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Watching the busy movement between café and bookstore, Henry let out a breath and tried not to tap his foot. There was plenty of time still. He checked the pocket watch attached to his vest. Yes. Plenty of time still. No reason to be impatient.
The lovely owner of the café brought him his coffee, black with a lot of sugar, and set it down on the table beside his elbow. “Everything okay?” she asked. “How were the croissants?”
“Perfection as always,” he said.
Her gaze narrowed and Henry realized he’d made a mistake.
Fortunately, as a witch, Nina was used to people with secrets and was always careful not to ask whenever he made a mistake. He very much admired that about her.
She smiled and nodded as if he hadn’t just said something wrong, and returned to the counter, giving her giant Maine coon familiar a little scratch on the head to maintain the illusion that he was an ordinary cat.
Was he supposed to know that in this time? He couldn’t remember.
He made a little mental note to himself to leave Nina a better tip than he had last time. Last time he’d been so distracted. He was a little distracted this time as well. Par for the course, really. Always distracted. Always something on his mind. Sometimes that something wasn’t the right here-and-now either. But that came with the job.
He pulled the watch out of his vest pocket again, though he knew he still had several minutes. The watch was a lovely old heirloom. At the moment, it was mostly silver with some darker black shading to highlight the swirling Celtic knot design. Those weren’t always there. Sometimes the design was a simple rose. Sometimes an exploding star. Sometimes abstract lines. It really depended. Sometimes the watch wasn’t silver. Sometimes it rested on his wrist.
He liked when it was a pocket watch, though. The aesthetic pleased him. And it went very well with his embroidered navy vest.
The seconds hand ticked away, bringing the minute hand one more tiny black notch closer to the time.
Henry looked toward the bookstore again. One more minute.
When that moment happened, he didn’t have to look at the watch. He could feel The Time in his bones.
He rose and took the three steps forward that were necessary.
Tanya Alvarez slammed into him, just as she was supposed to.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” She held his elbow as he regained his balance.
He feigned a wobble and then smiled. “Not at all. Entirely my fault. Wasn’t watching where I was going.” He gave her hand a pat. She was a lovely young woman. Dark hair still, though it would be gray the last time he saw her. Or was that next time? He couldn’t remember.
In this moment, she was young. Two years left in her residency. Flustered and tired and desperately in need of a break. Which was why she was here after her long, overnight shift in the ER instead of home and asleep.
Henry patted his vest and then gave a sharp nod. “All as it should be. And you, my dear. Are you okay?”
“Fine. Thank you.” Her eyes welled for a moment before she took a deep breath and sucked the tears back in.
There would come a time when she forgets to cry. And a time when she remembers again. Henry thought the crying was better for her. But that wasn’t his place to say.
She carried a small, reusable canvas bag with the bookstore logo on it, with two paperbacks inside. Henry gestured to the bag, the seconds ticking loudly in his head. “I hope you found something entertaining to read.”
She glanced at the bag and smiled. “A couple of Romance novels.”
“Ah, the guaranteed happy ending. I love those.”
She grinned. “So do I. May I be honest?”
“Of course.”
“You stuck me as more a reader of literature with a capital L.”
Henry laughed. A genuine laugh. Dr. Alvarez was a delight. “I like all books,” he said. “But I especially love happy endings.”
She nodded. “Me too.”
The last second ticked past and Henry let out a quiet, relieved breath. “Well. I don’t mean to keep you. My apologies again for bumping into you.”
“No, no. It was me.”
He waved away her protest. “I hope you enjoy your happy ending,” he said, returning to his seat.
If Dr. Tanya Alvarez noticed that he’d been heading one way and never went that way after their collision, she didn’t comment. She hurried to the counter and ordered a coffee. She’d barely received her to-go cup, when a loud screeching noise from outside echoed through the café followed by the sound of metal crunching metal.
Everyone ran to the café window. Henry walked. Outside, a car had driven up onto the sidewalk and slammed into the, fortunately, empty covered bus stop. The driver climbed out of the car, rubbing his neck. Dr. Alvarez hurried outside to help.
Henry stood at the window, watching as several pedestrians and Dr. Alvarez tended to the shaken driver.
When Nina moved up beside him, he said, “His breaks failed. No one’s fault. Just a horrible accident.”
“Could have been worse,” Nina said, her gaze fixed on the ongoing events outside. “That woman who was just collecting her coffee when the accident happened… She said that was her bus stop.”
“Was it? Well, it’s fortunate she wasn’t there already, wasn’t it.”
“Fortunate.” Nina glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Henry glanced back in the same manner.
He gave in first. “In three days time, she’ll stop one of the surgeons in the ER from making a mistake that would cost a young woman her life.”
“Ah,” Nina said as if she understood completely.
And he’d dare say, she did. “That young woman will go on to do great things later in her life. Things that would not happen without her.”
“Important things?”
“Important things.” He gave Nina a look. “And she’s just the first person Dr. Alvarez saves in her extraordinary career.”
“Then I’m very glad Dr. Alvarez was conveniently delayed and not in the bus stop when the car hit it.”
“Yes. That would have been very unfortunate.” Henry smiled, then checked his pocket watch. The Celtic knot pattern was now one of the sunburst patterns. And there were some gold accents in the design. He liked this one, too. “Well. It seems it’s time for me to get going. Thank you, again, for the coffee and wonderful pastries.”
“You’re welcome,” Nina said. “Another time?”
Henry tipped his head. “Another time.”
Though which time, he wasn’t entirely sure.
Yet.
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Thank you for reading Henry's story! I hope you enjoyed it. As a reminder, if you'd like to have your own personal eBook copy of this story, you can find it here.
HENRY AT THE CAFÉ 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.