Mack hurried down Main Street, head up and looking straight ahead. His last class of the day had taken forever to get through and now, free, he meant to waste no time.

She’d said she’d meet him at the shake place on Church Street. She’d smiled and tucked her hair and insisted that it was only because he’d offered to help her with accounting. And damn if he hadn’t spent the entire class reviewing accounting basics on his notebook computer instead of listening to the professor drone on and on.

He dodged around a few kids and shot across an intersection without waiting for a crosswalk sign, trusting his luck to avoid getting killed. Then he was turning onto Church Street and heading up it at a quick clip. Two blocks later, he was veering across the brick pavers to reach the front door of their agreed meeting place. A quick glance found two girls in the front, computers set up for studies at the two seats to the right of the door, heads down as they focused on their work. Neither was Lilly. She wasn’t in the rest of the restaurant either. He’d beat her. Getting in line, he ordered two of their admittedly awesome Nutella shakes, then claimed the window seats on the left side of the doorway, putting his book bag on the open chair and Lilly’s shake in its place in front of it. Digging out his own computer, he opened it to the notes he’d taken the prior year in accounting class. Good thing he’d let his sister talk him into leaving them on his hard drive.

It took some time to settle down and stop looking for her every time the door opened, but he dug into the notes and focused on the mysteries of payables, receivables, assets, and liabilities.

Suddenly he sensed a presence and looked up to find her there, smiling at him uncertainly.

“Hey. I grabbed you a Nutella shake,” he said, moving his bag so she could sit down. She paused for a second as if not sure, then took off her own bag, a messenger bag.

“What? Why are you staring at my bag?”

“Well, it looks like one my buddy has. He carried it everywhere, but my sister and I got him a new one. That could be the old one’s twin.”

“Oh. Yeah, I found it in a consignment shop on Lower Pine.”

She took a drink of her shake, wrapped her sweater coat tighter around herself, and started to pull her school stuff out.

“Cold?” he asked, imagining himself snuggling closer to warm her up.

“Yeah, it’s a lot colder here than where I’m from. Why did your friend get rid of his bag?”

“What? Oh. Declan had beaten the poor thing to pieces and it was… well, no offense, but it was kind of plain.”