Dessa got to the lecture hall at nine forty-five, fifteen minutes early for the class. She liked to get to places early when at all possible, but with today's impending presentation, she found it almost critical. By the time she got to her seat she realized that he wasn't there, nor were his things, and she became worried.

"Lord, Fox, why do you do this to me?" she mumbled to

She sat down in her seat for a moment, going through all the things that could be keeping him from being there with her. First she thought that he had fallen ill, but she reasoned out that he would have told her so last night or called her earlier. Then she thought that he was calling his family, but ruled that out because it was the middle of the night on the East Coast and that Fox and his family didn't talk.

Finally, five minutes before class started, Fox came and sat next to Dessa. She, by this point had become a total mess and had her head down on the table and her hair splayed over her arms.

"Dessa, you okay?"

"Where were you?" she asked as she brought her head up "You had me worried that I would have to do this alone!"

Dessa hated public speaking, and although she didn't admit it to anyone, she was terrified of this presentation. She woke up three times the previous night trying to recall facts and formulas.

"My roommate decided to turn off the alarm so that he wouldn't wake his girlfriend up. I got up like twenty minutes ago, honestly. I'm sorry that I couldn't get here any earlier."

"It's fine, I understand. Elise tended to do the same thing when Watson was over."

"Who names their kid Watson?" he asked, trying to lighten Dessa's mood

"Apparently Mister and Missus Watty."

"Your roommate dated a Watson Watty?"

"The fourth. He was something else too, you know the kind who are allergic to everything?"

"I wish I could have met him."

Dessa could almost feel the tension build and build in her like a mammoth wall going up from her stomach. The butterflies that she had last night had turned into birds that seemed to feed on her anxiousness. Fox on the other hand seemed to be doing quite fine, to Dessa. He was staring off at the poster on the wall about the mathematician Hypatia.

"Fox?"

. "What, you feeling okay?" he asked since the color of her face had drained away and she looked shaky.

"I really don't want to do this… I really don't think that I can. I hate public speaking ever since I fell on my face walking up the front of the class when I was nine."

Just then the professor came in and walked up to her spot at the front of the class. Her hair was mussed and she looked like she had hastily put herself together.

"Looks like good 'ole Emma just got done seeing Liam." Fox said, smiling. He really didn't know how to help her, humor had always been his remedy when things went wrong.

"As in Professor Liam Harold?"

           "Exactly."
             Dessa was quiet for a second, trying to let her nerves calm down. She knew that she'd be fine when the presentation was over and she got back to her seat. Slowly she sat up and took a deep breath. Fox put his hand on the small of her back and started to rub in soft circles, trying to make her relax. He did this all through the opening presentation, and only really started to pay attention when the professor started to introduce them.

            All throughout the presentation, Dessa carried herself with grace and confidence. Fox was impressed, himself not even being able to tell that she was terrified. Her piercing green eyes never gave a hint of the slightest distress, and her nervous habit of clicking her nails together was notably absent. She took charge, leading the presentation like she was the most natural teacher in the world. From start to finish, she covered every theory and put everything in the simplest terms so that it was easy to understand the underlying concepts.

Afterwards, when she and Fox sat down in their seats, and Dessa closed her eyes and let her head go back, so her face was up to the ceiling. Silently she was thanking the heavens that she and Fox had gotten though it, and even got a "congratulations and job well done" from the professor. For the rest of the lesson Dessa tried to help her partner take notes and explain things in whispers, but the truth was that she was far more concerned with the dinner tonight than with calculus and its real world applications.

      When the lesson was done an hour later, Dessa got up, put on her coat and started walk to the exit.

       "Where are you going?" he asked, startled by her sudden departure

          "Just outside, I could really use some air. Like I said, I really don't do presentations."

           They walked out into the main corridor and down the hall to the stairs that ended in the main lobby of the building.

           "You were great, I even understood what you were talking about."

           "I really dumbed it down that much?" she asked, teasing him

          The air was crisp outside, and Dessa let her chin sink deeper into her black and beige winter coat. She had never been one for the cold, but it didn't bother Fox at all. She reasoned that it was because the winters were just colder where he grew up, and since this was shaping up to be a cold winter, she was feeling it more. Then again, she thought, she could just be a wimp.

      "What time should I come over tonight?"

      "My last class ends at four thirty, what about you?" Dessa asked, digging her hands deeper into her pockets

        "Five"

        Dessa thought for a moment. She would get home a bit before five, and she would have to start cooking the second she got home. Factoring that in, and the fact that she wanted to look nice for tonight, she reasoned that seven would be okay."

       "Is around seven fine for you? If that's too late, I mean we can bump it up to six or six thirty."

        "Sounds good, should I bring anything?" His first inclination would be to bring a case of beer over, but then he thought that this was going to be a nice dinner, and he figured that Dessa might be accustomed to  finer tastes he instead asked "Wine perhaps?"

            "What ever you think to be best. I hate to run, but I need to go home before my World Lit class and get the turkey from the deep freeze to defrost a bit. See you at seven then?"

            "Yeah."

She gave him a quick hug and started to leave to where she put her bike during the math class. Dessa smiled to herself, knowing that now with the presentation out of the way, she could focus on what she really wanted to, tonight. She wasn't going to seduce him, but she was going to definitely up the ante some. As Dessa's form got smaller and smaller, Fox couldn't help but be mesmerized by her. She was the best thing that had happen to him in a long, long time. Everything about her was special, right down to the way she walked, talked, and put him under her spell from the first time that they had ever met.