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The Perk, Friday Afternoon

There were a lot of things that Rosalind was trying not to dwell on approximately a day and a half into her return to the island. How she'd gotten there was high up on that list. Higher still was the situation that she'd left behind. Between those two things was the nagging concern of how her coworkers were reacting and what was going on and the feeling that if she thought too much about it all, while stranded on the island, she would drive herself mad in short order.

That thought occasioned another glower at her phone, even as she picked it up to try and get a call through. She got nothing. Again. Portalocity was very sorry but very firm that there was no way for her to get a message back home.

Rosalind blamed the island. Heartily. And resolved to not think about it again. At least she'd gotten a chance to sleep some and clean herself up so that she was looking presentable.

She had plenty to think about in the meantime, since being back, and not as a student, meant she needed some way to keep herself from getting bored. (More honestly, she needed something to do to give her the busy work to take her mind off the inaccessibility of Gaia, but self-deception was a time honoured Turk tradition.) Money wasn't really a problem, since she could access that, which irked her when nothing else worked, but keeping busy was a necessity.

(Though she did wonder of Tseng would notice the activity in her account. And, if he did, what he would do about it.)

Running a shop probably wasn't what most people did to keep themselves distracted. Taking one over was probably not on any list of how to deal with things.

Nonetheless, armed with the largest coffee the Perk sold, a table all to herself, and all the paperwork required to get Book Haven back in running order, under her name, together worked out to an afternoon that was peaceful so long as she didn't think about those things that… she wasn't thinking about.

Well. It was a start.

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It was a nice, kind of cozy sort of Friday. The kind that had Evan wanting to go out somewhere to do something. And, when you were Evan, the sort of 'something' that you had to do tended to be limited. After all, there weren't really many people around who were prone to starting up random baseball games. At least not that he'd met. And Ozzy had already gone for his walk and was happily sleeping back in his room. He could train, except that he was still a little iffy about using his powers even out on the beach when anyone could walk by at the worst moment and get hurt.

Which meant that coffee and a book it was. Not that he'd made it as far as the coffee just yet. He was at an extra exciting part of a story about mutiny and pirates and treasure, and his nose was still buried in it as he bumped into the table on his way to the counter.

He made a bit of a surprised squeaking sound, went wide-eyed and lowered his book, and then immediately he was reaching for a handful of napkins a few tables down to start sopping up the mess as a bit of coffee sloshed onto the table he'd run into from the cup that was sitting there.

"I'm so sorry! Here, I'll clean this up... can I get you a refill? I- I wasn't looking."

Babble some more, Ev

...Right, Rosalind thought resignedly, of course that would happen.

"A refill will be fine," Rosalind said, which was acknowledgement enough of his apology as far as she was concerned, especially while she briskly moved her papers out of the way of the spreading coffee splotch. Then she reached for napkins of her own. "And more napkins."

Coffee, like all liquids, tended to make a ridiculous mess with surprisingly little spilled.

Evan nodded, his face a study in concern as he set his book down the next table over, took her cup in one hand. With his other he made a reach across the room for another wad of napkins, bringing it back and trying to build a little dam of sorts to keep the coffee from dribbling from the side of the table.

"Of course," he murmured, mopping up the last of the spill. "I'll get that refill for you right away. I should have been paying attention. Sometimes I start reading a book and I just can't look away and I really should know better than to walk and read at the same time, Ma used to scold me for that all the-" He cut himself off right then and there, shook his head, and then gathered up the wet napkins to throw away. "I mean, I'm sorry. I didn't get any on your paperwork, did I?"

She glanced at him through the fall of her hair across her face, studying him briefly. There was a story there, in the cut off sentence.

Rosalind just really wanted more coffee.

But she wasn't going to be cruel to a child over a spilled drink.

"No," she lied, because some of the pages had gotten a bit spotted. They were tucked to the bottom of her pile, though, where he wouldn't see them. The lie was the easy part. Rosalind was good at those. And she didn't feel like dealing with him getting more upset. "They're all fine. Don't worry. Here, I'll take the napkins to the trash."

Evan gave a mute little nod as he handed her the soggy napkins, and kind of stood there for a moment, staring down at the half-spilled coffee cup.

"... How do you take it?"

Ugh. She was going to have to wash her hands.

"Black," Rosalind said, tossing the word over her shoulder as she headed for the garbage posthaste.

Evan blinked again into the cup.

... Well, at least it was an easy order to remember. He nodded, and made his way to the counter, explaining the situation to the barista. At least she was kind enough to not only replace the coffee for free, but give him a clean cup... One that hadn't been spattered with coffee. She informed him it was because he was adorable, and after a few moments of blushing and scuffing his toes against the floor he was making his way back to the table to return the blonde lady's drink to her, with a wet bar-towel in his other hand in case she wanted to get some of that coffee off of hers.

"One black coffee, and a damp cloth for the last of the mess," he reported, holding both out toward her.

In the meantime, while he was busy blushing and toe scuffing, Rosalind had managed to wipe the rest of the mess up and get the rest of the dirty napkins to the trash.

Clearly, she was more efficient than he was.

Still, he had brought her coffee and something to clean her hands with, which was a pleasant surprise.

"Thanks," she said, taking both, setting the coffee down on the table next to hers and wiping her hands. Her voice went rather wry as she said, "I hope it's a good book you're reading."

See Evan blush some more? Yeah, of course he was.

"It's a classic," he shared. "About treasure and pirates. I've been doing a lot of studying lately, so I thought I would try something different, and I don't usually go for the adventure on the high seas kind of story, but I'm waiting for the library to get in a new shipment of books about meditation and ancient Egyptian history, and this looked interesting."

... Which hadn't actually addressed what she'd said, really, so he cleared his throat and added, "It's a pretty exciting book."

He… babbled a lot, didn't he?

Rosalind folded the wet cloth in half and gave the table a quick wiping just to make sure it was clean.

"If it's so exciting," she asked, raising her eyebrows slightly, "why walk and read at the same time? Wouldn't you rather enjoy it fully?"

Though he had been, judging from his lack of attention to his surroundings.

He got flustered easily, and there was another good question that would probably take Evan a bit of a babble to properly address. At least this time, he managed to catch himself, giving her a wry little smile and a shrug of his shoulders as he reached for his book again.

"That's why I was coming here," he admitted. "I didn't want to just sit in my room reading all night. That's how I spend most of my evenings, it feels like. But it got so good I didn't want to put it down, and I kind of... lost track of where I was going."

Into a table! Good job!

Oh yes, fantastic!

"Which you won't do again?" she asked, knowing he'd probably say yes, it wouldn't happen.

And also knowing it probably would.

"You never did get something for yourself." Which he probably should have, while he was getting her refill. Which, mmmm, delicious coffee.

"I'll try not to do it again!" Good call, Rosalind. "Anyway, my spare hand had a wet cloth in it. I didn't want to have to try to juggle two mugs and a towel back over here. I mean, I probably could have, but..."

There was such a thing as a frivolous overuse of his powers. Manifesting extra hands just to carry things around a coffee shop seemed like a good place to draw that line.

"I'm really not in any hurry," he added. "My book isn't going anywhere, and I have the rest of the evening to sit here and read. I don't think they'll run out of coffee tonight."

Or he could have used a tray. No powers required!

Rosalind wondered how embarrassed he'd be if she pointed out that if the book really wasn't going anywhere, and that there'd have been no harm in him not reading while inside and walking around the coffee shop.

Honestly, now.

"I see," she said, instead of all of that. "I assume you're a student at the school?"

What? He'd said he wasn't in a hurry. Rosalind was going to get information out of him in that case.

Hey! Still flustered! Trays were something that were slightly beyond his ken while he was trying to make right after spilling her drink and disrupting her work!

"I am," he confirmed. "For over a year now. It's actually a pretty good school I think..."

Granted, he hadn't had much experience with many other schools. At least, not sane ones.

"Not unless they've changed the curriculum," she said, taking a seat and sipping her coffee. "I attended it a few years back."

It was a great school for acceptance. It was a terrible school for actually learning anything that most schools considered a required subject.

"I'm Rosalind," she added shortly, a bit awkwardly, since it didn't really fit with the conversation.

Watch her not care about that.

"I'm Evan," he answered, mostly out of habit, with a pleasant little smile and a bob of his head. "And the curriculum is... still a Fandom curriculum, I guess. But there's usually some useful stuff mixed in there, if you know where to look. I took a first aid class over the summer, there. And a philosophy class."

"I suppose first aid is useful," Rosalind allowed, despite the fact that potions meant… well, 'drink a potion' was about the extent of basic first aid in her world.

She reached for her work, since it did have to be done and casual conversation wasn't her forte when she was trying to play nice. The top few pages of her stack had the words 'Book Haven' on them.

Rosalind smiled at him, though it didn't touch her eyes, and said, "Thanks for the coffee."

"No need to thank me," Evan replied, giving her papers a curious look. "I mean... I was just replacing what I spilled on you."

There was a moment of silence that mostly involved an internal battle against being nosy, before curiosity won out and he blurted, "Do you work for the bookstore?"

She raised one eyebrow, looking back up at him.

"I own the bookstore," Rosalind told him mildly. She'd owned it for a few whole hours!

So in a way… yes, she worked for it?

"Oh! I'm sorry, I thought..." He wasn't sure what he thought, so he kind of balked, took a second to regroup himself, and then clarified, "I used to be a regular there, but I mostly get my books from the library these days, since Mr. Constantine will order anything we want in. I don't remember seeing you there, though. Are you new to the island? Um. Back... to the island?"

Since she'd mentioned being a student here once.

"I'm back," she said, not sounding particularly thrilled. Of course, the island was holding her hostage, which was never the way to Rosalind's good graces.

"And I was here originally before you started. It's been a few years."

"Oh!" Well, that explained a lot. "I guess, um... You've probably already got employees and all of that settled, then, huh?"

She seemed like the organized sort!

She was the organized sort! But not even Rosalind could have employees within hours of owning a shop and not even having opened it herself once.

(Though it was rather flattering that the kid thought that she could, even if he had no idea how long she'd owned the place.)

"Are you skirting around the edges of asking for a job?" she asked bluntly.

Because that was what it had sounded like.

If he looked a little shamefaced, would that help the fact that he was asking for said job after spilling her coffee all over the place? Even a tiny bit?

"... If you're hiring?"

No, not really.

But she did need employees.

"Why should I hire you?" she asked. "Convince me."

Rosalind kept the interview questions simple.

Oh! Evan could do this part, easy!

"Because I've been working in the library for over a year now, too, and so I know my way around books. Especially books here on the island, where things get weird pretty quickly. I've probably read plenty of what you have in stock already, with the exception of the newest ones, so I'll be able to help customers find what they want quickly or make suggestions if they want a particular sort of book. I can reach top shelves easily," he stretched an arm up to touch the ceiling by way of demonstration, "and even though I've never worked a cash register before, I'm a really, really quick learner."

"And if I ask the librarian, they'll say you're good at your job?" she checked.

Rosalind might even actually follow up on that. Answer carefully, Evan!

"I really can't speak for Mr. Constantine," Evan replied after taking a second to consider, "but he did say he would give me permission to go into Special Collections if there was anything in there I wanted to read. He said I'm steady enough not to cause a scene." Okay, he had to blush at that, given the bumping into the table he'd done earlier. "Um... Special Collections is off limits to most people entirely. Even other library aides. So... either he thinks I'm capable or he's trying to get me eaten by a necronomicon or something."

Steady, huh? At least he looked embarrassed about that given the circumstances.

Rosalind debated reminding him that she'd been a student and knew good and well what Special Collections was.

She didn't, if only because alienating an employee was probably a bad move before they were even hired.

"What day can you work?"

"Um..." He took a few seconds to mentally run through his schedule for the week. All of his classes were on Monday this semester, and he had Student Council meetings on Fridays, and his library shift on Sundays, so... "Are Tuesdays good?"

"Tuesdays are fine," she said, making a note on a sheet of paper. "You start this coming Tuesday. I'll be there to show you how to work the cash and answer any questions about the shift you may have at that time."

Rosalind studied him.

"Any questions at this time?"

Evan gave his head a quick shake, trying to bite back his smile. A job! At the bookstore! He had to tell Sholeh about this.

"No, none," he replied, fighting back the urge to bounce on his toes, too. "I'll be there on Tuesday, then! Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Rosalind said, vaguely amused at his enthusiasm. Well, she should probably be glad for it since it meant he'd likely do a good job. "Try not to bump into anyone else, all right?"

"I'll try," Evan replied, managing not to blush this time, at least. "Sorry again about that. I'll pay more attention to where I'm going from now on."

Until he forgot again.

That was what she suspected.

"Good," Rosalind said, reaching for both her pen and her coffee. "I'll see you Tuesday."

That was a polite way of saying 'now go away', Evan.

"Tuesday," Evan repeated one more time, and then nodded and finally turned to make his way to the counter for his own coffee. "Tuesday!"

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The Perk, Friday Afternoon

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