Joshua's Grace

Chapter 3 (1)

"A hunk." Tina said with much feeling.

"A hunk eh?" Grace chuckled at Tina's rapt expression, "And he's mine." She said with relish. Her eyes scanning the crowd of chattering girls, hoping to see past them to the male body they had cornered. Tina giggled in acknowledgment.

"Think he needs rescuing?" Grace questioned as she watched the young women vie for the attention of the man buried in their midst.

"Well if you don't I will."

Grace feigned disgust, saying, "It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it." Grace put her bag and papers down on the reception desk. She winked knowingly at the receptionist and then turned and walked toward the cluster of young women. A few feet away from them she coughed loudly. No one took any notice. The gaggle of women remained huddled together, talking loudly, giggling pitifully. Grace tried peering past them. No luck, they were bunched too closely together.

Grace spoke loudly, "Excuse me. He's waiting for me."

Still nothing. They ignored her. Students ignored her. Grace turned her head back toward the receptionist and raised her hands in question. Tina laughed. Resigned, she took a deep breath, put two fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly and shrilly. Twelve pairs of stunned questioning eyes turned and focused on her. They looked affronted by the interruption.

"I believe he iswaiting for me." She announced into the silence. 

The young women seemed reluctant to deliver their quarry. But they parted sufficiently for Grace to see the man.

"Zachary." Grace announced in surprise. He was sitting on one of the low lying leather upholstered sofas, surrounded by a bevy of women. He looked totally relaxed, as if this sort of reception was perfectly normal. Grace quirked an eyebrow at him and Zac got to his feet.

He grinned with a lazy charm and sauntered over to Grace, calling over his shoulder, "Nice meeting you all."

The sheer cheek of the man. Grace couldn't stop the smile, "Come along Casanova." She handed him the bundle of work she had picked up off the counter. Automatically he took it. "This way."

They walked along the corridor, "Wasn't expecting to find so many interesting women here." He stated blithely.

"What?"

"Women's studies, figured they'd be ..."

"You might want to think very carefully before you finish that sentence, I have a double doctorate in law and women's studies, it comes in useful for defamation cases." She told him and he meekly followed her to her office. It took a while to open her office door. As usual it was stuck.

"You want me to barge it?" He queried in a pragmatic tone of voice as he folded his arms and leaned against the wall watching her battle the door.

"No, " She turned exasperated eyes toward him, "I want you to be patient."

He shrugged and waited. A short while later they were in. She took the papers from him and placed them on her already cluttered desk. She dumped her bag on her chair and switched the kettle on, all in one fluid chain movement. Practice long ingrained. She indicated a chair for him and then set about trying to find some desk space. She shuffled papers into several piles, finally clearing enough space to actually see the surface of the wooden desk. While she rummaged and organised her desk, Zac openly studied the room. Two walls were shelved and crammed full of text books, box files and paper stacks. Potted plants fought for quality space, several were perched on the window ledge. Her desk was at an angle to the window and in front of the desk were two chairs. To the corner was a small table with two other chairs, all the surfaces were covered with heaps of papers.