Reacquainted
Katrina took a number of months to establish herself in the area around Atlanta, Georgia. She settled into an upscale, secluded neighborhood in nearby Mableton. As customizations were made to her large estate, she began to familiarize herself with the area. Georgia was a state in which she had never spent much time, though she loved the variety of forest environments that blended into the suburbs and city areas. It was a perfect environment for a vampire, and she wondered why she hadn't visited there before.
She selected an appropriate mode of transportation. Though Atlanta was a large metropolis, it held the opportunity for enjoyable driving experiences. She typically preferred a traditional luxury sedan, but she bought a new jet black Audi sports coupe. It implied fun and speed, without seeming pretentious. The car was sleekly contoured for speed, a style of vehicle that was something entirely new and different for her. Maybe it was that, for the first time in recent memory, she actually felt as young at heart as her nearly thirty-year-old appearance suggested. After only one test drive across the I-20 highway at high speed, she knew that she made the perfect choice. It made her feel playful.
Unlike previous identities, Katrina decided to forgo the diversions of a career. This time she intended to utilize her accumulated wealth to its fullest, allowing her more time to focus on independent projects. She had a couple of diversions in mind, but only one of them had sandy hair and pale blue eyes.
Her careful searching revealed that Caleb was living locally, and she easily located him on the Website for Robert Fulton Community College in downtown Atlanta. Professor Caleb Taylor was teaching sections in history for the college as one of their recently-hired faculty members.
Katrina hadn't seen Caleb since he was a pre-teen, when she had secretly attended an evening baseball game at his junior high school. He'd been a sandy-haired, lanky youth with an awkward manner about him, which she found both endearing and amusing at the time. Years later, she had seen a photo of him standing in the back row of a group of high school baseball team members as part of a newspaper article about their winning the state championship.
She decided to enroll with the college and take the only evening section of U.S. History that Caleb taught in the upcoming fall semester. It'll be fun, she mused. Her last college course was in the 1960s at Pennsylvania State University. Suffice to say, I won't be transferring my transcript, she added with a smirk as she completed the online enrollment application.
It was Monday night and the end of the first day of fall classes at Robert Fulton Community College. Caleb shuffled his lecture notes for about the fifth time as he sat in his closet-sized office that was barely wider than the doorway that led into it. His desk faced a wall-sized window, which at least gave him a view of the campus grounds, though he hated having his back turned to the door. There was barely room for a bookshelf on the right and a narrow computer hutch on the left next to his guest chair. Nevertheless, he was grateful for the opportunity to teach full-time, being twenty-six and fresh out of graduate school. The marketplace had been competitive due to the state's recent poor economic conditions. It was a small community college, serving only about four thousand students each spring and fall semester. But Caleb loved academia, unlike many of his friends who had primarily valued the socialization of their collegiate experiences. Knowledge was a passion, and now a labor of love for him.
He glanced at his watch, realizing his evening class was about to start at eight-thirty: the last section of the day, as luck would have it. He picked up his notes and textbook and made his way upstairs down the simple-tiled hallway lined with classrooms. His was Room 203 on the left about midway down the hall.
When he walked into the classroom on that first evening, he glanced around at the faces before him. There were four rows of tables and chairs split on two sides by an aisle up the middle, to accommodate up to thirty-two students. Only twenty-one were enrolled, and he had been warned by the associate dean to expect two or three students to drop.
There were a variety of stories represented in the faces he saw. Some were younger high school graduates trying to start their college career with poor ACT/SAT scores who couldn't yet qualify for university admission. Others were working adults striving to get an educational edge or promotion in their careers. A few others were interested in avoiding the large general education class sizes of Georgia State for a more intimate setting. There appeared to be a half-male, half-female distribution, and he noted that it was his first class that semester that didn't have anybody sitting in the back row.
After welcoming everyone to his Early American History class, he began calling roll, glancing up at each face in turn to try and associate names with faces: Bibbons, Cosby, Darby, Franks...
Katrina was running late. She had nearly forgotten to get a textbook and was making her way from the college bookstore with her notepad and text in hand. She wasn't sure whether she would actually attend the entire course, her main interest being the opportunity to see Caleb after so many years and listen to him lecture. Her curiosity intensified as she mulled her prolonged absence in his life.
Absence, Katrina chastised herself. As if I've had any real part in his growth or development. Any tie that she felt to him was solely based upon the memory of his youthful aid on that fateful summer day. Aside from killing his abusive father, she had merely played the role of an anonymous financial benefactor for him and his mother. After that, she'd restricted herself to only watch from a distance. Nothing more. But then, wasn't that the plan, to stay out of his life and allow him the opportunity to grow up in a "normal world?" Her previous attempts to develop close relationships with humans always ended badly and, more often than not, fatally for the humans in question.
Katrina broke from her reverie, darted into the classroom as roll was being called, and slipped into a chair at the back of the room. Then her green eyes darted towards the front, following the sound of what had to be Caleb's very mature-sounding voice.
When her eyes settled on the fit young man standing at the podium, she arched one eyebrow in surprise. The Website photo didn't do him justice. His features were accented by a masculine, yet gentle face framed by neatly-maintained sandy brown hair. She was happy to see that his eyes were still the beautiful, pale blue that she remembered from when he was a child, though she readily admitted the term "child" hardly applied to the strapping man that stood at the front of the classroom.
His conservative navy blue slacks and tie looked professorial, while his white Oxford shirt fit snugly to his muscled chest, further accentuating his athletic build. Caleb's pleasing appearance was completely unexpected, and she felt an immediate dual desire rise within her. Part of her appreciated him sexually, while another part was sizing up her prey. She still considered humans as prey, even though her hunting activities were curbed many years ago by the easy access to blood bank supplies. Somehow blending into society was easier if she weren't being hunted by humans for draining people of their blood.
Oh Caleb, how you've changed since I last saw you, she contemplated as another wave of desire washed through her.
Caleb continued to call roll. "Jill Parker, Melvin Peterson...
"Katrina Rawlings?" he queried in a friendly tone.
"Here," a firm, but silky voice answered as he looked up to meet the face hosting such an enchanting tone.
When his eyes fell upon Katrina, he nearly lost his breath. He guessed that she was in her mid-to-late twenties. Her pale features were punctuated by deep green eyes and shoulder-length red hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She wore a pair of stylish black denim jeans and an emerald cami. A gold Greek key necklace adorned the pale skin of her neck. She could easily have been a fashion model. But, much to his surprise, the most notable aspect about her was her eyes. He could see her beautiful emerald eyes from the front of the classroom staring back at him in a penetrating manner.
His pause was somewhat noticeable, and he swallowed once to moisten his throat before forcing himself to glance down with a raised eyebrow and continue calling roll. A few students turned around to glance back at Katrina, the men's eyes lingering before turning back to the front.
Following roll call, Caleb passed out a copy of the course syllabus to each student. When he arrived at the back of the room to hand a copy to Katrina, his hand was starting to shake slightly, so he simply placed the paper onto the table before her.
Her hand reached out deliberately to retrieve the syllabus without taking her eyes from his. The left corner of her mouth started to curl into an amused smile. He forced himself to look away and return to the front of the room, noticing that his pulse was elevated slightly. After pausing to regain his focus, he discussed the syllabus information, textbook, and the course objectives. Caleb dismissed the class early and watched as Katrina rose quickly, departing before anyone else.
He exchanged pleasantries with some students following class, but would later be unable to recall anything he said. He was still somewhat mesmerized by the beautiful woman who had sat in the back of the class. Wow, he thought wildly while walking down the hall. That was unexpected.
Yet, even considering her beautiful appearance and penetrating eyes, there was something nagging at the back of his mind. She somehow seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place why. It was as if some tidbit of recognition was on the tip of his memory, yet masked behind a dark curtain.
A couple of younger male students walked behind him, and one asked the other, "Hey man, did you get a look at the redhead in back? I'd tap that in a second!"
With my luck she'll probably drop the class,Caleb thought silently as he made his way down the stairs. Still, he already couldn't wait until Wednesday evening.
He arrived at his office and found his girlfriend, Melanie Baxter, waiting for him. They had been dating regularly for about six months. She was a records specialist at the state's Department of Public Safety office downtown, where he'd met her while paying a traffic ticket. Melanie was a year younger and few inches shorter than Caleb. Her straight, dishwater-blond hair draped to her shoulders, and her face was accented by bright hazel eyes. Her fashionably faded blue jeans and white lace trim tank both presented a form-fitted appearance that Caleb found very appealing. She was holding a red apple in one hand and looked bored.
"Hey, Mel," Caleb greeted her.
She grinned, gave him a quick kiss on the lips, and handed him the apple. "There you go, teacher," she said.
"Thanks," he replied smoothly. "You been here long?"
Melanie's grin faded to a more sedate expression, and she replied, "Not too long. I remember you said the first day of class is always short because you just give them an assignment list."
"Yep, pretty much," he absently supplied as he took a bite of the apple.
"Ew, aren't you even going to wash that?" she asked with a pained expression.
"I'm a firm believer in the power of stomach acids," he quipped between bites while dropping his handful of notes and textbook onto his desk.
She just shook her head at him with disdain before adopting a speculative expression.
"So, Candace dropped me off here on her way home," Melanie began tentatively. "I thought you might want to get something to eat with me after class."
Caleb perked up, as he was feeling somewhat hungry. His last meal was around midday at the student center cafeteria. "Yeah, that sounds good," he agreed with a smile.
"Then maybe on the way back to my place you could drop me by this new department store at the mall. They're staying open extra late hours as part of the grand opening," she ventured with anticipation.
"Yeah, sure," he replied with a tired sigh as he flipped off his office light and closed the door behind them. Shopping...
Melanie chatted about her day and the upcoming sale at the mall department store, but Caleb only processed a few bits and pieces at dinner. His mind kept wandering back to the strange effect Katrina Rawlings had on him.
Wednesday rolled around again in no time, and he was looking forward to his evening history class. Or perhaps I'm looking forward to one student in particular. He almost made it to the classroom before realizing he had forgotten to grab the handouts for the essay that he planned to assign.
Caleb whirled around abruptly, nearly losing his balance, and almost ran directly into Katrina Rawlings. She immediately grabbed his arm and held him in place with a surprisingly strong grip as he righted himself.
"My bad!" he exclaimed with embarrassment.
"Is everything okay, Ca -" she began with concern before abruptly correcting herself. "Professor Taylor?"
"Yeah, sorry," he apologized sheepishly while feeling the heat rise in his face. "I forgot the essay handouts." He took a quick moment to discreetly appreciate the tall woman before him. That night she wore white knit slacks, a royal blue ruffle trim blouse, and a pair of strappy white stilettos. She definitely looked amazing, again.
He glanced down at her hand, which was still firmly gripping his arm. Her eyes darted to his arm briefly before quickly releasing her hold.
"Um, you go on in, and I'll be right back," he stammered before heading back down the hallway. He took only seconds to retrieve the handouts from his office and made his way back to the classroom. Fast reflexes, he mused as he contemplated the brief hallway incident. Strong grip, too. He rounded the doorway and entered the classroom in a hurry, noting everyone already patiently waiting for him.
"I apologize, everybody," he began. "I forgot the essay handouts on my way up here. And I know how much you'd hate to miss out on them."
An assortment of groans emitted from the students, except from Ms. Rawlings and a couple of others. Caleb took roll, only this time he recognized a few of the faces, most notably Katrina's. She smiled at him in an amused fashion from the back row of the room, but still projected a penetrating, appraising expression in her green eyes that distracted him.
"So, in the next few days, feel free to move around the room until you find a seat you feel most comfortable with, okay?" Caleb neutrally offered, although he quickly glanced at Katrina and fleetingly at two empty seats on the front row off to his left.
Having been studying him so intently, she noted the implied meaning in both his actions and words. Her slightly amused smile added to the twinkle in her eyes. Baiting me?
He handed out an essay assignment sheet to everyone and set into his lecture on a brief review of European explorers who had visited the New World as a precursor to the westward expansion of larger scale European settlements.
"Well, can anyone tell me what primarily influenced Portugal to decline Christopher Columbus when he begged funding for an exploratory expedition to seek a western route to Asia?" Caleb asked curiously.
The room was silent as he scanned the faces. His eyes fell on Katrina's gaze, which seemed to bore directly into his.
"Since Vasco de Gama helped initiate the profitable Portuguese control of trade routes to Asia around the Cape of Africa, Portugal believed there was little need to seek additional passageways," Katrina's voice broke the silence.
Caleb's right eyebrow shot up with some surprise. "Correct, Ms. Rawlings. Very good."
Most heads in the class turned to silently stare at Katrina. She maintained her gaze directly at Caleb with a slight smirk, and everyone's attention returned to him. The lecture proceeded from there, and Katrina offered little more in the way of responses throughout the remainder of the class. As soon as Caleb dismissed the class, she was once again the first student to depart.
Weeks passed with Katrina sitting in the back row of the classroom, much to Caleb's disappointment. She displayed varying degrees of interest and often smiled to herself, which Caleb found slightly unnerving. He also noted that a couple of women in the class chose to move to the forward seats in the classroom, paying more than a normal degree of attention to him, which he found flattering. Meanwhile, most of the males in the classroom seemed to gravitate further to the back rows of the room where Katrina sat. Still, she focused exclusively on Caleb, as if studying him even more than the material being discussed.
After two exams, which Katrina passed without error, Caleb wanted to interact with her outside of class. He still struggled to determine what seemed so familiar about her. But after each class, she always departed before he could approach her.
It wasn't as if he were going to ask her out or anything. He was well aware that would be inappropriate and a violation of college policy. It could get him fired, and he'd worked hard to get on the final interview list for the job. Caleb had to be resigned to the fact that Katrina was simply the elusive type. At the very least, he looked forward to their brief interactions within the classroom.
On a particularly drizzly evening two weeks before the end of the eight-week semester, the parking lot lights fluctuated as Caleb walked from his car to the building. In passing, a maintenance worker said they were troubleshooting a systemic electrical short. With the budget cutbacks due to the poor economy, it seemed that even parking lot lighting was being piecemealed together just to remain operational. It never ceased to amaze him that during poor economic times, when the influx of students was greatest, community college funding was at its lowest levels.
Caleb went to class as usual, and once again, Katrina departed just as class was dismissed. Not being in a hurry to get home since Melanie was shopping with her friends, he chose to stay a little later to catch up on grading some essays. After an hour, he decided to leave and noticed that the parking lot lights were completely out in a large section where his car was located, giving the area an ominous feel.
As he reached the door to his blue older model Honda coupe, he thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He was immediately confronted by a large-framed individual wearing jeans and a dark hooded sweatshirt. He couldn't make out the man's face in the darkness, but he did see the glint of a long steel blade being wielded in the person's right hand.
"Give me your wallet, asshole!" the man demanded.
"Whoa, just take it easy," Caleb urged, wide-eyed with his hands held up slightly. "Listen, I'm just a teacher. You've probably got more money in your pocket than anybody around here."
"Shut up!" the man ordered. "Just make this easy and give me the wallet!"
Caleb couldn't believe what was happening. He glanced around nervously, but saw no other people around, and the security car that normally patrolled the parking lots was nowhere to be seen.
"Okay, okay," he said anxiously with his eyes focused on the guy's knife. While reaching into his back pocket and slowly withdrawing his wallet, he considered trying to wrestle with the guy, but he had never confronted an armed person before. Despite his athletic build, Caleb abhorred violence and strove to avoid physical conflicts. He struggled with too many bad memories of abuse at his father's hands as a child. It's just a wallet.
The man reached out to grab the wallet from him, when suddenly Katrina appeared at Caleb's side. Her right leg shot out, and the heel of her knee-high boot caught the guy in the ribs with a small crunching sound. The fellow heaved a groan while bending over, and then abruptly turned to run away across the empty parking lot. He disappeared between some nearby old buildings overlooking that side of campus, still holding the knife in his hand and clutching at his midsection with his left arm.
Katrina watched the man flee and felt the strong, immediate desire to pursue the assailant. No, not pursue, but rather hunt him down and drain his blood. Instead, she turned to look at Caleb with concern.
He was speechless as he still clutched his wallet in a shaking hand. "Th-thank you" he stammered. "That's never happened before," he anxiously added as he glanced around the area.
Katrina reached out to gently grasp his arm with a look of concern. "Caleb, are you okay?" she asked.
He nodded and nervously ran his right hand through his hair as he gazed up into her eyes. "Yeah...fine...thanks," he muttered.
He didn't seem to notice that she had called him by his first name as his heart pounded away in his chest. She studied his body language and proceeded to lean him back against his car as she protectively wrapped her left arm around his shoulders.
"Listen, I don't know how to thank you," he said in his most grateful-sounding voice possible.
She smiled at him in a supportive, reassuring manner. "Maybe some bonus points in lieu of an out-of-class project?"
He nervously chuckled and scanned the area around them. "Yeah, as if you needed bonus points. I'd wager you'd teach the section better than I do," he ventured as he began to feel a little better.
She smirked. "Knowledge isn't everything. I find that a good presenter always enhances the material."
Caleb wanly smiled while considering the dubious merits of standing in a dark parking lot immediately following an attempted robbery. What if that guy decides to return for a second attempt?
Katrina regarded him with an intense expression as she listened to his pounding heartbeat, and an urge rose within her. At that moment, she felt the strong call of his blood. Her predatory instincts were screaming for action, and she wrestled to curtail them.
Caleb could have sworn at that moment that her green eyes seemed to emanate a slight glow, and he stared back incredulously. Then the parking lot lights abruptly snapped on, slightly startling him.
"Well, you better go now while it's safe. I'll see you in class," Katrina calmly urged as she turned to head across the nearly empty parking lot.
As if snapping out of a trance, he shook his head and called after her. "Hey, wait! At least let me drive you to your car."
But she just shook her head slightly and kept walking. "No need. Drive carefully on your way home."
He glanced down to unlock his car door. "Maybe we should go by the security office to report this!" He looked back in Katrina's direction to see if she had heard him, but she'd already disappeared from view. He scanned the well-lit parking lot, but could find no trace of her. There weren't even any cars within view that she could have gotten into, and he didn't recall hearing an engine start. Strange, he wondered.
He drove to the other side of campus where the security office was located so he could file a report. It occurred to him that the campus could use some of those emergency call boxes in the parking lots, and some battery-backed up security cameras. Somehow he doubted with their state's poor economic conditions and declining budgets that either of those ideas would be coming to fruition anytime soon.
The would-be robber pulled his black hoody closer around his face against the evening's renewed drizzle as he hurried down the neighborhood street, still clutching his left arm to his ribs. They ached furiously, and he anticipated that at least one was probably cracked.
He paid no attention to a lone sports car driven by a red-haired woman glaring out the window at him as it passed. Instead, he stared at the sidewalk and angrily kicked an empty beer can out of his way. He was furious about the failed encounter back at the parking lot. That should've been fast and easy. That college guy was an easy mark for quick cash. But who the hell was that crazy woman with the boots? he fumed. It was as if she came from nowhere. He felt embarrassed and pissed off, and his ribs badly ached where her boot heel had caught him. He cursed to himself as he abruptly turned down a trash-strewn alley between two older brick buildings.
It was a shortcut he had taken many times before. Experience had taught him that survival depended on knowing where to go and how to get there with a minimum of visibility. He tramped across papers and debris and was halfway down the alley when he heard boot heels clicking not far behind him. He stopped and palmed his knife from the sheath concealed underneath his hoody as he turned to see who it was. The lady from the college parking lot had stopped approximately thirty feet inside the alley and just stared at him with a flat expression.
He sneered back at her. "Well, if it ain't boot lady!" he growled. Maybe the night just got a little better. She has to be one crazy bitch to be following me.
"Miss me?" Katrina asked with a sadistic grin while patiently standing her ground. Her hunting instincts sang with life as she felt her fangs extend inside her mouth.
"Come here and let me show you how much," he snarled as he stalked towards her.
She stood patiently with her hands out to her sides. He was almost to her when he lunged over the last couple of feet while bringing his knife to bear with a swipe. She deftly caught his wrist and twisted. Pain shot through his wrist as the knife harmlessly clattered to the grimy concrete.
"Bitch!" he yelled, and punched her in the face with a solid blow from his left fist.
Katrina took the blow fully on the jaw, causing her face to momentarily twist in the other direction. Her head swiveled back to stare at him, and he could have sworn that her eyes were glowing!
"What the fu -" he started before he cried out in agony as she snapped his right wrist bones with a quick twist of her hand.
She slammed him against one of the old brick buildings bracketing the alley while using her left hand to pin his face against the wall. Before he could react, she sank her fangs into his jugular vein and sealed her lips against his sweaty skin. He tried to yell, but all he heard was strangled gurgling.
He attempted to struggle, but she pinned his body to the wall like a fixture, and within moments he felt the strength leaving his body. His legs soon buckled, but she held him upright. A strange sense of calm washed over him, even as he felt sluggish and a growing sense of weakness. A euphoric feeling overcame him just before he blacked out to the sounds of slurping and swallowing. Then nothing.
Katrina withdrew her fangs and wiped her mouth against the material of his cotton hoody. In one swift jerk, she snapped his neck between her hands and let the body drop to the concrete. She felt a wave of satisfaction wash over her as she relished the warmth of his blood beginning to metabolize in her system.
"Creep," she muttered under her breath while picking him up by the worn belt around his waist and hauling him down the length of the alley.
There was an old paint-peeled trash dumpster at the rear of the buildings beyond the alleyway. She casually threw the body through the dumpster's open metal window, landing atop the refuse and empty cardboard boxes inside. Sensing no onlookers, but still visually scanning the area, she removed a small can of Zippo cigarette lighter fluid from her jacket pocket and sprayed the contents onto the boxes and body. Immolation was her time-tested, favorite method for eliminating evidence.
She lit a single match and tossed it and the empty canister onto the body. It quickly ignited, the contents protected from the drizzle by the closed dumpster lid. Katrina walked to the front of the alley, the only sound the clicking of her boots on the damp pavement. As she traversed the wet sidewalk along the street to where she had parked her car, she scanned the area around her again to ensure that she hadn't missed any public cameras.
Her thoughts soon gravitated to Caleb and the grim satisfaction she felt for tying up the loose ends with the cretin who had tried to rob him. She couldn't risk the creep making an attempt on someone else. Honesty set in as she confessed it wasn't through any innate concern for the general public. It's really all about protecting Caleb, isn't it?
Katrina slyly smirked as she got back into her car and drove away. Caleb was definitely getting under her skin, and her Audi seemed to automatically navigate its way in the general direction of his apartment building.
Caleb was still in a degree of shock as he drove to his apartment across town. Fortunately, his building paid for all-hours gate security services for the small guard shack at the entrance to the underground parking garage. It meant he paid quite a bit more for rent on an already Spartan income, but that night it seemed perfectly worth it. He pulled into a spot not far from the elevator and made his way up to his apartment on the third floor. He entered and immediately set the deadbolt after shutting the door behind him.
He glanced around his small, somewhat cluttered apartment. Aside from the medium-sized bedroom and attached bathroom, there was a living room that opened into the combined small dining room and kitchen.
After dropping his keys onto the small counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, he draped his leather jacket over one of the two barstools. Frowning, his mind kept repeating the flurry of events that comprised the attempted robbery. He marveled at how Katrina seemed to appear out of nowhere to help him. Actually, it was more like she came to his rescue. He smirked at that.
He plopped onto the worn leather sofa and reached over to the television remote sitting on one of the glass end tables. A small entertainment center sat in the corner next to the twin, medium-sized windows that looked out onto the fire escape. He pointed the remote at the TV and then changed his mind. Gazing towards the sheer curtains, he couldn't help feeling watched. He got up and looked out one of the windows, but only saw the aged red brick wall of a nondescript warehouse across the alleyway. Immediately outside was the rather unattractive, black metal fire escape platform that ran across each floor of the building. He sighed, chuckled, and silently berated himself for his paranoia.
Then his phone rang, which startled him. Damn it. He stormed to the kitchen counter.
"Hello," he answered in a terse voice.
"Caleb?" Melanie asked.
"Yeah," he replied with a heavy sigh.
"What's wrong?" she pressed as her TV played in the background.
He absently ran one hand through his hair and explained, "Well, I got mugged in the college parking lot tonight."
Melanie gasped slightly. "That's terrible! Did they take your wallet?"
His eyes widened with surprise, and he demanded incredulously, "My wallet?"
"Well, yeah," she insisted. "If so, it's a real pain! My friend at work, Terri, had her purse stolen, and it took like forever to cancel her credit cards and get her IDs remade."
"Huh?" he muttered in confusion as he took the phone away from his ear and stared at it with disgust. You're kidding, right? he thought wildly before putting the phone back to his ear. What about me? "Well, he didn't get my wallet," he said. "Thanks to Katrina, of course."
"Katrina? Who's Katrina?" she demanded in an annoyed voice.
Caleb took perverse pleasure in her response. "Katrina Rawlings. She's one of my history students," he proudly replied. "She's leading the class average by a mile, in fact."
Melanie paused, and the TV clicked off at her end of the line. "When did all this happen?" she asked with sudden interest.
"About an hour ago," he said as he glanced at his watch. "It's a good thing she was there because the guy was carrying a huge knife, Melanie. I tell you, I was-"
"An hour ago? Didn't class end way before that?" she abruptly interrupted.
His mind reeled, and he frowned. "Well, yeah, I guess. I was working late in my office grading some essays, and-"
"And was Katrina in your office, too?" she interjected.
"What?" Caleb asked incredulously. "Melanie, what are you trying to say? I get mugged, and maybe stabbed if it weren't for Katrina, and you don't seem too damned concerned about that," he snapped.
She sighed in a huffy manner and retorted, "Of course, I'm glad you're okay, Caleb."
He didn't think she sounded too convincing. "Well, I was alone in my office, thank you," he replied matter-of-factly.
"Okay, fine," Melanie replied. "I'm glad that you're okay and that you didn't lose your wallet."
"Thanks," he said, unconvinced.
"Do you want me to come over or anything?" she asked.
He thought about it for a moment and was surprised to find he really didn't feel like her company. He felt exhausted, wanting only to take a shower, have a beer to calm his nerves, and maybe go to bed. "No, that's okay, Mel," he said tiredly. "I'm beat. I just want a shower and some sleep."
"Well, call me tomorrow, okay?" she insisted.
"Sure," he replied. "G'night, Mel."
"'Night," she said before hanging up.
He laid the phone on the kitchen counter and headed to the refrigerator for a beer.
Katrina quietly leaned against the black metal railing of the fire escape outside Caleb's apartment window, well to the side in the shadows so that nobody could see her standing there. She was easily able to hear his voice as she watched him through the sheer curtains of his living room. While concerned for his well being, she felt a little like a stalker.
She sighed. It wasn't like she could just call him or stop by his apartment to check on him. Katrina readily detected his interest in her, and the feeling was certainly mutual. But she didn't want to jeopardize his job. It was all she could do not to seek him out after each class ended. Still, there were only two weeks left before the semester ended, and she would end her brief stint at college. She was going to miss listening to him lecture; he had a real talent for teaching. But more than that, she longed to just sit and chat with him, or sit and kiss those soft-looking lips of his.
From the warmth growing inside her, she felt a longing to do other things with him, as well. She longed to share his body, to partake in his blood. She let those thoughts playfully linger for a moment as she observed him.
One thing she knew for certain, based upon Caleb's conversation with his girlfriend, she definitely didn't like Melanie at all.
He deserves someone much better. Someone like me, she mused with a sly smile.
As she watched him drink his beer and head into the bedroom, she decided it was time to go. While it was fairly dark where she stood, she didn't want to press her luck on being noticed. Instead, she quickly but quietly negotiated her way to the ground level and headed down the alley to where she had parked her car.
Much later that night as Caleb lay in bed, he kept thinking back to the robbery attempt and how quickly Katrina had reacted. She seemed unusually calm and collected about everything, while he had felt scared to death. Maybe she was just cool under pressure, but he somehow felt there had to be more to it than that.
Those same feelings of familiarity began to stir in him again. What is it about Katrina that keeps nagging at me? However, no answers were forthcoming by the time he fell asleep well past midnight.
Katrina sat at her home computer, partaking in the variety of diversions that marked her time in seclusion during daylight. Though engaged in a variety of online financial evaluations and investment activities, her mind kept wandering back to Caleb. She adored listening to him and watching him lecture in her evening history class, and once again she considered how he seemed to have a knack for instruction. Katrina was an avid history fan herself, having appreciated the considerable culmination of personal experiences and observations as a vampire.
Her brief time around Caleb brought an appreciable, fresh dimension to her existence, making it feel more like a life and less of a drudgery. She had enjoyed their brief interactions and longed for more. The semester will be over before I know it. Then we'll see what happens.
She sighed and diverted her attentions to email. Since her reintegration into the world nearly two decades ago, she had reacquired a sense of enjoyment in the interactions with others of her kind. There were a number of fellow vampires from her past that she reached out to again and was pleased to find that most of them returned her interest.
Unfortunately, she was having trouble lately getting a response from a vampire named Garett who'd been living in Paris. He was usually very good about keeping in touch, so she was surprised. However, vampires were often reclusive, so Katrina anticipated that she would hear from him again soon.
She marveled at how much easier technology made everything for her kind. Blood supplies were delivered to nearly anywhere in the world via a specialized courier service. Email and text messaging made quick communication as personal or impersonal as she liked. Transportation around the world was effortless, though often at a considerable cost. Cable television provided hours, or even days, of alternate reality immersion. Every film ever made was available either on demand, online, or on DVD. And the wonderful virtual conduit known as the Internet provided hours of information and online distractions.
Her reverie was interrupted by a text message on her cell phone from a vampire named Alton, who was as close a friend as she'd ever known: Lost contact with Octavia in Trondheim. Just arrived in Paris.
Katrina frowned. Strange, she mused. Maybe Alton will at least be able to contact Garett for me.
The last two weeks of the semester passed very quickly. And while Caleb felt a sense of accomplishment at having successfully taught his first semester for the college, he was somewhat remorseful that one particular evening history section was coming to an end. On the last class meeting, he passed out the final exams. He lingered at Katrina's location for a moment longer than the others, smiling down at her with a hopeful, yet melancholy pause as he sat the exam before her.
Katrina felt an emotional stab of pain reach to her heart as she took in his expression, and she returned a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I studied," she offered with a wink. He smiled genuinely, and it warmed her heart for a moment. She couldn't read his thoughts, but she had accurately assessed his mood.
As was customary, Katrina finished before anyone else. She brought the exam to the front of the room as more than one set of eyes in the classroom followed her. She placed it onto the podium in front of Caleb while her eyes never left his, and she offered him a generous smile. With her back to the class, it was discreet enough that nobody was the wiser.
I'll miss you, he silently declared as he stared into her beautiful green eyes, wishing that propriety didn't prevent him from whispering his thoughts out loud to her.
Her hand faltered as it hovered over the exam that she placed before him. Her smile faded as she read every emotion in his pale blue eyes, which seemed to call to her in an almost helpless manner. As she withdrew her hand with a quick, smooth motion, she managed to caress the tips of her fingers gracefully across the top of his hand as he gripped the side of the podium. She audibly heard his heartbeat skip in that instant, and she smiled slyly at him and nodded her head ever so slightly before turning to walk away.
He watched her go with his eyes, even as his face was tilted towards the top of the podium, and his mind raced with the desire to call her name. However, he remained silent and turned his gaze to the remaining students with a sigh.
Caleb spent the next week grading exams, meeting with students regarding their grades, and trying to bring order to the chaos often accompanying the end of a semester. It was the first time he had experienced the process completely from the opposite side of the podium, and he gained immediate sympathy for his previous college professors.
He sighed. On top of the hectic pace at work, Melanie was annoyed with him. His responsibilities had ruined her plans for them to join some of her friends on a weekend getaway trip to Florida. He tried to explain that his evenings and upcoming weekend would be swamped with a litany of semester-ending activities, but she brokered no sympathy for him. Never mind that in October it's too late to fully appreciate the beaches.
On Thursday evening, he sat alone at his office desk wearing a pair of blue jeans and dark blue T-shirt with the college's name emblazoned across the front of it in large white letters. He had just finished posting the grades for his evening history class, in which Katrina made a perfect "A." Her accomplishment, while uncanny, somehow failed to surprise him. He found her to be quite a remarkable woman at many levels. Melanie would kill me just for thinking that, he realized.
His cell phone rang, and he noticed it was Melanie's number. Speak of the devil, he mused.
"Hey, what's up?" he absently asked as he filed away some graded essays in a small filing cabinet drawer for safekeeping.
"Hi," she replied in a surprisingly perky manner.
Everything must be forgiven, he resolved.
"So, I was wondering," she tentatively ventured, "How would you feel if I went ahead and joined my friends on the Jacksonville trip this weekend? I mean, you're just going to be distracted most of the time with school stuff anyway, right?"
He considered her logic with a raised eyebrow. "Well, sure, Mel. I don't mind if you go without me." He wasn't sure exactly how much time he'd have to devote to her on the upcoming weekend anyway. And if it makes her less angry with me, so much the better.
"Great!" she replied with renewed excitement. "I knew you wouldn't mind."
She must know me pretty well after six months of dating, he considered.
"Jodi said that a friend of hers, Greg Betwich, was going by himself. So it evens up the couples count again."
"Greg Betwich?" he asked with uncertainty.
"Yeah, you remember Greg? He was the guy at the Valentine's costume party we went to who was dressed as the peanut M&M," she explained. "The accountant with the odd sense of humor."
Oh, that Greg. He recalled Greg Betwich, all right. Greg was the guy dressed as the M&M who kept asking women if they wanted to prove he melted in their mouth and not in their hand. What a creep!
"So, this Greg thing," Caleb began carefully. "Are you planning to be with Greg while you're there?"
"Huh?" she asked. "Me and Greg? No silly, he's just going to even out the numbers for our group."
Much better, he corrected. At least she seemed to appreciate his concern. "Oh, well, that's okay," he replied more smoothly.
"I mean, we'll probably sit together and may do some dancing," she casually added. "But it's not like we'll be staying in the same hotel room together. He already booked the room across from me."
They already booked the rooms, and she's just now calling me? Okay, so maybe she doesn't appreciate me as fully as I thought, he considered as an afterthought.
He grit his teeth. "When are you guys leaving?" he asked with an edge to his voice.
"Well, probably early tomorrow morning so we beat the Friday afternoon rush," she answered. "We're all piling into Candace's minivan."
"Well, call me when you get there, so I'll know you're okay," he insisted in a resigned tone.
"Will do," she replied matter-of-factly. "And don't stay too late up at the college. There might be more muggers out there or something."
"Sure," he replied. "Talk to you tomorrow then."
"'Night!" she said before the line went dead.
Caleb shook his head and stared out the window at the campus, although it was so dark outside and so much lighter in his office that he really couldn't see anything. Reaching up, he turned the blinds down so he wouldn't feel like a fish in a bowl. He noted how eerily quiet the building was. It was only around eight o'clock, but most of the faculty had left for the day, and finals were over so there weren't any students around anymore. It felt lonely to him, actually, and sort of matched his mood at that moment.
"You're quite the night owl."
Caleb nearly bolted out of his chair, and his heart felt like it stopped in its tracks. "Holy -" he exclaimed with a start.
Katrina smiled down at him with a mischievous grin while folding her arms across her chest.
His breath was having a hard time returning to him, but it wasn't because of surprise. Caleb took note of her snug black denim jeans and brilliant blue, long-sleeved turtleneck sweater. Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, giving her a sexy, yet edgy, appearance. She was simply beautiful.
"Sorry to startle you," she playfully offered.
He grinned and shook his head despite himself. "You got me there," he conceded.
She raised an eyebrow at him and muttered, "Lucky me."
He stared at her for another moment in silent admiration. "So, Katrina, what brings you up here at this time of night?"
"I thought I might find you here," she answered simply.
"Oh, really?" he asked with raised eyebrows. "Were you wanting to know your final grade? It should be no surprise that you made a perfect score on everything, including the bonus questions." The completely unusual nature of that registered on him with remarkable impact. Suffice to say, while not impossible, it was a highly unusual level of performance.
"Thank you. That's nice to know," she absently replied. "Actually, I came by for you."
Came for me?
She noted the momentary look of confusion on his face with silent appreciation. Slow down, Katrina, she silently chided in a split second's time. She warmly smiled at him as she listened to his pulse, noting he had a strong heart. From where she stood, she could almost hear the blood rushing through his body. His blood momentarily called to her, and she steadied the innate desire for it that rose in her system.
"I was hoping that we could talk, actually," she amended with a gentle tone.
"Sure," he replied while gesturing to a small guest chair next to his desk. "What's up?"
She tentatively smiled with a sparkle in her green eyes. "Actually, I was thinking that maybe you'd like to talk over coffee somewhere."
He was disappointed as a small warning bell went off in his head. His smile faded, and he responded, "I'm sorry, Katrina. I shouldn't; what with you being one of my students and everything."
But her smile was confident as she raised an eyebrow and countered, "Have you posted our final grades?"
"Well, yes, as a matter of fact," he carefully answered. "But you're still a student."
"Really?" she asked. "I don't believe I'm enrolled here anymore."
A momentary look of surprise played across his face. "I don't understand," he ventured with confusion. "Aren't you enrolling in other courses?"
She shook her head in an almost self-satisfied manner.
"But -" he paused. "Your potential is amazing. Surely, you want to finish a degree or something."
Katrina smirked, regarding his confusion with a sly expression. "No, my college experience has come to an end," she replied. "It provided me with all that I needed."
Caleb blinked once and asked, "Well, what other courses have you completed?"
Her expression turned serious, and she paused before answering in a quiet voice, "History."
His mind momentarily reeled at the odd implications of her simple statement, and his thoughts seemed to seize as he got lost in the pair of beautiful green eyes staring back at him.
"Coffee?" she ventured while never losing eye contact. "I'll drive."
In the parking lot, Caleb stood before the sleek, jet black Audi sports car in awe. Even by the dim lighting it was a spectacle of automotive engineering. He couldn't even dream of something like that given his salary. "This is your car?" he incredulously asked.
Katrina smirked at him as she unlocked the doors with her remote. Ah, he likes it, she complimented herself. "Hop in," she offered while sliding behind the driver's seat.
He gingerly sat in the passenger seat and reveled in the luxurious leather interior. The vehicle fit him like a glove, and he glanced sidelong at Katrina with a wide-eyed expression. "This is new," he noted while breathing in the scent of the new car smell mixed with fresh leather. "Cool."
Katrina smiled during their drive through the Atlanta city streets as the radio played alternative rock tunes. She basked in the sense of anticipation emanating in small waves from him and took pleasure in having piqued his curiosity.
She studied Caleb with interest as they sat across from each other at the Starbucks on Northeast Moreland Avenue. The place was bustling with people at that hour, but the atmosphere still felt cozy as they secured a small table in the corner of the room near the magazine rack. Pleasant acoustic guitar music serenaded them over the speakers, and they viewed the busy street outside through the front window. Despite the invitation to coffee, Caleb carefully sipped at a mug of Darjeeling. Realizing it was still too hot, he sat the cup down and smiled at Katrina as he noticed her intently observing him.
She enjoyed just watching him sip his tea. It was satisfying simply to sit across the table from him with no impediments to her interest in him. Gone were the premises of the college environment in which she initially sought him. He was hers to focus on entirely. She momentarily paused to consider the possessive nature of her thoughts and found that they suited her.
"Do you like it?" she asked. "Granted, it's not coffee, as I originally suggested."
"It's tasty, actually," he conceded with a hint of surprise. "I don't drink a lot of coffee anyway."
In truth, he didn't tend to stray too far outside of his comfort zone, even when it came to tea. But that night had a different feel to it; somehow daring, yet surprisingly comforting to him. "Yes," he added, his mind back on the tea. "It's light, but there's a sweet hint of nuts and something buttery."
She nodded with a smile while sipping appreciatively from a cup of the same flavor. She relished that vampires could appreciate many beverages and even some foods, though they derived no nutrition from them. In fact, large quantities of human food usually caused her unpleasant digestive effects.
"What did you want to talk about?" he asked.
She regarded him for a moment, once again reveling in the intimacy of their conversation. "Anything," she said simply. "Tell me about yourself."
He smiled, not having expected such an open-ended invitation. And yet he frowned ever so slightly as he considered whether it were appropriate to be sitting across the table from her.
"Am I complicating anything?" she asked in an intentionally vague fashion. While Katrina didn't want to cause him undue guilt over being here with her, she also didn't really care what Melanie might think. The more that she learned about Melanie, the less she liked her.
"Um, not complicated, really," Caleb offered awkwardly before pausing to collect his thoughts. The truth was that after the conversation with Melanie earlier that evening, he wasn't at all certain just how much more complicated anything could be between the two of them. Even after six months or more he still wasn't entirely sure where he and Melanie stood as a couple. Just when he thought he had it figured out, another unexpected event sprang up. Overall, he sometimes felt that he was just "Mister Right Now" when it came to his girlfriend.
Katrina noted his struggle and patiently waited for him to continue.
"What I mean is, I want to be here with you," he said finally with a sheepish smile.
He's cute, she mused. Much like when he was a child.
"I'm glad to hear it," she answered with an encouraging smile. "Because I want to be here with you, too."
They sipped their tea for a moment, silently appreciating each other's company. Then something that had been on Caleb's mind since he first saw Katrina in class came to the forefront of his thoughts.
"Forgive me if this sounds strange," he tentatively began. "But do we know each other from somewhere? And not from class, of course. What I mean is, have we met somewhere before?"
Katrina curiously arched one eyebrow at him, and fell silent for a moment. He still doesn't remember, she confirmed. She was surprised that the little hypnosis trick during his childhood had worked so well. However, he obviously has some orphaned sense of awareness in the back of his mind, she assessed as an afterthought.
"You're looking at me like I'm the subject of a study," he noted with a hint of amusement.
"Sorry," she apologized before carefully answering his original question. "I've only been in Atlanta for a few months now. I relocated here earlier in the summer."
He frowned and nodded. "Oh, I see."
Katrina hoped that would be the end of that line of thought for the moment.
"Well then, what about pastimes? Shopping? Reading?" he politely inquired, but with an immediate sense that it was a horribly generic place to start.
"Oh no," she gently chided. "I asked you to tell me about yourself."
He grinned at her and remarked, "Busted."
"Indeed," she observed with mock-imperiousness.
Caleb thoughtfully sipped his tea before continuing, "I grew up in Ohio near Columbus. My mother raised me from a fairly young age as a single parent."
"Divorced?" Katrina casually asked.
He frowned. "Abandoned, I think."
She raised an eyebrow at that and gently ventured, "You sound as if you're not certain."
His frown deepened as he stared into his tea. "My father wasn't necessarily a kind man, you see," he explained in a vague manner. "And he drank. But one day he simply disappeared. My mother said he just left, and then we never heard from him again."
Katrina was fascinated by his recollection. Your father was a sadistic, despicable man, Caleb, she thought to herself. I'm glad I killed him, she added. Still, she maintained a neutral expression for Caleb's benefit.
"Mom raised me from that time. But something changed in her after my father left," he recalled. "She ensured the household was stable again. She had a great job in Columbus working for a mortgage processing company, and she worked her way up to senior mortgage processing supervisor before she passed away. She never remarried though; never dated much, either. Although she didn't like to talk about that much."
"Your mother sounds like a remarkable woman, Caleb," Katrina said.
"For the most part," he agreed with a frown. "But she was kind of a paradox to me sometimes."
"Oh?" she tentatively asked.
He smiled as if remembering something and explained, "After my father left, Mom became pretty obsessed with security around the house. She took a self-defense class, bought a shotgun, and made sure we had a great home security system. But she never wanted me involved with any of that. When I asked if she would take me to the self-defense class so we could do more together, she wouldn't let me. And when I asked her to take me shooting, she nixed that pretty quickly, too. It was as if she wanted to shelter me or something."
Katrina silently nodded as she absorbed and analyzed every word. She wanted to keep you away from violence. She feared it would take its hold on you, as it did your father.
"I asked her once what she was afraid of," he added almost as an afterthought. "And she would never really answer me. But I kept thinking..."
Katrina's eyes darted to meet his. "Yes?"
The corner of one side of his mouth rose slightly. "I know it's crazy, but I kept thinking...it's like she was waiting...waiting for something to come after us."
Your father, she mused. Don't worry, Caleb. He's gone forever, she willed with her piercing green eyes as she bored into his with a sudden intensity.
He stared into Katrina's eyes, which fleetingly appeared so cold to him, and felt a shiver go up his spine before abruptly looking away from her.
"Are you okay?" she softly asked after practically seeing the shiver run through his body.
"Sorry," he replied. "It's nothing."
I scared him, she silently chastised herself. Katrina reached out and caressed her fingers lightly across the hand holding his tea, and he looked up with a shy smile. "Thank you for sharing that with me," she offered sincerely.
"It's strange, but I feel like I could tell you anything," he earnestly observed. "And we barely know each other."
"Nonsense, we practically traveled through history together for a whole eight weeks," she countered with a grin.
They both laughed and quickly sipped their tea for a few moments. Then Katrina broke the silence. "So, you had some questions for me, as I recall," she ventured in an uplifting tone.
Caleb nodded, but felt suddenly unprepared for where to start with his questions. Unfortunately, she recalled his initial lame series of questions.
"Reading? Absolutely. Shopping? On occasion," she answered. "Although mostly I'm a people watcher, you could say."
"Really?" he inquired with interest, eager to engage her with anything remotely relevant that he'd failed to ask at the beginning of their conversation. But something in her response struck a chord in him; perhaps it was in the way she said it. "Do tell," he urged. "About people watching, that is."
She pursed her lips while considering him from across the table. "People hold a special interest for me," she said. "I guess you could say I'm a hopeless student of humanity."
"Ah, hence the history class," he confidently replied. "Was there something about the class that caught your interest in particular?"
The left side of her mouth upturned in a clever half-smile. "You could say that."
"Well, I hope I was helpful to you," he offered as he took a sip of his cooled tea. He was surprised how much he enjoyed the flavor and made a mental note to order it again.
"Oh, you were," she assured him. "I'm feeling much more confident moving forward with my informal research now."
"Good," he replied appreciatively. "I'm glad to hear it. What's the topic?"
You, of course, she thought. "Initial history-related teaching techniques of new faculty at community colleges," she replied matter-of-factly.
"Ah, so you were auditing me then," he teased with a knowing smile.
"Exactly," she stated, all too aware of how close he was to the truth. And you passed with flying colors.
"But tell me more about you," he insisted. "Where are you from? What brought you to Atlanta? Do you have family nearby?"
She genuinely appreciated his refreshing sense of curiosity instead of focusing entirely on himself, like so many other men she had met over the years. But she knew a little more about him than the seeming strangers that came and went in her life. Her life, she sardonically mused. A life of what?
He seemed to note her momentary distraction and misunderstood the nature of it. "But I'm being too nosy tonight," he muttered with reservation as he finished off his cup of tea.
She considered him with an amused smile. So shy, she mused. How very charming and uncommon today. "Not at all, Caleb," she proceeded before backtracking. "May I call you Caleb?"
He seemed taken aback that she would ask and replied, "Please do. It's not like you're my student anymore. Now we're just two people getting to know one another."
Sure, she thought. But only one of us is a person. The other is a vampire.
"I felt a strong pull to be here, though I've never lived in this state before, much less the city of Atlanta," she began. "As to where I come from, I'm a resident of the world. And I don't have family here, or anywhere. Any family I had are already dead."
His face fell with a sudden realization. "Really? Me, too."
He relayed to her that his mother had been his only family to speak of. Her parents were older when they had her, and she had no siblings. His father, Ted, had an estranged relationship with his parents, so Caleb never got to know them. He wasn't even sure if they were living or how to get in touch with them. Ted had a brother named Brian, but Caleb had only met him once as a child, and he wasn't sure where his uncle even lived. He explained to the beautiful, red-haired woman before him that he was alone in the world, just as she was.
Katrina closely listened to the story of Caleb's family, but frowned with concern when he suddenly seemed ashamed for a moment, and then quickly fell silent.
"I'm sorry," he apologized as his face turned a shade of crimson. "I've monopolized the conversation again."
She warmly smiled at him from across the table and reached out to grasp his right hand he'd placed before him. His fingers smoothly wound around hers in return, and he smiled.
"Caleb, I want to know everything about you," she insisted. "We'll learn more about each other with every topic that comes up."
He was simply awestruck by Katrina. He had chatted more about his past with her in the coffee shop in an hour than he had the whole six months with Melanie, perhaps more than with any other woman he had dated. And it wasn't as though he didn't get along well with women, it was just that the women he had dated weren't as interested in him as much as in what he could do for them.
Katrina noticed his distracted expression and offered, "A penny for your thoughts?"
He smiled across the table at her. "That's quaint. Nobody says that anymore."
She adopted a smirk and countered, "Well, I'm a bit of an old-fashioned girl."
He absently nodded at her and marveled that he was actually sitting at a table with such a beautiful, articulate, and gentle woman.
"And being an old-fashioned girl," she continued, "I better get you back at a decent hour to get your car, or your girlfriend will be scandalized."
Caleb immediately frowned and asked, "How did you know I had a girlfriend?"
Her expression remained pleasant, but her mind raced for an answer. That's what happens when you let your guard down so easily, she scolded herself. Then it hit her.
"Well, the first night after class," she innocently explained. "Wasn't there a woman holding an apple outside your office?"
He slowly nodded, and his frown dissipated somewhat.
"I mean, I'm old-fashioned, but absolutely no students actually do that anymore," she offered with a smirk.
He smiled back at her with a nod, while she inwardly smiled at her good fortune and quick thinking.