Cindy glanced at the clock. Paula would be home soon. She pushed her hair back from her face, and, trailing the quilt like a child dragging a teddy bear, went into the bathroom to take a shower.

* * * *

When Paula returned from work she found Cindy sitting cross legged on the sofa, wearing a bathrobe and staring into space.

“Oh, oh,” Paula said. “I know that look. He was here, wasn’t he?”

Cindy nodded. “Paula, I’m such a fool. I had made up my mind to forget him, and then when he showed up here tonight it all went right out of my head. He didn’t even have to say a word.” She covered her face with her hands. “I feel like an idiot.”

Paula sat next to her and patted her arm. “You’re not a fool, Cindy. You’re in love.”

“I used to think I was so strong,” Cindy went on. “But it was just because I didn’t know. I didn’t realize what it was like to feel this way.” She shook her head slowly. “Fox is the strong one.”

“I don’t know about that,” Paula replied. “He seems to be having a lot of trouble letting you go.”

“He may be having trouble, but he’ll do it,” Cindy said.

“You’re very certain.”

“You’ll see,” Cindy said sadly.

In the morning Paula seemed to be waiting for the phone or the doorbell to ring. But as the hour of their departure for the airport approached and there was no word from Fox, she gradually realized that Cindy had been correct.

“I can’t believe he’s not going to stop you,” Paula said to Cindy as they loaded her bags into her car.

“It’s all right,” Cindy said to her friend, who seemed more upset about it than she was. “I’ve accepted it. Now let’s get going before I miss the flight.”

They didn’t hit much traffic on the way and Cindy was early for the plane. Paula hung around morosely, staring up at the flight board and then at Cindy, her expression uncomfortable.

“Why don’t you go?” Cindy finally said to her. “There’s nothing you can do here and you must be tired. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Paula asked, obviously relieved.

“Positive.”

Paula embraced her. “I’m really sorry it didn’t work out with Fox,” she said. “I know I’ve said some bad things about him, but if he’s what you want, you know I’d like you to have him.”

“It’s okay; I understand.”

Paula smiled at her with misty eyes. “At least you got your work done. It’s hard to remember that was the real reason you came here.”

“Sometimes it is for me, too,” Cindy replied, her tone wistful.

“I’m going to miss you. It was like being back in school again,” Paula said, sniffing.

“Without the dormitory food,” Cindy answered, and Paula laughed.

“And the hissing radiator,” she added.

“And the guy who called at three a.m. every Friday night and breathed into the hall phone. Remember him?”

Paula groaned. “How could I forget? After we stopped answering the phone he started sending letters to the mail proctor, who just happened to be me.”

They looked at each other, delaying the separation with small talk. They could never recapture a happy past that had fled down the corridors of time.

Paula hugged Cindy quickly again, and said, “Write or I’ll kill you.” Then she stalked off in the direction of the main doors, not looking back.

Cindy watched her leave, and then filed through the security check, dutifully producing her wristwatch when it set off the alarm. Then she sat in the lounge clutching her boarding pass, wondering how she was going to get through the rest of the day, the week, the month.

She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes. She didn’t open them again until the public address system announced the boarding of her plane.

Chapter 10

Two weeks crawled by. Cindy submitted her paper and assumed her teaching duties, which failed to fill up her time in the way that she had hoped. She had enough free hours in which to miss Fox and rethink every moment she had spent with him. She kept telling herself that her state of mind would improve, but she didn’t actually believe it. Like the human quarry that Fox chased, her heart had been stalked and captured.

She was the first person in the department on Thursday morning. After pausing in the lounge to make coffee, she unlocked Richard’s door with one hand, balancing a stack of books with the other. Her briefcase was clutched under the arm that pushed in the door. She took one look inside the office and screamed. All her burdens crashed to the floor.

There was a man sprawled on the carpet behind the desk.

Cindy thought briefly of security, and then realized that the guard was at the other end of the building and there was nobody else around. She was backing out when the man sat up and regarded her sleepily, awakened by the noise.

It was Fox. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and yawned.

“Hi, princess,” he said, as if she had just encountered him in the checkout line at the grocery store.

“Hi!” Cindy exclaimed. “That’s all you have to say? What on earth are you doing here? And how did you get in?”

“I broke in last night,” he said casually, unfolding the jacket he had used for a pillow. “You should have that lock changed. I jimmied it in about three seconds, and then reset it once I got inside. Not very safe for all of your research, right?”

“Look,” Cindy said, trying not to lose her temper, “suppose you tell me why you broke in at all. I presume you still know how to use the telephone?”

“Your number is unlisted,” he answered, rising to his full height and stretching. “What a hard floor in here. Got to watch that. It could give you flat feet.”

Cindy could feel herself mentally counting to ten. “You have my address,” she said.

He shook his head, looking a little sheepish. “No, I don’t. Paula wouldn’t give it to me.”

Cindy stared at him.

“I asked her for it, twice, and she said that I’d get the keys to the pearly gates before I got your address from her.”

Cindy grinned. That sounded like Paula. “Now why do you imagine she said that?” Cindy asked him.

“She seems to think I treated you badly,” he answered, his green eyes seeking hers.

“And what do you think?”

“I think I treated you badly,” he said quietly.

That gave Cindy a moment’s pause. She cleared her throat and asked, “How is Paula?”

“The same as ever. Mad at me.”

“Good for her,” Cindy said crisply.

He fidgeted with the blotter on Richard’s desk. “Does that mean you’re not going to listen to me?”

“That depends upon what you have to say,” she replied, forcing herself to remain on the other side of the room. She wanted to run to him and fling her arms around his neck, but that would never do.

“Do you know why I came to see you the night before you left?” he asked abruptly.

‘‘Why don’t you tell me?”

“I knew that you were going, and I couldn’t stay away. I had to be with you that one last time.”

“And you were.”

His expression softened and his voice changed. “I can still see the way you looked, dancing all by yourself. You would never let go like that if you knew someone were watching.”

“I let go,” Cindy replied. “I let go with you.”

Fox lowered his eyes. “Does that mean I bring out the worst in you?”

“The best, I would have said.”

He drew a breath, then exhaled slowly. “That’s why I’m here,” he said. “Because we bring out the best in each other.”

Cindy watched him, hardly daring to hope. He had disappointed her so painfully already.

Richard chose that inopportune moment to arrive at his office. He looked from Cindy to Fox and his mouth fell open comically.

“Hi, Richard,” Cindy said quickly. “This is Andrew Fox; I met him when I was down in Florida. Drew, my thesis advisor, Richard Caldwell.”

The two men shook hands, and Richard tried not to stare at Fox’s wrinkled clothing or the backpack dangling by its strap from his arm.