Part of Your World:A Chris Evans FanFiction

2.

The following day was Monday, and I spent the day at the University setting up my office. I'd been given my teaching scheduled for the first semester. Two first-year biology classes. I'd never taught first year before. I'd done tutoring, and filled in for lecturers on later year classes back when I did my Ph.D. But never actually run a whole class by myself. Both classes had around 300 students, and I was so nervous. I decided to go take a look at where the lecture halls were exactly, even though there was still 2 whole months before the lectures started. Anxiety is fun like that.

My phone buzzed. It was a private number. Assuming it was something to do with work, as I still had lots of orientation events to attend, and it was quite possible that paperwork still needed to be done somewhere, I adopted my super serious work voice. "Hello, Doctor Emily Stephens speaking."

"Doctor? You didn't say you were a doctor?" Said the voice on the other end "Oh, sorry it's Chris." It quickly added.

"Hi Chris," I said. I suddenly felt giddy and excited. Something I had never really experienced before. "Yes, I did. I told you I'm here doing a postdoc."

"Oh yeah, right." He replied. "I guess I didn't really put the two things together. You know, I guess when I think of doctors I think of the ones you go to when your sick."

I laughed.

"I was wondering if you might like to come out with me this Friday. There is a band I like playing at the House of Blues. I know it's kind of chintzy, but the band is good," He was rambling again.

"No need to talk it down, I know nothing about it. New here, remember?" I interrupted. "And I'd love to go with you. I really like live music."

Chris laughed. It was deep and warm and made my stomach flutter. "Great! Great!" He exclaimed, sounding very excited. "You can eat there, but I prefer not to. So maybe we can get dinner first? I know a nice Italian place nearby. Do you like Italian?"

"It's my favourite."

"Shall I pick you up then? Maybe around 7?"

I quickly agreed and gave him my address. We talked for a little longer and when I hung up I was grinning ear to ear.

* * * * *

The week went by pretty quickly. I met some colleagues I hadn't had a chance to meet yet, and we all had lunch together. I also received an offer to talk at an upcoming conference in Oregon, which was exciting. I didn't have a lot of work to do yet. Field research takes a little bit of planning and given I'd only just started a week ago, I hadn't managed to get that far, but my supervisor had spoken to me about us going out to Joshua Tree and checking out their field research station.

Friday arrived, with scorching heat. I decided to just work from home. I had air-conditioning and I'd found it was always cooler here out of the sun.

As 7 o'clock approached, I decided to get ready. I had chosen to wear a cute 50s style rock-a-billy dress with a pale blue fabric decorated with foxes. I did my best to make my make up match the style of the dress, though my inexperience with using makeup often. I surveyed myself in the mirror. My long dark hair was coloured various shades of purple, blue and pink at the ends. I had done minimal styling, just leaving it loose and swept back with some product to stop my curls poofing up like a poodle. I'd just managed to pull of winged eyeliner I think. They were small wings, and a little uneven, plus they'd taken me four tries to get sort of right, but I liked the effect. Combined with the mascara on my already quite long and dark eyelashes and the shade of blue my dress was, my eyes which often just looked an indistinct grey looked very blue. I was most happy with my choice of lip gloss. The dark red popped against the creamy white of my skin. I really liked the effect.