Nina straightened the mugs behind the counter for the hundredth time and gave the espresso machine a final rubdown. The wooden tables and wooden countertop sparkled, polished so smooth they looked like glass. The trays with cupcakes, croissants, and slices of sweetbread on the counter looked delicious under their glass display domes. The air was thick with the delicious scents of coffee beans and vanilla. All the silverware was clean and aligned in the tray under the counter. The milk was fresh. The sugars and sweetener packets all arranged just so. The individual packets of various teas arranged so customers could select their favorites.
The café was as ready as it was going to get.
She pulled in a deep breath, set a hand to her stomach to quiet her nerves. Then went back to aligning the white ceramic mugs just so.
“It’ll be fine,” Boo assured from his perch on a tall stool to one side of the cash regsiter. His huge, hairy body sprawled over the seat that was too small for him, but he didn’t seem to notice and showed no signs of having any bones anyway. A Maine coon with pale gray fur and pale blue eyes, Boo was the sort of cat that lived up to his name. Fluffy. Ghost like. And a little scary when he wanted to be.
“Opening day,” Nina said. “It’s supposed to be nerve-wracking. Right?”
“We’re attached to a bookstore. Bookstore people love coffee shops. Coffee shop people love bookstores. It’s a match made in heaven.” He stretched his long body and slid off the stool, landing gracefully in a lump of fluffy gray fur on the wooden floor. After another stretch, he wandered toward the front door, which still had the Closed sign hanging in front of the glass.
On the windows bracketing the door, Nina had painted some flower designs and stenciled in the opening day menu because the windows looked bare and needed decorating. Boo hadn’t argued with her, so she assumed it wasn’t too ridiculous.
She straightened her white apron, with the café logo on the front, and then pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. We’re ready.”
As she walked to the front door, she glanced through the wide, open archway between the café and the bookstore. Everything on that side of the things was perfect. The cheerful owner of the bookstore hummed as she straightened some shelves, preparing to open her own doors.
The cheerful humming and the combined smell of coffee and books filled Nina with a needed shot of dopamine. Everything was going to be fine. Great even! Like Boo said, loads of people liked books and coffee. Lots of people liked those two things combined. This was going to be fun.
“Just remember not to talk in front of the customers,” she warned Boo, even as she flipped the sign and hoped for actual customers today.
“Now that’s just insulting,” Boo said. “Would you say that to a bodega cat?”
“Bodega cats don’t talk to me and comment on my pastry choices.”
“That’s because they know their jobs. I do too.” Boo delicately, and deliberately, licked one large, furry paw.
“Fine.” Having a familiar was pretty typical for a witch, and a cat was well-nigh cliché. But Boo had been with her longer than she cared to think about. He was a trusted companion and had championed this idea of a café next to the local bookstore. So she had a lot to thank him for.
To show that thanks, she returned to the counter and got out his chunky ceramic food dish and filled it with some of his favorite soft food, setting it all well away from the food and drink prep areas. She needed her good rating to stay in business. But Boo deserved his nice breakfast.
Boo, for his part, agreed.
***
The morning went slowly, with not a soul stepping through the main entrance for the first couple of hours. The sidewalk through the front windows had decent pedestrian traffic. They were in a relatively good part of town. But it was a work day, and everyone beyond the door seemed to be in a hurry. Too much of a hurry to stop in at a random, newly opened café, where they couldn’t be sure how fast their coffee would reach them.
A couple of browsers came into the bookstore in the late morning, though, and they wandered beneath the wide arch into the café, smiling and taking deep breaths, filling up on the lovely smells. Nina happily brewed them each large coffees—one in a to-go cup and one in a mug. The customer who got the coffee in the mug, sat near the window and sipped her coffee while reading one of the books she’d bought, a stack of four more sitting on the table next to her.
That was Nina’s ideal moment. Sitting and reading and drinking coffee, with a comforting pile of books close to hand. That’s what she wanted from her café, what she wanted this place to be for people.
Lunchtime brought a few more customers in from the bookstore. One of whom gave Boo a little coo and, after asking permission—of Boo, not Nina—gave the Maine coon a thorough scritch around the head and ears. Boo purred throughout and was in a fine mood after that customer took her to-go coffee and left through the front door. That was the first time the little bell over the door jingled.
Nina tried to memorize the sound. She wanted to put a little spell on the door, something that would encourage people to come inside. But at the same time, she wanted to do this without magic. Wanted this to succeed on its own merits, not because she’d lured people in with a spell. She wanted to lure them with the coffee and pastries.
The afternoon went quiet again, but as people started getting out of work, things picked up in the bookstore, and that spilled over into the café. In fact, the bell over the front door jingled twice with customers coming in off the street. That delighted Nina. She’d been starting to worry that wouldn’t happen. And if she only got people in front the bookstore, well, that was great too. That was the point of her business and the bookstore being linked. But it was nice to have people come her way first.
And, of the two customers who came in through the café, one of them wandered into the bookstore after sitting and drinking their coffee for a bit. That was what Nina and the bookstore owner had hoped for! People moving between the two places. People seeing them as part of a whole.
When she was behind the counter, wiping down the espresso machine, Boo jumped up onto the stool beside the register and whispered, “Told you this would work.”
She reached back and gave him a scratch around the head. Then washed her hands for the purposes of food safety and customer reassurance.
By the end of the day, she’d had about a dozen customers through the place and was feeling better than she had that morning. Not a landslide. Not a crush. But a good start to a new venture.
The bookstore owner poked her head around the open archway between their stores. “Everything go well today?” She adjusted her glasses, her eyebrows raised in question.
“Great. I actually had customers. That was my biggest hope for opening day.”
“So you’re staying?”
“I’m staying.”
The bookstore owner grinned and tapped the wooden post on the wall. “See you tomorrow then.”
Nina was delighted to confirm she would, in fact, be back the next day.
***
Which was a lot slower than the first day. The bookstore owner assured her it was just because it was a Wednesday and by the weekend, things would pick up. Tuesdays were usually pretty good because those were new release days, which was why Nina had opened the coffee shop that day instead of Monday. She’d been warned things would be quiet and busy in waves and to expect the quiet.
Still, when she got to the end of the day and had only served two cups of coffee and sold one pastry, she was a little sad.
Boo gave her calf a gentle swat. “Buck up. It’ll work out.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
***
By the weekend, she realized she might need to hire help.
At least for the weekend. From the moment she turned the sign to Open in the café’s front door at ten in the morning on Saturday, people came in and out. More even than the bookstore for the morning. She sold out of the muffins and sweetbreads she had on her stands by noon. Sold out of the cupcakes she’d ordered based on hope more than evidence by two. And by the time she turned the Open sign back to Closed that night, she was run off her feet, exhausted, and thrilled.
But she was going to need some help sooner rather than later.
“Good day!” the bookstore owner said, poking her head back around the archway again, as she did every evening when they closed up shop at the same time.
“Good day,” Nina said with a grin. Boo, for his part, spent most of the day smugly purring from his stool next to the register.
***
Monday all the weekend activity died. Nina wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or panicked.
Boo shook his head. “Are you entirely sure you’re cut out for this?” he asked as he cleaned his fluffy paws and watched her fretfully watching the silent front door.
“No,” she sighed. “I’m not sure I’m cut out for this. But I love the place, so I’m hopeful.”
“I’m not going to repeat it’ll be fine because I hate repeating myself.”
“I will point out that you just did.”
Boo ignored her comment completely. “But I think you should take this quiet time to decide what sort of employee you want.”
“I’ve never hired anyone before,” she admitted.
“Good time to look for help from someone who has.”
Their conversation was disrupted by the front door’s bell ringing. Nina straightened from her slouch on the counter and smiled at the man who walked in, trying not to look desperate or maniacal and afraid she failed miserably.
“Welcome to the café,” she said. “What can I get you?”
The man returned her smile, his looking significantly more relaxed. It was a nice smile. A very nice smile. Nina blinked a few times.
A very very nice smile.
And extremely nice brown eyes.
He was probably in his early thirties, though she was a terrible judge of people’s ages because she looked in her early thirties, too, and she was a little over eighty-three years old. He was clean shaven, his brown hair trimmed into a short but loose style. Dressed in a tailored suit in a dark gray color, with a tie-dyed tie in maroons and blues. The tie was in direct contrast to the rest of his more conservative uniform. She liked it.
“Coffee, please.”
“To go or to stay?” Did she ask that too hopefully? She hoped she didn’t ask that too hopefully.
Eighty-three years old and she still got tongue-tied around a handsome man.
“To go, I’m afraid.” He nodded at his suit. “Work.”
He glanced around the empty café and Nina tried not to get antsy and defensive. Yes, it was quiet. It was Monday.
When he faced her again, though, he was smiling. “Nice place. New?”
“We just opened last week.”
“Great. I love the bookstore, but having a coffee shop attached is perfect.”
“We thought so, too.”
Boo picked that moment to stroll around the edge of the counter and walk right up to the man. He blonked down at the man’s feet and stared up at him. The man looked at Boo, his grin crooked.
“Beautiful cat,” he said.
“His name is Boo,” she introduced just as Boo started to preen and lick his paws.
“Great name for a gray cat.”
“Boo thought so.”
Boo took that opportunity to rub up against the man’s leg, which left a nice collection of light gray hair on the man’s dark gray slacks.
Nina winced. “Sorry. Boo, stop.”
“No, it’s okay,” the man said, chuckling.
It was a good chuckle. Deep. Relaxed. Did something that involved tingles to Nina’s stomach.
“I like cats,” the man said. “And dogs.”
This earned a purr from Boo. Boo liked dogs, too. They were his favorite pet. Boo didn’t consider himself a pet, because familiars weren’t pets.
“Animal person.” Nina nodded in approval, too. “But still. Sorry about your suit.” Boo only shed when he wanted to, when he was claiming a human as his own. That he was claiming this stranger sparked Nina’s suspicions.
He shrugged at the cat hair. “I’ve got one of those handy rollers in my desk.”
“What do you do?”
The man winced. “Lawyer. Sorry.”
She laughed. “For what?”
“Most people’s first reaction when I tell them I’m a lawyer fall into two categories. They either think I’m rich and they hate me. Or they think I’m a scumbag and they hate me. Sometimes the hate is fear instead. But mostly, those two categories.”
“Oh. That’s harsh. Lawyers have their place in the world. Same as bookstores and coffee shops.” And witches and their cat familiars.
She could relate to people making assumptions based on one’s career.
His friendly smile did that tingly thing to her stomach again.
She handed him the to-go cup of coffee, took his cash, and tried not to make sappy moon-eyes as he walked out the door with a promise to come back again.
Sighing, she leaned on the counter, propping her chin in her hand.
“You should have gotten his name,” Boo said.
Damn. She should have gotten his name.
***
By Saturday, the handsome man hadn’t returned again, which would probably have been a bit sad if Nina didn’t have so many other things to do and worry about. Like the fact that things picked up pace again by the weekend and she was being run off her feet. The weekdays were slow enough so far, she could handle those. But the weekends. Especially Saturday…
She needed help. And she’d discovered over the course of the week that hiring someone was going to be complicated. Still, after some conversation with the bookstore owner, they decided Nina could simply hire one of the bookstore employees part-time. A nice young woman named Akira, who was always in the market for more hours, and she had experience working at some of the really fast-paced coffee shops in the city.
With her employee issue solved—at least the immediate one—Nina settled in to the busy Saturday, knowing she’d have help the next Saturday. The flow of traffic into and out of the café through the front door as well as the bookstore kept her behind the counter, and she ran out of most of her pastries again by the middle of the afternoon, despite ordering more. She’d have to adjust that again.
Boo wandered out among the customers a few times, and was greeted by some with friendly smiles and others indifferent nods. Boo randomly rubbed up against both sorts of greetings. No one ever got upset about that. Which was down to Boo and his purr more than the individual person’s like of cats.
During a rare break, Nina looked out the front windows and tried to decide if they’d be able to get sidewalk permission for tables out there when the weather got warmer. It would be a nice addition, but also more work. She’d have to think about that. Maybe once Akira started…
As she was staring at the people passing by in front of the café, she spotted a man whose general demeanor gave her pause. He was average height, average looking, nothing that particularly stood out. Light brown hair cut short, light skin, an ordinary face, clean shaven. He was dressed for the weekend and the weather in jeans and t-shirt with a light jacket.
And he was staring at the café with an intense frown that Nina could practically feel through the windows.
Huh.
He didn’t look familiar. But after more than eighty years, she sometimes forgot faces. Not too often. But it did happen. She got distracted by a customer from the bookstore coming in for a coffee, and by the time she glanced out the window again, the man was gone.
Bit strange but she supposed occasional strange looks were to be expected.
As closing time approached, the number of people in the café was surprisingly high still, with people lingering over drinks as they read their books. She enjoyed that part so much she was reluctant to warn everyone closing time was approaching. But she was exhausted. She needed to close up and go home to sleep.
A good exhausted, though. Things were going so well.
***
Monday morning the man with the great smile showed up again. Nina was all smiles herself as she greeted him. His suit today was a navy that suited his complexion, and he looked like he’d gotten a haircut during the week, because his style was a bit shorter and sharper.
“Everything going good?” he asked as she made his coffee with milk.
“So far,” she said. “I had to hire someone to help at the weekends. That’s a good sign, right?”
“Great news. Means people have really taken to the place.” He took the cup she handed him. “And you do make a good coffee.”
She grinned. “I’ve had a lot of practice this week.”
He flashed her that wonderful smile and said, “I look forward to my next visit.”
“Yeah. Me too.” She watched him walk out the door, leaning on the counter, feeling all soft and warm inside.
“You forgot to get his name again,” Boo said.
***
Nina noticed the woman for the first time on Tuesday. She was pretty sure the same woman had been in the coffee shop before. At least twice before. But the woman was quiet when she ordered, and then just sat in a corner with her books, and didn’t draw much attention to herself. So Nina hadn’t paid her any notice.
But by the time she appeared at the counter for the third time, Nina noticed her. And not just because she was a returning customer—Nina did want to make sure she knew the regulars so she could greet them personally and make sure their experience in her café was as pleasant and friendly as possible.
“The woman?” she whispered to Boo where he sat on his stool perch, licking a paw.
Nina had her back to the main seating area, washing mugs, but she didn’t have to nod or even be specific which woman she was talking about with Boo. Not least because it was midday on Tuesday and there weren’t a lot of people in the café. There’d be more later. Tuesdays were release days at the bookstore so there was an uptick in people at the café on those days, just as the bookstore owner had assured her. Right now, though, there were exactly two people in the café. Both were women. Still, Nina knew she didn’t have to tell Boo which one.
Boo let out a short, sharp sound that was half purr, half growl. Deep in his throat. It was a cat noise, something no one would blink at, but Nina heard the words in that noise. “Noticed her too.”
Nina dried and put away the mugs, but kept glancing at the woman. She wasn’t doing anything in particular. Just sitting and reading, as usual. Quiet. Not even looking around much. But there were…sparks coming off her. That was the only word Nina had for it. Sparks of electricity like static. Nina thought if she got closer to the woman, that static would make her own arm hair rise.
It was a strange sort of magic.
Not its existence per say. Nina was a witch, after all. She was used to magic. And after so many years, she’d encountered most types.
No, this was strange because it hadn’t been there the last time the woman came in.
“Weird,” she murmured.
Boo let out a snort and went back to licking his front paw.
“You’re going to get a hairball,” she commented idly, watching the woman without making it obvious she was watching the woman.
After finishing her coffee, the woman set her mug into the tray for dirty dishes that Nina had set up near the trash bins and milk station, then left without a word.
The sparkles of magic around her that hadn’t been there previously left Nina with a lot to think about.
***
The woman was back on Friday. The sparks of static-like magic jumped around her again. This time stronger. She came to the counter and quietly ordered coffee, black, with a splash of milk that she got herself from the milk and sweetener station. Then she sat in her usual corner with her usual books and started reading as she sipped her drink.
The café was quiet again. Friday mid-morning. Later, Nina had learned, things would pick up a bit. Friday afternoons and evenings brought in people looking to wind down after a long week. The bookstore usually did good business. And so did Nina. But at the moment, it was quiet.
The woman didn’t do anything in particular. The strange magic sent little sparks off her, but she didn’t seem to even notice them. When she’d ordered her coffee this time, Nina paid close attention. But unlike her assumption, she didn’t feel the magic like static. Didn’t feel anything when the woman was close. She could still see the magic, but she couldn’t feel it.
Which was unusual because Nina could normally feel magic.
“What do you think it is?” she murmured to Boo as she made a show of cleaning the counters and straightening the area behind the espresso machine, so the woman wouldn’t know she was being watched.
“Protective,” Boo murmured, also making a show of not watching the woman by appearing to sleep on his stool. He whispered, so the woman and the two other people in the café wouldn’t hear him.
That in and of itself was strange, because Boo did know the assignment, and he never actually spoke when there were people in the café. That he’d felt compelled to say anything meant it was important.
So. Protective magic. That wasn’t a bad thing. If it kept the woman safe, Nina supposed there was no reason to worry about it. Though now she was a little worried about the woman.
***
Friday afternoon and evening picked up, just as it had the week before, and Nina was looking forward to having a little help on Saturday. She hadn’t opened the café on Sunday the last couple of weekends, but the bookstore was still open on Sundays, so she wanted the café to remain open too. If Akira turned out to be helpful, maybe they could make arrangements for Sundays.
The Friday evening crowd lingered, so a lot of people were sitting at the tables scattered around the main floor and moving in between the café and the bookstore. Which gave the place a nice, cozy vibe. Nina stayed so busy making fresh mugs of coffee and tea, she almost missed when the woman returned. That was surprising. She didn’t normally come in twice in one day.
Nina smiled at her and said, “You’re back.”
The woman seemed startled Nina remembered her but returned her smile with a shy nod. “I love this bookstore and the coffee shop just makes it perfect. I could live here.”
“Ah, I’m so glad you like it. We were hoping it would be something nice for people.”
“Oh, it is. I love it. It’s…” She glanced around, smiled at Boo. When she met Nina’s gaze again, she shrugged. “I don’t know. It feels really safe.”
Nina wasn’t entirely sure what to say to that, but the woman didn’t seem to expect a response. She took her coffee and the two books she’d brought over from the bookstore and went looking for a seat. She ended up sharing a table with another woman, since the place was crowded, but the two seemed to have the same idea of quietly reading, so it looked like a good fit.
The sparking magic was still surrounding the woman but closer to her body, and it didn’t seem to bother the woman across from her. Nina hadn’t felt it at the counter again either. Whatever it was, it hadn’t seemed to bother any of the customers the woman passed.
With things so busy, Nina didn’t have time to dwell on the woman and her protective magic, though, and lost track of her as the evening passed. She thought the woman had left, only to see her seated at another one of the tables in the center of the café, a new customer across from her. A much older woman this time, who was sipping tea and reading a book of erotica. Nina was having trouble remembering everyone she’d served tonight, but she remembered the older woman. She’d also been in the café a few times now. She always ordered tea, and she loved her racy books and poetry. Nina had liked her immediately.
Apparently, the younger woman’s protective magic liked the older woman too, because it seemed to be sparking around her as well now. Neither woman showed any reaction to it, so Nina didn’t feel the need to intervene. She was just glad the woman had something to keep her safe.
Things started to wind down in the last half hour before closing, the sidewalk outside busy with a lot of pedestrian traffic, but inside, the number of customers had dwindled to a handful between the coffee shop and the bookstore.
The woman with the protective magic remained, onto her third cup of coffee. The older woman she’d been sitting with had left about twenty minutes ago. None of the sparking magic went with her, though. That all stayed with the younger woman.
Nina went up to clear one of the used mugs off her table and smiled at her when she looked up. “I’m Nina, by the way. Since you’re a regular now.”
“Mandy,” the woman said in return. “Nice to meet you, Nina. I like the idea of being a regular some place.”
“I like the idea of having regulars! Glad you found us.” She wanted to ask Mandy if she was okay but that was intrusive and really none of her business.
Her business was making sure the dishes were cleaned and the cash register emptied and the bank deposits readied. Her business was ensuring the café could open tomorrow morning. So she went back to that. But she did worry a little about Mandy.
***
Saturday turned out to be a bright, sunny day, and that seemed to bring out even more people to the bookstore. All those people flowed into and out of the café, which made Nina extremely grateful that it was Akira’s starting day and she knew exactly what she was doing. In fact, she knew how to run the espresso machine and served customers more efficiently than Nina did.
Nina was going to have to buy the bookstore owner a present or flowers or chocolate or something as thank you for introducing her to Akira.
By noon, the tables were full, the traffic between bookstore and café steady, and the pastries were getting low, despite Nina having ordered more. She made a note to arrange even more for next week. She had no idea if all Saturdays would be like this, but she wouldn’t argue if they were. Saturday alone could keep her in business if it remained this busy.
Just after noon, Mandy wandered in again, smiling and greeting Nina by name as she ordered her coffee. She took her drink to a corner table, which she caught just as a woman with her two kids was leaving, and settled in with her books as usual. Nina didn’t have much time to think about Mandy, but she did note the sparks of magic remained. And for some reason that made Nina feel better.
She was so busy, that when the handsome man with the great smile walked up to the counter, she blinked in surprise. She hadn’t seen him come into the café at all, and the fact that she’d missed him was a testament to how busy they’d been.
“Hi,” she said, feeling silly and ridiculous and smiling entirely too much.
“Hello there. Thought I’d give the place a try on the weekend. Actually take some time to wander the bookstore.”
“Glad. Yeah. That’s good. Hope it’s been pleasant.”
“It’s been great.” He chuckled as she slid his coffee mug across the counter to her. “Nice not to have to get a to-go cup this time.” He gave her a nod and headed to a table near the front window.
Today he wasn’t wearing a suit but instead had on casual jeans and a t-shirt. Nothing fancy, like his work clothes. But he still looked very nice. And that smile made Nina sigh.
Akira gave her a look, then winked before moving on to the next customer. Nina felt her cheeks heating. That she was so obvious—and at her age!—was just embarrassing.
The bell over the door dinged, a welcome distraction, and a man walked in who Nina vaguely recognized but it took her several moments to place him. She was pretty sure he hadn’t been in the café before. But there was something about him that still nagged at the back of her mind.
Then it hit her that she’d seen him outside on the sidewalk a week ago, frowning at the store sign. He hadn’t come in. She wasn’t sure why she’d noticed him at all. But that was definitely where she remembered him from.
He glared around the coffee shop, his brows lowered as he scanned the tables. She watched him warily. Something about him set off her alarms.
Boo, who’d been sleeping on his stool next to the register, woke up and stretched on the way off the stool, landing lightly on the floor. He started toward the man, paused, the hair along his back rising, and while Boo rarely hissed at people, he did issue a low, nearly silent growl that had Nina immediately on alert.
“Stay here,” she said to Akira, who looked confused by the order but still remained behind the counter as Nina rounded it.
“Can I help you?” she asked the man, stepping in front of him to draw his attention.
“What? No. Of course not. I’m looking for someone.”
“Someone whose expecting you?” Nina stayed in front of him, blocking him from moving farther into the café. Boo wound around her ankles, his hackles still up.
“None of your business.” The man snarled at her. “Who are you anyway?”
“The owner.”
“Well, owner, this is none of your business.”
“Sir, I’m just trying to help. But your attitude is a disruption to my café. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“You could try. But until I find her, I’m not going anywhere.”
Nina hated that this was happening, and she hated the man in front of her challenging her this way. “Shall I call the police, sir?” Not that she thought the police would help at this stage. The man hadn’t done anything but be rude so far.
Then she felt the magic around him starting to build.
“She stole something from me,” the man said. “I’m just here to get it back.”
“That’s something you should take up with the proper authorities,” Nina said, even as she pulled a charm out from her t-shirt and let it hang over the front of her white apron. She rarely needed the shield these days, not since she’d gotten old enough to learn how to avoid conflicts. But this was her place, and no one was going to disrespect it. “Now I need you to leave.”
Boo continued to weave around her ankles, the movements raising a charge of magic that raced along Nina’s nerves and up to the charm, starting the small, silver pendant to glowing with bluish energy. No one but another magic wielder would see the glow. Everyone else in the café would simply see the owner confronting a difficult customer.
But the man was a magic wielder and he saw the glow.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re messing with the wrong man,” he said, his voice low.
“I’m not ‘messing’ with anyone,” she said. “You’re no longer welcome in this café. I will ask one more time, and one more time only. Leave. Now.”
The magic building along her skin tingled. She felt movement behind her. People in the crowded café scraping chairs and pushing against tables. Some of them standing, but not going anywhere. Others left toward the bookstore. She was aware of someone stepping up behind her, but her focus was on the man she knew for certain was a threat. She didn’t need details. His aggressive grab for magic to intimidate her was all she needed.
Not in her café.
From behind her, she heard a quiet, “He’s here for me. I don’t want this to cause trouble for your lovely coffee shop. Please. I’ll deal with him.”
Nina didn’t have to turn to recognize Mandy’s voice. “That’s your choice of course,” she said, “but you don’t have to feel coerced into leaving. This man will be, however.”
“She stole money from me. She stole…things.”
“Things?”
“He thinks I took a book from him,” Mandy said, her voice even lower. “I didn’t.”
“She’s a liar!” He looked around Nina. “Give me back my book or—”
“Or what?” Nina asked. She let the magic rising over her skin build, Boo circling her ankles faster now. The magic fairly crackled around her.
The man took a step back, glaring. “You think you’re strong enough to keep me out?” he hissed. “Child, I have more power than you can possibly imagine.”
“If that were the case, you wouldn’t be standing here throwing around threats,” Nina said, equally quietly. “You’d have acted already. Which means you’re in over your head. I suggest you leave. Leave this woman alone. And never show up here again. Or I will be forced to do…more.”
The man snarled, lunged toward her, and got tossed backward against the front door. Hard enough the glass shivered and the bell overhead rang. More people behind her moved away, into the bookstore. She heard Akira on the phone, presumably calling for help.
“Like I said,” Nina murmured. “You need to leave.” She could feel the fine hairs along her neck and forehead starting to flutter as the power she and Boo built created its own kind of air currents.
“I’ll have what’s mine back!”
“Not going to let you threaten one of my regulars,” Nina said.
She felt Mandy reach for her, but Nina raised a hand to stop her.
“She’s a thief!” the man snarled. “She stole my—” He cut himself off, glancing around. Then he hissed so quietly, only Nina and Mandy would have heard him, “She stole my spell book and I will have it back.”
“I did no such thing,” Mandy said. “I don’t even know what that is.”
And yet Mandy had protective magic sparking off her. That raised its own questions. But those could wait.
“Again, that is something you can take up with the authorities,” Nina said. “File a police report. Let them question her. But there will be no coercion or threats in my café. Do you understand?” She stepped closer and lowered her voice. “You’ve no idea what you’re dealing with either, child,” she mimicked his tone. “I suggest you take heed and find a different solution.”
Suddenly, and without warning, the man lunged at Nina. She braced to hit him with a spell, but before she could gather the words, a large hand dropped onto the man’s shoulder. “That’s about enough of that,” a deep voice said.
The power rising up around the man threatening Mandy should have made it impossible for a human to touch him. And yet. The man with the nice smile very firmly took hold of the threatening man’s shoulders and shoved him toward the door.
Nina made a little move with her hand, and the door swung open, giving the lawyer room to shove the other man out into the street.
Nina made another gesture with her fingers, and the door closed. Locking shut to the threatening man when he tried to get back inside.
He glared, pounded the glass. And then a car drove up behind him on the road. A big, black SUV with darkly tinted windows.
Swinging around, the man started shouting a denial. A large burly man and an equally large and burly woman stepped out of the black SUV, grabbed the threatening man by the arms, and shoved him back into the SUV before Nina could do more than blink. The burly man climbed in behind the threatening man. The burly woman gave Nina a little head nod, then got into the passenger’s side of the car. The SUV drove away a beat later, moving into traffic at a carefully lawful pace.
Leaving Nina, Mandy, and the lawyer with the nice smile staring after it.
***
“Well that was weird,” Nina murmured in the silence following the threatening man’s disappearance—possible abduction.
“Very,” the man with the nice smile agreed.
They both turned to look at Mandy. Boo gave them all a look, then returned to his stool, hopping up and circling around to find a comfortable position, then settling in to nap.
Nina mostly ignored him. They could talk about what happened later. First, she really wanted to know what Mandy knew.
Mandy’s cheeks heated and she shrugged. “He’s one of my professors. I’m studying ancient civilizations through the lens of their religious rituals. Professor Wagner has a lot of interesting books in his office so I’ve scanned them while waiting on him for meetings. But I never took anything from his office. I don’t even know what he’s talking about. He’s been accusing me of stealing this book for a month now. I kept expecting him to take it up with the university, but…” She shrugged. “He never went to any officials or the police or anything. I kept telling him I didn’t have his book. He started getting…aggressive.”
“And that’s when you got the protective charm?” Nina asked, then winced. Oops. The lawyer probably didn’t know magic existed and had been a part of all this.
Mandy looked a little confused, too. “Protective charm? You mean my necklace?” She pulled a necklace out from the collar of her t-shirt. A small silver medallion hung from a silver chain, not unlike Nina’s own charm. Though Mandy’s was a simple circle with a five-pointed star in the center. The silver ran with blue magic, and it sparked like static around Mandy when she held it up. She didn’t appear to feel any of the magic, though.
“A nice older lady handed this to me…last week, I think? She said she’d seen the professor arguing with me on the street before I came into the bookstore. She said it was a good luck charm, which made me laugh and I told her what I was studying. She insisted I take the charm so…I did.” Mandy frowned as she looked at the silver medallion. “I guess I must have accepted it, but to be honest, I don’t remember that part. Just that I was wearing it the next time I came out of my apartment, and I felt safer. And the professor wasn’t following me around anymore.”
Still frowning, she looked at Nina as if Nina might have some answers to the hanging questions. Nina did not. Though she had some suspicions. “I don’t suppose this older woman was in here last night? The one you sat with near closing time. She drank tea. Had interesting reading material.”
“That’s her! Yes. Do you know her?”
“Not personally.” But Nina intended on getting to know her because she sounded like Nina’s kind of person. “But it sounds like the charm was good luck for you.”
“I suppose.” Mandy winced. “I’m sorry about the scene, though.”
Nina waved that away. “It wasn’t your fault. And he won’t be allowed back here again, so you’ll be safe to return if you want to.” Nina would spell the door to ensure that particular professor never got into her café again.
Although, given the big black SUV, and the nod from the burly woman, Nina had a feeling Professor Wagner wasn’t going to be making another appearance any time soon.
“Thank you,” Mandy said. “For your help and everything.” She smiled at the lawyer. “And thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. Glad I could assist.” He handed Mandy a card. “And if he does attempt to press charges for theft, and you need a lawyer, call me. If I can’t help, I’ll be happy to refer you to someone.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be able to afford—”
“No cost,” the lawyer said. “Pro bono for a fellow coffee addict.”
Mandy grinned and tucked the card away. “Thank you again. Both of you. I knew I would love this place. I’m glad I started coming here.”
“Tell you what,” Nina said. “To make up for all the drama, free coffees on the house for everyone.”
A general cheer went up, which made Nina chuckle. She glanced at Boo long enough to see his smirk before he closed his eyes and went back to napping, or appearing to nap.
Mandy joined the other handful of people still inside the café at the counter as Akira worked quickly to make a lot of coffee. Nina needed to go help, but first…
“Thank you,” she said to the lawyer. Then narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice. “How did you manage to touch him?”
Whatever magic the professor had been dealing in, an ordinary human shouldn’t have been able to touch him and toss him out so easily. The burly people had grabbed Professor Wagner, but they weren’t here for Nina to ask. The lawyer was.
The lawyer shrugged, and winced, and looked away. “I…might be more than a lawyer.” He gave her a look, a kind of narrow-eyed, hesitant, expectant look she could relate to.
It was the look of a person trying to admit something without admitting it just in case the person they were talking to didn’t believe in things like magic.
Nina nodded, leaned closer and lowered her voice to admit, “I might be more than a café owner.”
“I had a feeling.” He glanced at Boo. “Nice cat. Seems very…familiar.”
“Good way to put it.” Nina raised her brows hopefully. “So does this mean we haven’t scared you off?”
“Not a chance.”
Oh good. “So… Can I ask you something else?”
“Sure.”
“What is your name?”
He grinned. And Nina sighed.
He really did have a nice smile.
***
BOO AND THE WITCH AT THE CAFE Copyright © 2024 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.