You pull your phone out of your pocket, glancing back and forth between the screen and the hallway around you.
When Inez passes you, you say quickly, "Excuse me, can you help me?"
A small frown crosses her lips and then just as quickly disappears. "What do you need?"
"I'm supposed to meet Professor Brantley at his office," you say. You point to the number on the classroom door she's just come out of. "Room 125."
"Well, that's not a professor's office."
"Apparently not."
"What building?"
"Donaldson."
Inez scoffs. "Boy are you lost! That's clear on the other end of the quads."
"Can you show me?"
She stares at you hard for several seconds. You realize you're holding your breath.
"Come on," she says impatiently. She steps into the flow of traffic, not waiting to make sure you're following.
You're afraid you've lost her, until you come back out of the building – through the door where you two first passed each other ninety minutes before. She's standing cross-armed at the intersection of two walkways, staring at her feet.
"Sorry," you mumble as you approach her.
"Me and lost puppies," she mutters to herself. Once again she walks off, just assuming you'll follow.
You trot to catch up. "I really appreciate this."
"Uh huh."
"What's your name?"
She ignores the question.
She leads you diagonally across the quad until Donaldson Hall comes into sight. "That's Donaldson," she says, pointing. "Can you take it from here?"
"Considering how lost I just was, I'd rather not take any chances." You flash a charming smile.
She gives you a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I'm sure you'll do fine."
She turns and rushes off before you can think of a response.
I wonder what got her so aggravated, you wonder. Of course, you don't know Inez all that well. Maybe she's like that all the time.
But there's no reason for you to get discouraged. You've got all the time in the world – literally – so you may as well keep trying. You're sure that you'll get better at it as you go.
So you jump back sixty seconds into the hallway full of people, half of them already texting someone on their phones.
Inez appears. You decide to
Or you can think better of it, deciding instead to
.