Elli paced nervously back and forth in her lace cocktail dress she'd purchased last year for a party she'd never gone to. It was fifteen minutes until the agreed dinner time, and she couldn't find the courage to leave her room.

"Elli!" her grandmother called from the bottom of the stairs. "Your guests are here."

She paused in her pacing. Guests, as in plural? She frowned. Her grandmother had mentioned someone coming over at breakfast, was that what she meant. Trevor and the mystery person had arrived at the same time? How awkward. Stifling a groan, Elli pulled open her bedroom door and headed to the top of the stairs where two deep male voices converse quietly with her grandmother.

Curious, Elli leaned in to see under the balcony apron to peek at who her grandmother was speaking to. Dr. Sullivan's blonde hair immediately caught her attention, but the person standing next to him she couldn't quite make out. As Elli took the next step down, Trevor shifted, revealing the other guest. She instantly knew the dark hair, chiseled features and groomed facial hair. That's all it took to make her foot forget where the step ended, and she barely got a surprised squeak out before the ceiling and stairs began to tumble.

A sharp pain shot through her hip and then she was aware of something solid and warm under her. Dazed, she looked up to see the bearded chin of the stranger that had just stood next to her teacher. The fabric of his black dress shirt shifted under her fingers as she tried to work out what was going on. She became acutely aware that his shirt seemed to be all around her. Was he holding her?

"Elli, are you all right?" her grandmother's worried voice cut through her mental haze, and she realized she was, in fact, crumpled on top of this man she didn't know, his back slumped against the wall of the bottom landing.

With a grunt, he gently pushed her up by the shoulder. "You're heavier than you look."

She worked her mouth, trying to find something to say as he guided her to sit on the bottom step.

Trevor's warm voice, laced with concern, echoed her grandmother's question, and Elli finally found her voice.

"I'm okay." She shook her head and smoothed out her skirt, too embarrassed to make eye contact with anyone. "I'm fine, thank you for catching me...."

She fidgeted. "Um, I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

"It's Samuel." He answered gruffly, leaning against the wall. "That was quite a tumble. 10 out of 10."

"Thanks." Elli forced a smile. "I do like to make an entrance."

"Always have." Her grandmother laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't be embarrassed, my dear. Let's go into the living room."

Elli sighed. "Yeah, okay." She stood up and her would-be human pillow reached out a hand to help her down the last step.

She laughed it off. "It's usually the fourth step that gets me, I'm fine. I don't need any help on this one."

She stepped down and glanced up at Trevor. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize." He smiled. "Just try to be more careful. There are a lot of stairs in the world, you know."

"I know." She blushed. "I do try to keep from horribly embarrassing myself most of the time."

"Well, can't get it right all the time." He tilted his head to the doorway her grandmother had disappeared into. "Shall we?"

She glanced back at Mr. Dark and Mysterious, his name settling in her brain. His name was Samuel.

"I'll follow you." His lip twitched upward in a half-grin.

Trevor led her into the living room where they all sat around the antique coffee table. Her grandmother in the high back chair, Trevor and Samuel on the couch, and Elli sank into the recliner. After such an awkward beginning to the evening, things could only go up, right?

After a few nervous moments of silence, Elli started to wonder.

She cleared her throat. "Thank you, um, both for coming..." she shot her grandmother a look. " I know why T-Dr. Sullivan's here..."

She led off, looking pointedly at her grandmother, who to her credit, was looking a little uncomfortable herself.

"Your grandmother invited me." Samuel huffed. "She had some things she thinks we should talk about."

"Maybe we should eat dinner, first." Her grandmother suggested. "It's Elli's birthday, and I don't want to ruin the evening with heavy talk when our bellies are empty."

"Wisely said." Trevor agreed. "Oh, that reminds me—"

He reached into his coat pocket and took out a small box. "It would be rude to show up without a gift—you can open it now if you want."

Elli shyly took the box being held over the coffee table. "You shouldn't have."

"He knows he shouldn't have," Samuel mumbled.

Elli caught the man's off comment and Trevor's glare but pretended to be fascinated by the box.

It was clear the men knew each other, pretty well, it seemed. But she couldn't piece together how the rough Samuel fit in with her smooth, elegant teacher, or how they both came to be sitting in her living room while her grandmother sat rigid, fuming with quiet disapproval.

'Happy birthday to me.' Elli mentally smirked.

She gently opened the box and was surprised by the stones inside. Rough, jet black pyramid-like shapes lined in silver jutted from the cushion of the earring holder.

"They're beautiful." She gasped.

"They're black tourmaline, also known historically as schorl." Trevor grinned. "Put them on."

Elli blushed, removing the black and silver earrings from the box and setting them in her ears. They barely weighed anything, and being stud earrings might be something she could wear every day. Her heart fluttered a little and she smiled back at Trevor, then glanced to her grandmother.

"How do they look?"

"Very pretty." Her grandmother smiled. "They suit you."

"Thank you," she shut the box and looked into her teacher's dazzling eyes. "Thank you very much."

"Happy birthday, Elli." His voice softened.

Samuel cleared his throat, shifting on the couch. "Well, I must admit I'm a bad guest and didn't bring anything. Sorry."

"That's all right." Her grandmother's smile seemed to be pasted on. "You brought the cake."

"Cake?" Elli glanced back at her grandmother in surprise. How well did her grandmother know this man to have his phone number and ask him to pick up cake?

She bit her lip to keep the question from spilling out.

"Well, well." Her grandmother reached over the arm of her chair. "I suppose I should go ahead and do my part for the gift giving, and then we'll eat."

"Oh, grandma, you shouldn't have!" Elli protested.

"Nonsense." Her grandmother waved a hand. "You're my only granddaughter, of course, I would get you something. I'm afraid it's nothing fancy, just a little something."

Her grandmother held out a hand-wrapped box. Elli graciously accepted it and quickly and efficiently ripped through the wrapping to reveal a narrow wooden box. Curious, she lifted the lid to reveal a square book with flat binding.

"What's this?" she lifted it out of the box and opened it.

"Not all memories should be floating around digitally, you know." Her grandmother coughed. "Sometimes you need something to hold on to."

Elli's eyes watered as she flipped through the pages filled with photos and scribbled notes. It was a photo journal of Elli's life. Well documented by her grandmother with a sentimental voice. She paused on the page that held the last picture her parents had ever taken, and then quietly shut the book.

"I love it. Really." She smiled for her grandmother. "Thank you." Elli set down the box and went over to hug her.

The older woman tolerated it for about a minute and then gently patted her shoulder. "Yes, well, let's eat. Don't want the chicken getting cold."

Elli laughed, releasing her and helping her up out of the chair. "All right gentlemen, follow us."

She glanced back to see Trevor staring curiously at the book in the box, and Samuel's piercing gaze aimed at her. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she kept the smile on her face. "Grandma made dinner all by herself, so let's enjoy it."

The bearded man's eyebrows shot to his bangs and Trevor quickly glanced away from the box to her. She felt it then, the twinge of something. Something familiar in those expressions. The feeling only grew as dinner progressed, Samuel opening up to a joke or two while Trevor carried most of the conversation. Not that Elli minded, and her grandmother didn't seem to mind listening to the blonde man's clear tenor either.

"And that's why I can never go back to Sussex." Trevor finished his tale with a flourish.

"All lies." Samuel shook his head.

"What?" Elli blinked, adjusting her attention to the taller of the two men at the table. "Why do you say that?"

"I was there, and the long and short of it is overly exaggerated." He laughed. "Although, the end result was the same... he definitely can't go back."

"Sam..." Trevor shot an amused warning.

"Well, what about you?" Elli grinned. "Are there any places you've been banned from?"

"Plenty." He grinned mischievously. "But it's not exactly dinner conversation to tell the stories."

Trevor choked on his sip of wine.

Elli laughed loudly. "I didn't peg you to be much of a troublemaker. It's nice to see you laugh and stuff, you're not so bad."

"Didn't make much of a first impression, huh?" Sam mock toasted her. "I'm hardly a creeper, though."

Elli blinked, thrown off guard. "Where'd that come from?"

"Oh, sorry." He took a sip of wine. "I was thinking of someone else that once called me a creeper when I first met her. Looked a lot like you."

"Sam." Trevor's warning no longer sounded as amused.

"Dinner's almost over." Sam shrugged. "I'm sure she'd been pretty curious to why we're all here. Me, especially. She doesn't know me from Adam."

Trevor and her grandmother shared a sigh. Her teacher glanced at her grandmother and her grandmother locked eyes with him, after a moment, she stood up.

"I'll take the dishes." She started collecting the dirty plates. "We'll cut into the cake, first. Then we can discuss this."