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night.” Her whisper vanished in his departure, lost in the whirl of his body and the sound of his feet retreating down the hallway.

Chapter Three
    Stella almost overslept on Tuesday, waking late from a dream about Darien, and hurried to dress for school. Today, she did not try for formal or professional, just comfortable in a multi-colored patterned skirt and a matching solid color blouse. She had no time to curl or style her hair so she twisted it up on top of her head and hurried to the high school, arriving less than five minutes before the first bell rang.
    As she passed Darien’s classroom, Mr. Sanderson was deep in conversation with him so she waved and went to her room. Several students were already in place but they greeted her with polite smiles and the day began well. By noon, however, she was eager to see Darien and wondered if he had brought lunch for them both. Stella hoped that he had; since she overslept, she had not taken time to make a sandwich. When the bell announced lunch and her fourth hour students charged from the room, she lingered in her room. After a few minutes when Darien did not appear, she walked down to his classroom.
    “Mr. Wolfe?” she called, in case any students remained.
    “Miss Raines.”
    He was behind her and she whirled, restraining an urge to throw herself into his arms. When he smiled, resistance was even harder.
    “Would you like to join me for lunch, my dear?”
    Her mood sparkled like the champagne they drank.
    “I would love that, Darien.”
    He stood at the door and bowed. “Then come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”
    His quotation of the age-old children’s poem, The Spider and The Fly , delighted her. Stella remembered it from a well-worn book of poems her mother used to read to her at bedtime. The delicious hint of seduction titillated her.
    “Will I come out again?” She quipped from the same May Howitt poem.
    Darien grinned. “That is entirely up to you, dear star.”
    As he closed the door for privacy, Stella saw that a table at the rear of the room transformed into a dining table complete with a cloth, china, and silver. Darien pulled out a chair and she slid into it, delighted. Her plate held a thick roast beef and Swiss cheese sandwich on a French bread bun while his had sliced beef and cheese.
    “I brought a sandwich for you, Stella. Just because I prefer not to eat bread is no reason why you should do without.”
    “Thank you.” She bit into the sandwich; it was delicious.
    The lunch break passed too fast but as she left and he put away the fancy tablecloth, Darien told her,
    “We’ll do this the rest of the week but next week I have lunchroom duty and you, my dear, will have it the following week.
    We must enjoy while we can, Stella-star.”
    She nodded, wondering if his words had the double meaning that she thought they did.
    After school, she lingered but Darien did not come and his classroom was empty. With head down and feet dragging, she left the building to walk back to her apartment. After the romantic evening beneath the stars, fueled by both desire and champagne, Stella didn’t want to go home and stare at the walls in her small space but she had no alternatives. New to Riverville, she knew almost no one and so she had no place to go, nothing to do. She did not even have his phone number.
    That inspired her to call information but there was no listing for “Darien Wolfe” and a quick internet search turned up nothing.
    Maybe the fun flirtation was over before it truly began, she thought, with such disappointment that she might cry. She picked up the paperback novel she had been reading but she could not stay focused on the story. Idle, she picked up the remote control and flipped channels but found nothing of interest. Although she wasn’t hungry, she decided she might open a can of soup and just as she started for the single strip of cabinets that were “the kitchen,” someone rapped at the door.
    With a quick tug to