Akira at the Cafe

An ordinary woman working in an extraordinary place…

Akira loves her part-time job at the café. While working at the bookstore covers her reading habit and much of her rent, the café has other lures. Like the ongoing courtship between her boss, Nina, and Rhys Witherby. The mystery of Agnes Waters. And all the other interesting and unique characters that walk through the door.

As a mundane human, with an instinct for the weird, Akira knows many of the café regulars hide otherworldly faces behind ordinary facades. She likes that part of the café too.

Until the creepy guy shows up. Bringing with him bad vibes and a nefarious intent. And Akira’s witch boss keeps missing the threat.

Akira’s overactive imagination? Or real danger?

Only one way to find out…at the café.

AKIRA AT THE CAFE is available to read for free until the 15th of March, when another story will be posted. For readers who would prefer to read on a device of preference, or who would like their own personal eBook of this story, you can find it here.

***

Akira at the Café

A Café Story

Akira had been working part-time at the café for a while now. And a few things had become clear.

The owner was a witch. Her Maine Coon was a familiar. And her boyfriend was not just a lawyer.

Akira was still working out what Rhys Witherby was because there seemed to be some conflicting possibilities. Something to do with vampires, maybe, but hard to tell. Especially since he was also a lawyer and all the jokes about them being vampires made it more complicated. His brother was definitely a weird one. He stopped in sometimes to sit in a corner, pretend to drink a black coffee, and glare at Nina. Which Nina ignored. It was odd, but Akira got the impression it was some sort of understanding between them.

She didn’t mind all the weird shit. In fact, it made her days in the café really interesting.

Mostly, she worked in the bookstore next door, also part-time, and when she wasn’t working to cover rent and bills, she read. Akira read a lot. Which made the bookstore an ideal job in a lot of ways. But Akira had even chosen to get a degree in reading. Well, okay, that wasn’t quite a thing, but close. When you worked on a Masters degree in Literature, you read. A lot. Her specific area of expertise was literature from the medieval era, with an emphasis on Boccaccio’s The Decameron. His bawdy humor got her every time, and there was an unusual thread of almost feminist subtext in The Decameron that was absent from comparable works like The Canterbury Tales. So her work focused on those hints and threads in various Medieval satire, comparing and contrasting works with similar stories. Most of which also had some pretty bawdy humor.

She might lean toward having a bawdy sense of humor.

Her third gig, which was only a sometimes thing so she didn’t really count it as a regular job job, was helping with costumes at a local burlesque club. So…yeah. She supposed bawdy was her default.

Not that there was bawdy in the bookstore or café. Unless you counted Agnes who was always reading erotica of some kind or another. Occasionally, she downshifted into Romance and seemed to be particularly fond of Monster Romances and Paranormal Romances. But mostly it was excellent tea and erotica for Agnes.

Akira wondered about Agnes. She was…unique. But unlike Nina and Boo, Akira hadn’t been able to determine exactly what Agnes was. She didn’t even have any suspicions like she did with Rhys and his brother.

She didn’t say any of this to any of them, of course. She wasn’t sure if Nina realized Akira knew she was a witch because Akira never said anything out loud. And Boo might realize Akira knew things she probably shouldn’t, but if he did, he didn’t say anything about it. Agnes… Well, Airka didn’t know what Agnes was so that didn’t actually matter.

It wasn’t like she was a witch or familiar or…whatever herself. Akira was just a normal woman. But the café was not a normal place. There were a lot of unusual visitors, unique, oddball, strange. And that made her weirdly comfortable. Like she was at home. Even though she wasn’t anything special.

She normally worked Saturdays because Saturdays were hopping, and this Saturday had been no exception. Between the crowds moving in and out of the bookstore, the nice weather driving more people out into the streets, and the evening crowd soaking up a long, lovely day, there’d been barely a moment’s break all Saturday. Akira liked that pace. She liked being kept busy. If things got boring, she started to question why she was even at work when she could be home reading.

Or even getting a life like other twenty-somethings. She was nearly thirty. But in all honesty, she preferred a good book to a bar or night out dancing. It almost felt indulgent, bucking the expectations of her age, and just going home to do her own thing after work or research. Eventually, she wanted a university job somewhere. Teaching and reading for work. The teaching was a necessary evil to buy her more reading time. But she didn’t mind. She liked talking about books as much as she liked reading them. Which was another thing that made the bookstore such a good place for her to work.

The café didn’t have that kind of reading lure, but she found this place entertaining in other ways. The constant busy movement on a Saturday was one of those entertainments. The other was watching Nina and Rhys and their budding relationship. She’d been around from almost the beginning of that flirtation. And frankly, it was adorable to watch. Like a book brought to life. But, you know, in play form. Or something.

Just cute.

The busy Saturday spilled over into a full weekend of really busy activity at the café, and expecting the surge, Nina had asked Akira if she could work that Sunday too. She’d agreed. She liked hanging out at the café. The people were cool. And the Nina-Rhys drama was going strong.

Because she didn’t normally work on Sundays, though, Akira wouldn’t have seen the newcomer the second time he came in, and so probably wouldn’t have started to really worry about him.

Now, they had regulars. A lot of them. So people who showed up on Saturday were often here at other times, too. She saw them in the bookstore and from the bookstore when she was working there. But this guy wasn’t a regular. He’d spent time in the café on Saturday watching the patrons, barely drinking his coffee, and had only left late in the afternoon.

Akira probably wouldn’t even have noticed him on Saturday except for the way he kept watching Nina. It was…disturbing. Very focused and intent glances before his gaze would travel elsewhere. And not like the way Rhys often watched Nina. Rhys watched Nina with a kind of unconscious longing, like he just wanted to reassure himself she was still there. This new guy… Those weren’t the looks he was giving. There was something, well, disturbing in the man’s expression when he stared at her.

Akira hadn’t liked that at all. The guy gave her the creeps. She’d been relieved when he left. And normally, she wouldn’t have ever even known he came back because she didn’t usually work at either the bookstore or the café on Sunday. Except that she was working that Sunday. So she watched him walk in again.

Not through the bookstore. He came into the café directly.

She got him his black coffee and croissant because Nina was busy prepping some fancy drinks for the customers before the creepy guy. Akira recognized him immediately. He was medium height, maybe even a little on the short side. Wide in the shoulders, lean, almost too skinny. White guy with dark hair and eyes. Long nose. Lips that were too big for his face. One of those chins that sort of disappeared back into his neck.

Akira didn’t like to judge people on their looks. So it wasn’t just that this guy was a little creepy looking. She’d have brushed that off. Every oddball who walked into the café was welcome, and he was far from really odd looking. Just ordinary. But not an ordinary she personally would have found attractive. But it wasn’t that. There was an energy coming from him, almost like static, that set off all her warning bells.

While Akira was getting his croissant onto a plate, she glanced at Boo to see how he was reacting to the man. He didn’t seem to notice him. Sat flopped on his high stool near the register, just outside of the counter, his big gray fluffy body not even coming close to fitting on the small round seat, but Boo was boneless and didn’t care. She considered the fact that Nina’s familiar wasn’t acting out or hissing at the man. Maybe it was just her imagination fed by all those books that made her leery of the guy.

She handed him his mug and plate and he took himself off to a table at the back of the café, with his back to the wall, but not sitting in one of the cushioned chairs. He seemed to prefer the straight-backed wooden chairs around tables mostly in the center of the room.

The café was hopping again. So busy, Akira barely had a chance to breathe, let alone investigate the creepy guy. Maybe ask him some questions, or even warn Nina about him. Every time she tried to warn Nina, something interfered. A new customer stepped up to the register. The phone rang and Nina had to take it. Nina had to check the back room. And the instant Nina was back, there were more customers who needed help and no time to stop and talk with her.

So Akira kept an eye on the man even as she did her job, but not as close an eye as she’d have liked. She couldn’t pinpoint why she didn’t trust him, what was bothering her. Outside of the fact that every time he looked at Nina, he frowned. And there was this… Gosh, she wasn’t even sure how to describe it. Murderous seemed overly dramatic. But the way the man’s forehead bunched and his lip lifted a little at one corner, almost a snarl, and the way his hand gripped his coffee mug when he glanced at Nina… There was a menace to it all.

The more she watched him, the more the man scared the shit out of Akira.

And yet neither Nina nor Boo seemed to even notice him.

Akira had no idea how that was possible. She could feel the guy’s stare and he wasn’t staring at her. The air practically crackled with malignant energy when he so much as glanced at Nina.

Rhys wasn’t in that day, so there was no help there. Though since Akira couldn’t seem to find a moment to warn Nina, she wasn’t sure how she’d have found time to say anything to Rhys either. Agnes was in that day. Sitting at her usual table, drinking tea and reading a collection of erotic poetry. Agnes did seem to notice the man, but she didn’t do anything about him. She glanced up from her book to look at him occasionally, but then went right back to reading and sipping her tea, seemingly unbothered. The man did not notice Agnes or even glance at her.

There were a few other regulars in that day, but not as many as usual. Frank never came in on Sundays—spent that day with his husband and kids—and Jamar had a gig. Diana wasn’t there—Akira had no idea if she ever came in on Sundays—and Amir who often came in to study wasn’t in either. Amir had a project they were working on, though, so Akira suspected they were off doing that.

So mostly the café was filled with people Akira didn’t know, either from her Saturday’s here or customers who crossed over into the bookstore. That wasn’t a bad thing. She liked people in general. But this guy giving her the creeps made her wish for more familiar faces around. Especially the people like Diana and Rhys who Akira knew weren’t just normal people. She wasn’t entirely sure what either Diana or Rhys were, exactly, though she was pretty suspicious Diana was the Diana the goddess of the hunt. She did like her hunting magazines. But at any rate, it would have been comforting to have them around. At least Agnes was there.

During a particularly busy period, Akira found herself at the espresso machine, mixing a latte, when the man returned to the counter, and placed another order from Nina. Nina didn’t seem to be aware of the man’s menace as he looked at her, which was really starting to freak Akira out. Nina was a witch! Boo was her familiar. And neither of them were getting the creepy vibe from this guy?

Either the man wasn’t as menacing or creepy as Akira thought he was—and something was off with her own instincts—or something was wrong with Nina and Boo’s instincts. She rushed the steamed milk on the latte a little, though not enough to affect its quality because she didn’t want her work to reflect poorly on Nina, and then hurried to join Nina at the register, standing at her back, watching the man.

The man glanced at her, met her gaze. He had ordinary enough brown eyes. Nothing obviously weird there. But when he met Akira’s gaze, she wanted to shiver. She blinked and the sense of fear receded. Glancing at Nina, her boss hadn’t seemed to notice even Akira’s shiver. That was unusual.

The man’s voice was low, middle range, so neither deep nor high. Nondescript. He got another black coffee, which Nina went to get for him while Akira murmured that she’d handle the payment. For some reason, she didn’t want that man’s money touching Nina’s skin.

The thought came to her suddenly and she only processed it after she’d acted. Yes. He was paying in cash. And she didn’t want his money to come into contact with Nina. It was a strange idea, but she went with it. She forced a smile as she took the cash, set it on the counter, made change, and handed the change back. The man glanced at the bill, then met Akira’s gaze. She kept her professional smile in place by sheer will.

“Why do you leave it on the counter?” he asked.

“Oh, that’s what we do with cash. So there’s no way for an employee to try and give you less change and claim you didn’t pay in whatever bill you paid in. Standard in retail.” She gave a little nod. The move actually was pretty standard for larger bills in a lot of the places Akira had worked over the years. Nina didn’t have that rule. But this guy didn’t know that.

The man nodded but his gaze jumped to Nina. “So, she puts it away then. Since she’s the boss.”

“Sure,” Akira said on instinct, to see how he’d react.

His faint smile made her pulse race, a shot of adrenaline that surprised her. She wanted to set fire to his twenty so it wouldn’t come into contact with Nina. And the faint smile on the guy’s mouth made her want to scream. She also wanted to wash her hands thoroughly.

But she didn’t think whatever was on the bill would affect her. She could be wrong about that, but she didn’t think so. The man had shown no real reaction to her touching the bill. His attention had been mainly on Nina. So Akira didn’t think the bill was poisoned or anything. Still, the minute the man glanced away, she slipped the twenty into her apron pocket. She’d replace it with a twenty of her own from her wallet. Then she could talk with Nina about the bill after closing.

Nina smiled and handed the man his black coffee when she rejoined them and the man took it. Glanced down and frowned when he didn’t see the twenty anymore. Scowled at Akira, and then went back to his seat.

“Okay,” Nina murmured under her breath, “what’s going on? Why did you slip that twenty into your apron instead of the register?”

Akira let out a relieved breath. At least Nina was noticing somethings. “That man you just served, he wanted you to touch that money, and he’s been giving me the creeps since he was in yesterday. I don’t trust him and I don’t want you touching that bill.”

This little recitation had Nina frowning deeply at Akira. Her gaze jumped to Boo, who was sitting up on his stool, staring at Nina.

“I… What?” Nina looked at Akira. “What are you talking about?” She glanced toward the man they’d just served. “He wasn’t in yesterday.”

“Oh wow.” Akira gave her head a little shake. “Okay, so, yes he was. And there’s something wrong with him. And it’s focused on you, whatever it is. But for some reason you and Boo don’t seem to notice.”

Nina gave her a little side-eye when she mentioned Boo not noticing. Akira supposed she still wasn’t supposed to know Nina and Boo were witch and familiar. But now wasn’t the time to be too delicate. Still work in euphemisms, because the café was crowded, but she didn’t have time to pretend she didn’t know right then.

“He’s been staring at you intently for two days,” Akira went on. “And not in a sexy way, like he’s attracted to you. It’s giving me serial killer vibes. And I’ve been trying to warn you all day, but every time I do, you get side tracked by other things. So.” Akira let out a deep, relieved breath. “So now I’ve finally told you and that is a relief. At least that you know now.”

“Open your pocket a little so I can see the bill,” Nina murmured.

“Do not touch it,” Akira warned as she opened the pocket on her green work apron and showed the twenty folded awkwardly inside.

Nina scowled at it. “I’m not… I can’t tell that there’s anything wrong with it.”

Without Nina having to ask, Akira showed the bill to Boo, too, who looked down into her pocket, then lifted his head and gave it a slight shake before licking his paw. Akira was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to notice the head shake, but honestly, they’d probably have to get past pretending they didn’t all know they all knew what they knew.

Nina said, “You’re sure you’re not just…imaging things, right?”

“I’m not.”

“Didn’t think so.”

Another customer from the bookstore came up to the counter then to order, so they stopped talking. Akira kept the bill in her pocket and got the new customer’s drink while Nina rang her up. Akira glanced around the espresso machine toward the man. He was back to watching Nina intently, but now he was glancing at Akira and frowning.

Shit. She didn’t want his attention. Harder to study him and keep an eye on him if he noticed her watching him.

Agnes glanced up from her book, frowned a little at the man, then went back to drinking her tea.

Akira tried to keep her hands steady as she prepared drinks and food for the next twenty minutes without another break to speak privately to Nina.

***

By the time a lull long enough to given them breathing room happened, the man had left the café. Which was such a relief to Akira she nearly sat down behind the counter and tucked her head between her knees so she could take some deep breaths. She didn’t, but she did take those deep breaths behind the espresso machine and lean her head over to let all the adrenaline ease.

She hurried up to Nina at the register and said, “He’s gone but I don’t trust that.”

Nina blinked and frowned at her. “Who?”

“Oh shit.” Akira scowled at Nina. “You don’t remember our earlier conversation? The man with the weird money? Any of that?”

Nina shook her head, but slowly. “I…don’t.” She glanced at Boo, who was laying on his stool, but his tail twitched when he glanced up at Nina.

“Listen,” Akira said, “something really weird is going on. With that guy. With the fact that you don’t seem to notice or remember him. He was in yesterday. He paid with cash today just a little while ago, a twenty that is still in my pocket because there’s something wrong with it. Something I think could hurt you.” She lowered her voice to a near whisper and leaned in very close to Nina. “I’m not making things up or imagining things. I’m not playing a joke. The man who was in here is a danger to you. And that’s especially clear because you keep forgetting him and don’t seem to notice him.”

Nina glanced at the café’s front door as if the man would still be standing there and she’d be able to see him. “I believe you,” she murmured quietly. “And I don’t like it.” She looked back at Akira. “Show me the money again.”

Akira once again opened her apron pocket and let Nina glance down into the depths at the crumpled twenty.

“I can’t tell anything is strange with that bill,” Nina murmured.

“You and Boo couldn’t earlier either, when I showed it to you the first time.”

“You showed it to Boo? And he didn’t notice anything?”

“Yes. And nope.”

Nina and Boo exchanged a look. “That’s…”

“Bad. Yes. It is. I’m freaking out about it a little. Or maybe a lot. So, uh, we need to keep talking about this. After closing. So you don’t forget.”

“Right. Right.”

They made it through the rest of the shift to closing without anything too weird happening, which was a relief. Because every time Akira mentioned the man with the weird money, Nina blinked at her in confusion and Akira had to remind her that they needed to talk after they closed the café. Each time Nina and Boo both looked a little freaked out, but that faded and within twenty minutes, Akira could tell they’d both forgotten again.

As they rang up their final customer, Akira was a little surprised to see Agnes still sitting at her usual spot, an empty tea cup beside her, her book open on the table as she read. She looked so engrossed, Akira was almost afraid to bother her, but she really needed everyone out so she could try and figure out what was happening with Nina—and Boo—and who that guy was and what was going on.

The moment she stepped up to Agnes’s table, Agnes said, “He’s a witch hunter.”

Akira blinked. “Uh…”

Agnes looked up from her book and frowned at the counter where Nina was dealing with the register closing. Then she looked back at Akira. “The man who was in here earlier, the one who’s bothering you, who handed you money you were clever enough not to let Nina touch. He’s a witch hunter. He’s trying to confirm that Nina is, in fact, a witch. She can’t remember him because there is a modern caste of witch hunters who, somewhat ironically and definitely hypocritically, use a spell to ensure witches won’t really see or notice them. And unfortunately, it’s a very good spell.”

Akira continued to blink down at Agnes. Agnes didn’t seem the least bit concerned with the fact that she’d managed to upturn Akira’s world and had her wondering if she wasn’t crazy. But at the same time, given what Akira knew about the café, and Nina, and a whole host of the customers… This also seemed like a perfectly appropriate conversation.

The thing that was freaking Akira out was that they were saying these things aloud instead of using euphemisms and dancing around saying anything hinting at the supernatural out loud. She was so used to hiding what she knew and talking around it that the blunt and to the point way Agnes was outlining what was going on was disconcerting.

But also super cool, and if the circumstances weren’t bad, Akira would be doing a little internal happy dance. Because she just knew all this stuff, and now she could talk about it out loud.

“So what do we do to help Nina, how do we get the witch hunter to leave her alone, and what do I do with this obviously spelled money in my apron pocket?”

“All very good questions. Once you’ve finished closing, we’ll all sit down and talk.”

“Nina knows you know she’s a witch, doesn’t she?” Akira asked.

“She does. I’m not sure she realized you knew.”

“I know you’re something as well,” Akira blurted out, then rolled her lips into her mouth.

“Do you know what?” Agnes asked, her eyes twinkling and her grin mischievous.

Akira had to admit, “Not yet.”

“Let me know when you think you’ve got it.” Agnes patted her hand and chuckled. Then she grew serious again. “Finish your work. We all need to talk. Boo included.”

Akira hurried through the clean up and ensuring all the chairs were up on tables and the floors mopped. Agnes moved to the seating area at the front window where Rhys usually sat after Akira finished cleaning there, and it occurred to Akira she’d rarely seen Agnes sit anywhere but her own table and it was a weird thing to see.

Once all the end of the day things were finished, Nina looked up and seemed surprised to still see Agnes in the café. She frowned a little and joined Akira and Agnes at the couches and low table at the front window. Boo hopped off his stool to jump onto the chair armrest next to Nina when she sat.

“We have things to discuss,” Agnes said by way of starting.

Akira took a deep breath and said, “You keep forgetting a man who’s been in here two days in a row and who gave me a twenty that has some sort of something on it that would be bad if you touched it. I’ve shown you the bill regularly throughout the day, warned you about the man, and have kept reminding you, but after about twenty minutes, it’s clear you’ve forgotten again. Agnes says he’s a witch hunter. Yes, I know you’re a witch and Boo is your familiar.” No need to dance around that anymore. “No idea what Agnes is—”

“Few people do, dear, not to worry.” Agnes patted her arm and Akira smiled, though she wasn’t entirely sure why.

“Anyway,” Akira continued, “given the way both you and Boo seem to be acting, I believe Agnes, and we need to do something about all this.” Akira sucked in a deep breath and let it out on a whoosh.

Nina blinked at them both. “There was a witch hunter in here and I didn’t know? Boo didn’t know?”

“I’m afraid so,” Agnes said. “And it hasn’t just been this weekend. He’s been in before. I did try to warn you once, realized it was pointless, and stopped. I’ve been keeping an eye on him, but until today, he hasn’t made an aggressive move. Your ability to blend in and appear normal has confounded him.”

“If I’m so good at looking non-witchy, how did you—” Nina looked at Akira, “—figure out what I was.”

Akira shrugged. “I just pick these kinds of things up, I guess. Still trying to decide if Rhys is a witch or a wizard or if it’s a vampire thing. His brother freaks me out. Is he really a vampire or is that just my imagination?”

Nina’s mouth popped open a little before she snapped it close. “I didn’t realize you were…aware of all this?”

“Well, yeah, sure. I mean I don’t talk about it, because obviously that would be invading your privacy. But…yeah.” She looked between Agnes and Nina. Agnes was looking at her with a soft smile and a raised brow. Nina looked baffled. “Yeah, I know I’m just a normal human. But…I don’t know, I guess I’m open to weird shit so I know weird shit exists.”

She felt her face heating. She hadn’t realized she’d feel so defensive talking about this with them. She didn’t actually talk to anyone about this kind of thing most of the time because when she had as a kid, she’d been made fun of and her parents had grounded her for lying. So she gave up. But she’d always been aware of the supernatural beings living alongside mundane humans.

“There are some humans like that,” Agnes said with a pragmatic shrug. “Aware of all the things instead of just some of them.”

“I…” Nina gave Akira a look. “I didn’t realize you were one of those people but I guess that explains why you’re such a good fit here.” She smiled. “I’m glad the bookstore was able to spare you for one day a week.”

“Me too.” Akira ducked her head. She’d felt at home in the café right from the beginning, but now… Now, she felt like she belonged in a way she rarely felt in other places.

“This is lovely,” Agnes said, sounding like she truly meant it, “but we do have the small problem of a witch hunter sniffing around. I can’t confront him directly because I’m…in the middle of something, and it would be better not to bring myself to their attention.”

Nina raised a brow but Agnes didn’t expand on the something. Akira was extremely curious too, but she figured being able to talk openly about most of this stuff now was probably enough for one day.

“What can we do to make this guy go away?” she asked. “We have to convince him Nina isn’t a witch, right? Or can Nina just…spell him?”

Nina glanced down at Boo and let out a long sigh. “I can create a spell to force the hunter to forget I exist and that this café exists, but the problem is…”

“She won’t be able to administer the spell,” Agnes finished.

“The witch hunter obviously has a confusion spell to keep witches from recognizing what he is,” Nina said.

“Hypocrisy.” Agnes sniffed. “Not fond of hypocrisy even a little bit.”

“Agreed,” Nina said. “But it does complicate things.”

“You can’t administer the spell if you don’t know who you’re directing it toward?” Akira asked. “Is that it?”

“Exactly.”

“I mean, I could tell you in the moment,” Akira said, “and you could administer the spell before you forget—”

“Won’t work,” Nina said. “The very minute I try to activate a spell against the witch hunter I’ll forget what I’m doing. It’s a really dastardly spell they use. And if I can’t remember what I’m doing, I can’t activate the spell.”

Akira frowned at Agnes. “Can’t you do something?” Without knowing what kind of being Agnes was, she didn’t know what Agnes could do, but it seemed like she had the knowledge at least to be able to help.

“As I said, I can’t risk drawing the hunter’s attention to me. It’s…complicated. But necessary for the moment, I’m afraid.” She let out a long breath and considered Akira, then glanced at Nina. “There is another option, though.”

“We fix the spell to something and let Akira activate it?” Nina said. She glanced down at Boo. Boo licked his paws and his pale blue eyes focused in on Akira.

Akira widened her eyes and looked at all the people, and cat, staring at her. “I…can’t do magic. I might know it exists but that’s about it. I’m not a witch.”

“Thankfully,” Agnes said, or you wouldn’t have noticed the witch hunter.

“Wait, you can really set up a spell for a normal human to activate?” Akira asked Nina.

“I can. Little tricker. But possible.” Nina stared down at Boo who stared up at her. “The problem is remembering I need to make an anti-witch hunter spell.”

Akira leaned back into her seat. “You’ll forget because you’ll forget there’s a witch hunter hanging around.”

Nina nodded, but her gaze was turned inward. “Unless, of course, I have someone around to remind me what I’m doing. I seem to have about twenty minutes before my brain dances away from the issue. That’s not enough for the full spell, but one reminder near the end of that twenty minutes should get me through the full spell.” She held Akira’s gaze. “You okay with watching a witch at work? And not just the making coffee kind of work?”

Akira grinned. “I would be okay with that,” she said, trying to rein in her enthusiasm. Not just knowing other kinds of beings existed, but being able to watch magic at work? Yes, please!

Agnes smiled and patted Akira’s arm again.

“All right, then,” Nina said. She took out her cellphone and opened an app, checked something. Then set a reminder in her calendar. “Okay, so tomorrow night is the new moon and that is the perfect time to do this sort of spell.” She glanced at Akira. “I can do it any time, but the…vibes are good at the new moon for this type of thing.”

Akira nodded. Sure. She didn’t know how witch spells worked exactly so she’d trust Nina.

“I’ve set an alarm so I remember I’m supposed to do something,” Nina said. “But I’ll need you to remind me what that something is. Can you be here tomorrow night at closing, or are you busy?”

“I’ll be here.” She had a date, but she wasn’t that interested in the other person. No real spark. She didn’t think her date felt that spark either. So it would be a good excuse for both of them to cancel without being mean or feeling rejected.

Nina smiled with what looked like relief. “Great. Thank you.”

“I’ve time to read here tomorrow,” Agnes said, “so I can continue to keep an eye on things.”

“I really appreciate that,” Nina said.

“Well. You do carry the best tea in town.”

Nina chuckled.

“What do I do about this bill in my pocket?” Akira asked. She’d been very aware of that money all day. Nina had refused her offer to replace it with a twenty from her own wallet, and it wasn’t like she was stealing it or anything. It kind of felt, though, like she had a bottle of poison in her apron and she was just walking around with it, hoping it didn’t break open and hurt anyone.

“That…” Agnes put her hand out. “I can take care of that since I’m not a witch.”

“What does it do, exactly?” Akira said as she pulled the bill out and handed it to Agnes. “I know it would hurt Nina, but I’m not sure why I think that.”

“It marks her a witch to all witch hunters,” Agnes said. “Sort of like a dye. It would…infect her aura, and any witch hunter with the right crystal would be able to detect it. But it only works on witches, and she’d have to touch it. If she wasn’t a witch, it wouldn’t do anything at all to her.”

“So it hasn’t done anything to me?” Akira asked, just to be sure.

Agnes looked at her from the corner of her eye, and then shook her head. “Not a thing.” She smiled. “Your aura is clean.”

“I didn’t know you could read auras,” Nina said, in a sort of digging-for-more-information tone.

Agnes just shrugged. “I’m a woman of many talents.” She folded the bill in her hand into thirds and then in half. She hovered her hand over it. Rolled her eyes and pursed her lips like she was annoyed. “Horrible people,” she muttered, mostly to herself. Then she snapped her fingers over the bill.

A little puff of purple smoke rose from the paper. It smelled like…roast duck and citrus.

“Why does that purple smoke smell like Duck à l’Orange?” Akira asked.

“I’m hungry and craving French food,” Agnes said with a shrug.

Which made no sense at all, but Akira decided that was the best answer she’d get. And actually, now she was craving French food. Looked like she’d be ordering in for dinner.

Agnes handed the bill back to Nina. “All safe now. And that will keep your register balanced so you don’t worry about the missing twenty tomorrow when you forget all this.”

“I really hate witch hunters,” Nina said with a sigh. “Especially the ones who use magic. It’s sooooo…”

“Irritating?” Agnes said.

“Hypocritical?” Akira said.

“All of the above,” Nina said.

“We’ll take care of him.” Akira gave a firm nod. “Tomorrow we’ll do the spell. You’ll teach me how to activate it on the witch hunter, and I’ll make sure he leaves and never comes back.”

Nina grinned. “And then you get a raise.”

Well. Akira wasn’t going to argue with that.

***

Being in the café after closing, when it was close to midnight and the sidewalks were quieter, though not empty, and traffic was occasional instead of steady, and it was dark except for streetlamps outside, was surprisingly soothing. Akira liked the café anyway, but in the dark and quiet, it was so comfortable it really did feel like a home away from home. Which was a little odd when she thought about it because it was still a restaurant. The couches and low lights helped with the illusion, she guessed.

Nina kept the lights off except for some undershelf lighting behind the counter, and the lights in the bookstore were off, so there were lots of deep shadows around them. They’d pushed aside some tables in the center of the café and were working inside a circle Nina had drawn on the wooden floor with chalk and salt. Akira had had to resist the urge to wince at that because she knew they’d have to clean it up afterward. But she’d never seen a witch do any magic and only knew about circles and stuff from a friend who was a pagan and theological witch—no actual real magic but a lot of woo woo vibes and good knowledge of herbs and incense and candles. Her non-magic witch friend had talked about circles being important to set a space for doing magical work. Akira had wondered if that applied to real magic or not. So she asked after they were inside the circle and Nina started lighting candles.

“It does create a safe space,” Nina said. “And it will protect us from interference. Keeps the spell…clean. No one can throw magic at it that I can’t detect and that would screw the spell all up.”

“That would be bad, yeah. Good circle.”

Nina chuckled and lit another tea light candle. She had about a dozen of those lit in a circle on a low table in the center of the larger chalk and salt circle. Akira and Nina were sitting on the floor on opposite sides of the table. And somewhat to Akira’s surprise, because she hadn’t noticed it before, there was a very faint pentagram inlaid in the table. The woods were so close to each other, it was easy to miss the pattern, but the way the candles flickered around it made it obvious.

Or maybe that was part of the magic.

Nina explained some of what she was doing, but a lot of it was lost on Akira. There were candles that were larger and chunky set at the cardinal points, all of them green and brown—to access earth energy according to Nina. There was a small wooden bowl of salt and small glass bowl of water on the table. Nina burned an incense that smelled like sage and citrus, which reminded Akira of Thanksgiving. And there was a small knife set on one side of the table.

And right in the center of all this set up was an ordinary white paper business card with the circular gold logo for the café on it.

“I had no idea a spell could be fixed to a business card,” Akira said, thinking she’d be careful about taking business cards from people from now on and a little shocked she hadn’t thought to be careful about that sort of thing up to now.

“It’s a good conduit for me. Not for everyone. Fixing spells onto objects is more of a wizard thing, but I’ve been around long enough to have figured out the knack of it.”

“Do you always need this kind of set up to do magic?”

“No. But for spells that need a lot of power or aren’t my specialty, the trappings help. They aren’t necessary. They just help.”

That was fascinating!

“Okay, for the moment, I’ll need silence,” Nina said. “But in about ten minutes, there will be a moment when I can lift from the spell and when I will likely start to forget why I’m doing it. You remind me then and we should be good.” Nina pulled in a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.”

Boo, who’d been snugged up against Nina’s hip, moved into her lap and started purring as Nina closed her eyes. A charge like static electricity skittered over Akira’s skin. She couldn’t see anything, and she didn’t understand the words Nina recited, but she definitely felt a shift in the air. And the part of her that knew the supernatural world existed also knew magic was happening right in front of her.

As Nina’s voice rose, so did Boo’s purring, and there seemed to be a sort of weird harmony to the two sounds. Then Nina blinked her eyes opened. Stared down at the card on the table. Frowned. Looked across the low table at Akira.

“You’re creating a spell to make a witch hunter go away,” Akira told her quickly. “He’s been coming into the café and you forget him all the time because the asshole is using a spell of his own, which we all agree is the height of hypocrisy.”

Nina nodded slowly, then blinked hard a few times and nodded faster. “Right. Right. Got it.”

She closed her eyes again, and more of the words that Akira couldn’t understand spilled out of her mouth. Boo’s purring ramped up. And Akira could swear his mass of fluffy pale gray fur was standing on end like someone rubbed a balloon over him and held his hair out with the static. The rest of the spell took another five minutes. And when Nina opened her eyes again, she said one final word and slapped her hand down over the business card.

A whisp of gray smoke rose from beneath Nina’s hand that smelled like the citrus and sage of the incense. Akira looked at the incense stick. She hadn’t noticed but it had burnt all the way down and gone out, leaving just a trail of ash inside the long, narrow ceramic incense stand. When Nina lifted her hand off the card, Akira would swear she saw it glowing faintly blue for a moment. But then she blinked and it looked just like an ordinary card again. There wasn’t any new writing on it, or anything about it that didn’t look like normal white card stock. Even the gold logo looked normal, though Akira wasn’t sure why that surprised her.

“Okay,” Nina said. “That should do it.”

“You’re…sure?”

Nina grinned. “It’s not supposed to look bespelled, remember? That’s the point. It’s done. And it will make the witch hunter forget I exist and that this café exists. And hopefully none of his fellows will think of coming here when he doesn’t report a witch in residence.” Nina’s expression turned serious. “You’re sure you’re okay with doing your part in this? It shouldn’t be dangerous, but if he figures out what you’re doing, he might get aggressive.”

“It’ll be fine,” Akira said. “I’ve got this.” She gave Nina a wink.

Nina set a hand to Boo’s fur, smoothing down the still static filled fluff, and nodded. “Thank you.”

***

The man showed up on Saturday. When Akira came in for her shift, Agnes was already there and confirmed that the man had not been in during the week. Probably because his money trick hadn’t worked and he was rethinking whether Nina was a witch or not. But since he never saw Nina touch the money, Agnes assumed he’d return to finish the test, probably with a new bill.

And sure enough, he arrived in the middle of a very busy period. When it would have been easy for Akira to be otherwise occupied and accidentally let Nina handle the one customer they didn’t want her to deal with. Fortunately, Akira spotted him the minute he walked in through the café door.

Rhys was in the café that day, too, sitting in his usual spot by the front window. Apparently, Nina had remembered long enough—or Agnes had reminded her while Rhys was around—to tell Rhys what was happening. The minute the man walked through the door, Akira gave Rhys a nod. Rhys returned it and stood, coming to the counter at the same time as the witch hunter, and accidentally bumping into him on the way.

While the two men did the apology, straightening up, grunting thing that men did when they bumped into each other, Akira quickly got Nina away from the register and pulled the magic business card from her pocket, setting it on top of a small pile of business cards in a white ceramic tray shaped like a seashell next to the cash register. Then she smiled when the witch hunter stepped up to place his order.

His gaze jumped to Nina who was working the espresso machine.

“Cappuccino,” he said. He glanced at Akira, his eyes narrowing. He looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t in the end.

Akira called over the order to Nina and then asked, “Would you like a muffin with that? Special today. Half off all pastries with a coffee or tea order.”

“No… Actually, yes. A muffin. Blueberry.”

Akira rang him up. He paid with a card this time. So either he didn’t intend on trying the money thing again, or he didn’t want to waste another bill that Nina wouldn’t touch. Akira wondered what he thought happened with the last bill. But since she obviously couldn’t ask, she grabbed a blueberry muffin from under the glass cake dome covering the stand full of fresh muffins and bagged it up. Then she returned to the register, slid the bespelled business card off the top of the stack, and handed it to the witch hunter.

“Be sure to tell your friends about us,” she said holding out the card. “We’re doing a few special weekend promotions this month, half price pastries, specialty coffees. It’s going to be fun.”

The witch hunter’s mouth flattened into a line like he was trying not to frown or scowl. He snatched the card from her, and she’d swear he rolled his eyes as he took the bag with the muffin in it from her other hand. When Nina brought over his cappuccino, the witch hunter blinked a few times, gave his head a little shake. Smiled and took the coffee with a thanks. He went to one of the central tables, not far from Agnes, sat, and stared into the middle distance for a long minute.

Agnes glanced at him over her book, then lowered her eyes and went back to reading, but there was a smile playing around her mouth.

Rhys stepped up to the counter. “Did it work?” he murmured to Akira.

“Not sure,” she whispered, leaning over the counter to be closer to Rhys so he could hear her. “But I’ve never seen him do that before. Just stare into space. And he smiled at Nina in a friendly way, not a forced way. Never seen him do that either.”

Nina leaned over the counter too, next to Akira, her gaze moving from Akira and Rhys to the witch hunter. “What’s going on? Something weird about that customer?”

“He’s the witch hunter you keep forgetting about because of his hypocritical magic spell,” Akira whispered, her voice very low now so no one but Nina or Rhys had a hope of hearing her.

“I…what?” Nina straightened. She glanced past Akira to Boo’s stool. Boo was sitting on the stool, washing his front paw, but he paused mid-motion to look at the witch hunter.

The witch hunter gave his shoulders a hard shake, glanced down at the business card in his hand, and then tucked it absently into a pocket of his jeans. He took a drink of his cappuccino, then opened his to-go bagged muffin and ate it. Finished his drink. Then bussed his own table, bringing the now empty mug back to the counter.

“Thanks,” he said with a friendly smile. “That was a really good coffee. I’ll be sure to tell my friends about this place.”

“Appreciate it,” Akria said, giving him a little wave as he left and she took a new customer’s order.

When they’d finished with that order and no customers needed immediate attention, Akira asked Nina, “Okay, do you remember the witch hunter now or have you forgotten him again?”

“I remember him,” Nina said. “Though I’m not sure how much longer. But I’m pretty sure my spell worked. He won’t remember where this place is by the time he gets to the end of the street.”

“You’re sure?” Akira was pretty sure it had worked too, but she still wanted reassurances.

“I’m sure. I felt the little tingling of magic when the spell activated. Since it was my spell. It might have even disrupted his spell that made me forget him because it’s been longer than twenty minutes since the last time you mentioned him. So, yeah, I think we’re good now.”

“Yay!” Akira did a little dance behind the counter that made Nina chuckle.

“You got things covered here for a minute? I just want to speak to Rhys really quick.”

“Yeah you do,” Akira said and delighted in her witchy boss’s cheeks turning a pretty pink.

Nina rolled her eyes. “I’ll be right back.”

Akira grinned and gave Boo a little scritch on the head before washing her hands and getting back to work.

***

Over the next four weeks, Akira watched the café door every Saturday for signs of the witch hunter or anyone like him returning. She checked in with Agnes ever week, too. The older woman had remained a constant at the café every day that month, so Akira knew Nina was in good hands. But, fortunately, Nina remembered the first witch hunter now, so Akira also checked with her every time she came into work.

No sign of any witch hunters the entire month.

They’d gotten rid of him without revealing Nina was a witch to anyone. Akira finally got to stop dancing around her knowledge of the supernatural beings who frequented the café, though she still hadn’t a clue what Agnes was. And the delightful drama of Nina and Rhys’s developing romance kept Akira well entertained when she wasn’t super busy ringing up customers and making coffee.

All in all, a good month at the café.

Especially since she got her raise.

***

Thanks for reading AKIRA AT THE CAFE. I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like your own personal eBook copy of this story, you can find it for sale here. You can also peruse the previous Café stories that are individually available for sale here.

If you'd like to catch up on a lot of the Cafe stories at once, check out the two collections which have everything published in 2025.

STORIES FROM THE CAFE: VOLUME ONE and VOLUME TWO are available in eBook, trade paperback, large print paperback, and hardback editions!

 

And don’t forget to check back on March 15th for the next Free story from The Café!

AKIRA AT THE CAFE Copyright © 2026 Kat Simons

All Rights Reserved. No part of this story may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This story is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.