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brother’s roommate,” Julia replied. “His name is Seth and we had dinner last night at my brother’s apartment that’s all.”
    “I was hoping that it was going to be a lot spicier than that, and don’t you folks believe that it must have been a mighty nice dinner to warrant twelve red roses?” said Connie in mock disgruntlement.
    “Don’t you have some paperwork to catch up on?” said Julia to her principal, refusing to rise to the bait.
    “I know you’ ll tell me all about it later at the racquetball court,” announced Connie knowingly before she departed, humming a nauseating little love song Julia had heard on the radio that very morning. Leroy laughed aloud and Martha gave Julia her best motherly know-it-all glance.
    The roses’ sweet fragrance filled the air and Julia, not able to stand her colleague’s comments any longer, lifted up the heavy bouquet of roses, her sandwich, and some papers she needed to photocopy and hurried to the work room. Seth’s dark eyes materialized before her as she Xeroxed the worksheets for her twenty students, wondering what on earth had motivated him to send flowers. Whatever the reason it didn’t help her overactive imagination.
    It hadn’t been enough that she couldn’t stop thinking about him after she’d returned last night or that Seth had been her first waking thought this morning. She reread the card and sighed, dreamily lifting the fragrant bouquet to her nostrils before heading back to her classroom, bracing herself for that last energetic burst of energy from her pupils before the four-day weekend.
    Her cell phone was ringing as she unlocked her car later that afternoon. She always left her cell phone in its stand because phones were not allowed in the classroom. She braced the lovely bouquet between the door and her tote bag and lifted the receiver to her ear, surprised and pleased to hear Seth’s beautiful, even voice.
    “Did you get my roses?” he asked softly.
    “That I did,” said Julia, “and much to the envy of the entire elementary staff. You didn’t need to send them but thank you very much.”
    “I wondered ,” began Seth tentatively, “if perhaps, even though it’s really late notice, you might be free for dinner?” Julia couldn’t know that he was mentally kicking himself behind the closed door of his office. He’d been peering sightlessly at some blueprints for the new shopping center near the university and had completed absolutely nothing worthwhile for the past twenty minute in his efforts to predict when she would be finished teaching so he could call her.
    “I think an early dinner would be nice.”
    “Do you like Japanese food?” he asked.
    “I love it,” she responded simply.
    “Then I’ll pick you up at 5:30 and don’t worry about the directions. I asked your brother how to get to your place just this morning. I’ll see you then.”
    “Until then,” she promised, suddenly barely able to wait until 5:30.
     
     
    The Japanese restaurant was one of those where you sat shoeless on the floor while a Japanese masseuse wandered around the restaurant massaging anyone who decided that their sushi and teriyaki wasn’t enough of an oriental experience. Seth, dressed in a dark navy blue suit with a power red tie, appeared the consummate professional and was so stunning that even the Japanese waitress couldn’t tear her eyes off him.
    Julia had changed into a lovely gray and black sweater dress and wore a simple pearl pendant her grandmother had surprised her with on her sixteenth birthday.
    “So how was your day?” he asked casually, after they’d ordered their California rolls and teriyaki chicken stir-fry.
    “Busy and hectic as usual,” she replied. “Second graders keep a teacher on their toes and I have twenty; eleven boys and nine girls.”
    “I admire you,” he said sincerely. “It must take a great deal of energy and patience to keep up with the likes of... how old are they?”
    “Seven,” interjected