The Nearness of You

Chapter 6

"Four coffees; two black, one with just sugar, and one with cream and sugar," Livy said as she delivered the drinks to main office of the local university's Science department.

"A life saver, that's what you are!" Hadley Linton, a small elfin creature with a pixie haircut fell on the hot drinks. Livy had gone to high school with Hadley, and she was the main reason that she had her new job with the department.

Declan had been gone for four months, and as soon as he left Livy had decided to take his advice and not sit around the house all day. She had re-enrolled at the local university where she had attended classes prior to her father's illness. She had only managed to complete two years, so she still had a few core classes to complete before she had to declare a major.

When she had attended college before she had been an art student, but she wasn't sure if that was the route she wanted to go again. It had been her passion once, but she realized, that in the real world it wasn't exactly a major that would offer her a lot of support. Declan was right when he had mentioned her interest interior design, but she had chosen the interest to primarily upset her father.

Her father had hoped that she would go to school and earn a business degree. She had shown a natural aptitude for numbers and had even been accepted into Harvard's business program, but she had decided not to even mention it to her father out of fear that the choice of art school would have been taken away from her.

Now, it all seemed so pointless. If she had been wiser then, she would have jumped at the chance to attended Harvard. It was a local school and she could have her pick of jobs, then she wouldn't need her father's money at all.

Still, she was interested in interior design and Livy had looked into the new program, and when she had read that it was headed by Theodora Styles it had left her with mixed feelings. She signed up for a class, hoping she could attend the program and keep a low profile because it would allow her to study the woman without being beholden to her. But it hadn't worked. Theodora had recognized her on the first day of class and had drawn everyone's attention when she had mentioned that it was nice to see her again.

She kept telling herself that the only reason she cared about knowing more about the woman was to save face. If she was going to marry Declan, which she honestly had her doubts about, she need to know the lay of land, learn what sort of woman interested him so that she would be prepared, but prepared for what exactly, she wasn't sure about.

She had started school a few weeks earlier and she had wanted something else to keep her busy and hold the loneliness at bay so she applied for and got a job with the Science department. They had needed an office assistant and it sounded like it was a general go-for job, but she was willing to do it. It would be her first real job, and she was amazed that they had even hired her with her limited experience. She had a feeling it was because Hadley was a teaching-assistant in the department and had pulled a few strings with the office.

"Excellent!" Landon Nixon, a grad student, said as he reached for his coffee. Landon was handsome in an awkward boy next door way. He was outrageously tall and unbelievably shy, but he was incredibly funny once he warmed up to a person.

"Drink up guys, we don't have time to waste," Dr. Nelson Taft said with a grin. Dr. Taft was every girl's dream. He was tall and handsome with blond hair and soft brown eyes. When he looked at a girl and smiled it felt as if she was the only one that existed. Livy would be lying if she said she wasn't interested. She had a full-blown crush. She could feel her heart speed up and her face turn red every time he entered a room.

At first Livy had thought there was something between him and Hadley but she had insisted that he wasn't her type. Livy was trying to play it cool, but Hadley loved to tease her about it.