Kairi settled back onto her stool, hands now steady and her heart-rate beating at a normal pace. She let her hair free from its braid and it tumbled down to her shoulders. She raked it out of her face with her fingers as she sighed, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath.<em>You’ve been through worse than an overly curious man poking around. Everything will turn out okay.</em>She reminded herself as she took another sip of her tea. It had gone cold by now and she picked it up, slipping it into the break room and pouring out what was left, leaving the mug resting next to her bag. She stepped back out and headed over to the cafe.<br/><br/>“Hey James, how are you this morning?” She asked the young man preparing the cafe for opening. He glanced up from filling one of the display cases and cast her a dimpled grin. “Hey, Ri! I’m doing good this morning. Hey, while I have you here, I wanna run something by you that we could maybe add to the menu.” He launched into his description and Kairi nodded, a smile gracing her lips. “Yeah, that sounds like it could be a hit. I’ll talk to Ryan when he comes in and see if he would be up for your new culinary masterpiece. Anyway, I better get back to the counter. You’re clocking at 4:30 today right?” She inquired. “Yeah, I have to take my grandmother to the doctor's.” Kairi nodded. “That’s not a problem, it’s normally pretty quiet around that time anyway.”<br/><br/>With a wave of her fingers, the young woman strode back over to the counter just in time for the man to descend the stairs with his chosen books. Her fixed smile made a second appearance as she reached out for the books. She scanned the books and set them a sticker while she tapped a few buttons on the computer. “Your total is $5.35; Will you be paying with cash or credit?” She grabbed a few sheets of parchment paper and laid the books in the middle, deftly wrapping the paper around the books and tying it together with a corded string. She pushed the books towards him and held out one slender hand to accept his form of payment.<br/>