Chapter 31

After they finished lunch and were walking back to the auditorium, a man approached them. "Larry? Larry Fleinhardt?" He said.

"Yes?" Larry said, looking confused. Then realization dawned on his face and he grinned, "Scott Warner? Oh my goodness! How are you?"

"Absolutely wonderful. What are you working on these days?"

"Oh, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Scott, I must first introduce you to my friends, Dr. Charles Edward Eppes and Dr. Amita Ramanujan. Charlie, Amita, meet one of my oldest, dearest friends, Scott Warner."

Scott reached out to shake hands, first with Amita and then with Charlie. "It is an honor to meet you. Dr. Eppes.."

"Charlie."

"Charlie, your presentation this morning was absolutely brilliant. Of course, Larry has been bragging about you for decades now."

Charlie grinned, "Well, thank you." He turned to Larry, "Bragging about me, Larry?"

"Well, Charles, you are my prize pupil. If you two would excuse me, Scott and I have a great deal of catching up to do!"

After Larry and Scott left, Amita said, "That was odd."

Charlie nodded. "They barely recognized each other and yet they are, to quote Larry, 'oldest, dearest friends.'" He shrugged and put his arm around Amita's waist. "It looks like I have you to myself for the afternoon."

She gave him a squeeze and said, "Aww, that's too bad. I don't know what we'll do without Larry."

Charlie swept his hand toward the auditorium, "There's always math."

"Larry did order the DVDs for you."

"That is true. Are you suggesting playing hooky, Professor?" Charlie raised his eyebrows and grinned.

"How about a brief sabbatical? Say a couple of hours? I could use some fresh air."

Charlie laughed and turned, steering Amita away from the auditorium doors. Just before they escaped, he heard Larry's voice behind them, "Charles! Amita!"

Charlie pasted an innocent smile on his face and turned, "Yes, Lawrence?"

"I just wanted to make my apologies. Scott has invited me to join his discussion group this afternoon. We'll probably go into the evening, if you don't mind."

"I'm devastated," Charlie said, grinning.

"I could tell Scott..."

"I'm kidding, Larry. Go, have fun with your buddy. Amita and I were just going for a walk. We need some fresh air."

"Oh," Larry said, seeming to notice for the first time that Charlie had his arm around Amita. "Well, enjoy your walk, you two. And don't wait up for me."

"We won't," Charlie said softly as they made their escape.

Once they were outside, he said, "So where did you want to go?"

"I don't care. Back to the sundial? I know how thrilled you were to show it to us. I thought you'd like to see it again."

"That's very thoughtful of you," Charlie said softly as they walked along Washington Road toward McCosh Hall and the sundial. "But then again, you were always a very thoughtful person. And considerate. And kind."

Amita laughed, "You make me sound like a Girl Scout. Next you'll be saying I'm clean in thought, word and deed."

Charlie gave her a squeeze, "I hope not."

They laughed as they crossed Washington and continued along the sidewalk. "There it is!" Amita pointed.

"I didn't realize you were a fan of sundials," Charlie said.

"I'm not. I'm a fan of the way your face lit up when you brought us here on Monday."

They arrived at the base of the sundial, and Charlie stopped and turned Amita to face him.

"What?" she murmured.

"This," he said, kissing her gently.

Amita put her arms around Charlie's neck and returned his kiss enthusiastically. She pulled back and gazed into his eyes. "I knew I'd like to see the expression on your face."

He pulled her close again. "I thought you'd like this, too," he kissed her again.

"Too bad Larry's not here," she said, somewhat breathlessly.

"What? Why?"

"We could show him how libidinous the math department can be."

They never did go back to Fine Hall. They strolled around the campus, Charlie acting as tour guide, occasionally stepping out of character to nuzzle Amita's neck or give her a tender kiss. As they walked along the northern end of the campus, Charlie said, "Are you hungry?"

"A little."

"There's an amazing restaurant up here. It's probably early enough we can get in without a reservation if you want to give it a shot. And, no, it's not a White Castle. Just wanted to beat you to the punch," he said, grinning.

"It sounds wonderful."

They turned onto Witherspoon Street and walked to a simple building with a striped canopy over the door. "Welcome to Lahiere's, a Princeton institution since 1919," Charlie the tour guide said. Charlie the romantic took Amita's arm and opened the door for her. They approached the hostess. Charlie said, "Good evening. We don't have reservations, but I was hoping..."

The hostess smiled. "Two?"

"Yes."

"You're in luck, Sir. We do have a table for two available."

"Wonderful, thank you," Charlie said.

After they were seated, Amita opened her menu and gasped. "Charlie," she whispered, "This is too expen..."

He put his fingers to her lips. "Shhh. Choose anything you want, and do not look at the prices. Pretend you don't understand numbers."

Amita quirked an eyebrow at him. "That won't be easy."

"I know. But you can do it."

"All right. What do you recommend?"

"I don't know. I've never been here before."

Charlie insisted on ordering appetizers. He had the crab cocktail with guacamole and grape tomato salsa, and Amita settled on a Caesar salad. Charlie ordered the pan roasted filet of beef, and Amita chose the seared scallops. They accepted the waiter's wine suggestions and settled in for an evening of excellent food and conversation.

It was a short walk back to the Peacock Inn but they walked slowly, working off the fuzzy headedness that came from a long evening of good food and wine. When they reached Charlie's room, he led her to the couch and knelt to start a fire in the fireplace. When he finished, he stood at looked at Amita. She patted the space beside her on the couch.