Tilly Gets Her Man

Chapter 1

Tilly Graham pushed the wayward strands of curly blondish-brown hair out of her eyes as she worked on the old boiler in the basement of the Sorority house. The stupid thing wasn't working again and the small college's maintenance staff said that the only guy who knew how to repair it would be out for two weeks. With temperatures threatening to dip down into the single digits over the next week, the girls had begged Tilly to see if she could fix the darn thing.

Tilly's gaze moved impatiently to the clock for the hundredth time. It was almost time for the midnight story hour hosted by none other than the delicious Angus Bell. A feathery sigh escaped Tilly. The man had the sexiest voice she had ever heard. She was addicted to the stories he read every night at midnight.

"Hey, Tilly," Angela called from the stairs.

Tilly glanced over her shoulder in surprise. "What are you doing up?" Tilly asked.

"We're all freezing and wondered if you were having any luck," Angela replied, pulling the thick blanket around her so she could sit down on the steps.

"Almost," Tilly answered, glancing up at the clock she had brought down with her again. She had ten minutes before Angus came on. "The relay on the board was bad. I rebuilt it and it should be good. I had to use parts out of Sue's radio."

A low groan pulled Tilly's attention back to the stairs. She grimaced when she saw Amy sink down beside Angela. Sue, Betty Ann, and Velma had come down as well. Tilly scowled and glanced back up at the clock. Five minutes! Five minutes until the man of her dreams came on and she was going to have an audience to her imaginary crush on Angus Bell because there was no way she was going to miss his program.

"Why did you have to use my radio?" Sue whined. "Velma never listens to hers."

"I do, too," Velma snapped, pulling the knitted cap down over the tight curlers in her hair. "I don't know why Tilly couldn't have used her own radio."

"I do," Betty Ann chirped, folding her gloved hands together and fluttering her eyelashes. "Tonight with Angus Bell. Master of Science Fiction and Other Worldly stories on WQCT, the college station everyone listens to."

Tilly's lips twitched. Betty Ann actually did a great impression of Angus. With a sigh, she glanced back up at the clock. Two minutes until she heard the real thing. She quickly replaced the tools into the small toolbox she had made out of an old, cloth sewing satchel.

"Angus Bell!" Sue exclaimed with a confused frown. "You mean that guy with the glasses who's always dropping his books in the library and getting in trouble for coming into Literature class late?"

"Yes, that Angus Bell," Betty Ann giggled.

"You two have seen him? You know who he is?" Tilly demanded, snapping the cover back on the boiler panel and flipping the breaker back on before turning to stare at the small group sitting on the staircase watching her. "Oh! His show is starting!"

Tilly grabbed the small transistor radio off the shelf and turned it on at the same time as the boiler kicked into life. The other girls squealed in delight at having heat again. Tilly didn't hear any of that. She was focused on Angus Bell's deliciously smooth voice. With a sigh, she pushed between Angela and Amy and sat down to listen to the broadcast.

"Welcome to Tonight with Angus Bell, Master of Science Fiction and Other Worldly stories on WQCT, the college station everyone listens to. I'd like to thank you for joining me for tonight's tale, A World Within," Angus' husky voice said.

"I've got to agree, he does have the sweetest sounding voice over the radio," Betty Ann remarked with a dreamy sigh. "Too bad he isn't that smoking in real life."

"Shush!" Velma whispered, nodding toward where Tilly was sitting with a soft smile on her lips and a dreamy expression on her face.

Tilly ignored Betty Ann's comment and the other women's sudden silence. Instead, she lost herself in Angus' voice and story. She didn't even move with the others finally grumbled that now that there was heat, they were all going back to bed. She sat on the hard, cold stairs listening to the hour long program, completely enthralled by the man behind the tantalizing story.

"I'm going to marry that man," Tilly finally murmured when Angus wished everyone a warm goodnight. "I've just got to figure out how to meet him first."

A grin curved her lips when she remembered Sue's comment that Angus was always in the library. Rising eagerly off the steps, Tilly twirled around and headed back up the steps. Her large, fluffy slippers didn't make a sound as she swept into the quiet common room of the century old house.

At barely five feet tall, the other girls liked to tease her about her endless amounts of energy, quick wit, strange sense of humor, and amazing intelligence. She was number one in her engineering classes. She was also working with a new government data system. One of the pieces of equipment that she had designed made the process faster and less cumbersome than the current system. She was going places in the world, but she wasn't going alone. Operation Angus Bell slowly materialized in her mind. Step one: Introduce herself.

"And if that doesn't work, I'll just kidnap him and wow him with my brilliance," Tilly laughed in delight, twirling around in a circle as she held the small radio to her chest. "Tilly and Angus Bell. It sounds perfect!"