The longer Pia sat in her room, the more agitated she became and the more motivated to take some action. But what? She paced around the room as best she could, given the close confines of the living area. She lay on her bed, but that was intolerable. She thought about calling Will or Lesley, but she didn’t know what she would say to them. She walked down the corridor to the soda machine, but she didn’t want anything to drink. Her mind was buzzing, racing, overheating.

Suddenly Pia knew what she could do to get herself centered, to regain some focus. George had been hanging around, offering to help. She thought there was something he could do for her, as he’d done a few times in the past. George wasn’t so different from any other man she’d ever encountered. But each time it had happened, when Pia thought George would have been put off by her needs, there he was, back again the next day.

Pia imagined that George would be on his lunch break, one of the benefits of a rotation in something predictable like radiology or pathology. There was a predictable schedule. She wanted to call him, but she couldn’t find her cell phone. And when she did find it, in the pocket of her coat, she saw that the battery was dead. She plugged the phone into the charger and called George, catching him as she had hoped on his way over to the cafeteria.

“I was going to swing by later to make sure you were okay,” George said. They hadn’t parted on the best of terms after meeting with the dean, and George’s perennial insecurity about Pia had surfaced again.

“You offered to help. Is that still the case or are you still mad at me for getting you in trouble?”

“I’m not mad at you, I’m just worried about you.”

Pia rolled her eyes.

“So you’ll help me?” This was awkward. Pia wanted George to say yes, I’ll be right over. Instead, he said, “Not if it means going back up to the lab.”

“No, George. What I’d like you to do is come over here for a few minutes.”

“Right now?”

“Right now, George! I assume you’re on lunch break?”

“Okay,” George said. “I’ll be right there.”

Pia prepared. Almost to the minute of his expected arrival there was a knock on Pia’s door. She pulled it fully open.

George’s eyes sprang open to their fullest extent. He was clearly taken aback. Nervously he glanced up and down the dorm hallway to make sure no one could see what he could. Pia was standing in the open doorway buck naked.