“Please do.” Lou shot them both a wink and left the shop.

“Talk to you later, Annie,” Kristin said, and sat down in the exact same chair she always did, waiting for Mia to join her.

When nothing much was going on in the shop, Annie usually read. She used to easily go through a book a day, but since the Pink Bean had set up shop, she was lucky to make it through a book a week. Today, Annie willed her attention to remain on the book she was reading, but having Kristin in the shop, made it that much harder to focus.

Chapter Two

Jane had gone through her usual routine, which consisted of nothing more than brewing her own cup of coffee and sitting down in front of her computer. Unwashed and dressed in the same comfortable clothes she had worn the day before and the day before that. Usually, it was all she needed to get going, re-immerse herself in her work in progress, and add a good chunk of words before the clock chimed eleven.

But for the second week in a row, it wasn’t happening. She didn’t want to tell Annie, because she suspected that the reason why she couldn’t find the peace of mind required to do deep, focused work was because of what was going on downstairs. Annie would just say—for the umpteenth time—that she was too sensitive and this was a good thing for them and if the occasional chatter drifting up bothered her she should just put on a pair of noise-canceling headphones.

But Annie had never written a book. She didn’t have a clue about the delicate tension required to tune into the subconscious and get in touch with what was going on in there. She didn’t realize that the smallest change in routine was enough to set Jane back a couple of thousand words a week and while not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, it screwed up Jane’s carefully crafted schedule in a way that made her feel very uncomfortable and insecure. Because, yes, having Kristin rent the space from them was a good thing for their finances, but hadn’t Jane already taken care of that?

Her books were paying most of the bills now, and while having the Pink Bean downstairs lifted some of the pressure off her shoulders, it seemed to be adding quite a bit as well—as in disturbing Jane’s fragile equilibrium.