Roman taught his Monday morning seminar the same way he always taught it.
Precise. Unhurried. The room giving him its full attention the way his rooms always did, not because he demanded it but because something about the way he moved through an argument made it impossible to look elsewhere.
Jay sat in the third row.
This was new. Not Jay being in his class Jay had always been in his class — but the sitting there openly, without the careful neutrality he used to maintain. He sat the way he sat everywhere now. Like himself. One arm on the desk, pen turning slowly between his fingers, watching Roman at the front of the room with the particular attention he gave to things that interested him.
Which was everything Roman said.
Which had always been everything Roman said.
