“First—top ten percent in all my classes next year, pending my decision.” Kevin starts ticking them off on his fingers. “Second, early matching for med school. Third—”

“It’s tiered,” says Grace. “Building blocks to success. I could make an experimental play about it. Wait. Have you ordered a beer yet? No, you haven’t.” Grace summons a waiter. “Bring Jane your finest microbrew,” she says. “And another one for me, too.”

The waiter returns a minute later, and I sip at the microbrew and listen to the others talk. Maybe I’m not so different from them. They’re all excited to be here, too, but in a wry way. If we get in. If we accept. None of them are worried about being rejected. They’re enthusiastic about the plans they have for the future. The more of my microbrew I drink—what is a microbrew, anyway? It’s better than the beer I had with Beau—the more I feel a warm nostalgia for the kind of campus life they’re describing. It sounds fun. It sounds almost like an escape from the real world. Living on a campus like this would be like living in a dream. Nothing to do but take classes and get an internship in the field of your choice?

Dreamland. Heaven.

Grace keeps asking questions about my plans, and before I know it, I’ve been talking to her for half an hour. The conversation around the table turns from majors to the citywide book club that’s going on in the fall. Everyone on campus and in the city who wants to is going to read the same novel. Then there are all kinds of events to discuss it.

“Should we go as a group? If we’re all here, I mean.” Kevin asks. “We probably couldn’t bring beer to the discussions.”

“The author’s going to visit,” one of the other women says. “She’s going to give a talk. We could meet here afterward.”

“Sold,” says the sports guy. It makes me laugh because it’s months away, and we’re prospective students, and this group is already deciding to spend the time together.

I could be part of this.

If I wanted, Beau would move here with me. Knowing Beau, he’d probably buy a house rather than rent. We’d own a college-town house as close as humanly possible to campus so that I didn’t have to struggle to get to classes.