Beach Beans is a Colby coffee shop that serves as a practical meeting point in Auden and Maggie’s morning routine. Its importance in the story comes less from any description of the shop itself than from the repeated actions attached to it: ordering coffee, meeting up, and setting out to practice riding together.

Setting and Use

The evidence presents Beach Beans through brief, everyday visits rather than a detailed account of its interior or business. When Maggie asks Auden whether she wants anything while Esther is going there, Auden requests a large triple-shot mocha. Maggie’s surprise at the order hints that Auden’s coffee run is part of a demanding day, but the scene leaves the shop itself in the background.

A Stop Before Practice

Beach Beans becomes a regular first stop during the week Auden and Maggie practice riding almost every morning. Auden picks up two coffees there before meeting Maggie at the jump park clearing. The sequence gives their practice a small ritual: coffee first, then the work of balancing, pedaling, and learning to ride.

At first, Maggie holds the back of Auden’s seat during what Adam calls assisted riding. They progress to brief moments when Maggie lets go but runs behind, and then to longer stretches of independent riding. Auden still has wipeouts and scabs on both knees, yet she is improving. Beach Beans is not the site of that progress, but its place at the start of their repeated outings helps mark the companionship and persistence that sustain it.

Narrative Significance

The shop’s role is modest and specific: it anchors a routine shared by Auden and Maggie at a point when Auden’s schedule is shifting toward mornings and afternoons. Coffee runs and bicycle practice stand in contrast to the solitary nights, studying, and avoided calls that still shape much of Auden’s life. Later, in October, the narrative places Auden’s coffee routine at the Defriese cafeteria, where the coffee is covered by her meal plan and the cups are bottomless. This later campus setting provides a glimpse of a changed daily context, while Beach Beans remains associated with the earlier Colby mornings and the practice through which Auden begins to make progress.