Tears Read Online Free PDF

on boyfriend.”
    Gaia rolled her eyes, but she blushed slightly, too. Once again Zolov was dead-on. Her chess game had suffered immeasurably ever since she and Sam had gotten together. You couldn’t think about your boyfriend and play with a grand master.
    â€œWhere is Sam?” Zolov asked, shielding his eyes from the sun as he surveyed the park. “You have date, no?”
    Gaia nodded absently. Sam had agreed to meet her for chess in the park. He was now officially a half hour late. They had barely started dating, and he was already standing her up?
Part of her felt obliged to be severely pissed.
But the other part was doing her damnedest not to take it personally. Sam hadn’t been himself this morning. Had he run into some kind of problem? Had that exam taken longer than expected? Maybe Mike’s death wasn’tthe only thing upsetting Sam. He’d said he had a lot of studying. Maybe he was just working in his room and he’d lost track of time....
    She nodded to herself. She should give him the benefit of the doubt.
    And at that moment, for some reason, a completely inane thought popped into her head.
    Bring him a rose.
    Gaia had no clue where this thought had come from. She couldn’t
see
any roses; all she saw were the lifeless trees and frostbitten grass of the park. And since when did standing up a girlfriend earn a guy a gift? Actually, the real question was this: Since when did Gaia think of bringing
anyone
a rose? What was this, 1955? Pretty soon she’d be bouncing around in poodle skirts and asking Sam to the sock hop.
    She remembered what Ed had asked her, not too long ago, when their relationship had been at an all-time low: “
Who are you, and what have you done with Gaia Moore?
”
    Recently, it seemed, she had no idea. The old Gaia Moore was nothing more than a memory at times.
    â€œYou go to Sam now, Ceendy,” Zolov said, as if reading her thoughts.
    She nodded, distracted, then flashed him a quick smile and waved as she hurried out of the park. She headed straight for the Korean deli on the corner of Sam’s block.
Maybe this was a completelywhacked-out impulse, but she would run with it.
Why not? Sam would appreciate its unexpectedness. It might even help to crack his shell, to get him to confide in her. Besides, a single rose only cost two bucks. She paid for it quickly and ran the rest of the way to Sam’s dorm. With a perfunctory wave at the bloated security guard (he and Gaia were all but on a first-name basis at this point), she dashed up the stairwell. It was odd, but she was worried if she slowed down, she might begin to have doubts—and then she wouldn’t give him the rose at all.
    Having a boyfriend is turning my brain to mush,
she thought as she entered the hallway, the rose dangling by her side. It was true. She was becoming one of those shiny, happy people she so resented because she could never figure them out. People like Heather and the FOHs (Friends of Heather), Megan and all the rest of them—
    She froze. Thoughts of love and roses instantly vanished from her mind. A man dressed completely in black was kneeling by the door next to Sam’s dorm room—picking the lock with the air of an experienced professional. Adrenaline shot through Gaia’s veins. Somebody was trying to break into Sam’s suite.
My boyfriend’s suite.
Over her dead body. A smile crept across her face. Not only had she brought Sam a rose, she now had the opportunity to defend his honor.
Luck came in strange, unforeseen ways.
    â€œHey!” she shouted, building up speed.
    The black-clad figure reacted like a fleeting apparition. Instead of rising to challenge her, he simply dropped the lock pick in a black leather bag, then snatched it up and moved swiftly toward the stairs on the opposite side of the hall. He didn’t bother to look behind him.
    â€œHey!” Gaia hollered again.
    He broke into a run. A second later he crashed