Page 18 of And I Love Her

Chapter 5

“On Monday, we’ll start discussing the specific functions of the Underworld beings,” Callie called over the rustle of papers and notebooks as the students started to leave the lecture hall. “Review your notes on Charon, Cerberus, the Fates, and the Furies, please. Remember that discussion is fifteen percent of your final grade. Your term papers are due on my desk by five p.m. tomorrow.”

She turned off the slide projector and checked her daily agenda. It would take her five minutes to walk back to her office, which then gave her half an hour to prep for her noon call with the Cambridge Press editor who was interested in contracting her book.

IfCallie could prove her idea was an important take on the goddesses and heroines of Greco-Roman mythology.

If not…

Tension crawled down her spine.

“Please let me put your lectures on a computer.” Her teaching assistant Jordan thunked the slide carousels onto the table with a groan. “You have no idea how much easier it will be to organize and update them.”

“The slides are just fine.” Callie put her agenda in her satchel. “I prefer to make changes to my lectures in longhand.”

“You’re not a hundred years old,” Jordan remarked, as if she didn’t know that. “Didn’t you use digital presentations when you were a student?”

“Yes, but Professor Farnsworth was my mentor, and he convinced me that real slides and handwritten lecture notes are superior. So I’ve used them ever since I started working here.” She snapped her satchel closed. “Can you please take the carousels over to the Art History library? I need to look for new slides later this afternoon.”

Muttering under his breath aboutmodern technologyandsuperiority, Jordan packed up the remote and wiring before heading off.

“Dr. Prescott?” Lisa, a sophomore who’d taken a course with her last semester, stopped beside the podium. “Did you get my email?”

Callie shot a quick glance at the departing undergrads. As was usual the day before an assignment was due, she’d gotten a dozen emails from plaintive students begging for extensions on their papers—because I had to study for a chemistry pop quiz, because my laptop battery died,because my Wi-Fi is out and I can’t access the course website, a message to which Callie had replied,Then how are you able to access email?

“I did,” she told Lisa. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

“Thanks. It was pretty scary.”

Callie had received Lisa’s email late last night and hadn’t had to mull it over. Lisa was an excellent student with A’s on all her exams. She’d never turned in an assignment late or asked for an extension. Her message about having been in a collision—a texting driver had rear-ended her, and she’d lost control and crashed into a railing—had been accompanied by photos of the wreck and the police report. Though Lisa wasn’t hurt, the aftermath was a challenge.

“I just need one or two more days.” Lisa gnawed on her bottom lip. “I’m dealing with the insurance and police now, and it was the car I used to take my little brother to his school and activities, so it’s thrown everything totally out of whack.”

Callie snapped her satchel closed and lowered her voice. “Can you have your paper to me by Monday?”

Relief filled Lisa’s eyes. “Yes, definitely. Thank you so much.”

“Don’t tell anyone I gave you an extension, please.” Callie slipped her satchel over her shoulder. “I don’t want to ruin my reputation as a tyrant.”

“Don’t worry.” Lisa smiled. “If anyone asks, I’ll tell them you’re getting ready to throw down lightning bolts at us mere mortals.”

“Monday.” Callie raised an eyebrow pointedly.

“I’ll have it on your desk by nine.” Lisa clasped her hands together. “Thank you so much, Dr. Prescott.”

“You’re welcome. I hope it all works out, but please keep me posted.”

Callie checked her watch and hurried outside. She’d have less than half an hour to do a final prep for her Cambridge Press call, but that would still be enough time. She’d been working so hard on this proposal that she almost had it memorized.

After passing the elevator, she hurried up the stairs to her fifth-floor office, retrieving her office keys from her blazer pocket. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she’d better eat something before her call too. Hopefully she had a granola bar in her desk.

Head down, she searched her keyring for her office key just as a pair of large, scuffed sneakers came into view. She stopped, lifting her eyes to long, muscular legs clad in faded jeans…

Callie’s breath caught. She continued her upward trek, sweeping her gaze over his fly—which she couldn’t help noticing was button rather than zipper, and she had always found button flies rather ridiculously sexy—to his flat abdomen and broad, muscular chest that…

“I’ve been avoiding elevators too,” a deep male voice remarked. “But it’s a good thing we both decided to take one the other day.”

Oh. My. God.

---