It was nearing dinnertime, and for an apothecary that also doubled as a café that meant that things were winding down. Occasionally someone would pop in for an after-work coffee that they would later regret when trying to go to sleep for the night. They were guaranteed to be open until four o’clock on a normal day, but Mariela kept Sunlight’s Canopy open for longer on a whim some days, as long as she was there working on something that she could easily do in the front...and today, that would be her accounting. She had gotten so absorbed in her bookkeeping that she didn’t notice a customer hanging above the counter.
The notebook page in front of her was filled with crossed out numbers and reworkings, different colored pen ink, and seemed to have little rhyme or reason. Of course, the shopkeep knew exactly what all these markings meant. What was even weirder though...the number that totaled way more than some small city café should be making. Someone could have a whole chain of cafes across the city for how many zeroes were on there.
“Oh, hey there. Sorry about that. Just gotta finish up all the boring administrative stuff.” She places a pen in the page of the notebook to mark where she was. “Can I getcha something?”
