It’s too bad Jittery Joe’s doesn’t sell popcorn and candy because fall semester played out just like a movie for Jennifer Montanari.

Montanari, an employee at the Jittery Joe’s in the Student Learning Center, worked the same shift five days a week and saw the same customers every day.

At the beginning of the semester, they stood separately in line, but as the semester wore on, Montanari said they became friendlier toward each other.

“By the end of the semester, they were holding hands,” said Montanari, a freshman from Savannah.

The trend Montanari witnessed from behind the Jittery Joe’s counter validates a rumor that’s spreading across campus – the SLC is a common place to scout out potential dates.

The building has even earned a few nicknames.

David Burch, a third year law student from Atlanta, called it the “Singles Lounge with Computers” in one of his columns for The Red & Black, and there’s also a Facebook group called  ”SLC – Student Lusting Center.”

Montanari said she has been hit on in the SLC – both on and off her shift at Jittery Joe’s.

“Can I get a turtle mocha, a chocolate chip scone – and your number?” is just one of the not-so-inventive lines she’s heard during her seven months working at the coffee shop.

Sometimes the flirtation gets more aggressive.

Montanari was checking her e-mail one day when a guy started talking to her about school and work. Montanari said he looked over her shoulder and asked about her e-mail address showing on her screen at the time. Fifteen minutes later, she received an e-mail from the guy, asking her to “hit him up sometime.”

Montanari isn’t the only student whose computer has elicited unwanted advances.

Freshman Stephanie Trezek said a guy sat down next to her in the SLC and started commenting on the pictures she was editing on her computer screen.

Trezek eventually left because she was uncomfortable.

She said she would have preferred he ask “normal, getting-to-know-you questions.”

“He didn’t even ask my name, and that’s not cool,” she said.

Easy conversation starters and a captive audience could be one reason the SLC is a popular pick-up spot.

“The hard part is getting in a position where you can talk to somebody,” said W. Keith Campbell, an associate professor who studies social psychology in the department of psychology. “And then what do you say without looking like an idiot?

“You see people all the time you’d like to ask out, in class or across campus, but you can’t just accost somebody.”

Studying in the SLC or standing in the line at Jittery Joe’s gives students an easy icebreaker, he said.

The coffee might be another factor in the activity around Joe’s.

Coffee increases physiological arousal – including an increased heart rate and pupil dilation – and is similar to the effects of exercise, Campbell said.

Physiological arousal helps “people find attractive people more attractive,” he said.

“It also leads to action, which is why after you drink three cups of coffee, you want to move, you want to do something,” Campbell said.

That something just might be hitting on the guy or girl sitting at the next table.