“Aren’t you on the wrong side of campus?”

The voice hit Piper so completely unaware that the face provided a one-two punch and left her speechless. After several seconds of silence, his dimpled smile materialized, and Sebastian seated himself in the chair across the table from her.

“You’re premed, right?” he prompted.

“Um, yeah,” she stuttered, feeling like an idiot.

“So, this is the engineering building.”

“But it’s also the only on-campus place to get good coffee…besides, aren’t you on the actual wrong campus?”

The dimples popped again – apparently, he had two. “Touché. I’m actually here to, uh – to meet Molly.”

“Oh…” Piper had no idea how much her disappointment showed, though her stomach dropped like lead. If Piper had wanted to call Bash, she should have done so – it had been almost a week since he had given her his number. She had no right to blame Molly for taking the lead, as Molly often did. Still, how could Molly not tell her? “Why is Molly on campus?”

“Well, I’m not sure she is,” Bash shrugged. “When I brought Molly home from the party, she and I talked about getting together. When I texted her earlier today, she said she was coming on campus to meet you, and I had to come to Kingston to deliver some graphics for an iHub event, so I thought I would see if I could catch you guys before Molly left.”

“iHub?” Piper tried not to thrill at the words “you guys.”

“Business collaboration between URI and Brown. It’s more an MBA or entrepreneur thing, and I’m getting an integrative economics degree, which is like a joint international…but that’s not really relevant to my explanation. All of my classmates are in business, so I end up getting dragged into things.”

“Wait, Molly’s and my class was over an hour ago. She comes to campus twice per week, and this is our second class this week, so I guess you’ll have to catch her at Brown – which, of course, makes more sense anyway.”

Not if I really wanted to see you, Bash leveled silently. Still, he couldn’t regret his luck.

At that moment, Piper felt her phone vibrate. She glanced down at it, and the preview said, “You’ll never guess who texted!!!”

“Actually,” Bash declared as he looked down at his own phone, “she just texted back – saying everything you just told me. So, I guess I’m not seeing her today, but I’m glad I stopped by anyway, since I ran into you.”

Piper couldn’t suppress a smile. “Me, too. It’s nice to see you again.” Not that Piper was the most outspoken of people, but no one had ever called her shy. Why, then, did she find herself studying her fingers on the tabletop as she said the words, terrified that he would read too much meaning into them? Not that he would be reading too much into the words, since I am as stupidly giddy as a schoolgirl that he is glad to see me.

“Do you…want another cup of coffee?” he wondered, and Piper’s stomach did a flip. She was incredibly glad that her last class had included a mock interview that had seen her hair and makeup done impeccably by Molly. At least if Bash were to think of her again, he would still have a good impression. Unfortunately, she couldn’t take much advantage of her current refinement.

“I can’t,” she lamented. “I have another class in about five minutes, across campus. Plus, I will never sleep if I have a cup this late.”

Is that a legitimate excuse? wondered Bash, or is she blowing me off?

“Okay. In that case…” he stood to his feet, taking back control of the situation, “I will let you go. I should probably get the graphics to the event in time for them to set up, anyway.”

Forcing as much boldness as she could, Piper rose to her feet and smiled up into his face. “Next time,” she insisted, and the breath she had held filled her lungs when he smiled back into her eyes.

“Next time.” He agreed, reaching his hand to grip hers. “I still have your number.”

“And since you texted Molly, you obviously know how to use a phone…” Dang it! Piper’s heart stopped in her chest, thoroughly horrified at the slip. She had not intended to say that aloud, and certainly hadn’t intended to reveal her irritation.

Both to her dismay and to her extreme pleasure, Bash’s face broke into a slow and knowing grin. “I do know how,” he agreed as he leaned down to pick his phone up off the table, bringing his smile within inches of her blinking shock.

Still smiling he stood up and turned to walk out the door of the café, leaving Piper to gape at his back where he walked past the wall of windows. Despite the truth of her claims – she did have a class – she sat back down to compose herself. What had she just done? What did his response mean? He seemed…really, really amused. Did that mean he was laughing at her? Well, maybe, but not dismissively. More like – like maybe he found her unexpectedly entertaining. She decided to go with that option, letting a smile warm her face as the thought took hold. When her phone buzzed in her hands a second later, the smile spread into a grin.

See? Bash had written. I do know how.

After a moment basking in the adrenaline of an accidental cleverness, her mind gripped her again, reminding her that time actually existed and she couldn’t stare at her phone indefinitely. A glance at the hour on her phone infused her with new urgency, and she jumped to her feet. She had two minutes to make it across campus. Of course, she wouldn’t make it, but she could manage to be less late. Completely insensible of her surroundings, Piper rushed out into the slowly deepening warmth of afternoon.

Before Piper had made it halfway across the square, she found herself needing to return to the coffee shop, with a victim in tow, to sit down at one of the patio tables.

“Oh my gosh, I am so clumsy,” she exclaimed, all thoughts of class pressed out by her distress.

“No” the older man sitting across from her shook his head, staring down at the table with a subtle smile. “It was just a ridiculous coincidence of timing. You shouldn’t feel bad.”

Piper pulled up her app and ordered two coffees, one with cream on the side. I don’t need to sleep tonight anyway, she lamented. The sun had just sunk low enough to shine directly through the coffee shop window, and the barista inside shut out Piper’s view of the cafe by lowering the blinds. It was somewhat of a relief not to have all those eyes on her. “How can you say that?” Piper scoffed. “I literally knocked you sprawling on the pavement. I maimed you…”

“Maimed me?” the man sitting across from her laughed. “But I’m the one who tripped into your path. I was the clumsy one.” When he peered up at her, she could read the pain in his eyes. Apparently, the man had a high pain tolerance.

“I have a long history of clumsiness,” she insisted. “You have to at least let me –”

“Just stop,” he gritted his teeth. “The awkwardness of your protests are causing me more pain than the scraped knee. I’m a big boy.”

Disgusted with herself, Piper bit back a retort. He had chosen his complaint well, because now she feared her awkwardness as much as the injury she had caused him.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“So, here’s how you can help me. Go inside to the restroom and get me a couple of wet paper towels and a couple of dry ones. Ask the barista if they have any medical cream and a bandage. If not, I’ll suck it up and go on. It’s already more than most strangers would do.”

As rapidly as she could, she stepped into the coffee shop and did as instructed, retrieving the first aid items and the cups of coffee in one trip.

“It’s more than most strangers would do,” she continued where they had left off, “because most strangers don’t awkwardly follow the person they have injured, desperate to fix what they broke. It’s an issue I have. I feel everyone’s pain, which is not really fair because I’m not trying to steal their pity.”

“You’ve really thought this through…” The man grinned up at her, and she finally took in some of the details of his appearance. Up to that point, other than the few minutes it had taken her to move in and out of the shop and the few seconds she had registered the pain in his eyes, she had not been able to wrench her vision from the wound on his leg. When he had reached down to apply the first aid, though, his face had leaned close to hers and she finally met his eyes. Certainly, he did not seem upset. “My name is Rory,” he offered when he had her attention.

“Rory?” Piper asked dumbly.

“I know it’s a girl’s name in the states,” he shrugged, “but my parents are from Scotland. Red hair and freckles and all that.” He gestured to himself as he sat back up after bandaging his wound.

“Oh, I don’t ever say anything about a name. My name is Piper.”

“What’s wrong with Piper?”

Piper bit her lip. “Nothing, exactly. It’s just hit or miss whether someone is familiar with it or if they start pretending to play the flute when I tell them.”

With a laugh, Rory stood to his feet and stepped to a trash can to remove the evidence of his injury. “Apparently, people are idiots,” he asserted as he reseated himself, and Piper found herself laughing with him. A relief after the discomfort of watching him suffer through an injury at her hands.

“Well,” she shrugged, “I don’t know anyone name Rory, so I don’t really have a reference for it. Now that you say it, I guess it sounds Scottish.” It was her turn to grin. “Are you a grad student here?” she wondered, ready to distract herself from what she had done. He was too old to be an undergrad – maybe close to thirty.

“At Brown,” he corrected. “I was bringing a few things back to my ex-girlfriend. She’s a senior in the philosophy department at URI. Maybe you know her: Meredith Foster?”

Piper shook her head. “I guess it’s Brown visitor day at URI,” she mumbled. “I’m premed,” she offered with more volume. “I don’t get over to that side of campus much, though I have one class with Professor Gray in an…which of course, means nothing to you. But I thought about it because I was just over there and met this great couple from South America, and it took me extra-long to get over here for coffee which has made me late for...” Piper finally trailed off – apparently, she babbled when she was embarrassed.

“Premed?” Rory saved her. “So you’ll be a doctor?”

“Probably a medical therapist of some sort. Or forensics. I guess it depends what I decide to do for masters. What degree are you working on?”

“Masters in Cybersecurity.”

“Cool, I have a friend in the computer science program over at Brown.”

“I wonder if I know him. I’m a GA for a couple of the undergrad professors.” As he stared at the large blue eyes and the rosy-cheeked face of his companion, he had to restrain a grin. It was nice when the woman he wanted to connect with was pretty – he had to act less.

“Um, his name is Benjamin Myers. He’s a senior.”

“I know him…great guy. He has a little trouble focusing on his studies though.”

Piper chuckled. “That’s because he is distracted by whatever girl sits in front of him in class.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, give him my number. I tutor all computer science classes. Plus, we have a group of nerds who sit around and code. A couple of really cute girls, even.”

“That would be nice,” Piper quipped, rolling her eyes. She handed him her phone with a notepad open. “Maybe he would leave me alone if he got a new girlfriend.”

“Not likely,” Rory countered, and Piper’s heart did a flip when she recognized the look in his eye. Apparently, he found her attractive. She tacitly wondered if he would have let her off the hook so easily for her clumsiness if she wasn’t dressed to the nines. Somehow, she didn’t think herself quite as charming when she wore her hair piled in a messy knot on her head and had dressed in her usual uniform of leggings and a T-shirt.

Fortunately, her run-in with Bash rendered her a tad more resistant to a handsome face than she would otherwise have been, because Rory was incredibly handsome. More earthy than the suave Sebastian, but equally charming in his own way. The age difference wasn’t intellectually an issue – he might be twenty-eight or twenty-nine, and she was twenty-one. He definitely seemed much more mature than her male undergrad counterparts. Still, Piper just couldn’t find it in herself to acknowledge the tug Rory was obviously reaching for. Pressing her lips together in an approximation of a smile, she took her phone back and reached for her bag. “I’ll make sure Ben gets the number, but I have a class.”

Not so fast. “Wait, before you go, have you heard of the Sci-Fry?”

Piper wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I’ve been here four years – of course I have. Ben asks me to go with him every year.”

“Go with me, then. It’s a week from tomorrow. We’re both science people. It’ll get that ‘Ben’ off your back, and we can call it even for the ‘maiming.’”

Though she appreciated the invitation, she didn’t appreciate the pressure. “Maybe,” she hedged. “Let me check my schedule. I have your number.” She waved her phone for emphasis.

“I’m sorry,” Rory hemmed. So, she doesn’t respond well to emotional coercion. “I didn’t mean to strong-arm you…”

“Please,” she comforted, and she actually gripped one of his hands to soften her rejection. “Why don’t I just agree to go next week – not with Ben. And then you and I can meet up, and I’ll buy you some…fried food to make up for the maiming.”

Rory managed a laugh. “Sounds like a plan. See you there.”

She returned his smile as she rose to her feet. “Friday,” she promised and stepped off the patio into the early-evening bedlam of the campus. If only Bash were as bold.

+++++++++++

Peru.

Agent Strickland had been ordered to collaborate with the PNP to investigate the murder of four Rhode Island scientists in Peru, and she might even have to travel there to meet with DIRANDRO about a possible cartel source for the violence.

Popping up the calendar on her laptop, she checked off the days until her husband got back from his six-month deployment – 9 days. If Allie had to leave for Peru before that, she would have to lug their son, Owen, to her mom’s several hours away. Her husband had missed their son’s third birthday during deployment, and now Allie might miss her husband’s return. Not most of the time, but sometimes she hated their jobs.

As she suspended her screen, she spun in her chair just in time to see two young, official looking men – one of whom Allie had attended grad school with - enter the office. She had checked the clock just before she clicked off. The men had managed to make it into the office about four minutes before she locked the door.

“Agent Allison Strickland?” the unknown man queried.

“Yes?” she allowed.

“Senator Naveed. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Senator Davis speaks highly of your competence, and we have some pretty significant evidence of corruption that we need you to check out. How can I get that put onto your agenda?”

Huffing a breath, Allie turned back to her desk, opening a drawer and rifling through some files until she found the proper form. “Fill this out and get it back to me. Attach any evidence you think is pertinent, and Agent Talbot or I will look at it as soon as we have time.”

The other man, a state senator and Allie’s long-time acquaintance, Thomas Davis, pulled a chair up and sat within a few feet of her. “I know that you guys as an organization have bigger fish to fry,” he pressed, “but you are state based, and surely there is not a huge criminal element in Rhode Island who function across state lines. You can give me a little time for this. It’s your job.”

Agent Allison Strickland of the FBI rolled her eyes, ignoring the man she didn’t know. “That’s right, Tommy. Agent Talbot and I just got through painting each other’s nails right before you walked in.”

Thomas glanced over to take in the smiling, scruffy face of a middle-aged man who sat in the cubicle across the room and who fluttered his fingers in the air as if showing off his new manicure.

“Nice,” Thomas deadpanned. “That’s not what I’m saying, Allie. It’s just that this might have drug ties in Peru.”

Despite herself, the words arrested Allie. What kind of coincidence would take her to Peru twice in one day? Though there were plenty of criminals in Rhode Island, by virtue of its diminutive size, there was not a huge criminal element in Rhode Island who functioned across state lines, much less international lines. The senator had gotten that much right.

“Call the CIA,” Allie interrupted. She was curious, but she really wanted to get out of managing the Peru case so she could be there for her husband’s arrival.

“Don’t shut me down, here. The people in danger are on U.S. soil.”

Sighing internally, Allie felt the shackles closing down on her – she was going to have to take the case. If there were U.S. citizens in Rhode Island in danger from a case she was supposed to manage, how could she ignore that?

“Have you tried the police?”

Thomas leveled her a caustic glare. “This is public corruption. This is your wheelhouse.”

Or maybe if I focus on these locals, I can skip the trip to Peru – solve the case here. “Fill out a report,” Allison commanded. “I promise I’ll look at it tomorrow, okay? But contrary to what you said before, I actually have a lot to do.”

“Tomorrow morning?” Tommy prompted.

“Tomorrow morning,” Allie agreed.

“Good,” Thomas breathed. “I’ll call you after lunch.

As Senator Davis walked out the door, Agent Strickland shook her head at her partner, a slight smirk painting her expression. “Nice manicure.”