Chapter 30: Beck

Grinders R Us is the best coffeehouse on campus. It's where everyone stops to grab their daily dose of caffeine. Sometimes more than once. As I walk past the small brick building, a familiar profile catches my attention, and my footsteps falter.

There's been no movement on the Mia front. It's been a week since I asked her for a second chance and talked her into having lunch with me.

All right, maybe forced would be a better word for it.

No matter what I do, I can't seem to make headway with this girl. I've dropped by her apartment unannounced.

She's not there.

Or so Alyssa tells me.

I've tried hanging around after class, but she's cagey. Sometimes she heads up to Dr. Hayes' office.

I'm getting desperate.

Getting?

Ha!

You trucked by desperate a couple of years ago.

It takes a moment to snap out of my thoughts and to realize that I'm pressed up against the picture window, fogging up the glass like a serial stalker who's left his van running fifty feet away.

As I take a quick step