The next morning I went to the cafe just like I did every Wednesday around 9AM. The music was

cafe-smooth

Norah Jones

. I ordered a black cup of house roast

coffee

, just like I always did when Norah was playing. Something about her made me enjoy that dark yet smooth flavor of the cafe's House Roast. No

cappuccino

to a soundtrack like that.

This was two days before a non-trivial chemistry exam. Based on how much studying I'd already done, I was en-route to getting a four point, especially since Wednesdays were my big study days. Large empty slots on the calendar with no distractions. Just me and my

Macbook Pro

at the cafe. But this was precisely the problem of this particular Wednesday. 

I couldn't focus on my chemistry notes. All I could think about was that woman. Where the hell was she? Of course I was aware that I had no right expecting a stranger to be there at a particular time. They had their own lives and who was I to expect it to go a certain way. But still, in this case it was less about my forcing some expectation on somebody because I thought that was the right thing, but more so me being put off by the bizarre reality of things no happening like they always did. Had I not seen her here every Wednesday morning this entire semester? 

It took me about two hours of trying to study and failing until I decided to order another coffee. This time I got a Nicaraguan. I didn't know if this would help, but I needed to do something other than constantly glancing over by her spot by the front window. I glanced over one more time after sitting down with my fresh cup of unneeded coffee. And then I overcorrected my gaze over to the back of the cafe, secretly hoping that she would appear there. But instead I saw somebody else walking down.