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 broad 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.
He simply looked at her with a smile and clasped his hands together. “No, thank you. I think I’m okay. Just learning the ropes around here.”
“Well, if you ever need a guide, a piece of advice or,” she grinned, cascading her eyes down his body “just a piece, let me know.” She hesitated before slowly turning away from him and walking away with a strut his eyes were glued to until Eva’s image made it fade from his mind.
The stirring in his pants reminded him that he hadn’t been laid in a while. It had to have been a new record for him. He adjusted himself and tried to put it out of his mind.
Some things are more important in life.
The next morning, he was adamant on finding Eva and he had mapped out her entire schedule for the day. Her day looked busy with several classes so he was bound to run into her sometime.
Walking into his own class, there were several students already seated and waiting for the class to start. Edward really had no idea what he was going to teach. When he saw a curriculum on the desk he was somewhat relieved. He approached his desk and stood there until the murmurs and quiet talk silenced.
“Good morning,” he said with a grin. “I am Mr. Caldwell and I will be your teacher for the next twenty weeks.” He glanced down at the cover of the stack of books in front of him. “We will be learning about business and economics and hopefully a little bit about each other.” He walked to the side of his desk and sat on the edge. “Who would like to start?”
The hour passed quickly as he learned a little about each of his students and what they expected from his class. There were a few who were serious about the class since it was part of their major, a few needed the grade to keep their overall grade above average and of course there were the few jerkoffs who didn’t much care that they were there at all.
Luckily, Edward was always good at reading people and he had a good idea where he stood and how the class was going to go. Moreso, he had a good idea what to expect from the students on campus at that particular university.
“Okay,” Edward looked out across his students and chose one who wasn’t paying attention. “Andy?”
He knew he got the rogue looking boy’s name right when he looked up from his doodling and squinted his eyes, annoyed at the interruption.
“Tell me about supply and demand. If X company has a large supply of their product, what does that tell you about the demand?”
Andy shook his head and went back to his artwork on the front of his text book.
“Let’s put it in terms you might understand.” Edward walked around his desk and stood. “If your dealer has a huge supply of marijuana and he can’t get rid of it, what does that tell you?”
Andy looked back up and grinned. “Means I got a better deal someplace else.”
Several of the students giggled and murmured amongst themselves and Edward let them.
“That could be one scenario, sure. Or maybe not enough people know about it.”
“So he should increase his advertising to increase the possible demand,” said Gwyneth after raising her hand.
“Very good.”
“Or, maybe the demand is just not there,” said another student.
“Another possibility,” said Edward. He walked back around his desk and wrote an assignment on the board. “The next time we get together, I want to go over this.” He underlined it. “Please get familiar with it. I’d like to know your thoughts.”
The students gathered their things and left and Edward felt renewed. He actually liked his new career choice. He gathered his things together as the last of the students left the classroom. As he was just about to leave, Gracie walked in through the door.
“Hello,” she said with more enthusiasm than expected.
“Gracie, hello again.”
“How are you getting along?”
“Very well.”
“I see you got the job. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry I can’t stay around and chat. I have a meeting I have to get to.”
“I understand. I was quite busy when I first started here as well.” She seemed genuine, but she didn’t move out of his way.
“Um, maybe we can get together for lunch sometime,” he said, trying to conclude their short meeting.
“I’d like that.” She hesitated before stepping out of his way and letting him pass. She followed him out of the room and down the hall and didn’t veer from his path until they had gotten out of the building. He thought it quite odd that she stayed behind him the whole way out. He looked behind him a couple of times to be sure she wasn’t following him. It was all he needed to have to justify why he wasn’t going to his so called meeting instead of waiting for Eva outside her classes.
With several attempts at catching Eva in different areas of the university, his frustration soon set in as each attempt was unsuccessful. By the end of the day, he scuffled back to his flat, his mind flooded with new worries. Did he even have the right campus? Maybe she decided to take a semester off, or maybe she was sick and not attending classes. He had to try harder. He wrote down her first class the following day on a piece of memo paper and stuck it on his planner.
8:00 am History 309
Room 6349 – Radcliffe Building
This would give him an hour before his class started. He was going to see her, if he had to interrupt her class to do it.
“Fuck.” He slid his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. “I need a run.”
He changed into his running gear and took off toward the park. The sun was only beginning to set so he had plenty of light to run by. He made a silent promise that when he got back he would call Joseph and let him know what was happening. With his thoughts partly on Eva and partly on Joseph and the new business, he lost himself in the repetition of the sound of his feet hitting the pavement. His breathing patterned with his stride and he easily ran three miles around the park.
As he rounded the corner to run back toward the other side of the park, he kept his eyes on the pavement as it disappeared underneath his feet. A skateboard quickly appeared in his peripheral vision but he couldn’t stop in time. He collided with the kid, sending him off his skateboard and onto the pavement.
“Oh, shit! Man, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”
The kid yelled, grabbing his head and curling up into a ball, moving his body back and forth.
“Damn.” Edward looked around then knelt by the boy. “Are you okay?”
“Fuck, what’s the matter with you?” the boy yelled out still holding his head.
A young woman ran to him and crouched over him, tending to him and fussing over him. “Are you okay?” she asked the boy.
“Ah. Yeah, I think so.”
She helped him up and he turned toward Edward. “Man, look where you’re going next time.”
Edward recognised him immediately as Andy, the rogue in his class but before he could acknowledge, the young woman turned toward him and his heart stopped.
Eva.
Her eyes widened as soon as she saw him but she didn’t say a word. She put her arms around Andy and helped him to a nearby bench. Edward wanted to grab hold of her and pull her close. He wanted to call her name and tell her how much he missed her. He wanted to scream to the top of his lungs that he finally found her, but he didn’t. He stood there and watched her walk off with Andy, nurturing him and taking care of him until he felt better.
The entire five minutes he stood there watching them, she never once looked up at him. She never once said a word to him and she never once asked him why he was there. She merely got up when Andy stood and walked off with him in the opposite direction, leaving Edward standing in the middle of the path, speechless.