Chapter 4

November 1971 - Yale University

All the next day, Angela kept thinking about the library man's eyes. She'd felt overly happy and fixated, until she realized why. They looked like Anthony's, Angela smiled blissfully. What a welcome reminder of the sweetest first kiss ever to be had. She couldn't stop smiling. Angela knew the library man wasn't him, but the feeling was the same. His smile gave her a particular joy she hadn't felt since that night seven years ago.

She and Anthony had had such a long, gentle kiss - and he had seemed like he would've kept going, too. But Angela didn't really know what she was doing, so she had awkwardly, but slowly, broken it off. They had both been a little self-conscious after they had let go, and had kept looking from each other back to the ground. But no amount of weirdness could have kept the enormous smiles off of their faces. And when they did catch each other's eyes, they had been serious.

"Goodnight, Anthony," she'd said softly.

"Goodnight, Ingrid," he'd replied, just as gently.

She had backed out of the clearing a bit clumsily, while he'd kept standing near the Rock. She had turned back a couple of times, and he had still been there, watching her walk away. I kind of wish I had told him my real name, Angela had thought as she stumbled through the forest. After all, Anthony had liked the kiss as much as she did; Angela could tell.

Clearly, she could be liked.

Angela forewent her workout that afternoon, and swung by the makeup counter at Malley's department store. Angela got color matched, and bought all the products she already knew how to use. There was a display for a new perfume, Rive Gauche, and she purchased that, as well. Walking out, Angela tipped a half-smile. She might not have run that day, but at that point, she felt like she could've gone for miles. This feels awesome!, she thought, as she swung her tiny bag of costly trinkets.

The library wasn't busy, and Angela settled herself down at the same cubicle as the night before – just in case. It had felt a little bit weird blow drying her own hair. She kept getting reversed on which hand to hold what, where. And applying eye makeup to her own face took longer than she remembered it taking on Trish, but Angela actually thought it turned out quite nicely.

She flipped open her Operational Management book, and scared herself a little when she realized she was annoyed about having to do homework. Who am I? Wake up, Angela! You want to do well here, she reminded herself. Angela bit the cap off her highlighter, and continued for the next hour skimming the chapters she'd been assigned.

"You look dressed up." Angela jumped at the voice, and spun around to see the library man behind her. After a second, she let out a quick laugh, and regrouped.

"Actually, I'm planning on dressing up even more." – Whoa! Where'd that come from? Just go with it…

"Oh, yeah?", he said, amused.

Okay, he seems engaged, let's press a little more… "Yeah… my sorority is having a ball this Saturday." Angela took a breath. "I know it's kind of short notice, but…do you want to go with me?" Hold. Hoooold.

The library man with the chocolate eyes smiled widely. "Yeah," he chuckled. "Yeah, I do."

Relieved, Angela laughed, "That's great!"

"Yeah, thank you. I'm Greg. Dawson. And you are?", he lifted his eyebrows.

"Angela Robinson."

"Well, hey, Angela. I appreciate the invitation. I just transferred here this semester, and to be honest, a friend sounds pretty good. It seems like everybody our age already has their thing."

"Well, that's just because we didn't know you were coming," she smiled. He laughed. "So where did you transfer from?" Angela asked.

"Onondaga Community College," Greg shrugged. "Why pay more for prerequisites, right?"

"Sounds efficient," her half-smile tipped up again.

After a beat or two, Greg piped up good-naturedly, "Well, I'll letcha get back to your…thing here."

"Oh, hey!" She scribbled out her name and sorority house's phone number on a piece of notebook paper, and handed it to him. "Here; in case I don't see you before the 13th."

Greg took it. "Oh, no worries. I'm sure I'll see you before then. And if not, there seem to be girls around here that are more than happy to tell me what I'm doing wrong," he said with that bold smile, and a lil' jab to her arm.

With her jaw heavily slanted and her eyelids stuck at half mast, she acquiesced to his prowess, and waved him off.