"Excuse me!" Katniss called after a man in a dark suit and tie, fighting with the strong winds and wrinkled map that she clutched in her hands as she trotted after him. "Could you help me find The Hob?"
The man ignored her calls, speeding up his pace and turning a corner sharply. Katniss spun around and pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear as she exhaled loudly. Why wouldn't anyone stop to help?
The soft clicking of a pair of high heels caught Katniss's attention and she looked up, pleased to see a cheerful looking blonde woman walking toward her.
"Pardon me, ma'am," Katniss said. "I was wondering if you could-"
"I'm sorry," the woman said, putting her hand up to silence Katniss. "I'm late for a meeting."
Without another word, the woman breezed by Katniss and out of sight, leaving her staring down at her map, confused.
"Excuse me," a man's voice said from in front of Katniss. "I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be in need of some assistance."
Katniss looked up from her map to see a man standing less than two feet in front of her. His white dress shirt was tucked neatly into a pair of dark gray slacks, and a matching suit jacket slung over his arm.
"Thank you," Katniss said, sighing in relief and stepping closer. "I'm supposed to be meeting my friend for lunch at The Hob, but I think she gave me the wrong directions, because this is a bookstore, not a restaurant."
"You're not from around here, are you?" the man asked, smiling at her sympathetically.
"How'd you guess?" Katniss replied.
"Everyone around here knows where The Hob is."
"I guess you figured me out," Katniss laughed. "I'm visiting for the weekend. From Florida." She smiled sheepishly and opened her map, looking down at the jumbled lines and text before her.
"Florida, huh? I've been there a few times. There are some-"
"Excuse me? I'm sorry for interrupting, but did either one of you drop this envelope?" A second man's voice entered the conversation, interrupting the first. He held up a plain, white envelope and was dressed casually in a pair of gray, straight legged jeans and a red hooded sweatshirt. As he stood between Katniss and the well dressed man who was helping her, it made him look even more like a tourist than Katniss and she was the one holding the map.
"It's not mine," Katniss said.
"It's not mine, either," the first man added. He patted the pocket of his dress pants as though he was checking just to be sure, but soon shook his head "no", confirming that it wasn't his.
"Well someone dropped this envelope."
"Is there a name on it?" Katniss asked. "Or an address?"
"Nothing," the second man replied. "No name, no address."
As he continued to speak, Katniss noticed the first man getting antsy. He nervously shuffled his feet, taking his suit jacket and draping it over his other arm before taking a step forward and craning his neck in attempts to get a better look at the envelope. "Is there money in it?" he asked.
The second man turned the envelope and opened it up, revealing a large stack of cash inside. "Yeah," the second man breathed. "There's money in here." He pulled the money out and began to count it. "About three thousand dollars."
"You need to find whose money that is," Katniss said nervously.
"I say we split it," the first man interjected without hesitation. At the look of shock on the faces of the others, he shrugged. "A grand a piece. There's no name, no address. You know whoever we leave it with will just take it for themselves."
"Well," the second man says turning to Katniss. "He has a point."
"We can't just take three thousand dollars," Katniss chided. "Someone is probably looking for it right now."
"Think of all the extra fun you could have this weekend with a little extra spending money," the first man coaxed. "Fancy dinners, new clothes, extra drinks at the bar. And none of it would cut into your savings."
Katniss couldn't believe was she was hearing. Who did this guy think he was? Crinkling her nose in disgust, she turned her attention to the second man who had gone quiet, a look of concentration on his face.
"Tell you what," the second man spoke up. "I will take the envelope into the bookstore and ask around to see if it belongs to anyone there. If not, then we split the money."
"Wait, wait, wait," the first man said, holding up his hand. "You expect us to trust you with that envelope by yourself? We don't know you."
"You could just take the money and run," Katniss added, shuffling closer to the man in the suit. "Leave the money with us."
"How do I know that you two aren't going to take the money?" The second man said, laughing in disbelief.
"What if we give you something?" Katniss asked. "You know, like collateral."
The first man dug into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. "I have six hundred dollars cash," he said.
"I don't have that much," Katniss sighed. "I only brought three hundred for my entire trip."
"Then why don't we all chip in three hundred dollars?" The second man suggested. "I will put my share in the envelope and seal it, that way I'll know if either of you tampered with it when I come back, and I will take your shares with me into the bookstore. You'll have something of mine and I'll have something of yours. Good faith money, if you will."
"But how can we be sure you won't just run off with our money?" Katniss asked.
"I'll leave you my whole wallet," the second man says. "It has my ID, my money, and my credit cards. If I run off, you know exactly who to call the cops on."
"Deal," the first man says quickly.
"Deal," Katniss repeated, reluctantly. She began to dig into her purse in search of her wallet, but her map slipped from her hands and began to blow down the street.
The second man made to go after it but was quickly stopped when the first man practically threw himself to the ground to retrieve it. Katniss smirked at his antics.
"Thank you so much," Katniss said gratefully once the map was returned safely. "I don't have anything else to help show me where to go around this city."
"I could always help you," the first man said with a smile.
"Alright," the second man cut in. "You look like an honest man, so you can hold this envelope."
"Fair enough," the first man said. He took the envelope and folded it in half before stuffing it into his pocket protectively.
"And I will give her the wallet," the second man said, pointing to Katniss. "That way you both have something."
Katniss took all of her money from her wallet and hesitantly exchanged it for the second man's wallet. He hastily stuffed Katniss's money into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt and looked over expectantly at the first man.
"Oh, my money," the first man said. "Sorry. How much are we doing again?"
As Katniss tried to stuff both her wallet and the second man's wallet into her small purse, her map flew from her hands a second time. slapping the first man in the face before flutter away up the sidewalk.
"I got it," the first man volunteered quickly. "Here, just take my wallet."
The second man shrugged, securing the wallet in the same pocket with Katniss's money and laughed to himself as the first man staggered up the street trying to catch the map.
"Tell him I went into the bookstore," the second man said.
"No problem," Katniss answered.
"Here." The first man breathlessly handed the map back to Katniss, running his hand through his hair that was now disheveled from wind and sweat. "You have to hold onto that thing better."
"I'm sorry," Katniss laughed. "I was trying to make both of our wallets fit into my purse, and the wind…"
"It's fine," the first man said, waving his hand. "But what's not fine is the fact that I just handed over my entire wallet to a perfect stranger."
"I'm sure it's alright," Katniss said assuredly. "He's just in the bookstore. And I do have his wallet, remember."
"What's his name?"
"I'm not going to go through his wallet unless we have to."
"I just want to know his name."
"No." Katniss shook her head with finality. "It's his property."
The two made small talk as they waited for the second man to return to let them know if he'd found who the envelope belonged to, but after twenty minutes went by and there was still no sign of the man, Katniss started to pace nervously.
"I should go in there and look for him," she said. "He's got all of my money."
"But be has my entire wallet," the first man reminded her.
"Right," Katniss said. "And you have over three thousand dollars in your pocket that I'm about to trust you with if I go in there and look for that guy." At the mention of the money, Katniss noticed the man pat his pocket to make sure it was still there. "Just hang on right there, I'll go in and look for him."
Katniss slipped away from the man before he had a chance to argue and headed toward the front entrance of the bookstore. When she entered, she took in the crowded space. Students sat at tables with coffees and books spread out in front of them, children sat gathered in a corner while an older woman read to them, and teenagers were amassed off to the side. They flipped through graphic novels and laughed loudly, but as Katniss scanned the area she soon realized that there was no sign of the man who had her money.
Katniss knew she had to keep looking and go further into the bookstore. As she moved closer to the back of the store, she saw him. His curly, blond hair fell in waves over his forehead as he looked down into a book, shifting his weight from one leg to the other almost nervously.
"Peeta," Katniss whispered loudly, getting his attention.
"What took you so long?" Peeta whispered back, shoving the book he was reading back onto the shelf. "I thought something had happened."
"He got a little smarter toward the end," Katniss explained. "He almost wanted to come in here to find you himself until I reminded him he had three thousand dollars in his pocket that I was leaving him alone with."
"Three thousand dollars," Peeta chuckled. "Or just an envelope full of coupons. Come on, we better get out of here before he comes in looking for his wallet."
They snaked through bookshelves, being careful to stay concealed just incase the man they'd left outside came in looking for them and before long found the employee exit. As they slipping out of the door and onto the street that put them a block away from where the first man stood waiting for them to return, they wasted no time hopping into Peeta's car that was strategically parked near the exit, a perfect getaway that they had planned days ago.
"Nice touch dropping your map like that," Peeta said proudly after they had driven a few blocks away from the bookstore. "I would have been fine with taking his three hundred dollars, but that little trick got us his entire wallet."
"I have my moments," Katniss smiled. She moved over the center console and planted a quick kiss to Peeta's lips while they sat at a red light. "That one was almost too easy at times," she added, raking her fingers through the side of Peeta's hair.
"He walked right into it," Peeta laughed. "And now we are six hundred dollars richer, and have a wallet full of credit cards."
"I think dinner is going to be on him tonight," Katniss said, settling back into her seat as the traffic light turned green.
"He was ready to make a date with you."
"I would have declined."
"Ha! Thanks for the reassurance," Peeta chuckled. "I was waiting for him to drop the line about your boyfriend back home in attempts to gauge your level of availability."
"I'm sure that would have come up eventually," Katniss said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring, slipping it over her left ring finger. "Too bad he'll never learn that my husband was standing right next to him the entire time."