"So," Rob said to Ryan as they laid in their separate beds that night.

"You have something to ask me?"

"What was with that Lawson guy?" Rob demanded.

"What about him?"Ryan asked innocently. 

"You've known him long?"

"A while."

"How long is a while?"

She laughed. "A while. Why?"

"I'm just wondering how well you know him."

"Pretty well."

"I'd hope so."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, inviting the guy to sleep with you."

"Are you jealous?" Ryan asked with a smile.

"No, I'm not jealous. I'm just concerned about your safety."

"Well, thank you, my protector, but I can handle myself just fine."

"You need to be more careful than that. I mean, some guys look harmless, but they're really not."

"I know that."

"I'm just saying is all."

"I appreciate your concern."

"Where'd you meet him?"

"What does it matter?"

"Why are you avoiding the question? He avoided the question."

"It's not avoidance. Why should it matter where we met? We met. We're friends. End of story."

"Friends and that's it?"

"That's it."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Why? We are."

"I heard you kissing last night, Ryan. I saw you kiss him in the kitchen this morning."

"As for last night, he was drunk. And if you heard that, you also heard that I told him I was going to kick his ass if he didn't go to sleep. As for this morning, that was a friendly kiss goodbye."

"Was certainly friendly."

"Come on. It was a peck."

"Was still on the mouth. I don't kiss my girl friends on the mouth."

"You kissed me."

"That was different."

"How so?"

"You know how it was different."

"Well, there you go."

"Yeah. I guess."

Her phone vibrated, and she saw Lawson's cell phone number on the screen. "Hey, sweetheart, we were just talking about you."

"Really, with who?"

"Rob and I were just shooting the breeze about the differences in friends kissing and the other type of kissing."

Rob shook his head as he couldn't believe she was telling him that.

"Fascinating. Remind me to have that conversation with you sometime. I'd be open to experimentation if you'd like."

"I bet," she said with a laugh.

"Listen. I wanted to say thanks again. I was pretty messed up about Dougie last night. I appreciated what you did. Taking care of me like that."

"Anything for you. You know that."

"Same goes. Speaking of which, I couldn't shake that feeling of me knowing him, you know, so I ran a search."

"You didn't!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"Oh, you know I did! Why didn't you just tell me that he was one of us? It would have saved me a lot of grief this morning with him. I wanted to wring his little jealous neck."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, looking over at Rob, who was trying to get comfortable on his pillow.

"Ben. Rob. Whatever. Why didn't you just tell me that he was the narcotics agent? At least, I would have been prepared to play the jealous roomie question game a bit better. I knew I'd seen him before. It must have been around the office."

Ryan looked over at Rob in shock, and then quickly wiped her reaction off her face. "I didn't know," she said quietly into the phone.

"You're kidding," he answered with a laugh.

"No. How'd you...I'll just talk to you later about it okay?" she asked, her head spinning.

"Sure. No problem. By the way, he's still got a crush on you. No matter who he is."

"Shut up," she said, and hung up the phone on him.

"What'd he want?" Rob asked sleepily.

"He just wanted to say thanks for letting him crash here last night."

Rob moved through the crowd of the cafeteria looking for Ryan. He felt someone brush by him, and he could have sworn he felt them touch his butt. His hand went instinctively to his right back pocket, where he kept his wallet, but he had felt it on the other side. He frowned as he felt something on the side he didn't keep anything. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. He hadn't put that there. He opened it up. And read in typed letters:

"I hope you haven't forgotten about me. I sure haven't forgotten you. Sorry that I took off like that at the party. I had some urgent matters to attend to, as you can see. Feel free to turn this in to your boss. This is what you're looking for, right? I'll be around, gorgeous. Hope you will too. Kisses, Catwoman."

He blinked at the name, but his eyes flew down to what was written under it. Names and lots of them. They were lined up in charts, arrows pointing from one name to another name. Addresses and phone numbers listed under a lot of them. Different names of drugs and going prices were listed, as well, under certain names. "Holy... shit," he murmured.

He made his way to the library and faxed the sheet to his boss, slipping the paper quickly back into his pocket.

On his way back to the cafeteria his cell phone rang. "Can you talk?" Reggie asked.

"Go ahead," Rob answered.

"Who's this Catwoman?"

"I don't know. Some girl I met at a Halloween party. Frat party."

"How'd you blow your cover?"

"I didn't! There's no way she could have known," Rob answered, scanning the crowd of students as he heard his voice rise.

"Then how do you explain the note?"

"I can't. Not yet anyway," Rob answered, lowering his voice.

"Well, you better."

"I will."

"Keep me posted. This is good stuff we've got here, by the way, maybe we can pull her in on this. She seems willing already."

"The problem is that I don't know who she is."

"Well, you better damn well find out. That's your job, right?"

"Right," Rob answered with a sigh, and hung up the phone.

"You're late," Ryan complained, when he joined her.

"Sorry," He said, sitting down.

"No matter, Pierre was just telling me about the Louvre. Ever been to Paris?" she asked him.

Rob looked over the wimp that she was sitting with, who was looking at her with love sick eyes. He could easily take him. "No," he answered.

"Sounds marvelous," she said with a sigh. "Please continue, Pierre," she said to the guy with a killer smile. Unfortunately, the guy did continue to tell them all about Paris.

"You like that guy?" Rob asked disapprovingly as they walked back to the dorm.

"Pierre? Oh, he's alright."

"Where'd you dig him up from?"

"He's in my kickboxing class," she answered. He laughed. "What's so funny?"

"That pipsqueak in kickboxing class, that's what."

"He does okay."

"I bet you could take him."

"I could take you."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Any time any place," she answered. He laughed. "Male chauvinist pig," she muttered.

He laughed. "I am not a male chauvinist. I'm the least male chauvinist out of any guy that I know."

"But, you don't think I could take you," she pointed out.

"I'm stronger, that's just a fact."

"Better check your facts," she answered, opening the dorm lobby door and let it fall in front of him. He laughed as he opened the door.

"Whatcha doing?" Rob asked Ryan later that day. He'd seen her pull her suitcase out from under her bed.

"What does it look like?" she asked, walking over to her dresser.

"Okay... So, why are you packing?" he asked, pointing to the suitcase with the book that he was studying.

"Because Thanksgiving break starts tomorrow," she looked at him like he was an idiot for asking.

"So, you're going home?" he asked disappointed.

He'd be stuck in the dorm by himself. Maybe he'd fly to Florida to see his folks. Or to Chicago to see his sister. He hadn't really thought about it. He usually had to work through Thanksgiving. It was rare he'd get a break. But there was no point of being on campus during the break as no one else would be around.

"To my brother's," she answered, tossing a pair of jeans in the case.

"Oh." He looked back at his book.

"Aren't you going home?" she asked, turning to him.

"Uh, nah, I'll probably just hang out here."

"For Thanksgiving?"

He shrugged. "At least, I'll have quiet to study."

"Why don't you come with me?"

He smiled flattered. "It's okay. I'll be fine. Go have a good time with your family."

"Come on, Rob. It'll be fun. You can help me beat my brother at touch football," she said, continuing to pack.

"Nah, it's a family thing. Don't worry about me."