Part 13

Gladwin had already parked his car in the orphanage parking lot. He looked for Flavia's known car but didn't find it.

Was Flavia not coming? Was the girl avoiding him again? He wondered to himself.

Gladwin increasingly realized that avoiding him was now Flavia's specialty. This conclusion was not made without reason because it became clearer day by day that Flavia was deliberately avoiding him, especially yesterday. Flavia refused to be in the same car with him, refused to be in the same room with him. And Gladwin was sure that if he had picked her up at her house, she would have refused his offer to go together with various excuses.

Gladwin tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. His heart felt conflicted. On one hand, Gladwin was clearly unwilling if Flavia avoided him. But on the other hand, he felt that he didn't need to go through the trouble of finding ways to avoid the girl as he had been trying to do.

For ten minutes, Gladwin wrestled with his own thoughts until he final