Mosaic - Jeri Taylor [63]
Lettie's eyebrows lifted, a sight that gratified Kathryn. She'd pulled off something astonishing in getting Paris to work with her, and it was pleasurable to know that Lettie was impressed. "I understand. But you have to eat. One hour, Saturday evening. A sandwich and a cup of coffee."
"I can have a sandwich and coffee right here at my desk. Which is what I'll be doing."
"You'll regret this for the rest of your life. He's handsome, charming, very intelligent-he's exactly the kind of man you'd be attracted to."
"That's what you said about that last one. The exobiologist? The one who wanted to practice his homework on me?"
"But he was handsome and charming and intelligent."
"I have to work. Absolutely, positively, irrevocably, inextricably have to work."
"I'll check with you around six on Saturday. Maybe you'll need the break. Maybe it will be the best thing you could do for yourself, and you'd come back refreshed and eager to sail in again."
Kathryn sighed. Lettie was as tenacious as a rat terrier. There was no point in fighting about it now; come Saturday she'd be deep into her work and would simply refuse to go. "Okay. Check with me then."
Lettie smiled, pleased. She had a generous heart, Kathryn knew, and truly wanted to help her friend expand her narrow horizons. She had no way of knowing that the world inside Kathryn's head was so rich and complete that she had little need of any other.
So no one could have been more surprised than Kathryn that she found herself walking with Lettie to a coffee bistro near campus on Saturday at eighteen hundred hours.
"Why am I doing this?" she asked Lettie. "How did I let you talk me into it? I'm not half done with my proposal; I have no business going anywhere."
"You'll thank me. You'll be down on your knees, bowing to me. This one is special. his
Kathryn sighed. She'd been persuaded only because she'd run into a wall with her proposal, and there actually was some validity to the idea of taking an hour-not one minute more-and getting some fresh air, a decent cup of Tarkalian coffee, and something in her stomach. She'd come back to her desk with renewed vigor, which she certainly needed; she'd had only two hours' sleep the night before and couldn't look forward to much more tonight.
They entered the coffee bistro, which was nearly empty. Kathryn wondered how it stayed in business; almost no one drank coffee anymore, and while this place served good food, most of the student crowd preferred the tea bars that had sprung up on just about every corner. But Kathryn loved coffee: loved the taste, loved the aroma, loved the mild "kick" it gave her. She was as disciplined about drinking coffee, however, as she was in the rest of her life; two cups a day, a formula she usually stretched to four by making a half-decaf blend.
Lettie was leading her to a corner table, where two cadets were sitting, backs to them. "There they are."
"Is that Howie? Your beau?"
"Yes, and his friend. The one you'll thank me for." They had reached the table and as they did so, both the young men got to their feet. And Kathryn found herself looking right at William Riker. She didn't even hear the introductions Lettie was making. Her mind swirled, trying to think of some way to get out of this. Say she was sick? That she'd forgotten she had to make a transmission to her mother? Nothing that made sense came to her, and she found herself sitting opposite the handsome young man with the dark hair and blue eyes. And he was talking to her. "I'm sorry... what did you say?"
"Do you like to be called Kathryn? Or is there a familiar form you like?"
"Kathryn. Just Kathryn."
"I've always thought that was a beautiful name."
William Riker smiled, and if he was handsome before, he was gorgeous now. Just like Cheb.
Kathryn desperately felt the need to control the situation. She couldn't sit like this, addled, and let her feelings become engaged. She'd been caught off guard, momentarily stunned, and she was perfectly