After another thirty minutes, Deven climbed out of her car, dropped a few quarters in the meter, and hiked to the bookstore. It was best to confront Erika instead of waiting around for a bunch of nothing to happen. As Deven scissored her way across the street, the vibration of her cell phone had her stopping just outside of the door beside a sidewalk sign displaying new titles and book specials. She pulled her phone from her jacket pocket, anxiety having her body aching as she read the number. Paul. Shit. She debated answering it only briefly before declining the call. Trying to explain her whereabouts and what she was doing would’ve been too much of a hassle, especially because he would more than likely deduce she was up to no good. As soon as she swiped to reject his incoming call, the text notification popped up, part of his message peeking previewed on the top of the screen: hey, call me. I looked into . . . and that was all she could see without opening the entire message. Deven put her phone on silent and stuffed it back into her pocket and breezed inside.

The bookstore smelled of coffee and chocolate, the sweet musky fragrance greeting Deven as soon as she pushed through the door. A bell chimed to signal her arrival and the cashier, a young sprightly woman with blond hair and a bright smile, flicked a gaze in her direction. “Hi, welcome to Books and Brew. Can I help you find anything?”

Deven smiled politely as she whipped her head around the intimate space. “I’m okay thank you.”

“Okay please let me know if you need anything.” And the cashier turned back to the glossy magazine flipped open on her counter.

From Deven’s vantage point, she could pretty much see around the entire store, with the exception of a few reading nooks and crannies. Heads were bent over the tops of shelves immersed in the literature, but Deven didn’t see Erika’s high braid bun and glasses. She gave the store one last look around before approaching the cashier.

“Excuse me, is there another way out of this store?” she asked. “I saw a woman come in here and now I don’t see her.”

“There’s a café next door. You can get to it from here, but it does have its own separate entrance.” The cashier pointed towards the back of the store where there was an archway with an arrowed sign Brew this way fixed to the doorframe.