A Happy Place

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Ten o'clock, I arrive at the store

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Ten o'clock, I arrive at the store. I had asked Taki to keep the sushi out so I can narrow down when the thief comes by. He agreed and the first thing I do is check the cooler to see that it's there. Actually, there are two today.

He texted me Tuesday night saying the thief stole something else, leaving behind their usual evidence of partially eaten items because the sushi wasn't out, so I plan on catching them today.

Eleven o'clock, the sushi is still there. It's starting to get busy for the lunch rush, so Taki says he'll check it at noon if I can't. It ends up going exactly like that. It's busiest around twelve thirty or so and someone ends up purchasing one of the sushi things.

She happily puts the container onto the counter by itself. "I love these! You know, they taste pretty good considering they're convenience store quality."

"Yeah?" I ring it up for her. She seems a bit younger than me and I'm sure I've seen her before, but never paid particular attention to her. "I love these too, actually."

Her lips part slightly. "Are-you-the-reason-I-never-get-to-have-these?" She quickly rattles off.

"I—what?" I shake my head, thrown off by her energetic tone.

She points to the sushi. "I come here almost every weekend to try and snag one of these!" She crosses her arms. "I bet you keep them from the customers so you can have it all to yourselves."

"N-No! It's not like that at all!" I mean, except last weekend... technically.

"Well, then maybe you should start ordering more for when I come in." She hands over payment in the form of coins.

I count them out while continuing the conversation. "I had no idea people liked it that much. I'll definitely see if we can order more." Since I'm learning how to do orders today.

Her face lights up. "That'd be great! That way I'm guaranteed to get them more often." She ended up handing me exact change, so she takes her item. "Mind if I get some chopsticks from ya?"

"Oh, sure." I grab a set from behind me and hand it to her.

"Sorry, not sorry I took the last one though. I'm willing to bet you were the one that was eating all the sushi, huh?" She tears open the box right there and has one right in front of me.

My face freezes. "The last one?"

"Yup!" She happily eats a second and sighs with happiness. "So good!"

My shoulders fall in defeat. And here I thought I'd get to have one this time, even if the thief stole the other.

"Sucks to be you, mister." She replaces the lid and turns to leave.

"Hey, wait!" I reach out after and she stops, turning back. "So you've been coming here regularly?"

She looks at me suspiciously. "Yeah, what of it?"

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