Each day he would take his lunch in the student cafeteria, sitting at a long table, poring through his study books and staring out the windows of the dining hall. It was winter, and snow lay thick and white on the ground, ice hung from the eaves, and breath clouded in the air like smoke. Christmas was approaching, and he had nowhere to spend it and no one to spend it with. He felt incredibly lonely and adrift.

That was when he first saw Stefanie Winslow. It was early December, only days before the Christmas break. He wasn’t sure if she had been coming there all along and he just hadn’t noticed her or if she had suddenly appeared. Once he saw her though, he couldn’t look away. She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen—exotic, stunning, and unforgettable. He couldn’t find words to give voice to what he was feeling. He watched her all through the lunch hour and stayed afterward when he should have been auditing his class, continuing to stare at her until she got up and walked away.

The next day she was back, sitting at the same table, off to one side, all alone. He watched her come in and sit down to have her lunch for five days, thinking each time that he had to go over to her and say something, had to introduce himself, had to make some sort of contact, but he always ended up just sitting there. He was intimidated by her. But he was compelled, as well. No one else tried to sit with her; no one else even tried to approach. That gave him pause. But his connection with her was so strong, so visceral, that he could not ignore it.

Finally, at the beginning of the following week, he just got up and walked over, limped over really, feeling stupid and inadequate with his heavy staff and rough look, and said hello. She smiled up at him as if he were the most important thing in her life, and said hello back. He told her his name, she told him hers.

“I’ve been watching you for several days,” he said, giving her a deprecatory shrug.

“I know,” she said, arching one eyebrow speculatively.

He flushed. “I guess I overdid it if I was that obvious. I was wondering if you were a student at the college.”

She shook her head, her black hair catching the winter light. “No, I work in administration.”

“Oh. Well, I’m auditing some classes.” He let the words trail away. He didn’t know where else to go with it. He felt suddenly awkward about what he was doing, sitting here with her. He glanced about. “I didn’t mean to intrude, I just …”

“John,” she interrupted gently, drawing his eyes back to hers, holding them. “Do you know why I’ve been sitting here alone every day?”

He shook his head slowly.

“Because,” she said, drawing out the word, “I’ve been waiting for you to join me.”