I was glad when my shift was up and I clocked out, if for no other reason than that I’d be able to escape any more potential questions from Jenny or the still-angry Beatrice.  I mean, I hoped so.  But we were shutting down for the night, which meant we were all leaving at the same time, which meant the girls might try to catch me for more questions before we left.

     Upside to being assistant manager, though, was I had to be the last one to leave, so I could technically kick them out and then take my time actually getting out the door.  Maybe they’d get tired of waiting and leave before I got out.

     I’d forgotten about Ren and what to do with him while closing up, weirdly enough.  He was still sitting at a table, his drink and food gone, but his eyes focused on his laptop.  He noticed the moment I came through the door and closed his laptop, looking at me hopefully.

     “I have to lock up,” I told him.  Then I turned to the girls.  Jenny had already started clocking out but Beatrice was just standing there, looking at me.  My eyes were focused on the floor, so I couldn’t see what her expression was, but based on her earlier looks I doubted it was good.  “Go ahead and clock out.”

     Beatrice suddenly cleared her throat.  “Can you show me how?”

     I froze internally.  I didn’t know why she was trying to get me to help her.  For one thing, she should already know how, since she would have been shown yesterday.  For another thing, Jenny was her mentor today, so she should be asking Jenny, not me.

     “I’ll show you,” Jenny thankfully interrupted, apparently unaware of my moment of panic or of Beatrice’s – well whatever Beatrice’s intent was there.  She quickly explained things to Beatrice while Devon came out of the kitchen, nodded to me, and then left out the front door without looking back.

     I locked the back door while I waited for the girls to finish, but Beatrice was dragging.  I was pretty sure her sudden lack of comprehension on how to click a button was some sort of attempt to get me involved, but Jenny finally gave up, clocked Beatrice out herself, and then told her to get her stuff.  Beatrice dropped her purse and spilled the contents when she went to fetch her things out of her locker, again, I thought probably intentionally.

     Ren was just watching this the whole time, with Jenny trying to herd Beatrice and me standing there, waiting to flip off the lights.  I glanced at him while we waited just at the same time he glanced at me.  Before I could drop my eyes or look away, he made a slight movement of his head in the girls’ direction and raised his eyebrows.

     I shrugged in response.  I didn’t really know what was going on with the new girl but I really, really hoped I could avoid shifts with her.  In fact, I’d rather risk working with Honey over her.  I was pretty sure that even if Honey didn’t like me anymore, it wouldn’t be as difficult to just get her out the door like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum like Beatrice was doing at the moment.

     Finally they were almost at the front door when, of course, Beatrice stopped and turned back.  “Wait I think I forgot my scarf.”

     But by that time I was done.  Ren had packed up his stuff and was waiting for me by the counter and we’d already wasted about 20 minutes just waiting for Beatrice to clock out and get her things, pick them up, find something she’d claimed was missing, pick her stuff up again – yeah it was 20 minutes too long.

     So I flipped off the light.  “Get it next time.  We’re leaving now.”

     I wasn’t sure where the boldness came from, maybe from frustration, but Ren and Jenny seemed surprised.

     Beatrice, however, was pissed off.  She gave me a venomous look I could see even in the dark, and when our eyes met for just a moment in the darkness, I realized I made a mistake.

     Oh no.  She would have to know a normal human couldn’t see her clearly enough in the dark to meet her eyes like that.  No, no, no, no, no.  Not again.  And not with someone I worked with!

     Oblivious to my sudden internal panic attack, Jenny finally managed to drag Beatrice out the door.

     Silence filled the café for a moment and then I gave myself a shake and started towards the front door, too.  At least for tonight, Ren was walking me home, so I’d be safe until tomorrow, right?

     “Sorry,” I murmured as we exited and I locked the door behind us.  “Downside of being assistant manager is I have to wait for everyone else to get out.  She’s…new, I guess things are still confusing for her.”  I didn’t know why I didn’t also mention she was a naga.  Maybe because I still wasn’t used to the idea of being able to discuss that with anyone, or maybe because I didn’t know what the rules were about revealing someone’s supernatural identity without their permission.

     “No worries!”  Ren sounded cheerful as we fell into step together, headed in the opposite direction the girls had taken.  “I get it, plus I showed up without warning after all.  You’re fitting me into your schedule, so I appreciate that.”

     I still felt bad that he’d waited for an hour and then had to wait even longer for that whole fiasco.  I wasn’t sure what to say to explain all that to him.

     “By the way, where are we going?  We don’t seem to be headed in the direction of your place.”

     “Class night,” I told him.  “I don’t head home until after class.”

     “Ah, right, you said something about classes on Tuesday.  I forgot.”  Silence for a few steps and then he burst out with excitement.  “Oh, by the way, the stuff you recommended?  It was all awesome.  Those pastries are amazing – that berry tart was phenomenal.  My mom would love to get the recipe for that, I suspect.  Is that what you were making today?  It looked like you were coming out of a kitchen.”

     From there the conversation flowed smoothly, Ren enthusing over the food and my baking skills – which really weren’t that amazing, I was just following the recipe – and then falling into a discussion of his own classes when I’d asked if he’d gotten much homework done.  As he’d suspected, he had a fair amount of catching up to do and had tried to get most of it done the previous night until he fell asleep partway through one of his assignments.  He was still behind, but was confident he could catch up by the weekend.

     Hearing that, I hesitated, reluctant to suggest this, but I didn’t want to become a bother to him.  “Would it be better if we just waited until the weekend to meet up again, then?  So you can focus?  The café isn’t close to your school, either, so I can’t imagine it’s convenient to come over here.”

     He waved his hand dismissively.  “Don’t worry about the distance, it’s not that big of a deal.  But you’re right, I am busy.”  He chewed on his lip, thinking.  “I don’t want to take any of our weekend time away with having to study so maybe I should try to just power through the next few nights.  Buuuut, I don’t like the idea of not talking to you for several days.”  He suddenly gave me a half agonized, half hopeful look.  “This would be a lot easier if you had a phone and we could just text, you know.”

     I knew he was trying to be nice about it, but I still flinched a little.  “Can’t afford one,” I mumbled.  “And I never call anyone.”

     “Well you could call me!”  He offered.  “But, yeah, I guess phones do cost money.  And the service contract.  I forget about that stuff.”  His tone was partially worried, partially contemplative now.  “Is it okay for me to ask why you can’t afford one, though?  Does the café really pay that poorly?  From how Honey talked, I thought it would be at least decent.”

     Normally, I wouldn’t dream of explaining my finances to someone, but Ren wasn’t just someone.  Well, he was, but he was someone I felt like I could talk to about pretty much anything.  Even though we’d only known each other for not quite a week yet.  It was weird, but I’d decided not to question this feeling and just go with it.

     “It’s decent pay, it’s just…I support myself, so I have to pay rent, water, electricity, groceries, all that.  But the biggest thing is my classes.  I’m trying to get my degree, and once I get it I can get a real job.  Until then I’m saving everything I can to try to take the classes I need.  Like, this semester, they only offered one night class that applies towards my degree, but next semester they have two.  So right now I’m saving to make sure I can cover both classes.  It’s tight now, and will stay that way until I’m done with my degree, but eventually it’ll pay off.  But extra things like phones just aren’t worth pushing a class back a semester.”

     Ren took a little while to process that.  “You know, I didn’t think much about what all people have to deal with when they’re on their own.  I guess I’ve been spoiled with my family and my parents taking care of my school expenses and all.”  He looked at me with a faintly guilty expression, which I wanted to chase off his face.  He didn’t need to feel guilty because he had a good family who helped him.  There was nothing wrong with that.

     But he continued before I had a chance to figure out how to tell him that.  “So, you don’t have family?  What happened to them?”

     I fiddled with the cuff of my jacket sleeve.  “I don’t know my dad, he left before I was born.  Mom kicked me out on my 18^th birthday with just the clothes I was wearing.”

     Ren stopped abruptly in the street.  “What?”  He demanded, grabbing my arm to pull me to a stop.  “She threw you out?  Why?”

     I shrugged.  “She – never liked me.  I think she felt like she got stuck with me and I reminded her of Dad.”

     He seemed dazed.  “But – but you were her kid!  And she didn’t even give you anything?  What did you do?”

     I shrugged again, well aware that his hand was still on my arm.  He apparently hadn’t noticed yet, but I wasn’t going to remind him.  His hand was warm, comforting even, and where normally I avoided physical contact, I almost wanted to lean into his hand, almost wished I could feel it on my bare skin without all the layers in between.

     Wait what?  Where had that thought come from?  What was wrong with me?

     I forced myself back to focus on his question and not on his gentle hand on my upper arm.  “I ended up at a homeless shelter.  Basically stayed there until Molly gave me the job at the café and I was able to afford an apartment.”

     Ren finally noticed he was still gripping my arm and dropped his hand, which I kind of regretted.  He seemed to be reeling with this information.  “I don’t understand how anyone could do that to their own kid.  That is insane.”  Then he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, it looked like, before looking me straight in my eyes, his teal blue eyes almost burrowing into me.  “But I hope you know how incredible you are to have dealt with all of that, gotten through it, and now be working on getting a degree, making sacrifices a lot of us probably would never consider to make sure it happens.  You’re really amazing, Riven.”

     Okay this time I did blush, and drop my eyes back to the ground.  “I’m really not,” I mumbled.

     “Nope, you are.  Not taking any arguments on that.”  He flung his arm around my shoulders and started us walking forward again.  Somehow, again, I didn’t mind the contact and found myself disappointed when he let me go after a few steps.  “So, what are you taking now?”

     We spent the rest of the way to my college talking about my course and the upcoming assignment.  Ren thought it was a great idea to make a new website for the café and volunteered to take some pictures of the café if Molly wanted, for the site.  Since I’d seen the magic he could work with a camera for myself, I was pretty sure that any photos he took would make the site look even more professional and Molly would probably swoon.  Well hopefully not really, but figuratively.  I didn’t actually want to make anyone faint.

     I made a mental note to try to talk to Molly tomorrow about the site and see if she was okay with me letting Ren in on the weekend, when the café was normally closed, to take pictures.  Molly usually stopped by on Wednesdays if she came at all – that was the day she handled all the payroll and whatever else she felt like, although since she’d come in today, maybe she wasn’t going to be in tomorrow.  I could call her if I needed, though – wait, no, I couldn’t.  I didn’t have enough quarters to call her after lunch the other day.  So hopefully she’d just be in the café tomorrow and I could ask in person.

     We reached the hallway in front of my class and I reluctantly stopped.  “This is it.  I, um, guess I’ll see you this weekend, then?”

     Ren had that look on his face again, the one that said he was not on board with this.  I was beginning to recognize that look every time we had to part ways.

     Then his expression cleared.  “Hey, I still have homework, I was just going to go home and do it, but I could do some here while you’re in class, then walk you home.  Is that okay with you?”  His tone was hopeful again.

     And I was still powerless to say no to him.  Damn it, I was totally letting him do whatever he wanted and I didn’t even mind.  I just found myself nodding and almost – almost – smiling before slipping into my class just before the professor started.

     I wasn’t sure I could recognize myself anymore.  Here I was, hanging out with one of them, happy to have physical contact with him, willingly telling him things I’d never told anyone else, and trying to come up with more ways to hang out with him.

     If this wasn’t crazy, I wasn’t sure what was.