Rikku sits by the window, watching as the rain pounds against the sidewalk outside in heavy waves. Rainy days were normally good for business. People liked to come in and watch it drizzle outside, sipping on cups of coffee or cocoa while pretending to look pensive.

This was no cute shower, though, but a crazy freaking storm—albeit one which was thankfully free of thunder and lightning, either of which would have sent Rikku cowering beneath the table. Regardless, no one wanted to go anywhere during a crazy freaking storm.

She doesn't even have anyone to pass the time with because she's working alone that evening. She'd already sent texts to every single person on her contacts list, but apparently they all had better things to do than entertain her, because her phone stayed silent. So Rikku just sits at her table and watches the street in case anyone approaches, knowing she'll likely be alone for the rest of her shift. Even Grumpy wasn't there that day, and he practically spent half his life in that booth towards the back.

Auron had been creeping into her thoughts lately, more than she cared to admit. Rikku found herself looking forward to seeing him on days when she was scheduled to work. She'd think up new ways to pester him when she was bored in class, and a growing portion of her shifts was becoming devoted to trying to sneak a peek at whatever he was writing that day. Rikku still has no idea what sort of stories he wrote, or even if he's any good. She hopes his genre of choice is something deliciously scandalous; steamy bodice rippers, perhaps. The kind of books whose covers featured women with their hair blowing in the wind, and where the men were forever shirtless.

It makes her laugh out loud just thinking about it. The bell above the door jingles while she's laughing, and for a moment her heart skips a beat because she's sure it must be him.

It isn't. It's a bedraggled looking businesswoman trying to get out of the rain, and Rikku gets up to offer her some towels and a hot cup of tea.

Later, when the woman is gone and she's left alone again, Rikku muses on what that skipped beat had meant. When she looks back on this night she'll mark it as the first time she admitted to herself that her feelings for the ornery writer went further than 'he's fun to mess with'.

She returns to her seat in front of the window. "Huh," Rikku says to herself as the rain begins to slow. "Well I'll be damned."