8 years in the life

Chapter 32 - February 2013 Harvard

A/N: Inner thoughts are in italics

Robert was finishing reviewing an article when he startled at the sound of a knock at his door. He thought it was the teaching assistant who was supposed to bring him the papers that were collected at the end of the class.

"Come in," Rory heard.

"Thanks, Stacy, please leave them here, I'll have a look at them tomorrow," he said without raising his head, motioning his hand toward a shelf.

She entered his office and saw him sitting at a cluttered desk in front of the window, a pen in his left hand, his right one scratching the nape of his neck, his head buried between stacks of books but she couldn't see his face. He was completely absorbed by what he was reading.

"Hmm, I don't think I'm the person you were expecting," she said softly, commanding her heart to return to its normal position. During the very few seconds, while she was waiting for his reaction, she had trouble breathing. Robert lifted an eye. He had recognized her voice but wondered if he wasn't daydreaming.

She looked at him while he was raising his head. Damned those glasses.

"Rory?!?" His words cut in his throat while he spoke her name. He was completely gobsmacked. It took him long seconds before he could gain back his composure. How could she still do this to him? She just had this ability to turn him to mush, even after all this time. She was standing in the door frame, staring at him with a shy smile, her coat was opened to a simple light grey knitted wool dress at mid-thigh length, hugging her curves perfectly but not ostensibly, just enough for his imagination to immediately go wild only glancing at her.

"I'm sorry, is it a bad time?" She wasn't really sure how he would respond and was fidgeting, playing with the collar of her dress. It took him several heartbeats to reply.

"No! Absolutely not. I'm thrilled to see you!" He stood to hug her. Within a millisecond, his reaction of surprise switched to his addiction of her smell as his nose brushed her hair.

Being so close to him made her weak in the knees and the familiar slight scent of "Habit Rouge" didn't help the dizziness. The warmness of his arms around her just made her feel like if she was back home.

"What are you doing here?" Robert cursed himself for not being able to say something wittier and couldn't help leaving his arms around the woman he had missed for so long.

"I'm giving a talk tomorrow morning on campus, and I thought I could stop by and see if I could distract you from your work."

How could I stay away from him for so long?

"Anything for you. Let me grab my coat, and we can go out and catch up." He scribbled on a sticky note, and when he turned and walked to reach for his stuff, Rory couldn't help herself checking him out. He even looked better than in her memory. Robert was wearing brown suede boots, dark blue jeans and a grey sweater just fitting him perfectly, driving her wonder about his toned chest and abs. He put his glasses in the drawer and caught his scarf and coat. She had to fight the urge to close the space between them and just kiss the life out of him.

"That easy? I heard it was difficult to get in touch with you," she teased him giving him a wry smile.

"Where did you get that? Oh! So, this is work related?" He realized that maybe he had put his hopes too high. Damned, she's just here for business.

"Of course not, I was worried when Lilian told me she couldn't get in touch with you. I thought you went back being a bookworm again and it's been too long since I've seen your pretty ass."