I’m saved by the couple who pushes through the door, bringing in a gust of frigid air. I pull my hands away, grab my bag and my coat. I’m halfway to the warm inner room of the coffeehouse when he calls my name.

“Mae.”

I turn. I shouldn’t, because I know those chemicals will rush through me even harder when I look into his eyes, but it’d be rude to ignore him, and I am a polite person.

“One of the benefits of meditation is that it helps you develop patience. A lot of it.” He smiles. “Just so you know.”

“Astronauts have a lot of patience, too.”

His eyebrows go up, and the light comes back in his eyes. “May the best nerd win.”

I don’t have to come up with a clever response to that because he has to help his customers and because Nate walks through the door. As soon as I see my cousin, I nearly collapse with relief. I don’t think I could have held out against Ben Tamura much longer. He’s a formidable opponent.

My cousin gives me a quick once-over and shakes his head. “Fill me in on whatever has produced that look on your face.”

I drag him into a corner booth. Ben’s right. I do need help. Just not his.

Nate leans back, watching me.

“So … you and Ben.”

“At this precise moment, I don’t care about Ben. Table that topic.”

He leans forward. “Listen, he’s not quite as good at math as we are, but he’s pretty good, Mae. And his physics—spot-on. In fact—”

“Put your serious face on, Nate.”

He sighs. “Okay. What did he do?”

“He didn’t do anything. He’s perfect. It’s Micah.”

“Micah?”

“You can’t tell her, okay, because it will be so bad and I don’t—Micah’s cheating on Nah. If I tell her, she will … I don’t know, but I’m scared what she’ll do. And also she has some drug dealer or something and—”

“Wait, what?”

I am betraying my sister, but I don’t have a choice. I really don’t think I do. If I’m going to do something as extreme as possibly give up Annapolis, there will be questions. Dad always said, “Let’s put more brains on this business,” when there was a problem he couldn’t solve. I need more brains on this business.

“I know this is Nah’s story to tell,” I say, “but it’s an emergency and I can’t—I can’t do this on my own anymore, Nate, and—”

“Hey, hey.” My cousin rests a hand on my arm. “Buzz. It’s okay. Whatever it is—I got you. Just give me the data, yeah?”

“I found Percocet in her bag. Your parents didn’t have any, did they?”