“Are you telling me that you actually said no to Zachary Montgomery?” Katherine’s roommate Lt. Jr. Grade Erica Jones gasped, shaking Katherine by the shoulders. “Are we talking about the Zachary Montgomery – tall, dark, incredibly gorgeous, and the best student in the Academy?”
Katherine smirked wryly into Ricki’s face. “I hate to give you a heart attack, Ricki, but, yes, I turned down a date from the delicious hunk called Zachary Montgomery,” she said dryly, triggering a long loud groan from Ricki, who shook her again. “Now, Ricki, although I don’t mind being suspended this way in the hopes that gravity might help do something about my height problem, it isn’t very comfortable.”
Ricki dropped Katherine on her bed and threw herself on her own, sending Katherine a reproachful glance. “What are you trying to do to yourself Katherine Megrath?” she moaned. “Are you trying to kill off all possible chances of having a love life?” She turned to her side to look Katherine squarely in the face. “I don’t know if I should admire you or have you committed to a psychiatric ward.”
Katherine sprawled on her own bed, cradling her face on her hands. “You know I have no time for any of that right now,” she pointed out reasonably. “All that matters to me at the moment is finishing school, getting accepted to the Space Exploration division, and flying to the stars.”
Ricki grimaced. “May I point out that the guy didn’t exactly ask you to marry him,” she said, rolling her eyes. “He just asked you to go out on a date with him.” She looked over Katherine’s trim figure sprawled on the bed.
“I don’t want to think about things like that right now – it’s not part of my plans and will not be until five years from now,” Katherine said with finality, turning over on her bed and staring at the ceiling. “Besides, Zachary Montgomery is just… is just… too –“
“Too what?”
“He’s just too damned attractive,” Katherine said softly. All of a sudden, she saw Ricki’s incredulous face peering over her.
“Let me get this straight. You’re not going out with Zachary Montgomery, who’s so obviously interested in you, because you’re just as interested in him – and because it isn’t part of your life schedule?” Ricki said slowly, lips compressing into a thin line at Katherine’s nod. “Well, Megrath, I’ve finally decided on what I really want to do with you. I’ll call counseling tomorrow morning and have you carted away.”
“Is it so illogical to want to stick to my life schedule?” Katherine exclaimed, bolting off the bed and glaring at Ricki. “What am I going to do with a husband and a baby at this point in my life? What about flying into space? All that love business belongs five years in my future, and I’m not risking it!”
“Risking what?”
“Falling in love with him now!” Katherine shouted, then stopped when Ricki began laughing.
“Katherine, you really need someone to take you in hand,” she said, gasping for breath between giggles. “Are you trying to tell me you’re that attracted to him?” When Katherine didn’t reply, Ricki concluded for herself. “It might not be so bad,” she pointed out. “After all, no matter how much you plan your life, you can never really control Fate from wreaking havoc with it. Those times, all you can do is go along with it and see where it takes you... and you, my friend, worry too much.”
Katherine shrugged then lay back down on the
bed. “It doesn’t matter anyway,” she said crisply. “Fact is, I’ve said
no and have no plans of taking it back, so that’s that.” She sighed softly.
She almost wished she could take it back, but when she remembered how his
smile made her heart beat just a tad bit too fast and how her skin tingled
when he touched her elbow, she knew she was better off staying away from
Zachary Montgomery.
“What? What do you mean you’re my partner?”
Zachary Montgomery was standing in front of Katherine Megrath with an infuriatingly smug grin on his face, obviously enjoying her stunned expression.
“Weren’t you listening? He made the announcement of partners in the middle of the exam,” he said. She set her jaw because she had been to intent on answering to listen. “Our class will be using two-seater fighters during the aerial war games, our final practical exams, and we’re to be partners,” he explained, leaning his head into the hands at the back of his nape, smiling smugly. “He’s made it alphabetical, so you can stop thinking about an exchange.”
Katherine continued to sputter. She had just emerged from a harrowing lecture exam and was too frazzled to be guarded about her reactions “But why you? You shouldn’t even have to take the damned finals – you’re already too good!”
Zach shrugged. “I said, it’s alphabetical. And maybe because McGregor thought you needed the edge?” he offered helpfully, dark eyes twinkling with unholy amusement when her own green eyes began shooting off emerald fire.
“Are you going to be like this for the remainder of the term?” she snapped at him, disconcerted at having been cornered by Fate after all. And all this nearness to him was doing wonders for her nerves, not to mention her circulation. Even more irritated by the way his mere presence was affecting her, she turned on her heel and strode away from him, hearing his rapid footsteps behind her. “If you are, you can just forget about having a pleasant person to be your flight partner and have a termagant instead.”
He caught up with her easily, and bent down to peer at her face, smiling contritely. “No, no – I’ll be good, I promise,” he said. “Is it so bad? Me being your partner, I mean?”
“Yes,” she said shortly, refusing to look at him and hating his perfect smile, his unruly dark hair, and his wicked dark eyes that were twinkling at her and inviting her to smile at him.
“Well, apparently you’re stuck with me, so you just have to make the best of it,” he said brightly, keeping pace with her. He glanced at his watch and pursed his mouth thoughtfully. “It’s almost seven o’clock – what do you say we walk our way to the student center and grab a bite to eat? My treat.”
She stopped short and quickly faced him, her eyes narrowing, “I distinctly remember saying that until you can dance with me decently, I have no intentions of going with you anywhere,” she said crisply.
His eyes widened innocently. “But I wasn’t asking you out on a date,” he said, adopting a wounded expression and running his hand through his unruly dark hair but missing one stray lock that lay against forehead temptingly. Katherine fought the urge to brush it back for him. “Still – since the two of us are partners now, shouldn’t we get to know one another better?” He smiled at her hopefully.
Katherine knew she was being duped, but she couldn’t help but be moved by the expression in his eyes and the urge to throw her life plan to the winds. As Ricki said, it wasn’t as if he had asked her to marry him. It wasn’t even a real date after all. It was just – dinner at the student center.
“Well?” he asked, extending his hand to her. “Friends?”
“Okay,” she finally said. She reluctantly met the hand with her own and felt her much smaller hand engulfed in his. For a moment their gazes locked, then Katherine tried to pull her hand away, with Zach hesitantly letting it go.
And as Katherine walked beside him to the student
center, she had a feeling that Fate had just sent an enormous bowling ball
up her alley and there was no going back for her now.
“Dad was a pilot with Galaxy Garrison,” he told her, leaning forward on the table and nursing a cup of coffee in his hands. “He died when I was six testing a beta version of one of the Devil Fighters we learned about in class the other day.”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, sipping from her own cup of coffee.
He grinned, although his eyes held a trace of sadness. “Don’t be. I don’t really remember him that clearly – although Mom loved him very much and talked about him all the time. I was so impressed I insisted on training to be a pilot as soon as I was old enough to go into the Academy,” he explained, sipping some coffee before he continued.
“Mom never remarried and put me through school – until I won the scholarship during my third year here. She died just last year of heart failure, and I inherited everything, all in trust until I turned 21 a few months ago,” he concluded, smiling wryly. “So it’s just me now. I miss her, though I know she’s happier with Dad.”
What had begun as quick dinner at the student center had extended to a long dessert followed by an even longer coffee nightcap. Katherine knew that they had veered off talking about class even before they had finished their tasteless meal, but she was enjoying his company too much to cut the evening short – much to her dismay.
He leaned back against his chair and regarded her speculatively. “What about you? What’s your family like?” he asked.
“Um –“ she evaded, taking another sip of her coffee. His eyes were so frankly curious that she had a feeling he wouldn’t let her drop the topic, so she decided to tell him. “I guess I’m all alone in the world, too. Uh -- I’ve been a ward of the state since I was a baby.”
He was silent for a while, watching her face so intently that she had to fight the urge to squirm under his gaze. Finally, he leaned forward and touched her hand in a gesture of comfort. “I’m sorry,” he said, then laughed wryly. “That must sound rather inane – but frankly, I don’t know what to say –“
She shook her head rapidly. “No, it’s okay – really,” she said, smiling at him to put him back at ease. Besides, she rather liked the weight of his hand on hers. “I was a sickly baby, with weak lungs, and by the time the doctors had taken care of most of my health problems, I was too old to be preferred for adoption. And from a frail, cute manageable baby, I had become a hyperactive, rather contrary hoyden that no one really wanted.”
He studied her features then shook his head solemnly. “I can’t believe no one would want you,” he said staunchly. “You must have been a beautiful child.”
“Not at all!” she laughed, remembering. “I had hair the color of carrots and teeth too large for my small face – I’ve outgrown that stage, thank God.” The appreciative look in his eyes was a guarantee that that last statement was true. Disconcerted by his frank admiration, she took another sip of coffee before she went on.
“I guess I was lucky enough to get a caseworker who didn’t think I was beyond redemption – she saw the potential in the way I moved and channeled my bottomless energy into street jazz. Won a dance scholarship to a regional branch of the Secondary School for the Arts – and heard about the Academy and space flight from our career counselor. Applied for the laterals program, got accepted… and the rest, as they say, is history.”
“Lucky for me that,” he murmured as he took a sip of his coffee.
She blinked rapidly at his words, feeling the rumble of the bowling ball of Fate grow even louder. She nervously glanced at her watch, eyes widening when she saw the time. She gulped down the remaining coffee in her cup, possible because they had lingered so long that it was almost cool. “I – I better go,” she said abruptly. “I still have to study for an espionage lecture quiz for tomorrow. Thanks for dinner and the coffee.” She hastily stood up, hardly caring about her rudeness, and was about to walk away when she felt his hand upon hers.
“Hey,” he said, looking up at her alarmed eyes. “It was my pleasure -- you’re great company.” He stood up and grinned at her. “Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider that clause about learning how to dance before –“
“No,” she said, clinging stubbornly to her last scrap of protection. “Good night, Commander.”
“Zach,” he corrected, smoothing a stray wisp of hair away from her face. “I’ve bought you dinner, we’re going to be partners… don’t you think we can drop the ranks, Katherine?” He frowned thoughtfully. “Don’t you have a nickname?”
She shook her head reluctantly. “Not really.”
“Can I give you one, then?” he asked, a teasing
note in his voice. He regarded her fiery mane and her emerald green eyes.
“You rather remind me of a cat, you have the most incredible eyes,” he
mused, the offhand compliment causing her to blush. “Kat,” he said, testing
the name on his tongue. He smiled suddenly. “I like that. It suits you.
Good night, Kat.” With that he put lifted his hand, and let her walk away
– and it took every shred of Katherine’s hard-earned discipline not to
look back and look at the expression on his face. That and the almost unholy
fear of what she would see there.
A
Christmas Waltz -- Zachary - Dreams