A/N: Hey, lovlies. Sorry this has taken me a while to get up. I would make excuses, but college in itself is an excuse, so yeah. Hope yall are staying warm! Hopefully your weather hasn't been as bizarre as ours has here.

Hopefully you'll like this one...

Zach was the only person I'd ever met that was so thoroughly in-between. He wasn't Southern—the coast of Maine had him grow up with wind-chapped cheeks and a strong love of salt in the air and rocky shores, but his mother was the picture of the old South and the women it raised.

His hair was always almost needing to be cut, but not quite because the sides were always short enough; his jeans were always almost too tight but not quite because they were so meticulously tailored. His skin was always pale, but in a porcelain, creamy way that was only complexion, not lack of time outdoors.

He was incredibly well dressed, but he didn't try to be with his strong inclination towards deep-colored corduroys, various forms of flannel, and sheeplike vests and jackets that verged on frat but not really with the constant presence of his favorite old converse.

He was friendly but an enigma, he was handsome, but in a dashing, old fashioned, tall-and-dark way, not a modern, fun time, Cali-and-Parties way.

He was an adventurist, a missions leader abroad, and honestly, with a mother like his, a bit of a martyr. But he was also a stay-home, plaid pajama pants, let's have coffee and be lazy all day type of guy.

Zach was entirely his own person. I had yet to figure him out. But whatever he was, I liked every new part I discovered.

He was staring at me staring at him, and suddenly he looked nervous.

"Zach, this ticket—"

"Is to Kenya, I know."

"Is this some kind of half-way stop to India?" I flipped the tickets over, as if their backs would read his mind. "I don't understand."

He chuckled an ironic sort of chuckle. "I don't really either, but right now, it's where I need to be."

"In Kenya?" I tried my best to keep my disbelief out of my tone. Tried being the optimal word.

"Yes."

I shook my head. This was so... Zach. It was such a Zach thing to do. I would have been angry had I not been intrigued.

"So you aren't going to India?"

"No. Well... Yes. But not until the summer."

"So you're going to Columbia."

"No." This he was vehement about.

"Oh... Okay?"

His eyes met mine, and I could tell that he immediately sensed the apprehension there. "I thought you would be happy about that?"

"Does it matter? Either way, you're hours away." It wasn't meant to be bitter, but it came out with a note I wasn't proud of.

"But," he smirked, "that's just the thing. I'll be in Kenya, working on a new program with Soloman for a month..."

My mind was starting to process something other than time-differences and international phone rates. "A month?"

"Yeah. And then I'll be back for a month, and then I'll be in India for a month." He was full-on grinning by the time he finished, and I was beginning to feel a smile coming on as well.

"I'm sorry, I must have heard you incorrectly. You're working on a new program with Soloman?"

"Yes. He called me into his office. Again," he chuckled and grabbed half of my bagel taking a bite because I obviously wasn't going to. "This time he also had coffee as a choice refreshment. Horrid, somewhat tepid, but coffee nonetheless."

I raised an eyebrow, "So Soloman's trying to suck up? Did George Washington roll over in his grave yet?"

"Hah. Hah. Very funny," he rolled his eyes but then paused, as if realizing something, "Although, now that I think about it, that does explain the crepes."

"Crepes?" I snatched the bagel out of his hand and took a bite of it. "He fed you crepes?"

"You're going to get boy cooties," he smirked as I chewed, and I scowled around the mouthful of bagel.

I took a long drink of hot chocolate, and when it was obvious that he wasn't going to give any more details until I prodded him, I sighed. "Oh darn, I'm so worried. He bought you crepes?"

"No, he made them."

"He made them." I tried to force my voice above a deadpan, but it wasn't going any higher. Joe Soloman was best known for booze in class and Fs on tests. Not for getting chummy with students.

"Yeah. Had a hot plate out with a pan when I walked in. I didn't ask about it, and he all but threw a plate at my face," he shook his head. "Seriously. It was on top of his desk. I'm pretty sure that desk's been here since the university opened, and he was just casually using it as a stovetop. Not that its invaluable or anything."

I just sat there with my mouth open for a long moment until I realized what I was doing. When I snapped it shut, Zach took the bagel back and took another bite. We passed it back and forth a few times in silence.

Kenya, and then India. Did that mean he'd have a desk job when he was back in the States? I hoped so, but I didn't at the same time. Zach was smart. He could hold his own in any grad school in the country. Ivy League included. He didn't need to just give that up. But I guess I'd known all along that he would for a little adventure.

Above all things, Zach was a people person. If he could just meet people for the rest of his life, that's what he would have done. Which, in this case, was beginning to seem like a plausible idea. The worst thing was, he had a love for the faraway. His mother certainly wasn't one to call back home for, and his father… well, Townsend might as well have been nonexistent. Sometimes friends just weren't enough to tie him back to home.

Somehow I knew that I never would be enough either.

"So what's this week look like for you?"

"Aside from the two finals I have tomorrow?" I tapped my cup on the counter. "Don't change the subject, Zach. Please. Can we talk this out?"

He gave a long sigh and slumped back in his chair, then reached out for my hand across the table. "I can't really tell you much about it myself. We're kind of skating on heresay with Kenya. I mean, I know we'll be in Makuyu. It's like 30 minutes northeast of Thika."

His eyes were shining just saying the names of the towns.

"English, please," I laughed.

"Northeast of Nairobi," he smiled a bright smile that I hadn't seen in a while, dimples and all, and I instantly melted. "But honestly, I'm just ready to see Rabten again. We haven't talked in, like, months, and I promised him I'd help him with his…"

"His pick up lines."

Zach laughed, a deep throaty happiness that sent a shiver down my spine. "Not quite," he ducked his head to look intently at his coffee, turning a distinct shade of pink that bloomed over his cheeks in soft way. "He skipped right over that after the second lesson. He got married this fall. I'm supposed to be helping him with his college applications."

"He hasn't gone to college yet?" Rabten was a 20-something Tibetan refugee that had been Zach's translator the summer before. Rabten was also, according to Zach, notoriously bad with the ladies and a fantastic imitator of the Dalai Lama.

"No, he had to work to support his family after his dad passed. Now Sita is begging him to finish classes. She wants her husband to be an 'educated man,'" he smirked, shaking his head. "Can't say I blame her. Man is hopeless with finances."

"Says the guy who barely passed macro," I tore my hand away from him and pulled my hair up off of my neck into a ponytail. A blond strand still fell back into my eyes, and Zach pushed it back behind my ear.

"I can balance a mean checkbook."

"Too bad they have internet banking now," I laughed and tapped on the over of my book and glanced out the window of the coffee shop. A toddler was pulling her mother into the toy shop across the street and the father was standing back, on his phone, looking like he had better places to be.

"Wait, what time is it?"

"I don't know. I don't have my phone," I shrugged, but suddenly I was feeling uneasy. Who knew how long we'd been there talking.

"Yeah, neither do I," he looked around for a moment, presumably looking for a wall clock. For some reason, I was relieved to hear he hadn't brought his phone. It meant something.

"Zach, you're wearing a watch."

"Oh. Oh right," he laughed uneasily.

"Why are you so jumpy?"

"I have a webcam meeting at… In twenty minutes, actually," he groaned.

"Oh… Well, you should go."

"I should." But he didn't get up to move.

"Zach," I chuckled, "Shoo. Go. It'll take that long to get back to your apartment."

He smiled, a small, tentative smile. "You're right."

"I'll see you tonight at eight," I squeezed his hand, then sat back in my chair to look at him as he stood up.

"At eight?"

"Yeah. The Student Alumni banquet. Remember?"

He shook his head and smiled a strange sort of smile, one that I'd never seen before. "I had totally forgotten about that," he leaned down, and suddenly, I was nervous. "Thank you," was warm and let out in a breath that tickled at my face.

"Dust off that tux, Goode," I smiled, trying to fight the butterflies in my stomach.

"Yeah," he wasn't looking at my eyes. "Will do," he dipped his head, and time was suspended. He was there, waiting, hesitating, and then his lips were against mine, warm, soft, kissing me gently in a drawn-out way that made the kiss seem much longer than it was. He pulled back and pressed a swift, hard kiss to my forehead, muttered a "Pick you up at 7:30," and then he was walking out the door, grinning even more than I was.

There you go... Zach's leaving. Sort of.

Opinions? I love hearing from you!

With love

Inez