Ch. 1
I was 21, and invincible. The lifeguard job on a Florida beach was my final summer of fun after graduating from college, before facing a real job. It was also a great way to meet women, strutting around in their bikinis, each showing more flesh than the last. One particularly attractive girl had been walking past my station all morning; petite, she had a subtle flare to her hips and breasts, dark hair, and arresting, flashing blue eyes, eyes you could get lost in.
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Tay opened his eyes, waiting for the headache to kick in. The night before had been great, they had finally managed to get the whole group together again for the first time since they left University. With everyone scattered across the country it had taken a year to manage.
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The man interviewing me was a good looking man. Not a gorgeous man, but a good looking man. His musculature showed he worked out, but still he carried about ten pounds more than his ideal weight. Brown hair, a couple of inches shy of six feet, good nose, thin lips. He did have beautiful blue eyes.
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750... 751... 752.
I stood in front of the door, puffing from the exertion of climbing the stairs. This was it. There wasn't much decoration. No comic clippings, or assignment drop envelopes, or notes. Just a business card in a slot.
"Lisa M. Rohdes, Ph.D., Manfred Jamison IV Professor of Finance."
For a few seconds I just looked around like an idiot, afraid to knock. I know what it seems like: the male student goes to see the hot teacher and gets all distracted.
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Prologue
Today
I can't believe I'm smitten by her. Me, a thirtyish professor of psychology at a prestigious liberal arts college—smitten—of all things, by a young counter girl just out of high school.
"May I help you, Miss?" she asked in an inviting tone. I stood silent and frozen, staring like a cougar. In her early twenties, the young counter girl looked like an angel. Almost old enough to be her mother, I felt stupid.
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Ever since I was a little girl, Christmas time has been my favorite time of year. But now I was a grown woman. I was home for the holidays on winter break from college. It was so great to see Paul, my high school sweetheart, after 4 months of being apart. Although we'd been dating for over two years, I was still a virgin and I intended to stay that way until we got married. Paul was okay with it though.
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I don't think I will ever forget that weekend I spent at Meg's. It was the beginning of summer, and I had a couple of days to kill in the city before flying back home. Meg had decided to stay and work for the duration of the summer at the museum, and so she'd rented this small one bedroom apartment downtown. It was the coziest little place you ever saw, and we both had a grand old time decorating it;
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It had been six years since we had graduated from college, and for the first time since graduation, all three of us were together again. From the enthusiastic hugs at the airport and then the conversation and laughter during the dinner we shared at a local restaurant on the way to my home, it was clear that while plenty of time had passed and we had kept in contact, the comfort and attraction between the three of us when all together in the same physical location was still undeniable.
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I lurched into my dorm room and sat heavily on my bed. Natalie looked up from her studying, and raised an eyebrow. We had only been in school for three weeks, but living together 24/7 we had already bonded as friends. She knew I was upset.
"You're back early, Emma" Natalie commented. "It's not even midnight. Did Jimmy get drunk?"
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It's Friday afternoon and when my final class of the day ends I race back to my office to see if the email has arrived. I've been distracted all day in anticipation of finding out whether or not it's finally going to happen tonight. Logging in, I go straight to my inbox. Nothing. With a frustrated sigh I lean back in my chair, a stack of homework papers on my desk in front of me just waiting for grades.
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