The library was busier than Stan expected for the last Sunday before classes.

Campus had only started filling again two days earlier, but apparently half the university had decided to spend its final afternoon of freedom fighting with the circulation desk.

Students crowded around the printers with freshly downloaded syllabi. The line for course reserves stretched past the return slot. Nearly every table held someone attempting to organize an entire semester before Monday morning arrived, exposing how little they had actually accomplished.

Stan caught the heavy glass door before it swung back into Marcus.

“You know classes haven’t started yet,” Eric said as he stepped into the lobby.

Stan adjusted the strap of his canvas backpack. “I’m aware.”

Eric looked around the packed library as though Stan had personally arranged the crowd to inconvenience him. “Then why are we here?”

“I have books on reserve,” Stan replied.

Marcus folded his campus map and shoved it into the pocket of his track jacket. “He told you that before we left.”

“I thought he was kidding,” Eric said.

Stan started toward the main staircase. “Why would I joke about books?”

Eric fell into step beside him. “That question is exactly why nobody knows when you’re joking.”

“I know,” Marcus said.

“You don’t count,” Eric told him. “You’ve known him too long.”

Stan pushed through the stairwell door and began climbing. “You could both leave.”

Marcus followed him onto the landing. “And miss Rosado’s annual transformation into the most irritating person on campus?”

“The semester hasn’t started,” Stan reminded him.

Marcus clapped a hand against Stan’s shoulder. “You’re getting an early start.”

Stan shrugged him off without much effort.

Eric had spent most of the walk across campus complaining that one of his professors had already posted a thirty-page reading assignment. Marcus still did not know where two of his classrooms were. Neither of them had brought anything useful besides their student identification cards and a vague expectation that Stan would know where to go.

Stan had printed his syllabi on Friday.

He had highlighted every major deadline Saturday morning.

The two books waiting at the reserve desk were not technically required until Thursday, but that was beside the point.

“You still coming out tonight?” Marcus asked as they reached the second floor.

Stan nodded. “After I finish the reading.”

Eric groaned. “You’re twenty-one.”

“I’m also paying tuition,” Stan replied. 

“You could try being fun before senior year,” Eric suggested.

Stan glanced toward him. “I am fun.”

Marcus gave Eric a serious look. “He plays intramural football.”

Eric nodded solemnly. “Wild.”

Stan turned away before either of them saw him smile.

They reached the directory near the top of the stairs. Eric immediately leaned toward it, searching for the sociology section as though the sign might contain instructions more complicated than floor numbers and arrows.

“Third floor,” Stan said.

Eric looked over his shoulder. “How do you know that?”

Stan nodded toward the staircase. “I’ve been here before.”

Eric adjusted the books against his chest. “You make everything sound judgmental.”

“That might be your conscience,” Stan said.

Marcus laughed and headed toward the next staircase.

Eric pointed at Stan before following him. “Ten minutes.”

Stan shifted his backpack higher. “I’m picking up two books.”

“You disappeared for forty-five minutes last semester,” Marcus reminded him.

Stan shrugged. “The archive catalog was wrong.”

“You argued with a librarian,” Eric said.

“She agreed with me eventually,” Stan replied. 

Eric pushed through the stairwell door. “Ten minutes, Rosado.”

Stan watched the door shut behind them before turning toward the course-reserve desk.

He made it halfway across the room.

Then he saw you.

Stan stopped walking.

You sat alone near one of the tall windows overlooking the quad, tucked into a table that seemed removed from the rest of the crowded floor despite being only a few yards away.

The late-afternoon light fell across your open books and caught along the thin wire frames of your glasses. Your hair had been twisted up with a large tortoiseshell clip, although a few loose pieces had escaped near your face. A cream-colored cardigan swallowed most of your hands, leaving only the tips of your fingers visible around the pen you held.

You were not doing anything remarkable.

That was the first thing Stan noticed.

Everyone else in the room seemed determined to be noticed. They called across tables, dragged chairs over the carpet, greeted friends they had not seen all summer, and complained loudly enough about textbook prices to make sure the entire floor understood their suffering.

You appeared completely unaware of any of them.

Your attention remained fixed on the book in front of you.

Stan watched you push your glasses higher with one finger. You returned your hand to the page without ever lifting your head, then carefully wrote something in the notebook beside you.

A student carrying an armful of binders nearly walked into him.

“Sorry,” Stan said as he stepped aside.

The student moved around him without responding.

Stan should have continued toward the reserve desk.

Instead, he looked back at you.

You rested the end of your pen against your bottom lip as you reread whatever you had written. A faint line appeared between your brows.

Stan’s grip tightened around the strap of his backpack.

He had no idea who you were.

He had never seen you before, which felt improbable. He had been on this campus for two full years. Stan knew people in nearly every residence hall, most of the political science department, and enough students from intramurals that walking across the quad usually meant at least three unplanned conversations.

He would have remembered you.

You reached toward a stack beside you and pulled a smaller book from beneath a thick hardcover text.

The cloth cover was worn at the corners. Its pages had yellowed unevenly, and a narrow strip of paper protruded from somewhere near the middle.

You held it with both hands.

Then you opened it and lifted the pages toward your face.

Stan stared.

You breathed in near the binding.

Not an accidental inhale. Not a discreet attempt to blow dust from the pages.

You deliberately smelled the book.

Your eyes closed for less than a second.

When you opened them again, you gave the smallest nod, apparently satisfied by whatever the book had told you.

Something dropped hard in Stan’s chest.

He forgot about the reserve desk.

He forgot that Eric and Marcus were waiting upstairs.

For one disorienting moment, Stan forgot why he had entered the building at all.

You lowered the book and compared it to a newer edition resting beside your notebook. You flipped through several pages of each, moving between them with a seriousness that suggested the differences mattered deeply.

Stan found himself smiling.

He had spoken to attractive women before.

He had flirted at parties, gone on dates, and spent enough years as Herrington’s star quarterback to become familiar with attention he had not asked for and sometimes enjoyed anyway.

He knew how attraction worked.

This did not feel like that.

He did not merely want to know if you would smile at him if he introduced himself.

He wanted to know why one book had earned the approving nod, and the other had not.

Stan glanced toward the reserve desk.

The line had only grown longer.

He could walk over.

There was no reason not to.

He talked to strangers all the time. He could introduce himself without making it strange. Ask what you were reading. Make a harmless joke about the book smelling better than the library.

He could be normal.

You pushed your glasses up again.

Stan took one step toward your table.

“Rosado.”

A hand closed around his upper arm.

Stan stopped and turned.

Daniel March stood beside him in a university sweatshirt, holding a spiral notebook beneath one arm. Stan knew him from intramural football and two parties that had lasted significantly longer than either of them should have allowed.

“Hey,” Stan greeted him.

Daniel smiled broadly. “I thought that was you.”

Stan glanced past him.

You had closed the older book.

“You playing this fall?” Daniel asked.

“Probably,” Stan replied.

Daniel’s smile faded. “Probably?”

Stan watched you slide the newer edition beneath a folder. “I haven’t seen the schedule.”

“We sent it out last week,” Daniel said.

Stan shrugged. “I was out of town.”

Daniel shifted the notebook beneath his arm. “We need you Thursday.”

Stan looked at him again. “For practice?”

Daniel frowned at him. “For the game.”

Stan finally looked away from you. “The first game is Thursday?”

Daniel stared at him. “You really didn’t read the schedule.”

Stan adjusted the backpack strap higher on his shoulder. “I said I was out of town.”

Daniel gave him a pointed look. “You own a computer.”

Stan’s attention drifted back toward the window.

You had begun gathering your pens.

“Seven?” Stan asked.

Daniel nodded. “Seven. South field.”

“I’ll be there,” Stan replied. 

Daniel exhaled in relief. “Good. Marcus playing?”

Stan shrugged. “Ask Marcus.”

Daniel looked around. “Where is he?”

“Third floor,” Stan answered.

Daniel opened his mouth to ask something else.

Across the room, you slid the worn book into your messenger bag.

Stan’s attention sharpened.

“I’ll see you Thursday,” Stan said.

Daniel paused. “Yeah, but—”

Stan stepped around him. “Seven. South field.”

Daniel turned to follow his movement. “Right.”

Stan moved toward the window table.

He was halfway there when a group of students crossed between them, carrying boxes of orientation materials. Stan slowed, trying to see around the stack of folders and campus maps.

The chair near the window scraped softly against the floor.

By the time the students passed, the table was empty.

Stan stopped.

Your messenger bag was gone.

So was the cardigan, the tortoiseshell clip, and the worn book you had smelled like it belonged to another world.

He scanned the nearby aisles.

A denim jacket disappeared between the shelves. Someone in a red sweater entered the stairwell. Two women carrying coffees headed toward the elevator.

Stan saw no sign of you.

He continued to the table anyway.

The chair had been pushed neatly beneath it. No notebook remained behind. No loose page or forgotten bookmark offered him a name.

Only a faint indentation in the carpet showed where your bag had rested.

Stan looked toward the stairwell.

He could try and find you.

The thought arrived and was dismissed almost immediately.

He did not know which direction you had gone, and running through the library in pursuit of a woman he had never spoken to was a good way to ensure she never wanted him to speak to her.

Stan rested one hand against the back of the empty chair.

He felt strangely disappointed.

That was ridiculous.

He had seen you for less than five minutes.

He had never heard your voice.

You might not even attend the university. You could have been visiting someone, using the public collections, or passing through campus before the semester began.

Stan glanced at the stack of books you had left behind in his memory.

No.

You had been surrounded by course materials. You belonged here.

Somewhere. 

“Stan.” Marcus’s voice carried across the room.

Stan released the chair and turned.

Marcus and Eric stood at the end of the nearest aisle. Each held at least one book.

Stan held nothing.

Eric looked from him to the empty table. “Did your textbooks move?”

Stan glanced once more toward the stairs. “No.”

Marcus approached slowly. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Stan answered.

Eric joined them and studied the clean tabletop. “You’ve been standing over here staring at a chair.”

Stan’s brow furrowed. “I wasn’t staring at the chair.”

Marcus followed Stan’s gaze toward the stairwell. “Were you looking for someone?”

Stan adjusted the strap of his backpack, buying himself a second.

He could still picture the careful way you had held the old book.

The approving little nod.

The wire frames slipping down your nose.

“A girl was sitting here,” Stan explained.

Eric’s eyebrows lifted. “A girl.”

Stan gave him a flat look. “Yes.”

Marcus glanced around the floor. “And?”

“She left,” Stan replied. 

Eric waited.

Stan said nothing else.

“That’s the whole story?” Eric asked.

“So far,” Stan replied.

Marcus’s expression changed first.

His mouth pulled into a slow grin. “You were trying to talk to her.”

Stan headed toward the course-reserve desk. “I was getting my books.”

“You were standing in the middle of the aisle watching her,” Marcus said as he followed.

Stan sighed. “I wasn’t watching her.”

Eric laughed behind them. “You just told us where she was sitting.”

Stan joined the end of the reserve line. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

Marcus stopped beside him. “What was her name?”

“I don’t know,” Stan answered. 

Eric leaned against the nearest shelf. “What did you say to her?”

Stan glanced around the library. “Nothing.”

Marcus’s grin widened. “Stan Rosado got nervous.”

Stan looked toward him. “I didn’t get nervous.”

“You watched an unknown woman leave the library without speaking to her,” Marcus said. “You’ve introduced yourself to people while they were actively telling you to go away.”

Stan narrowed his eyes. “She was busy.”

Eric nodded with exaggerated understanding. “Reading.”

“She was studying,” Stan corrected him.

Marcus folded his arms. “What was she studying?”

Stan paused.

He had noticed the books, but not their titles.

That realization bothered him more than it should have.

“I don’t know,” Stan admitted.

Eric pressed one hand to his chest. “Love is blind.”

“Shut up,” Stan told him.

Marcus laughed quietly. “What did she look like?”

Stan faced the reserve desk again.

He could have answered.

Glasses. Claw clip. Cream cardigan. Hands tucked into her sleeves.

Pretty enough to interrupt every useful thought in his head.

Instead, he pulled his student identification card from his wallet.

“She looked like she wanted to be left alone,” Stan said.

Marcus’s teasing expression softened slightly. “So you left her alone.”

Stan slid his card onto the counter when the librarian called him forward. “She left first.”

The librarian turned toward the shelves to retrieve his books.

Eric moved closer to the desk. “Maybe you’ll see her again.”

Stan looked past him toward the window table.

The afternoon light still stretched across the place where she had been sitting.

“Maybe,” Stan said.

The answer should have felt insignificant.

It did not.

By the time Stan left the library, he had two reserved texts in his backpack, a newly printed copy of his constitutional law syllabus, and the persistent memory of you lifting an old book toward your face.

Eric and Marcus continued teasing him on the walk back across campus.

Stan denied everything.

By dinner, Marcus had apparently decided the woman from the library was Stan’s future wife.

By nine, Eric had begun referring to you as the mysterious book sniffer.

Stan threatened to leave both of them stranded without a ride to the party.

Neither believed him.

They were right not to.

Stan drove them anyway, stayed for two hours, and spent most of the night pretending he was not searching the crowded rooms for a cream cardigan and tortoiseshell clip.

You were not there.

That should not have surprised him.

He did not know whether you liked parties. He did not know whether you lived on campus, whether you knew anyone hosting, or whether you had already gone home for the evening.

He did not know anything about you.

That fact had become increasingly irritating.

Stan left before midnight.

When he returned to his apartment, he dropped his keys into the dish beside the door and found the constitutional law syllabus waiting where he had left it on the kitchen table.

He read through the course schedule again.

Not because he needed to.

Because his mind had refused to settle anywhere else.

Stan had seen you for less than five minutes.

He had not heard your voice.

He had not even seen your face clearly enough to know the exact color of your eyes.

Still, when he finally went to bed, the last thing he remembered was the faint little nod you had given the book after smelling it.

By Monday morning, Stan had decided the entire thing had been ridiculous.

He woke before his alarm, showered, dressed, and packed his bag with the books he needed for the day. He layered a faded gray thermal beneath a dark green T-shirt, pulled on relaxed jeans, and shoved his feet into worn white sneakers.

Nothing about the morning felt unusual.

He made coffee.

He checked his schedule.

He left the apartment early enough to walk instead of drive.

Normal.

The woman from the library crossed his mind only twice before he reached campus.

Three times, if he counted mistaking someone else’s claw clip for yours outside the student union.

Stan did not count it.

The first day of classes had turned every path across campus into a slow-moving crowd. Students stopped in the middle of sidewalks to consult maps. Flyers covered the bulletin boards. Tables lined the quad, advertising student organizations, volunteer programs, and enough clubs to occupy every remaining hour of the week.

Stan knew nearly half the people who called his name.

He stopped to greet a few of them, exchanged schedules with someone from his political theory seminar, and promised Daniel again that he would be at Thursday’s game.

By the time he reached the humanities building, he was still several minutes early.

That pleased him.

Stan took the stairs to the third floor and followed the numbered doors until he found Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties.

The room was already half full.

He stepped through the doorway, shifting the strap of his backpack higher as he scanned the rows for an open seat.

Then he saw the tortoiseshell clip.

Stan stopped.

You sat near the middle of the room with your messenger bag tucked beneath your chair and a thick course reader open across the desk. Your cardigan was different today, dark brown instead of cream, but the sleeves still covered most of your hands.

A folded campus map rested beside your notebook.

The creases were sharp, as if it had only recently been taken from the admissions office.

For one quiet second, the noise in the classroom faded exactly as it had in the library.

Relief moved through Stan before he had time to question it.

There she is.

The thought arrived whole.

Simple. Certain.

As though he had been looking for you since yesterday without admitting it to himself.

An empty seat waited beside you.

Stan did not consider another one.

He crossed the classroom, navigating around backpacks and outstretched legs. You did not notice him immediately. Your attention remained fixed on the page while you traced one line with the tip of your finger.

Stan stopped beside the empty chair.

“Is anyone sitting here?” he asked.

You looked up.

The question nearly disappeared from his mind.

Your eyes were wider than he expected behind the thin frames of your glasses. You blinked once, taking in the broad shape of him standing beside your desk.

Then your gaze dropped toward the chair.

“No,” you said softly.

Stan set his backpack on the floor. “Good.”

He pulled out the chair and sat beside you.

Up close, he could see the faint dusting of ink along the side of your hand. A pen had been tucked into the spiral binding of your notebook, and three different colors of sticky tabs marked the edge of your course reader.

The book from the library rested beneath it.

The newer one.

Stan recognized the cover immediately.

You turned back toward your notes.

He waited.

You underlined a sentence.

Stan opened his backpack and pulled out his own reader.

You did not look at him again.

That was new.

Most people acknowledged Stan when he sat beside them. Some started conversations immediately. Others offered the familiar smile of someone who recognized him but could not remember from where.

You appeared determined to finish the paragraph in front of you.

Stan opened his course reader to the first assigned section.

He read the heading.

Then he glanced at you.

You had reached the bottom of the page and turned it carefully, flattening the corner with the side of your hand.

Stan looked back at his own book.

He read the heading again.

Still nothing.

A reluctant smile pulled at his mouth.

Maybe you had not noticed him in the library.

Maybe he had spent half the night remembering a woman who had never once looked up long enough to register his existence.

The possibility should have bruised his pride.

Instead, it made him want your attention more.

Stan leaned slightly toward the novel tucked beneath your course reader. “Did that one pass?”

Your pen stopped against the page.

You slowly turned your head toward him. “Did what pass?”

Stan nodded toward the book. “The smell test.”

Every visible part of you went still.

Your fingers tightened around the pen before you looked at him fully. “You saw that?”

Stan smiled before he could stop himself. “I saw you.”

The words came out more intimate than he intended.

Your gaze dropped to your notebook, and your grip tightened around the pen.

Stan shifted in his chair, suddenly aware of how that might have sounded. “At the library,” he clarified. “Yesterday.”

Recognition gradually replaced the confusion in your expression.

“You were standing in the aisle,” you said.

Stan leaned back in his chair. “You noticed me.”

You adjusted your glasses with one finger. “You were blocking it.”

The answer was so quiet and matter-of-fact that Stan almost missed the humor in it.

His grin widened. “I moved.”

“Eventually,” you murmured.

There it was. Not coldness. Not disinterest. Something dry and carefully hidden.

Stan rested one forearm against the desk. “I was going to introduce myself.”

Your eyes lowered toward your notebook. “Why didn’t you?”

“You left,” Stan replied.

Your fingers disappeared farther into the sleeves of your cardigan. “I had to finish unpacking.”

Stan glanced toward the sharply folded campus map beside your hand. “You’re new.”

You followed his gaze to the map. “Is it that obvious?”

“The map gave you away,” Stan said.

You folded one corner of it beneath your notebook. “I transferred.”

Stan shifted toward you. “This semester?”

You nodded once. “From a smaller school.”

Stan wanted to ask which one.

He wanted to know why you transferred, where you were living, whether you knew anyone yet, and how long you had been on campus before he saw you.

Instead, he forced himself to start with the obvious.

“I’m Stan,” he said.

A small crease appeared between your brows. “I know.”

Stan paused. “You know?”

“You introduced yourself during orientation for the pre-law society,” you explained.

He searched his memory.

The meeting had been held Friday afternoon in an auditorium crowded with students. Stan had stood near the front for less than two minutes to explain the peer mentorship program.

He had not seen you.

That bothered him.

“You were there?” Stan asked.

You kept your attention on the edge of your notebook. “Near the back.”

Stan studied you.

He had addressed more than fifty people without knowing that the woman who would derail his entire Sunday was sitting somewhere among them.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

You told him.

Stan repeated it quietly.

Your gaze lifted toward his.

He liked the way your name felt in his mouth.

Your eyes flicked away, and your hands retreated deeper into your sleeves.

The reaction told him you had noticed the way he said it.

Stan let his palm settle over the open page of his course reader. “So what made that book pass the smell test?”

Your expression shifted.

Only slightly, but Stan saw the caution give way to surprise.

“You actually want to know?” you asked.

“I asked,” Stan replied.

You studied him as though trying to find the joke hidden somewhere in his face.

Stan held your gaze.

He had spent most of yesterday wondering about the small approving nod you had given the old book.

He was not joking.

You glanced toward the novel beneath your reader. “New books and old books smell different.”

Stan nodded once. “I figured that much out.”

Your eyes narrowed behind your glasses. “You’re making fun of me.”

The accusation was quiet, but the certainty behind it caught him off guard.

Stan straightened. “No.”

“You smiled,” you pointed out.

“I smiled because you looked serious about it,” Stan explained.

Your fingers curled farther into your sleeves. “That still sounds like you’re making fun of me.”

“It isn’t,” Stan said.

You continued watching him, unconvinced.

Stan softened his voice. “I really want to know.”

Your posture loosened slightly.

“You don’t have to pretend it isn’t weird,” you said.

“I don’t think it’s weird,” Stan replied.

“You watched me smell a book from across the library,” you reminded him.

Stan’s mouth threatened another smile, but he kept it under control. “I watched you decide whether you liked it.”

“That’s worse,” you muttered.

“It made me curious,” Stan said.

Your gaze settled on his face again. “About the book?”

Stan looked at you for a beat longer than he probably should have. “Among other things.”

Your eyes dropped quickly to the novel. Stan decided not to push his luck.

He nodded toward the book instead. “Tell me why that one was good.”

You hesitated before pulling it free from beneath your course reader.

“The new ones smell sharper,” you explained. “Mostly like paper, ink, and glue.”

Stan looked down when you rested the book between you. “And that’s a good smell?”

“Sometimes,” you said.

Your voice had already lost some of its earlier softness.

Stan noticed the change and stayed quiet, afraid that interrupting might make you retreat again.

You opened the novel near the middle and ran your thumb gently along the edge of the pages.

“Old books are more complicated,” you continued. “Some of them smell bad.”

Stan tilted his head. “I thought people liked the old-book smell.”

“People like the good old-book smell,” you corrected him.

Your answer came quickly enough to make his mouth twitch.

You caught the reaction immediately. “That distinction matters.”

Stan arranged his expression into something solemn. “I believe you.”

“You still look amused,” you said.

“I am amused,” Stan admitted. “I’m not laughing at you.”

You considered the difference for a moment.

Stan waited.

“Bad ones smell moldy or damp,” you finally explained. “The paper, glue, and bindings can absorb moisture as they age, and then they get musty in a bad way.”

Stan watched your fingers move carefully over the worn cover. “And this one doesn’t?”

You shook your head. “No. This one smells sweeter.”

“Like what?” Stan asked.

Your attention settled completely on the book.

“Sometimes old paper smells a little like vanilla because lignin breaks down into compounds related to vanillin,” you explained.

Your words began coming faster. Stan forgot to look at the book. You pushed your glasses higher and continued before your shyness could catch up with you.

“There can be a subtle almond smell too,” you added. “The paper and old ink produce different compounds as they degrade. It’s warmer. A little nutty.”

Stan watched the animation gather in your face.

You had stopped measuring every sentence before speaking. One hand had slipped free of its sleeve so you could gesture toward the yellowed pages.

“So the good ones smell like dessert,” Stan said.

Your head lifted sharply. “That isn’t what I said.”

“You said vanilla and almonds,” he reminded you.

“I also said degrading paper,” you replied.

Stan nodded thoughtfully. “That part sounds less appetizing.”

Your mouth twitched.

He caught the almost-smile and felt an immediate need to earn the rest of it.

You looked down at the book again. “You really aren’t making fun of me?”

Stan’s expression softened. “I’m really not.”

You ran one fingertip along the edge of the cover. “Most people think smelling books is strange.”

“Maybe they’ve never found one worth smelling,” Stan said.

A quiet laugh escaped you before you seemed able to stop it.

The sound landed somewhere behind his ribs.

Then you looked at him.

Really looked at him.

The animation in your expression disappeared almost instantly.

Your hand retreated into your sleeve, and your gaze dropped toward the pages.

“Sorry,” you murmured.

Stan frowned. “For what?”

“I talk too much when I’m interested in something,” you said.

“You barely said anything,” Stan replied.

“I explained decomposing paper to someone I don’t know,” you pointed out.

Stan rested his forearms against the desk. “You know my name.”

“That isn’t the same thing,” you said.

“You could tell me more,” Stan offered.

Both of your hands disappeared into the sleeves of your cardigan.

Stan glanced down at them.

Yesterday, he had wondered whether you always wore your sweaters that way.

Now he suspected you did it whenever you became nervous.

He liked knowing that.

Probably more than he should have.

He had wanted to know why you smelled the book.

Now he wanted to know everything else.

Professor Hale closed the classroom door and crossed toward the lectern with a leather briefcase in one hand.

The remaining conversations faded as he set it down.

Stan uncapped his pen and turned to the first clean page of his notebook. Beside him, you slipped the worn novel beneath your course reader and carefully aligned the corners of both books.

The movement was deliberate.

Precise.

As though putting the novel away might also conceal the version of you who had spoken quickly about vanilla, almonds, and degrading paper.

Professor Hale looked over the room through a pair of dark-framed glasses. “Before we discuss the syllabus, I would like to establish one thing.”

Several students stopped flipping through their course packets.

“This is not a lecture course,” Professor Hale continued as he opened his briefcase. “I will not spend sixteen weeks telling you what to think about constitutional law.”

A student near the front raised his hand.

Professor Hale glanced toward him. “You may ask your question after I finish the sentence, Mr. Landry.”

The student lowered his hand without speaking.

Professor Hale removed a thin folder from his briefcase. “Each of you will arrive prepared to defend an argument, challenge one, and recognize when the facts no longer support the position you entered the room intending to hold.”

Stan wrote three words across the top of his page. Defend. Challenge. Reconsider.

Your pen moved beside him.

He tried not to look.

He lasted three seconds.

Your handwriting was smaller than his, each phrase tucked neatly into a separate line. You had underlined the final portion of Hale’s statement twice.

Recognize when the facts no longer support the position.

Stan returned his attention to his own notebook before you caught him reading yours.

Professor Hale moved around the side of the lectern. “Most of you are enrolled in this course because you intend to attend law school.”

A few students nodded.

“Some of you have been told that you argue well,” Professor Hale continued. “That is not the same as reasoning well.”

Stan’s pen slowed.

He had heard some version of that distinction his entire life.

People called him persuasive when they meant charming. They called him confident when they remembered a football field and people cheering for whatever he did next.

He had spent three years proving he could offer more than a convincing voice and a body built to take a hit.

Professor Hale turned toward the chalkboard and wrote one word in large block letters.

PRECEDENT.

The professor placed the chalk on the tray. “Why does it matter?”

A woman near the windows raised her hand.

Professor Hale gestured toward her. “Ms. Greene.”

The woman straightened in her chair. “Precedent creates consistency. It prevents judges from deciding cases entirely according to their personal preferences.”

Professor Hale nodded once. “A reasonable beginning.”

He looked around the room.

“What else?” Professor Hale asked.

Another student lifted his hand. “It makes the law predictable.”

Professor Hale leaned one hip against the lectern. “Predictable for whom, Mr. Carter?”

The student hesitated. “For everyone.”

Professor Hale’s expression did not change. “Does the law affect everyone predictably?”

Silence settled over the classroom.

Several students lowered their attention to their course readers.

Stan turned his pen between his fingers.

Professor Hale waited.

Stan raised his hand.

The professor’s gaze moved toward him. “Mr. Rosado.”

Stan rested one forearm against the desk. “Precedent creates stability, but stability only has value if the rule being preserved is defensible.”

Professor Hale folded his arms. “That sounds appealing, but it avoids my question.”

A few students glanced toward Stan.

Beside him, your pen stopped moving.

Professor Hale lifted one eyebrow. “Predictable for whom?”

Stan looked down at the case excerpt printed in the course reader. “Usually for the people the existing rule already protects.”

The room remained quiet.

Professor Hale tilted his head. “Explain.”

Stan shifted forward in his chair. “A precedent can make the law predictable while still making the outcome unfair. If the same people keep benefiting from a rule and the same people keep absorbing the harm, then consistency starts protecting the institution more than the people subject to it.”

Professor Hale studied him.

Stan continued before the professor could redirect the discussion. “The court cannot treat stability as automatically neutral. Someone pays for preserving the rule.”

Your gaze lifted toward him.

Stan felt it before he looked. He turned his head slightly.

You were watching him over the top edge of your glasses. 

Not cautiously this time. Not with your hands retreating into your sleeves as though you wished you could disappear inside them. You looked interested. Focused. You looked at him the way you had looked at the yellowed pages of the novel between your hands.

Something in Stan’s chest settled.

There she is.

Professor Hale’s voice pulled his attention forward again. “Who determines when the cost of preserving precedent has become legally unacceptable?”

Stan faced the lectern. “The court does.”

Professor Hale clasped his hands in front of him. “That answer gives the judiciary considerable freedom.”

“It already has considerable freedom,” Stan replied.

The professor’s mouth shifted, not quite forming a smile. “You say that as though it resolves the concern.”

“It doesn’t,” Stan said. “But pretending judges aren’t making choices doesn’t remove the choice. It only makes the reasoning less honest.”

A few pens began moving across notebooks.

Professor Hale picked up the chalk again. “What constitutional principle supports your argument?”

Stan glanced toward the excerpt.

He understood the human stakes of the argument. He knew the pattern he was trying to identify.

The precise legal framework remained just beyond his reach.

Your voice reached him quietly. “Equal protection.”

Stan turned toward you.

Your gaze remained on your course reader, one sleeve-covered fingertip pressed beside a marked paragraph.

“The argument is stronger under equal protection than substantive due process,” you added.

Professor Hale’s attention shifted toward you. “Would you care to share that with the room, Ms.—”

You gave him your name.

Professor Hale looked down at the roster and located it. “You are a transfer student.”

You adjusted your glasses. “Yes, Professor.”

The professor set the roster beside his folder. “Then perhaps you can explain why Mr. Rosado’s argument is stronger under equal protection.”

Your posture tightened.

Stan watched your fingers curl more deeply into your sleeves. For a moment, he thought you might retreat entirely. Then you looked down at the marked passage in front of you.

“The harm he described is not only about personal liberty,” you said. “It is about whether the law is being applied in a way that consistently burdens one group more than another.”

Your voice was quiet, but it remained steady.

Professor Hale stepped away from the lectern. “Why does that distinction matter?”

You traced one line of the excerpt with your fingertip. “Substantive due process asks whether the right itself is protected. Equal protection asks why the government is treating similarly situated people differently.”

Professor Hale watched you carefully. “Which makes Mr. Rosado’s concern about institutional harm what?”

You lifted your gaze toward the professor. “A classification problem.”

Stan looked at you.

You had found the answer cleanly. Precisely. No circling around it. No unnecessary words. You had taken the argument he understood instinctively and given it the legal structure it needed.

Professor Hale turned toward the board and wrote EQUAL PROTECTION beneath PRECEDENT.

“That is the stronger framework,” the professor said.

Your shoulders loosened.

Professor Hale looked back at Stan. “Mr. Rosado, you appear to have acquired counsel.”

Stan glanced toward you.

You had already lowered your attention to your notebook again, as though you had not just supplied the sharpest answer in the room.

“She was right,” Stan said.

Professor Hale returned the chalk to the tray. “I did not suggest otherwise.”

Stan tapped the end of his pen once against the page. “Then it was good counsel.”

A quiet laugh passed through part of the room.

You looked at him from the corner of your eye.

Stan caught the slight movement at the edge of your mouth before you pressed your lips together.

Professor Hale returned to the lectern. “You may both congratulate yourselves after you survive the first brief.”

Stan leaned slightly closer while Professor Hale began passing syllabi down the first row. “You saved me.”

You shook your head as you accepted the stack from the student in front of you. “You would have gotten there.”

Stan removed one copy before taking the remaining syllabi from your hands. “Eventually?”

Your eyes flicked toward his. “You had a good argument.”

Stan went still for half a beat.

You smoothed the syllabus across your desk. “You just needed a more precise legal framework.”

He passed the remaining copies to the student behind him, but his attention stayed on you. “You really think it was good?”

Your pen hovered over the top corner of the page. “I wouldn’t have helped strengthen it if I didn’t.”

The answer was simple. Matter-of-fact.

You did not sound surprised that he had made a strong argument. You did not offer the compliment like reassurance or soften it into something easier for him to accept.

You simply believed it.

Stan looked down at his notebook, suddenly unsure what to do with the quiet warmth gathering beneath his ribs.

“Thanks,” he said.

The word came out softer than he intended.

You glanced toward him, seeming briefly surprised by his sincerity.

Professor Hale cleared his throat near the lectern, and you both turned toward the front.

Stan faced forward.

“We will meet twice each week,” Professor Hale said as he opened his copy of the syllabus. “The assigned cases are listed by date. You are responsible for arriving prepared to discuss the majority opinion and the strongest available challenge to it.”

Pages turned throughout the room.

Stan skimmed the schedule.

The reading load was substantial but manageable. Several written briefs were scattered across the semester, with a longer appellate argument due near the end.

Professor Hale turned to the second page. “You will also work with a discussion partner.”

A low murmur moved through the room.

Professor Hale held up one hand until it faded. “This is not a group project. Your work will remain your own. Your partner’s purpose is to locate the weakness in your reasoning before I do.”

Stan looked toward you.

You were reading the assignment description with complete concentration.

Professor Hale placed his syllabus on the lectern. “You may select your partner. Choose someone whose reasoning you respect, not someone who will agree with everything you say.”

Chairs shifted as students began looking around the classroom.

Stan did not.

He rested one forearm against the desk and kept his attention on you.

You reached the end of the paragraph.

Then, slowly, you looked at him.

Stan smiled.

Your fingers disappeared another inch into your sleeves.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me,” Stan said.

You glanced around the classroom. “He said we could choose.”

“I chose,” Stan replied.

A small crease appeared between your brows. “You’ve heard me answer one question. You don’t know whether we’d work well together.” 

Stan nodded toward the notes beside your hand. “You improved my argument in under ten seconds.”

“You might find someone better,” you said.

Stan held your gaze. “I doubt it.” 

Your fingers curled more deeply into your sleeves, but you still did not answer.

Stan’s expression softened. “Hey, no pressure.”

You looked at him again.

“I’m serious,” Stan added. “You can say no.”

He kept his voice gentle and gave you enough space to consider it without trying to smile or flirt his way into the answer.

You looked at him again.

Stan kept his expression open.

He did not grin. He did not lean closer or turn the question into another opportunity to flirt.

“I mean it,” he said.

You studied him for a moment.

Stan held your gaze without trying to charm the answer out of you.

You looked down at the syllabus again. “All right.”

His heartbeat struck once, hard, against his ribs.

“All right?” Stan repeated.

You nodded. “We can be partners.”

Stan’s smile returned. “Good choice.”

“You said I could say no,” you reminded him.

“You could have,” Stan replied.

Your eyes narrowed slightly behind your glasses. “But you would have thought it was a bad choice.”

Stan leaned back in his chair. “I would have respected it.”

You waited.

Stan allowed one beat of silence to pass.

“And privately questioned your judgment,” he added.

The edge of your mouth lifted before you turned toward the front again.

Professor Hale began explaining the requirements for the first case analysis.

Stan lowered his attention to the syllabus.

He had found you twice in less than twenty-four hours.

Now he had an entire semester’s worth of reasons to keep sitting beside you.

Professor Hale spent the remainder of class reviewing the syllabus. Stan listened closely enough to catch the important parts: two briefs, a midterm, a final appellate argument, and the first discussion-partner assignment due Wednesday.

When Hale dismissed the class, the room filled with scraping chairs and rustling paper.

Stan closed his course reader while you carefully returned the worn novel to your messenger bag. Two textbooks followed it, along with your notebook and a folder already crowded with loose pages.

The canvas strap strained when you pulled the bag onto your shoulder.

Stan nodded toward it. “You carry all of that every day?”

You adjusted the strap across your chest. “I need all of it today.”

“That wasn’t what I asked,” Stan said.

Your eyes narrowed slightly behind your glasses. “I can carry it.”

Stan lifted one hand. “I didn’t say you couldn’t.”

You watched him for a moment before tucking your hands into your sleeves again.

Stan turned to the back page of his notebook. “We should decide when we’re working on the case.”

You glanced toward the assignment description. “I’m free tomorrow after three.”

“Library?” Stan asked.

You nodded once. “Library at three works.”

Stan tore a clean strip from the edge of the page and wrote down his phone number. He added his name beneath it before sliding the paper toward you.

“That’s my number,” he explained. “Call if something changes.”

You picked up the paper and folded it neatly in half. “All right.”

Stan watched you tuck it into the front of your notebook.

The careful little motion pleased him more than it should have.

You lifted the notebook against your chest and followed the other students into the hallway. Stan slung his backpack over one shoulder and stepped out behind you.

Students crowded around the classroom doors, checking schedules and moving toward the stairwell. You stopped near the wall and pulled the sharply folded campus map from your bag.

Stan paused beside you. “Where’s your next class?”

You opened the map and searched the printed buildings. “Browning Hall.”

“What room?” Stan asked.

You checked the schedule tucked inside your notebook. “Two fourteen.”

Stan nodded toward the stairs. “I can walk you.”

Your gaze lifted from the map. “No, it’s fine. I’ll find it.”

“You sure?” he asked.

You traced one of the pathways with a sleeve-covered finger. “I don’t want to make you late for your next class.”

Stan glanced at the clock mounted above the hallway. He would have to move quickly on the way back.

“You won’t,” he said.

You looked up at him. “You don’t have to.”

“I know,” Stan replied.

He kept his tone easy, leaving the choice with you.

You hesitated before folding the map along its existing creases. “All right.”

Stan stepped toward the stairwell. “Come on.”

You followed him down the stairs and through the crowded lobby. Once outside, you pulled the map from your bag again.

Stan pointed across the quad. “Browning is past the student union.”

You glanced between the map and the buildings ahead. “I thought it was west.”

“It is west,” Stan said.

Your eyes returned to the map. “I’m still learning which direction that is.”

Stan held the door open as you stepped onto the walkway. “You’ll get it.”

The September sun had warmed the quad, and the paths were crowded with students moving between classes.

Stan kept his pace measured beside you.

“You said you transferred from a smaller school,” he began. “Was it nearby?”

You named the college.

Stan recognized it. “What made you transfer?”

“The pre-law program here is stronger,” you explained. “They also accepted more of my English credits than the other schools I considered.”

Stan adjusted his backpack strap as he matched his pace to yours. “What’s your major?”

“English,” you replied. “With a political science minor.”

Stan looked toward the notebook held against your chest. “Pre-law?”

You nodded. “That’s the plan.”

He smiled slightly. “That explains the constitutional law class.”

“And the books?” you asked.

“The books explained themselves,” Stan said.

You looked at him over the top of your glasses before turning your attention back to the path.

Stan let the quiet sit for a moment.

Then you glanced toward him. “What about you?”

“Political science,” he replied. “Pre-law.”

Your fingers tightened slightly around the edge of your notebook. “What kind of law?”

Stan considered the question as you moved around a group of students blocking the walkway. “I’m not completely sure yet. Civil rights, maybe. Education law.”

You looked up at him. “Why education law?”

The question was simple, but it landed closer to something personal than Stan expected.

He kept his gaze ahead. “I know what it’s like when the adults responsible for your education decide something else matters more.”

You were quiet beside him.

Stan glanced toward you, wondering whether he had said too much.

Your expression had softened.

“That makes sense,” you said.

Stan felt something settle beneath his ribs.

You had not asked him to elaborate. You had not looked surprised that he cared. You had simply listened.

“What kind of law do you want to practice?” he asked.

You adjusted your glasses. “Maybe appellate work. Or public interest law.”

Stan nodded slowly. “You’d be good at appellate work.”

Your steps faltered slightly before you recovered. “You’ve heard me answer one question.”

“It was a good answer,” he said.

You lowered your gaze toward the pavement. “So was yours.”

Stan looked at you.

The compliment was quiet and matter-of-fact.

You did not sound surprised by his intelligence. You simply believed the argument had been good.

“Thanks,” he said.

The word came out softer than he intended.

You glanced at him briefly before adjusting the notebook against your chest.

You reached Browning Hall a few minutes later. Stan followed you through the entrance and checked the room numbers posted along the corridor.

He nodded toward a door near the end of the hall. “Two fourteen.”

You looked at the number above the doorway and released a quiet breath. “Thank you for walking me.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied.

Your fingers touched the edge of the notebook holding his number. “Tomorrow at three?”

“Library,” Stan confirmed. 

You nodded toward the classroom door. “I’ll see you then.”

Stan took a step backward. “See you tomorrow.”

He waited until you disappeared into the room before checking his watch.

Seven minutes.

Whitmore stood on the opposite side of the quad.

Stan turned toward the exit and started running.

Stan arrived at his next class two minutes late, breathing harder than the walk should have required and carrying a smile he could not quite get rid of.

He had your name.

You had his number tucked somewhere inside your notebook.

And tomorrow, at three, he knew exactly where to find you.