3
. As a matter of fact, when she was doing thinking of this sort and enjoying it most of all, she thought about a young man who looked almost exactly like this one.
Unfortunately, however, this was neither the time nor place for Melissa's dream-man-come-to-life to suddenly appear. Obviously, she couldn't go swooning at him even if she wanted to--and she told herself sternly she had no such desire--because he was an intruder. Worse than that, he had all the earmarks of being one of the vilest criminals the university faculty produced--an office snitcher--and here he was caught red-handed in an attempt to move into Melissa's quarters even before she'd had an opportunity to get settled herself.
"Well," said Melissa in a cutting way. "Good morning."
"Uh," said the young man. He was making some very involved mathematical computations on a scratch pad, and he didn't look up. "Uh," he said, and pulled a large, indistinct map toward him and made a careful, wavy line on it with India ink and a drawing pen. He was extremely handsome. He had blond hair that curled in ringlets and a straight, short nose. His eyes were blue, shaded with long, dark lashes. The effect of this collar-ad perfection was tainted a little by the way his mouth twisted down at one corner and the way he was scowling, but even at that he missed being pretty only by a very small margin.
Melissa stepped through the door. "I beg your pardon."
He looked up sideways at her. "What do you want?"
"Well, really," said Melissa. "It so happens that this is my office."
"Not any longer."
"What?" said Melissa blankly.
"It's mine now."
"What?" said Melissa.
The young man scowled. "Are you hard of hearing, or don't you understand English? I'm going to use this office from now on--exclusively."
Melissa swallowed hard. "Well, you can't just move in like this!"
"I already have."
"Well, who gave you the authority to do it?"
"The president of the university."
"Oh,"