by Tia Siren
“Come with me,” she said urgently. She ran back down the stairs and he tried following her but lost sight of her when she ran around the building.
“Gracie? Where are you going?” He had to pick up his pace to catch up to her. “What is this a spy movie?” he joked.
She grabbed him and pulled him closer to the bushes. “Shhh. Don’t say anything.”
“What are you doing?” he whispered.
“Helping you.” She snuck around the bushes and to a back entrance of the building. She slid her hand into her pocket and produced a key that unlocked the door and led them into the darkened building. She turned toward him and put her finger to her lips before creeping along the wall. The only light they had was from the exit signs over a few doors on opposite ends of the hallway. She opened a door and flipped on a light switch after the door closed.
They were inside an enclosed room with no windows. Filing cabinets, stacked on top of each other lined the walls. It all looked so primitive. There were a few long tables with computers but she didn’t go to them.
“This is the room where all of the student files are kept.”
He looked at some of the closer file cabinets and saw how they were labeled. Each cabinet had the year of graduation and the last names of the students.
“Seems easy enough, I guess. Why did we sneak in?”
“I don’t have authorization to be in here. This is private information for certain staff members only.” Her voice had a sarcastic tone.
“How did you get the key then?”
“I used to be part of the staff here, but apparently, I didn’t do my job to their standards and they demoted me last year.” She was obviously still upset about it but Edward thought it was better left alone. “Anyway, I made you a copy.” She held out a shiny silver key toward him.
“What? I thought I would just get a little info now.”
“Oh, hell no. I’m not sticking around. You want this kind of information you have to come in on your own risk.” She jetted the key sharply toward him until he took it from her. “Just remember, it’s on the first floor in room 105.”
He nodded, wishing he wasn’t in this darkened building with her. “Thank you, Gracie, for all of your help.” He turned and quickly left the building with her right behind him. He vowed to never get wrapped up with Gracie and to never go in the administration building without trying to get permission first. There was something very off about her and about sneaking around someplace you’re not supposed to be.
During the course of the day, he did some shopping to fill his refrigerator, emailed some information to Joseph and got through some errands he needed to get through, all the while thinking about Eva and how he was going to find her. He wondered what she was doing and how close he was to her. Maybe going back to the administration building wouldn’t be so bad after all. If he did so late at night, how risky could it be? He’d be in and out fast enough that no one would even know he was there.
He stayed in his flat until after midnight then took a leisurely stroll toward the campus. When he reached the administration building, he felt the small flashlight in his jacket pocket and looked around. When he saw that he was alone he walked around to the back of the building like Gracie had done earlier that day and tried the key that she gave him. The key slid into the lock easily and turned all the way around. He slowly opened the door and peered inside, looked behind him and quickly went in. He walked along the wall until he reached room 105 and slowly went inside. His hand rested on the light switch as he turned his flash light off. When the door closed completely he flipped the light switch. The bulbs flickered on, blinding him at first. He went to work immediately wanting to find Eva’s file as quick as he could. He calculated the year of her graduation and pulled a cabinet open labeled BR-CA. He rummaged through the tabs until he came to Brooks, John.
“No, Eva.”
He closed the drawer and moved to the next year. He moved a ladder to the second row of cabinets and climbed to one labeled BL-BR. He pulled the drawer out and shuffled through the files. When he saw Eva’s name, his heart rate picked up. His finger slid over her name and he pulled it from the file, opening it and seeing her picture stapled to the cover. He stared at her eyes, in awe at how beautiful she was.
The door opened and Edward stumbled, falling off the ladder, the file still tightly in his hand. He landed on his butt and quickly got up, closing the file and tightening his grip on it behind his back. He turned toward the door to face the consequence of getting caught.
Chapter 16
Edward had done quite a few things in his life that would have warranted a criminal record if he had gotten caught. A criminal record would have caused dire consequences on his road to success, but he knew how to cover his tracks and stay out of the line of fire. He quickly got up off the floor with Eva’s file clenched in his fist behind his back. He stared wide eyed at the big bellied security guard and felt like a child getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. At this point, even if he had an alibi he was sure he looked so guilty the guard wouldn’t have believed him anyway.
“Who are you and what are you doing in here?” The man had his hand on something strapped to his side as he barreled into the room.
Edward put his free hand up and attempted a smile. “Good evening. I’m sorry, sir, if I made any sort of disturbance. My name is Eddie Caldwell and I’m a new professor here at the college. Well hopefully.”
The guard turned enough so Edward could see that he had his hand on his night stick as the man eased out of his crouching tiger stance when Edward introduced himself calmly. “What do you mean, hopefully?”
“I have my final interview here. In this building. Tomorrow.” He spoke, hesitatingly, hoping the guard would draw his own conclusion as to why a strange man was creeping around late at night in the records room but it didn’t seem to work. “I was just trying to get familiar with things so I had an advantage over….”
“You shouldn’t even have access to these rooms,” he interrupted. “I’m afraid you are going to have to come with me.” He backed up out of the room and motioned for Edward to follow him.
Edward felt defeated, but he wasn’t about to let a policeman wanna-be security guard tarnish his perfect bad boy record. He knew he needed to stash Eva’s file first, so he tried waiting for the guard to look away for just a second. The guard backed up enough to stop in the hallway but he stayed in the doorway until Edward started walking toward him. He frantically tried to figure out how to talk his way through this, but oddly he had nothing.
“Come on, come on,” the guard said impatiently. “You’ll have to answer to the authorities on this one.”
“If you will just listen to me, I’m just trying to….”
“Save it for the police.” The guard didn’t want to hear anymore and was obviously getting irritated at Edward’s delays. He figured the guard must have more pressing issues, like his nightly nap after making his rounds.
When they got into the hallway, the guard quickly looked around inside the room once more, turned out the lights and secured the door. He escorted Edward out of the building and toward the campus. They didn’t get more than a few meters out the door when he saw Gracie walking directly toward them.
“Hey, Eddie,” she called out. “Did you lock up yet?”
“I…” he quickly glanced sideways at the guard. “Yes. I did.”
“I forgot to tell you I needed the other two files as well.”
“The… other two files?”
“Yes.” She raised her eyebrows at him and lowered her head, keeping her eyes on his.
“You know this man?” asked the guard, defensively.
She looked over at him and smiled. “Evening, Ronnie. Yes. I hope there isn’t a problem here.”
“Well, now I’m not so sure. I caught him in an unauthorized room after hours and he didn’t have much of a reason for being there so I…”
“You didn’t give me a chance to explain,” s
aid Edward.
“Hush,” he snapped. “Like I was trying to say, I thought it better to have the police take care of the situation.”
“I was just explaining to the guard, um, Ronnie, that I was trying to get familiar with things before my interview tomorrow.” Edward felt the need to clue her into his lame alibi so she didn’t trample all over it and blow them both in.
“Oh, Ronnie.” She walked closer to the overweight, middle-aged man in uniform and feathered her fingers through his hair. “There is absolutely no need to get the police involved. He was doing some late-night work for me and I was giving him a few insider tips. You know, struggling teacher, trying to get a position into such a wonderful college. I felt the need to help the poor boy out. You know how it is, don’t you, Ronnie?”
“Yes, um. Yes, ma’am.” The guard looked down toward the ground as his authoritative demeanor quickly changed to that of a shy and embarrassed boy.
Somehow, Edward didn’t think it mattered if their stories matched. Hell, they could have been two completely different stories for all this guy cared. Edward kept his eye on Gracie as she easily melted the hardened security guard into a puddle.
“I apologize if he caused you any inconvenience. He was supposed to get my files earlier when the building was open,” she said, looking at Edward with a scolding stare.
“That’s okay. Really. I wasn’t aware that he was helping you.”
She leaned toward him and whispered into his ear, her hand resting on his chest above his large belly. When she straightened back up, Edward could see a hue of pink in the guard’s cheeks. He nodded profusely and backed away from them, his eyes still on the ground. Without a word, Ronnie stepped away and hesitated.
“I’ll be right back,” she said. She walked toward Ronnie and Edward looked after them, confused as to what was going on.
They disappeared behind the nearest building into the shadows. Edward slowly walked in that direction but stopped when he heard the heavy breathing. He quietly walked to the building and peered around the corner into the shadows where they disappeared to. Ronnie was leaning up against the building, his pants around his ankles, his lips perked together as he made seething noises through his teeth. Gracie knelt in front of him, her head bobbing back and forth, her shirt pulled down below her breasts and her skirt gathered up around her waist. Edward instantly knew what was going on and turned away, disgusted at what he just witnessed. He walked away from them, down the path and got to the other side of the administration building when he heard her call his name. He stopped and closed his eyes, wishing he had never crossed paths with her. He turned around to see her running toward him, pulling her tight skirt down as she ran, Ronnie jogging behind her, out of breath but quite happy at the festivities that took place.
“Okay, so I talked to Ronnie in private for you and he has agreed to let you go. Isn’t that right Ronnie?”
“Oh, yes Miss Gracie. Of course, he is.” He looked at Edward and nodded profusely, the jowls beneath his chin giggling as he did.
“Thank you, Ronnie. You are a very understanding man.”
“So, I will see you later then?”
“You can count on it. Good night, Ronnie.” She spoke to the man in such a manner that it was easy to see he was putty in her hands. Edward didn’t want to know any more about it so he just let Ronnie walk away before turning toward Gracie.
“Wow. Thank you.”
“No problem,” she said, irritated. “I figured you were a man who could handle situations like this. Why are you getting yourself caught anyway? I practically gave you what you were looking for.”
“You didn’t tell me there was a guard on duty.”
“I shouldn’t have to.” She furrowed her eyebrows, obviously disgusted at Edward’s lack of caution. “Can you please be more careful next time?”
“Hopefully there won’t be a next time.”
She looked down at the file still in Edward’s hand before he pressed it up against his leg. “What were you looking for, anyway?”
“Nothing in particular. Just doing a little research,” he said abruptly. “Anyway, thank you again. You showed up at just the right time. I should be getting back.” He turned away from her before she had a chance to say anymore.
“Good luck tomorrow,” she called out after him.
He held his hand up in the air and waved without looking back. How did she show up at just the right time, anyway? It was awfully peculiar that she just happened to be right there at such an odd hour of the night. He was more than grateful, but it played on his thoughts.
Keeping that thought in the back of his mind, he opened Eva’s file as he turned onto the street he lived on, her picture still on the inside cover, her eyes looking into his, her lips calling out to him. He slid his finger down the side of her face and he could feel the way she touched him back in Paris. He missed her more than he had ever missed anyone in his life. When he looked up, nothing was familiar. Stopping in the middle of the block, he looked around and realized he had walked past his flat and onto another street.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” He closed the file and looked around, angry at himself for letting a woman take over his thoughts. He never let a woman take over anything in his life. He felt like he was changing, but did he like it? He opened the folder and looked at her picture again and caught himself smiling. Closing the folder once more, he walked back the other way until he reached his flat. He unlocked the door and went inside glancing at his watch. He knew if he didn’t go to bed soon, he wasn’t going to sleep at all.
It was already after one am and his interview was scheduled for eight. He opened one of his bags still not unpacked from his move and he glanced over at the file he threw on the desk. He shook his head and promised to get up a little earlier to look at it further. He pulled a stack of shirts from his bag and set them on the chair. Before he knew it, he was sitting at the desk with the folder open in front of him. His eyes scanned each page. Everything about her was in it; where she lived, where she grew up, who her family was, how much her education was costing her, how long she was going there. He tried to bypass all of that as he looked for her schedule, but as his eyes scanned over her address it stuck in his mind. He wanted to know everything about her, but not this way. He was not a stalker, nor did he want to come across as such.
Chapter 17
The next morning, with only a couple of hours of sleep in him, he jumped out of bed and got ready for his first full day at Oxford University. He never did require a lot of sleep and when something peaked his interest he almost had to force himself to sleep.
His first stop of the day was to make copies of Eva’s schedule and get the file back into the file room before anyone discovered it missing. His second piece of business was to try to land a trivial role in a small teaching position; something that would be enough to keep him on campus. Then he needed to concentrate on running into Eva and make it look completely random. He walked out of his flat with a briefcase full of ideas and a heart full of hope.
After a successful interview, he grabbed some lunch at an off-campus café and pulled out his folder. The class he was assigned to was scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays with an option for some lab work if he was interested. With a promise to think about it, he secretly vowed to devote his time to finding Eva and he had the rest of the day to do just that. He studied her schedule in hopes of figuring out where she would be.
Monday, science, eleven am. That would put her on the east campus until around noon, he thought. He pulled the map of the campus and studied it, looked at his watch and quickly stood up. Downing the rest of his tea, he gathered his things together, quickly paid for his meal and dashed out of the restaurant. He didn’t have a lot of time to get to the east side.
He walked swiftly, his eyes cascading across the campus as he walked. His heart beating practically out of his chest, making him second guess himself. He had never acted this way over a woman. Why was she so special? He smiled a b
road smile and dismissed his questions. He didn’t care.
When he got to the science building, he casually leaned up against the railing as he pretended to be on his phone. He kept his eyes on the doors of the building with only a couple of minutes to spare. Each time the doors opened, he quickly turned and looked, hoping it was Eva who walked down the stairs toward him, but each time the doors opened it was someone other than her. Several of the young college girls would sashay by him and smile. He received a few winks and even a couple of suggestive comments but it wasn’t what he wanted.
After half an hour, he looked at her schedule again, confused as to why his calculations weren’t correct. He slowly walked away, reviewing the course schedule and trying to map out where he needed to be next. She only had one other class and it wasn’t until later that afternoon. He looked back up at the doors before turning and walking away.
For the next two hours, Edward bide his time at the teachers’ lounge in the business building, sipping complimentary coffee and catching up on some local news back home. He made a call to Joseph and brought him up to speed but kept his eye on the time so he wouldn’t miss Eva again. He gave himself plenty of time to be in the right place at the right time, but no matter what he tried to do, he still didn’t see her.
“I don’t get it,” he said out loud as he looked up at a different set of doors.
“Can I help you with something?”
Edward turned around to see a beautiful young college student dressed in the same uniform the other students wore, but her skirt was much shorter and her top was much more revealing. The young brunette flirted with him immensely and with no inhibition whatsoever.
His old devious mind came flooding back to him and he thought about taking her up on her offer. He knew by the end of the night he would have her in his bed or bent over the back of someone’s car or even riding her on the back steps of one of the academic buildings surrounding them.
