~~Young~~

Chapter Four

   The intercom beeped from the Dean’s office before Mitch could really get into his interpretation of their conversation, of what he took the bits he had picked apart to mean. And with a dramatic pout he leaned on the button with a “right away sir,” promising Sera he’d give the deets on the impending hunk when he got back.

   She told him she’d hold down the fort for him, which would only be for a jiffy as he said, and with nothing else to do she began jotting down the key points of her thesis. She really wanted to do it on political reform with an emphasis on eliminating bribery and corruption, but instead chose a less controversial topic sure to get her an easy A. Politics and environment. How Parliament could better regulate the depleting of their natural resources while still earning a few bucks.

   Her heart was far from in it though. And before she knew it she was scribbling pictures in the margins of shooting stars and birds flying through the night sky, her eyes unfocusing as she began tapping her heel on the floor...how she always dreamed of being a bird, to be that carefree, nothing but the wind against your face, your feathers-

   “Excuse me,” a smooth voice interrupted her daydreams, “I’m here to see Dean Grissom.”

   As tempting as it was, she didn’t look up. She just quickly slipped back into her note taking as if that had been what she was doing when she missed the man’s entrance.

   “The Dean is busy and I’m not the receptionist,” she bit off in her best patronizing attitude, “you’ll have to wait for one or the other to help you.”

   “Would you happen to know when…one or the other,” he echoed her words, “will be available?”

   “No,” she continued in her annoyed tone, shaking her head at her notebook, “like I said, I’m not the receptionist.”

   There was a beat of silence and she knew he was staring at her, waiting for her to at least look at him and acknowledge his presence. That wasn’t something the Sera this university knew would do, so she didn’t, just continued to write out her plot points.

   “Very well,” he said after a few moments, “my apologies for interrupting you.”

   That apology had Sera’s pen halting mid sentence, this had to be the polite investigator Mitch was talking about.

   That’s when she looked up.

   He had his back to her now, one hand in the pocket of his suit, the other holding what looked to be brand spanking new briefcase. Sera had grown accustomed to noticing these things and she didn’t think twice about it, but there wasn’t a scuff on the thing, even the metal buckle looked as if he pulled the protective plastic off it this morning. He was looking about the wood paneled space, taking in the few details of the sparsely furnished room, his eyes falling on the door to the hall every so often.

   She narrowed her eyes at that, why that door and not the one to the Dean’s office if he was here to see the Dean? Then again, she would be looking there too. She knew for the most part who would be coming out the office door, but not who would be coming in the door from the hall. It was a protective measure from her endless nights out with the other Angels. You always watched your back, always kept an eye on what could be the unexpected. So then was she the expected, was that why he had his back to her?

   She dropped the homework routine completely now, her mind no longer in Sera Sorority Bitch mode, but Sissy, leader of the Better Angels and advocate of those who could not of themselves. She might as well been hiding in some ally at that point, waiting for the criminal in front of her to present himself because now she was all vigilante.