Today, as summoned, he was in his office at nine, the pot of coffee made, the door leading from his office to her office stood open and, no surprise, she was late.

This definitely wasn’t a good idea. He’d spent the fall semester avoiding her. She was chatty, she laughed too loud, and she was popular with the students. Which was good, he guessed, but it hurt a bit when a student walked down the hallway and yelled hello to her while they passed him with little more than a nod.

Benjamin closed his eyes when he heard her coming. The sound of her practical shoes tapping on the wooden floor echoed in the empty hallway.

When he opened his eyes, she was in his doorway, huffing slightly.

“Morning, Benjamin. I brought donuts.” She charged into his space waving a white bakery bag like it was a white flag.

“Dr. Monroe,” he corrected her softly.

“Oh, good grief. We’re on the third floor of an empty campus on a Saturday. Surely we can be on a first-name standing.”

He wasn’t sure where to start. Addressing the fact that she was late, or reminding her that they were professionals, or announcing he didn’t eat sweets. When he glanced down below her double chins at her clothes, he saw she was wearing a crop top. Two inches of her very bare midriff pushed out above her jeans.

It might be Saturday, but they were on campus and she was a professor. Wearing jeans was bad enough, but showing off skin at her waist was even worse.

Ben hated sounding like an old man. He’d simply ignore what she wore.

And if he mentioned the improper things about her, it would just take longer to start their research. “Good morning, Miss Clark. Would you like a cup of coffee before we begin?”

“Nope. I brought a Diet Coke.” She shoved her rolling briefcase to the side of his desk, set her Coke on a stack of papers, and reached into the paper bag for a donut. “I got you a chocolate cake donut with chocolate icing. Everyone likes those.”

When she thrust the bag at him, Benjamin automatically took it. Now that he had it, he might as well look inside to see what a chocolate cake donut with chocolate icing looked like. “I thought we might work in here since my desk is bigger and uncluttered.”

“Good idea.” She took the chair across from him and began to build her nest. Coke and donut to the left, laptop directly in front. Papers, books, pencils, her phone, and a box of tissues came out of the rolling case.

The woman was a traveling circus. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d brought lab rats.