had big brown eyes and an innocent face. There was a wholesome air about her, and then she looked up and smiled at him and went back to her reading. Phillip ordered a hamburger and a cup of coffee, and he devoured the burger when it came. He was starving after the long walk. The girl next to him looked up from her book again then, and smiled at him. She looked like a kid, and he suspected she probably went to NYU. Everyone around them did. They were on the edge of the campus. But she looked more put together than the students. He couldn’t resist saying something to her when she looked up.
“Must be a good book,” he said with a shy grin. He didn’t want her to think he was hitting on her. He was just being friendly. Everyone around them seemed casual and relaxed.
“It is.” She smiled even more broadly this time, and he could see how pretty she really was. She looked like an ad for something beautiful, young, and healthy. She was wearing white jeans and a T-shirt, with sandals, and her dark hair shone, it was so clean. She laughed then, and showed him what she was reading. “It’s a teacher’s guide, but it’s a pretty good one. I teach fourth grade.” She looked perfect for it. “I start my first job in two weeks. I got here from Wisconsin yesterday.” She was too good to be true. She looked like an angel fallen from the sky to him. Fresh out of school, an elementary school teacher, and right out of the Midwest the day before. It didn’t get purer than that. He hoped she wouldn’t be devoured by the big city. “I just found an apartment today,” she added, and he wanted to warn her not to talk to strangers. “I have four roommates. I found it on craigslist.” She was so innocent, she was like a poster child of some kind, and he wanted to adopt her immediately.
“Did you check them out?” he asked cautiously, feeling instantly protective.
“They’re all students,” she said, laughing. “My brother said the same thing. They don’t look like ax murderers to me. The apartment is really pretty, I have my own room the size of a broom closet, and it’s cheap.”
“Your brother’s right,” Phillip warned her. “You should do a criminal check on them.” It made him suddenly grateful he didn’t have a daughter who looked like her. He was old enough to be her father, which was embarrassing. He probably seemed like a dirty old man to her, and he was disheveled after storming out of the apartment and walking at full speed for several hours to calm his rage, after what Amanda had said. It was no worse than anything else she’d ever said to him, but it had suddenly seemed worse to him.
“I think they’re fine. They’re younger than I am, they’re all undergrads, and they’re all girls. How bad can nineteen-year-old girls be?”
“Pretty bad, maybe,” he said suspiciously, but he was relieved to hear they were all girls. That sounded less dangerous to him. He didn’t know why, but he was suddenly concerned about this perfect stranger. But she seemed so innocent and sweet.
The waitress refilled his cup of coffee, and the girl took a bite of her salad. Since they were talking, she had closed her book. “Where are you going to be teaching?” he asked suddenly.
“I got assigned to a school in Harlem,” she said, smiling at him again. “I know, I know, it’s dangerous. But I’ll be fine. I did my student teaching at an inner-city school in Detroit, which was probably a lot tougher than this.” He stared at her in horror. She was an accident waiting to happen.
“How could your parents let you come here?” he asked her, and she laughed.
“My parents died when I was eight. I live with my married sister. She trusts me.”
“New York is a tough city.”
“So was Detroit. I was fine.”
“You’re very brave,” he said, looking hard at her, wondering how old she was. Maybe she was older than she looked, or a black belt in karate. He hoped so for her sake. He wanted to add, “or very foolish,” but he didn’t. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight. I just finished my student teaching after my master’s. I’ve always wanted to live in New York. I wanted to be an actress, but I wound up teaching instead. I like it. I like the