No way could he make her even look at him, except of course to ask questions that he often had to consult textbooks for an answer. He had tried everything his shrewd intelligence could muster to find out more about this mysterious beauty. Once in desperation he snuck into the registrar's office under the guise of needing information on a failing student and flipping through the files of B's, found an "out" card in her place. Accepting this misfortune as an omen, he laid his binoculars and pretensions aside for a week, but the frustration kept him awake for nights on end. He would lie there, tossing and groaning all night beside his snoring wife. The image of her blonde hair blowing in the wind would not leave him to rest. She reeked of sex. Every time she moved he interpreted her motion as a provocative invitation to sex. The way she called him 'Professor Jacobs', so polite and husky-voiced. Above all it was her selectiveness, her concentration whether she was lighting a cigarette or kicking a soccer ball, an attention to detail that made him guess she'd been around. Nothing could distract her.

Professor Jacobs treasured a scrap of paper discovered under her desk in row 2, seat 4. Although it was only a curt message to a man named John, he kept it stashed in his desk drawer along with his assortment of pipes and tobacco, right next to the bottle of sherry and two glasses – just in case Ann Barot might consent to private consultation over her mid-term exam. He had the stage set…

Until, on a breezy fall day when he had followed her from the science building to the library, his hopes soaring with desire, she was intercepted by a tall, dark haired man who grasped her lovingly. The professor could sense his heart drop to his knees as he Blinked by the embracing couple who muttered something about 'going home and spending the night together for a change.' He watched them, his armful of test papers scattered to the wind as his lifeless arm dropped in desperation to his side, and they drove off in an embrace in a white MGB enshrouded in dust.