When the next lecture came, I got there early the way I always did. Took my seat in the front row.
Opened my notebook. Wrote the date at the top of the page.
My heart already beating faster than it should have been.
Nolan dropped in beside me a minute later with his coffee, nudged my arm in greeting, asked me something about the reading. I nodded. Not sure what he’d said.
Then the room changed.
He walked in and I felt it before I looked up. That pull, low and warm, that had apparently decided it lived in me now whether I invited it or not.
He set his briefcase down. Rolled his cuffs.
Then he looked up.
His gaze moved across the hall. Back. Middle. Front.
Then he found me.
My stomach tightened.
He stayed for a second longer. Then the lecture began.
I kept my pen moving and t
