"She's back." Tayme looked up at Kaden's words and immediately towards the booth by the window. And there she was.
"Third time this week, no?" He asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Yup. She seems to be coming on alternate days." Kaden was staring at her openly, not even bothering to hide his interest. "Which one of us do you reckon she fancies?" He asked grinning widely.
Tayme looked at him blandly, glanced at the girl then back down at the book open in front of him.
"Probably you."
She probably was there for Kaden. The other girls certainly were. Tayme gazed around the cafe at the giggling girls, who thought they were being discreet when they threw quick glances at Kaden, but they were obvious in their infatuation to the point of embarrassment. He shook his head imperceptibly and tried to concentrate on the text in front of him. Exams began next week and he had to pass them with good grades no matter what. Three years at university were not going to be wasted because an unknown girl seemed to have taken over all his mental faculties. He frowned down at the book then glared up at the girl by the window.
She'd started appearing three weeks ago. Over the weeks, the frequency of her visits had increased. She always sat in a booth by the window, ordered the same drink, a pot of red bush tea, and brought a book which she sometimes read and sometimes left untouched on the table, opting for her headphones instead. Sometimes she sat and wrote in a notebook; scribbling furiously the whole time she stayed. When she stopped writing, she'd sit still for a few minutes just staring silently out the window before getting up just as quietly, gathering her things with slow precision and leaving.
A couple of times he had thought about asking her what she was writing, when he went over to clear the table or ask if she wanted something else but her vagueness discouraged all such notions. She never quite looked at him, but seemed to see straight through. He would have taken it as a personal insult if he hadn't noticed that surprisingly, she behaved the same way with Kaden as well. The only member of staff she ever seemed to focus in on was Mona. With her, she seemed to come out of her shell. She smiled, spoke a quiet word or two and when leaving, gave a wave to Mona if she was around. He was curious as hell to know what the two spoke to each other about, or why Mona got a smile and a response when no one else did but he hadn't yet figured out a way to interrogate Mona in a casual enough way to not arouse her curiosity and yet get all his answers.
