Cece stared in disbelief that Hendrix was right there, at the other end of the dairy section. She watched as he scanned the yogurt selection unsure what to do, but when he turned in her direction Cece didn't think as she ducked behind Barista Boy. He had been saying something but he stopped mid-sentence.
"Umm..." Barista Boy started.
"Act normal," Cece said through gritted teeth.
"That would be a little easier if you weren't hiding behind me," he argued.
"Shhh," she hissed. To his credit, Barista Boy stopped talking and awkwardly tried to not move and act like he was searching the shelves at the same time.
After a minute, Cece chanced a peek around him and found that Hendrix was gone.
"Shoot!" she said, coming out from her hiding spot.
Barista Boy looked at her curiously. "Was there a point to that?" he asked, "or was food shopping not exciting enough for you?"
"The man at the end of the aisle," she said, starting to move to where Hendrix had been. "Did you see which way he went?"
"Uhhh...left?" It sounded more like a question, but she went left when she reached the end of the aisle and skidded to a halt when she spotted Hendrix only a few feet away looking for something near the cash registers. Cece quickly moved back into the aisle and ran into Barista Boy.
"Woah," he said, catching her before she could stumble over.
"Sorry," she murmured.
"What are we doing?" he asked as she sneaked to the end of the aisle and peeked out. Hendrix hadn't moved. She pulled back, her mind racing as she tried to figure out her next move.
"What are you doing?' Barista Boy asked again.
"The man that was in the aisle before is a cyber-terrorist."
Barista Boy's eyes grew big with interest. He thought about it for a moment before he nodded. "Which guy?"
Cece sneaked a peek to confirm Hendrix hadn't moved. "The man in the black hoodie checking out the potted flowers."
Barista Boy started to lean out but she caught him before he could go too far.
"Be careful. He can't know we are watching him."
He gave her a reassuring nod and moved more carefully. It took a moment for his eyes to find their target. When they did a smile spread across his face. "That's not..."
"Shhh," Cece hushed him as she pulled him back into the aisle. "I don't have time to explain it right now but I have proof. You have to trust me."
He studied her for a long moment and she could tell he was trying to decide whether or not to believe her. After a moment his eyes got an excited gleam.
"What's our move?"
She grinned. Barista Boy just kept earning good points in her book. It felt good to not be alone.
"Okay," she said seriously, the full weight of responsibility settling back on her shoulders. She had let herself get distracted talking with Barista Boy and it was time to return her focus to Hendrix.
"We should follow him," she finally decided. "See if he has any more secret hand-offs."
"Smart thinking," Barista Boy said.
"We'll move once he leaves the store," Cece said. She looked down at the basket of food in Barista Boy's hand.
He followed her gaze. "I'll check out now. Why don't you go browse the greeting cards? Once the guy..."
"Hendrix," she told him. He frowned questioningly. "That's the code name I gave him."
"Got it," he said. "Once Hendrix moves, we can meet at the north entrance and pursue the target."
She smiled excitedly as Barista Boy adopted secret agent lingo. "Roger that," she said. "North entrance." And she was gone.
She headed in the opposite direction, circling to the back of the store before heading to the front through a different aisle. She didn't want Hendrix to see her and Barista Boy together.
She felt like she had just started perusing the greeting cards while keeping an eye on Hendrix through the reflective glass when Barista Boy appeared on the other side of the greeting card rack.
He didn't say anything to her and she knew he understood that they shouldn't be seen talking. She looked back at the window and caught Hendrix leaving. She watched him turn left out of the store then looked at Barista Boy. He was already moving and she fell into step with him.
Cece was thankful for the dark of night as they stepped out of the grocery store. When she had followed Hendrix earlier in the day she had tried to stay out of sight by walking behind people, but the dark provided enough cover.
She and Barista Boy walked silently as they followed a block behind Hendrix. They were retracing their steps from earlier as Hendrix headed in the direction of The Thinking Cup.
A block away from the coffee shop Hendrix turned left onto one of the small side streets of Beacon Hill. When Cece and Barista Boy reached the corner, Barista Boy flattened himself against the brick wall while Cece peeked around the corner.
Hendrix was walking up the empty street. Cece pulled herself back around the corner and flattened herself against the wall.
"He is walking south," she whispered. "I want to follow but the street is empty and he might grow suspicious."
Barista Boy thought about it for a moment. "We should hold hands," he said. "Then it will just look like we are a couple out for an evening stroll. Nothing suspicious there."
"Brilliant," Cece said. She grabbed his hand and pulled him around the corner. But she didn't get far before he pulled back.
"It's not an evening stroll if we are walking at a break-neck speed," he said under his breath as he settled into a peaceful, strolling pace. She matched his slow steps even though everything in her wanted to run so they didn't lose Hendrix. He was now a small shadow up ahead.
Although they had slowed their pace, they both understood the urgency in not losing Hendrix and lengthened their stride. When Hendrix turned down another side street, they were only half a block behind.
When they rounded the corner Cece almost came to a halt. There was Hendrix half a block up, paused outside a red door doing something on his phone.
But thanks to Barista Boy, he kept her moving without missing a beat. He casually directed her across the street so they didn't pass too close to Hendrix. Barista Boy positioned himself on the inside of the sidewalk, giving Cece the best vantage point of Hendrix, but there wasn't any information she could glean but the back of a black hoodie.
As they neared the end of the block, they heard a door open. Cece turned back just in time to see Hendrix enter the house. She made a mental note of the address. As she and Barista Boy rounded the corner they dropped hands but kept moving.
"What's next boss?" Barista Boy asked.
Cece was already heading towards home, eager to get in front of a computer.
"I'm going to search that address and see if there is any connection to the name Sam Thompson."
Barista Boy looked at her when she said the name. "Sam Thompson?"
She nodded. "That was the name on the manila envelope that Hendrix received?"
"What envelope?"
She stared at him for a moment, confused about why he was asking so many questions until she remembered she hadn't told him anything.
As they walked back to her house she revealed all that she had discovered in the last thirty-six hours. As she talked an entertained smile grew on Barista Boy's face but he didn't say anything until she was completely done.
"And this all started because you couldn't write?" he asked.
She nodded. "Malcolm's call ruined any thoughts I had had for my next chapter and..."
"Who's Malcolm?" he asked.
"My muse. Annoying. No one," Cece threw out. She looked up and discovered they had reached her house.
She turned back to Barista Boy and found him giving her a curious look. He looked like he wanted to continue to ask her about Malcolm and she wasn't interested in giving Malcolm any more headspace.
"This is me," she said, climbing the first few steps. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"You will?" he asked.
"At The Thinking Cup."
"Right," he said like the coffee shop was the furthest thing from his mind. "If Hendrix gets there before you, I'll keep an eye on him."
"Roger that," Cece said.
"Good night," he said.
"Good night," she said. She watched as he continued down Charles Street back towards the grocery store.
She started to climb the front steps but instead of thinking about Hendrix and the house he had entered for some wild reason Millie Kate was on her mind.
When Cece entered The Thinking Cup the next morning she didn't even glance towards the table Hendrix had been occupying the last couple of days.
The night before she had gone to research the house Hendrix had entered but she had somehow ended up researching southern life: garden parties, fashion, the culture. She had gone to bed with her mind swimming in thoughts about Millie Kate and her morning had started with Millie Kate and Cannon McHenry finally getting their moment. Which was what she was thinking about when she came face to face with Barista Boy at the front counter.
"Good morning," he smiled, giving her a knowing look before his eyes motioned to something behind her. But the look was missed on Cece as her thoughts were locked on Millie Kate.
"Morning," she said. "I'll have an iced coffee."
He looked at her questioningly for a moment. She just smiled back and offered him her credit card. It took him a moment to take it and swipe it. He gave her one more meaningful look before handing the card back but she just thanked him and waltzed to an open table.
Millie Kate and Cannon McHenry had already passed the opening pleasantries of a conversation when Barista Boy took the seat opposite her.
"Here," he said, holding out her coffee.
"Thanks!" Cece said, willing to press pause on Millie Kate since he had delivered her coffee.
"So...did you discover anything interesting?" he whispered, his lips barely moving.
"So much!" she said enthusiastically. "This whole time I had thought Millie Kate was going to run into Cannon at Bitty and Beau's, but I realized that if I want Millie Kate to face a real decision by the end of the book I needed to make Cannon a real contender. She needs to have a bond with him or else why would she even think about choosing him so I moved their run-in to the flower shop."
Cece felt so energized as she finished. She always felt more certain about her ideas when she was able to share them but she had been up and out of the house so early she hadn't had the chance to relay this new insight to Elliot. But telling it all to Barista Boy she felt a thrumming feeling and knew the idea was right.
She beamed at Barista Boy expecting his face to mirror her excitement but he just looked confused.
"Is Millie Kate the owner of the house?"
Cece frowned, her expression now mirroring his. "What house?"
"The house from last night?"
So far gone were Cece's thoughts in book land that her mind went to what Millie Kate had been doing in the previous chapter. There was no house she could think of.
"The house that Hendrix entered?" Barista Boy clarified although it was clear he wasn't sure why that was necessary.
He tried his best to nod his head towards the table behind him and Cece's eyes went to the man sitting there. His head was down but the messy blonde hair looked familiar... Hendrix! Like a spaceship coming back to earth, the previous night came rushing back to Cece.
"Oh!!!!" she laughed. "That."
Barista Boy looked relieved but his confusion returned when she added, "I didn't do any research. I got distracted."
"By Millie Kate?" he guessed uncertain.
"Exactly!" Cece said, glad to see he understood.
"And Hendrix and the safety of the whole world?" he questioned.
"Well..." when he put it that way it made Cece feel awful for giving up on her cause so easily.
"Well..." she started again. She glanced back at Hendrix with his head bent over his computer typing away furiously. She looked back at her screen where Millie Kate and Cannon were just getting into their conversation.
She looked back at Hendrix, her brain trying to find a reason she could drop the investigation. "I mean, now that I think about it he doesn't really look like a cyber-terrorist."
"Wow. Are you that ready to give up on the safety of this country?" he asked.
The words were judgmental but he delivered them with a laughing tone.
"It's just...I need to finish this book or else my agent is going to kill me," she said.
His eye grew big. "If we're talking life or death then I guess that is a reasonable excuse."
"Life or death," she repeated. "Besides, I'm sure if Hendrix is dangerous he is on the FBI watch list."
He nodded in agreement and she didn't feel as guilty about dropping the case.
"But..." he started, "if you can't continue with the case, maybe I can."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I'll just go talk to this Hendrix guy and see what he is all about."
"Are you crazy?" she asked and she got her answer as he stood and walked over to Hendrix's table.
She froze in terror as she watched Barista Boy stop at the table and Hendrix looked up. It was a tense few minutes for Cece as she watched Barista Boy and Hendrix talk although nothing about their body language said they were tense. Hendrix smiled as he greeted Barista Boy and even offered him a high-five. Barista Boy said something and Hendrix laughed! A genuine laugh!
Cece's whole body was frozen as she watched the exchange, and only when Barista Boy finally walked away did she relax. Barista Boy headed back to the front counter and she tried to catch his attention, hoping for some form of explanation, but he didn't look her away.
Even though she knew it wasn't smart to be seen talking with Barista Boy right after he had spoken to Hendrix, her curiosity overshadowed the warning and had her moving to the front counter.
There was no one in line but it still took Cece a minute to get Barista Boy's attention away from cleaning counters.
"So...?" she whispered once he finally stopped across the counter from her.
"He's nice," he said.
"And...?" she prompted him.
"His name is Ricky Clark. He runs his own business writing copy for websites. He started it three years ago and it's going really great. He comes to The Thinking Cup to get out of his apartment, which he shares with his girlfriend Sam Thompson."
Cece's eyes grew big as Barista Boy unloaded a mountain of information.
"You got all of that from your minute-long conversation?!"
Barista Boy laughed. "No. Ricky is in here every day so I've learned all of this over the last few months."
Cece looked at who she now knew as Ricky, not Hendrix, and studied him. She looked back at Barista Boy.
"But the envelope?"
"It was for Sam but she wasn't going to be home to receive it so Ricky had it sent here and then accidentally dropped it. So Sam came to pick it up."
"You knew this the whole time?"
He nodded. "I did try to tell you."
"No you didn't," she argued.
"Twice," he said. "I tried."
"You knew and yet you spent last night following him with me?"
He shrugged. "There are worse things than taking a walk with a beautiful girl."
Cece grinned. Barista Boy smiled back lazily but instead of seeing him, Cece saw Cannon McHenry. And she knew what he would say next to Millie Kate. Without another word, Cece went back to her table and began to type.
"Well, I'm heading towards the flower shop," Millie Kate said, taking the first step in the direction of Sadie's Flower Shop.
"I'll walk with you," Cannon offered.
Millie Kate couldn't hide her surprise.
"Cannon McHenry is going to walk with me?" She had let a slight touch of laughter into her voice and dropped her head as she gazed up at him.
"There are worse things than taking a walk with a beautiful girl," he said, offering her his arm.
She gazed at him for a moment, taking in his neat jet-black hair, his pristine collared shirt buttoned to the top.
Everything about his appearance said he was someone of importance, and being the heir to the McHenry Estate made him one of the most important people in Belmont. Walking through downtown on Cannon McHenry's arm meant something.
He arched his eyebrow, prompting Millie Kate for a decision. She returned the look with a charming smile as she slipped her hand into the crook of his arm.
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Joy currently has strep throat and is feeling dramatic and so there is no witty banter between author and author-who-created-the-characters-that-were-based-on-the-two-authors-author.
Can't decide if that makes sense or not or if I'm sick too to be intelligible.
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