of my jacket. Her eyes gleamed with excitement. “Just give me half an hour… well, maybe a bit more. I need to do something decent with my hair and squeeze into a dress!”

“Take your time,” I said, deliberately glancing at my watch. The hands stood at five in the evening. “I reserved the table with plenty of margin, for the entire night. More precisely, until the establishment closes. There is more than enough time.”

“You’re thoughtful,” she said with a reverent exhale, already backing into her apartment. “That’s it! Wait! I’ll call you as soon as I’m ready.”

Half an hour stretched into a full one hundred twenty minutes. I spent that time in my apartment, reading random articles on Wikipedia and watching videos on YouTube. When the smartphone finally vibrated and I stepped into the hallway, Stephanie was already waiting for me.

She had done tremendous work. Her bright pink hair was styled into a complex, futuristic arrangement that emphasized the line of her neck, and her usual jeans had been replaced with a sleek black dress. It was short, form-fitting, and, to be honest, it suited her extremely well.

Nighttime Los Angeles beyond the enormous panoramic window shimmered with millions of lights, resembling a scatter of diamond dust carelessly thrown over black velvet. We were seated in a prestigious establishment on one of the upper floors. I had deliberately chosen a small private room, an alcove, where the muted hum of the main hall, the clinking of glasses, and the sounds of jazz reached us only as a faint echo.

A well-trained waiter, whose movements were so silent and precise that he seemed part of the interior, placed plates of exquisite dishes before us. With a barely audible, refined click, he uncorked a bottle of expensive red wine, filled our glasses, and disappeared behind a heavy curtain, leaving us in complete privacy.

“I’m impressed, Tom,” Stephanie said, immediately grabbing her smartphone and searching for the perfect angle for social media photos. “This looks absolutely divine. The presentation! But listen… this place’s insanely expensive. Why spend this much?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied, taking a careful sip of the wine. The taste was complex and astringent. “For my current budget, this evening will not become a financial catastrophe.”

“We could’ve had dinner somewhere simpler,” she said, awkwardly tucking a pink strand behind her ear. In that gesture of a usually confident girl, I caught a trace of uncertainty for the first time. “Or just grabbed a couple of hot dogs in the park while Lucky chased squirrels, like we always did.”

“That’s precisely the point, Stephanie. The key phrase is ‘like we always did.’ You’ve said more than once that you crave new experiences, vivid emotions, and that you hate gray routine with all your heart. So today, just enjoy the moment, the taste of the food, and the view of the city. It’s the least I can do to thank you for your selfless help with my Spanish.”

“Oh, come on, you didn’t have to do all this. It wasn’t a burden for me at all. Besides, you helped me too during our outings.”

“In what way?” I asked, genuinely surprised, raising an eyebrow.

“With you, it was never boring to walk Lucky. And let’s be honest, in a night park with a guy like you, I always felt completely safe,” she said with an open, warm smile. “So what was that reason to celebrate you mentioned at the door? I’m dying of curiosity!”

I silently took out my smartphone and handed it to her across the table. On the screen glowed the electronic version of an official certificate, adorned with watermarks and serious seals of the examination center. Stephanie began to read, and I could literally see her eyebrows climbing higher and higher until they froze at the edge of her bangs.

“You… you passed an official exam? And got the maximum score?!” She looked up at me, her eyes filled with genuine shock. “C2 level! Tom, that’s native-level proficiency, professional mastery! How’d you even do that? You told me yourself a month ago you were a complete beginner, that you’d only just started learning the basics from self-study books!”

I calmly cut a piece of a perfectly cooked steak. It was time for the prepared story.

“That’s what my mother said, and unfortunately she’s not always aware of my actual affairs and progress,” I replied with an indifferent shrug. “In reality, I’ve been systematically studying the language for several years. You’re a reasonable person, and you understand perfectly well that it’s impossible to master Spanish from absolute zero to such a level in four weeks. This was merely the final stage of polishing live speech. With your help.”

“Wow… still,” she said, returning the phone to me with a strange kind of reverence. “Tell me, is that exam really hard? You know, I’ve been thinking… maybe I should try taking it too. I mean, I’ve spoken it since I was a kid.”

“You see, Stephanie,” I decided to be as honest as possible, “this exam doesn’t assess your ability to chat in a park. It evaluates your ability to follow rigid rules flawlessly. You understand people perfectly, you speak without hesitation, your speech is vivid and rich. But how’re you with academic grammar, syntax, and complex linguistic structures that aren’t used in everyday life?”

“Honestly? Not great,” she said, immediately deflating and starting to poke at her salad with her fork.

“Then ask yourself the main question: do you actually need this certificate?” I decided to give her sincere advice, drawing on my past office experience. “You are a veterinarian, you save animals, and your clients value your hands and your knowledge. We live in the United States. Here, it is often much easier for an employer to hire an immigrant who agrees to work for less money and knows the language from birth than an American with an expensive translator certificate. In the office where I used to work, we did not look at such regalia at all. When the need arose, we would simply shout into the corridor: ‘Hey, who here speaks Spanish?’, and in that very moment someone would appear, ready to help for a cup of coffee.”

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“If you’re so pragmatic, then why’d you go after this useless certificate yourself?” Stephanie looked straight into my eyes, and in her gaze I saw genuine confusion. “I bet even just taking that test costs a fortune.”

“You’re absolutely right. No serious international certificate is issued for nothing. It had to be paid for.”

“Then why, Tom?” she tilted her head, trying to decipher my logic. “What, are you one of those guys who collects achievements like in video games? Just for a checkmark on your profile?”