"It's just because I got the basket, isn't it?" Rori huffed and changed the gear in her bike to go uphill. Why did the Cafe even have deliveries? There we companies that people could call, those companies would deliver for them. Hell there were apps to use on phones to order food easily! She pedaled harder when suddenly she felt the pedals lose their resistance and her bike began to roll back. She quickly hopped off before she lost her balance. “Damn it...”

She pushed the bike up the rest of the way up the hill by the time she made it to the top, she was exhausted. Biking was so much easier. At least the sidewalk was level now and she could catch a breather while she looked around for some help. No bike shop in sight and the one she knew was too far away. She walked past an auto shop and looked into the lot. Was it empty? Maybe someone here had the tools to help her. She slowly stepped in with her bike by her side. “Hello?”

From the office came a voice followed by the noise of lots of papers being shuffled around, “Hey, I'll be right there!” Then she saw who it was. She felt her shoulders drop. She felt as if the color drained from the world and the two of them had been teleported to some alternate reality where the impossible has just happened.

Joe chuckled, “Hey, I know you. You're the one I met when you ran into me and then because the barista was super vague about who's pumpkin spice latte macchiato double espresso it was. It was obviously mine.” He leaned over the shop's table, who did he think he was? The owner of this place? Impossible.

Rori cocked her head slightly and looked up at Joseph, squinting. The skin at the corners of her eyes wrinkled. “Are you saying I'm not cute?” What kind of way was that to greet a customer? “ Anyways, I need some help. You see, the chain of my bike has come loose and I can't get it back on. I wanted to know if you could with some tools?”

Joe laughed and he circled the table and hoisted the bike up onto it. “Yes, yes. I can help you with that. Don't worry.” She watched him examine the bike chain and the gears. There was a lot of grit, dirt, and bits of dried grass stuck in there now that she looked at. He picked up a brush to clean the chain and the gears on the bike as he worked. “I'm just trying to say that the barista calls me all the time at the cafe. So naturally, I expected the drink to be mine.” He went to grab a tool from a drawer and used it to open the chain.

To this day, Rori was still miffed because she knew she had asked for a kitty drawn on the top of the froth and he didn't. She simply knew it. There was no way they both would have asked for a drawing of her cat. Rori sighed, “I bet you'll be just as greasy in death as you are in life.”

“Oh Come on. The shop is all greasy because someone at my job didn't clean up! Besides, it is an auto shop. What kind of auto shop doesn't have oil stains, coolant leaks, and engine grease all over the cement floor?” Joe explained to her as he tested the bike's pedals to make sure the chain's movement was unrestricted.

“You're the only one here.” Rori pointed out with both word and a broad hand gesture. “You’ve probably been the only one here all day. Don’t lie to me, mister. You’re the one keeping the mess.” How could he work in such conditions? Stains and little pebbles all over, the smell of all those synthetic things. Absolutely deplorable. No plants beside a few trampled weeds trying to survive between the cracks in the cement.

Joe provided no comment besides a deadpan expression directed towards her, he then looked back down to the bike. He cleared his throat forcefully as if that would move her comment further into the past and away from his memory “Well here's a clean bike well greased to run for another thousand and a half hills. Or whatever distance it had been driven before.”

“How much for the repair?” Rori looked down towards her book bag to pull out her wallet but before she could take it out she heard the answer.

Joe stopped toying with the pedals for a moment, “For the repair. Nothing.”

That made Rori raise an eyebrow. Why would he charge nothing this was a business wasn't it?

“For hurting my dignity, ten dollars. Oh and by the way, I have something for you. Stay there!” He patted the work table and jogged towards his car to open up the trunk. He brought back something red in his hand. “Here. I thought that you’d like something like this I felt bad about what happened on the street and the cafe once I drank your drink.” He held out a small wrapped box and she couldn't help but look at his face or those eyes of his. The sunlight was caught in his irises in such a way that it reminded her of quicksilver. “You don't actually have to pay me the ten dollars, it was just a joke.”

She took the gift and slipped it into her book bag, “Thank you, I'll look at it after work.” He lowered the bike back onto its tires for her and rolled it towards her with a smile. “I have to make some deliveries. See you around.” She took the handlebars, feeling the side of her palm touch his hand for a moment before he let go of the bike. She as read to just walk away, looking once over her shoulder. Then she realized something, there was a stressed out and unbalanced look in his aura. She could only see a bit of it, violet in nature, a unique color for someone like him and honestly she would have never expected it. "You know, I have something for you too. You look like you need it more than I do." She reached into her book bag once more and took out a pendant. "Its Blue Lace Agate. I made it for me but you can have it." She slipped it over his head. "Matches your eyes too, not so much mine. Try to take a shower next time you come to the cafe. Grease stains are hard to get out of the chairs." She tipped her sun hat down, to keep it from blowing off in the wind before pedaling off.