"So, who's the guy?"

Grace, who had just drifted through the door in a dreamy haze, stopped dead at the sound of Ally's voice. Her roommate was sitting on her bed, arms crossed, watching Grace keenly. Grace felt herself beginning to blush, and going over to her bed, she fluffed up a pillow, and said, "Guy? What guy? There's no guy!"

"Grace, hello! This is me you're talking to here. I know there's a guy. Look at yourself in the mirror. Go on, look. Your hair's all messed up and you've got this - I don't know, glowy, dreamy look about you. Look."

Grace turned and surveyed herself in the dressing table mirror. God, she did have an odd look on her face. She couldn't stop smiling, for one, and Ally was right, she was sort of shiny and glowing.

"Of course," Ally said, joining her silently from behind, "the most obvious giveaway is that huge hickey on your neck..."

Grace gasped as she saw it, there on the right side of her neck. She and August had wandered back in the direction of her dorm some time earlier, but a convenient secluded bench along the way had provided a welcome distraction, and goodness only knew how long they had been sitting there kissing - or necking, apparently. Grace, seeing Ally in the mirror grinning behind her, turned around and hit her with the pillow she was still holding. Ally dodged the full force of it, laughing.

"You - you - bitch!" Grace cried, half-laughing too.

"Ha! I'm not the one who's keeping secret boyfriends away from her best friend," Ally grinned. "Come on, Grace - you ran out of here at like 2 o'clock this afternoon, and now it's after ten. What have you been doing all this time - or shouldn't I ask? And with whom?"

"I haven't been 'doing' anything," Grace protested. "Ok, well, obviously I've been doing something, but it's not what you think. We were - just kissing..." she trailed off, smiling at the memory.

"Must have been some kiss," Ally commented, flopping down on her bed again. "Ok, so spill - who is he? Where'd you meet him? Is he cute?"

Grace laughed. "He's just...an old friend I haven't seen for a while. We bumped into each other in the English department."

"Honey, old friends don't say hello like that, no matter how long it's been. So - what, is he an old boyfriend? From school? You never talk about your school boyfriends."

"That's because there's not much to tell. I went out with a couple of guys, but nothing else. No serious relationships, you know?"

"Except - him? What was the deal with him?" Ally demanded

"He was...a crush," Grace said slowly. "No, it was more than that. We wanted - well, I wanted, and I think he did too - to be together, but it was difficult, we couldn't."

"He had a girlfriend?"

"No, no, he was single..but - Ally, if I tell you this, you've got to promise not to tell anyone else, okay? I've never told anyone."

"Wow. Okay, I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die. Now come on, I'm dying here!"

Grace considered how to put it. "He was older than me, for one. People didn't approve."

"Older? How much older? Where did you find him at school? Was he, like, a friend's brother, or something?"

"No. We met at school." Grace was embarrassed suddenly; she knew how beautiful the feelings were between herself and Mr Dimitri - no, August - and their age difference didn't seem to matter when they were together, but she was all too aware of how it looked to other people. For this reason they had resolved, on their walk back to her dorm, to keep their relationship under wraps for the time being - from the general public, anyway, and of course Grace's parents. Naturally Ally would have to know; as the person who shared Grace's room it would be impossible to keep something this big from her. But telling her the plain facts was rather more difficult than Grace had expected.

"You met at school? But how -" Then, as realisation dawned on Ally's face, Grace dropped her eyes. "My God, Grace. He wasn't - a teacher, was he?"

Grace looked up and met Ally's eyes squarely. "Yes, he was. He was my English teacher. But Ally, I swear, nothing ever happened between us back then. We - we both wanted it to, but we knew we couldn't, and then the principal found out that we'd seen a movie together, and he - well, they fired him."

"No!" Ally's eyes were like saucers. "Wow. This is like totally something I never expected from you, Grace! So you had a thing with your English teacher -"

"A thing where nothing happened," Grace interrupted.

"All right, nothing happened, but you met him again tonight and something did happen, right?"

"Something like that," Grace admitted. "I'm out of school now, and - well, I never stopped lo- feeling the way I did about him, and neither did he about me. So we sort of got back together."

"Aww, that's too sweet, Grace!" said Ally, the hopeless romantic. "Life was against you but you overcame it...it's like a great novel! And now you can be together with no obstacles."

Grace grimaced. "Um, not really. My parents would just about flip out - my Dad nearly killed him when he thought there was something going on; imagine what he'd be like if he found out for sure! And there's always the age gap."

"Why? How old is this guy, Grace?"

"Forty-one." Grace admitted.

"Forty-one! That's like, twenty-two years older than you, Grace! My God, my mother is only forty. This guy's the same age as your parents -"

"Ally. Calm down. I know. Trust me. I've thought about this like a million times. But it never feels like that when I'm with him; we're just two people who connect. I don't think of him as old."

"No, well, of course you wouldn't, "Ally said slowly. "Wow. Grace, I'm really happy for you. Just be careful, okay? I don't want you to get hurt."

"I know. But trust me, Ally, he won't hurt me. Nothing could hurt as much it hurt being separated from him all this time."

Later that night, after she and Ally had talked the whole subject to death, Grace lay in bed trying to fall asleep. She could hear the steady breathing from the other side of the room which meant Ally was asleep, but she was too worked up to be able to relax and do the same. She couldn't get August off her mind. Had it really happened? What if it was all just a terribly real daydream? It wouldn't be the first time she'd had one of those. No, of course she knew it had been real. She smiled to herself. He was hers, and she was his. At last.

A soft tapping at the door caused her to sit bolt upright in panic. She looked at the luminous hands of her alarm clock. Two-thirty. Who the heck could be knocking at her door at this time of night? She stiffened as she saw the door being pushed ever so slowly open as the crack of light from the passage outside widened. Then a figure appeared in the gap. She froze, unable to scream. They usually didn't lock the door, but then, no one ever came in in the middle of the night either. Then she heard a whisper.

"Grace?"

"August?" she said, startled, slightly too loudly. What was he doing here?

"Sssh." August's form appeared out of the darkness and knelt down by her bed. "I don't want to wake your roommate."

"She sleeps like the dead," Grace said, smiling as she took in August's face, his smile, the love radiating from him. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to see you again. I couldn't believe it was all real. I just wanted to touch you, to be sure."

"It was real," Grace said, and kissed him gently. He kissed back, his hands on the back of her head, running through her hair. He hoisted himself up onto her bed and she shifted over to make room for him.

"I just want to be near you, I just want to hold you," he breathed into her ear. "Is that all right?"

"Yeah," Grace whispered back. She shifted back down to a lying position, on her side, and August lay on top of the covers, pressing against her back, his left arm thrown over her body and clasping her hands in his. He kissed the nape of her neck.

"I'll just stay for a bit," he whispered. "You can go to sleep."

"I think I might just be able to now," Grace murmured, and did just that. August lay there for a while, pondering the enormity of the situation, and thinking how he hadn't felt this contented in years, fully intending to leave in an hour or so. But he didn't. Worn out, he too fell asleep, his arms still around the girl he loved.

Ally looked up blearily. Her alarm clock was going off like a mad thing, but it had fallen off her bedside table onto the floor somewhere.

"Buggrit," she muttered, and climbed out to retrieve it. "There." She switched the alarm off and put the clock down, then looked across to see if Grace had woken up too. The scene she saw made her gasp momentarily. Grace was tucked up in bed, all right, but lying practically on top of her was a masculine form, still fully clothed except for his shoes, his long red hair masking his face from view. Ally stood still and considered the situation. Obviously this was the infamous August Dimitri; equally obvious was that Grace would be rather embarrassed if Ally woke her up now. However, Ally had to wake her because she had a class in less than half-an-hour and she hadn't set her own alarm. Grace hated to miss class, Ally knew, even if it would mean lying in bed with a nice guy draped over her. Ally tiptoed over to the bed and touched Grace's hand.

"Grace! Wake up," she said softly. Grace didn't stir, but he did, lifting his head suddenly, pushing back his auburn hair with his hand, and then raising a pair of calm blue eyes to Ally.

Hmm, he IS cute, Ally caught herself thinking. August got off the bed carefully and extended his hand to Ally, entirely unabashed. "Hi, I'm August. You must be Ally."

"Um, yes." Ally's usual insouciance was completely gone for perhaps the first time in her life. "It's nice to meet you...um..sorry I woke you, but Grace has a class in half-an-hour, so-"

"And Grace would kill you if she missed it, I know," he grinned. "Say no more. I'm out of here. You can wake Grace for me, and tell her I'll see her later." He kissed the tips of his fingers and placed them on Grace's cheek, gently. "Goodbye, Ally. We'll meet again soon, no doubt. Thank you." And then he was gone in a flourish.

"Wow," said Ally out loud, to the room. "Just, wow." She leaned over Grace and shook her. "Grace, wakey-wakey!"

Grace looked up blearily. "What - oh, what time is it?"

"Seven," Ally said nonchalantly.

"Seven?" My God, Ally, I've got class at half-past! Why didn't you wake me?"

"I just woke up myself. Besides," Ally grinned, "you and your boyfriend looked far too cute lying there together."

"Oh my God! You-you saw him? Was he still here?" Grace blushed, wondering what Ally must think of her.

"Yeah. He woke up when I tried to wake you the first time. He said he'd see you later."

"Nothing happened, okay, Ally?" Grace insisted, seeing Ally's knowing smile. "We would never - you know - with you in the same room, that'd just be gross. Besides, we haven't - and we haven't even talked about it...he just wanted to be with me-"

"Grace, relax! I know. You don't have to explain it to me. I think it's great. Actually, I think he's great too. Very..um...dashing. And cute too. For an old guy-" She dodged as Grace threw a pillow at her. "No, seriously, Grace, he seems really nice. I'm happy for you."

"I think I'm happier for myself," Grace said, her mouth full of toothpaste.