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Florence sat in the back of The Garrison, scribbling away on the papers spread out before her. Thomas wasted no time getting her to work on Shelby Limited's accounts, and she had a lot to work through. The math she did for Arthur only a few weeks prior was only a glimpse at how messy his work was. She had already been working for almost two hours and debated taking a break, if she kept working for even a few more moments then she was guaranteed to have a headache.
She got up and stepped out of the office, into the empty bar. The Garrison was closed, and there wasn't another soul in sight. Harry was working through how much alcohol was in the storage, and Grace was keeping herself busy by deep-cleaning the entire building. Florence debated how she wanted to spend her time taking a break, the idea of drinking a warm cup of tea sounded delightful, but so did a cigarette. She made her way into the back of the bar and prepared a kettle of water to heat up. She wasn't exactly sure why The Garrison had a kitchen, but it was useful in times like this.
As the water began to warm up, Florence snagged a pack of cigarettes from her purse and made her way to the outside area behind the building.
"Grace, I'm stepping out to smoke!" Florence called out before swinging the back door open and stepping out into the chilly air.
Perhaps she was spending too much time around Thomas, since her smoking habit had increased over the last few weeks. Any time he stopped by to visit while she was closing, which was more frequently than either of them would probably admit, they would smoke together while she finished her closing tasks. Although she didn't mind Thomas and his late-night visits, it was hard to be around him as a friendly colleague. She grew more fond of him with each passing day. He was still closed off and rarely opened up about anything in his life, but Florence only found that intriguing. She was determined to know him, to put each piece of his puzzle together despite the challenge.
She inhaled a hit of her cigarette as she watched people pass by on foot or in cars. Occasionally she saw someone on horseback too. Despite how grim Birmingham was, she enjoyed watching the world pass by around her. Everybody seemed to have a story to tell, and Florence liked that. There was never a dull-day in Birmingham. The comfort she felt in the town came much quicker than she expected, but she didn't mind calling it home.
Florence was so entranced that she hadn't even noticed that the door had opened behind her.
"There you are." A voice spoke. Florence turned to see Thomas standing in the doorway, looking amused at the sight of her smoking a cigarette. "Smoke break, ay?"
"You've rubbed off on me, Thomas." Florence playfully shot back. She raised the cigarette towards him as an offer, but he shook his head.
"I came to check on the accounts." Thomas said, nodding back towards the office. "Arthur wants to know if you've put him to shame yet."
