What Happens at Midnight by Laura Chapman

Author:Laura Chapman [Chapman, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Laura Chapman

Eight

I’m still considering the Rob debacle the following Tuesday morning during my regularly scheduled office hours. This late in the semester I can expect a few students who, having just checked their grades, will beg for extra credit opportunities or a morning of blissful silence. Either way, I came prepared with the breakfast of champions: chocolate snack cakes and a bottle of Diet Coke. I’m sure both have plenty of essential vitamins and minerals like sugar and caffeine.

I can’t quite get over what happened during the party. Mallory told Rob everything, and he seemed genuinely taken aback. I’m pretty good at reading body language—I have to be when conducting field research—and there was definitely guilt on his face. I suppose Mallory painted a pretty pathetic picture in her attempt to set us up.

That’s a whole extra level of this mess. While she tried to deny it once she’d sobered up and recovered from her hangover the next day, Mallory had basically thrown me at Rob. Then after her denial, she tried to set us up again. I assured her it wouldn’t work out. If she only knew.

My mouth is full of a bite of chocolate and cream when my phone rings.

“Your appointment is here to see you,” the student worker at the Anthropology Department’s front desk says.

That’s weird. I pull up my calendar. “I don’t have an appointment scheduled.”

“Well, someone is here.”

It’s probably one of my freshman students hoping for an extension on the final paper. It’s not going to happen. The papers are due on Friday at noon. I have to turn grades in by next week. I won’t miss my deadline because some kid can’t finish a paper I assigned the first day of the semester.

“Not on my watch,” I mumble.

“What?” she asks.

“Nothing. What do they want?”

She huffs and covers the phone. What’s she so upset about? If she’d taken the time to get a few details before calling me, she wouldn’t have to do it now.

“He says it’s personal. Can I send him back?”

I narrowly resist the urge to sigh. “Go ahead.”

“She’s the fifth door on the right.” She stays on the line a few seconds longer. In a hushed voice, she says, “Whoever he is, he’s hot. Well done, Doc. Have fun with Brown Eyes.”

Brown eyes. My heart pounds in my ears. I barely have time to rinse my mouth with Diet Coke and stash the rest of my snack cakes in the top drawer of my desk before someone knocks on my door.

“Come in.” I wince. That came out shriller than I would have liked.

The handle turns and Rob Castillo’s head pokes around the corner.

“Have time for a last-minute meeting, Professor?”

“Hi.” It’s hardly a response, but it’s all I can muster. What is he doing here?

“I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about the final. I'm stuck on the primitive cultures chapters.”

“That's too bad,” I say, slowly catching on to his joke. “The whole test covers primitive cultures. And you’re a day late. We took the final yesterday.

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