"Good afternoon, sir," Naomi greeted one of the rarer solo visitors.

"Good afternoon, sir..." Naomi heard Chris whisper quietly behind her as he proceeded to note something down in his notebook.

Acting as though she hadn't heard him, she kept the smile on her face and her attention on the customer. "What can I get for you today?" she asked, as Chris kept scribbling avidly behind her.

The customer shot a quick glance at Chris behind her before focusing his attention on her. He smiled at her. "I'll just take an espresso, please."

"Of course," she responded as she took his order and the menu from his outstretched hands. "I'll be back with your espresso shortly."

As she turned to make her way to the back to make the coffee, she found her way blocked by a large male figure. She cleared her throat. "Chris, could you move please?"

Chris, who had been absorbed in making his notes and had still been furiously writing in his notebook, finally returned his attention to the real world. "O-Oh, of course," he said quickly, as he reversed out from the cluster of tables so that Naomi could go about doing her job; Chris followed her to the next customers like a puppy.

It was only a few tables later when Naomi couldn't take it anymore; she stormed off to the kitchen with Chris still trailing along behind her, completely unaware as to how agitated he had made Naomi.

As soon as they reached the kitchen, she put down her pen and paper and immediately turned to look at Chris as she placed her hands on her hips. "Look. I don't mean to be rude, but you're just in the way like this and not learning much. My first suggestion would be that you learn to make the coffee, before you get into serving it to the customers," she stated bluntly.

"Make the... You want me to make the coffee?" he asked, looking a little lost. How could he not have thought of that?

Naomi frowned. "Of course. Why—Is there a problem with that?"

Chris rubbed the back of his head abashedly as he placed down the pen and paper he'd still been holding. "Not at all. I just... I don't think I'll be able to make it as good as you." Despite the fact that he couldn't really taste human food, the fact that her coffee left a nice taste in his mouth told him that it was definitely of a high quality. If he couldn't taste his work, how could he make good coffee?

Naomi unfolded her arms as she shook her head. "Making good coffee is the next step. The first step is that you just know how to make coffee. Here." Naomi made her way over to a bookshelf full of dusty looking books and proceeded to pull out a few before she held them out to him; he walked over and took them. "These are some of the basics you'll need to learn. I'll let you borrow them for now."

"Ah, the basics," Chris nodded as he flipped open to the first page in the first book. "I wondered why they looked so dusty. I take it you just probably never need to read them anymore."

Naturally, Chris didn't understand human interaction and wasn't very tactful, so his words caused Naomi to blush because of his bluntness. She turned to look at the bookshelf. "I guess you're right," she muttered. "I should probably do a bit of dusting again."

"Especially in a kitchen," Chris agreed, nodding as he turned to walk back towards the main part of the shop, his eyes still focused on the words in the book. "If you don't mind then, I'll read these books first at one of the tables."

"But they're—" she started, but he was already gone. "They're for customers," she finished under her breath.

Sighing, she turned around and made her way over to her machines to prepare the orders that she'd just taken; upon exiting the kitchen with the tray full of coffees in her hand, she already saw Chris hard at work at one of the tables closest to the counter. Shaking her head, she couldn't help but smile a little at his motivation.

Chris had been at it for a few hours when he was suddenly awoken from his study trance by the sound of breaking crockery. Diverting his attention towards the sound and away from the book and towards the source of the noise, he saw Naomi crouched down beside another young woman, clearly speaking quite avidly. Deciding he might be of some use, he got up and made his way over.

"... You even attempting to do, Claire?" Chris overheard Naomi whisper. However, she immediately bolted upwards when she noticed his presence, courtesy of Claire. "Chris. Is everything alright?"

"Shouldn't I be asking that question? Do you want me to clean it up?" Chris shot the woman named Claire a shy smile before he regarded the mess on the floor.

"Sorry about that," Claire chuckled nervously, following his gaze. "Don't worry though, I'll pay you back for it," she directed at Naomi.

Naomi huffed a little in annoyance, but decided to take Chris up on his offer. "I'll show you where the cleaning equipment is; maybe you can show me how useful you are with your cleaning skills."

It didn't take Chris long to clean up the mess on the floor, with him attracting more than enough unwanted attention. As he continued cleaning, he couldn't help but wish that he could just make himself disappear behind the veil. Once he was satisfied that Naomi would be satisfied with his work, he hastened back to his table and once again buried his nose within the books.

It was after a few more hours of watching his unmoving form that Naomi decided to make her way over to him. It was getting late now and the last customers had just left the shop, leaving Chris to be the only one still sitting at one of the tables.

"You're very unusual, aren't you?" Naomi asked, surprising Chris a little with her sudden appearance.

"Unusual? Unusual how?" Chris asked in return, looking up at her momentarily from the book in front of him as she sat down opposite him.

She spoke as he looked back down at the book again. "Well, you've been sat here all day, and as admirable as it is, you really should eat and drink. And you haven't even been to the toilet. How can you still concentrate like that?"

"I had no idea I was being so intently watched," Chris mused, not even looking up from his book, saving Naomi the embarrassment of him seeing the light red tinge that appeared on her cheeks. She cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Surely it's only natural for a business owner to be acutely aware of a non-paying customer taking up space that a paying customer could be using," she pointed out, proud of her comeback.

Chris first lifted his face to look at Naomi, before looking around at the now-empty shop. "But there aren't any other customers. So how can I be using up valuable space?"

Naomi smiled wryly. "That's because the shop is closing now. You're the last person here."

Chris looked at her, a little dumbfounded. "Oh."

Naomi gave him a small smile as she stood up. "As much as I admire your dedication, I can't leave you in here alone all night."

He frowned at her, completely oblivious to the devious side of human nature. "But why?"

Once again, Naomi didn't know what to make of this man in front of her, who seemed to just exert a child-like naivety. The bizarre thing was that she felt like every question he asked was honest curiosity. Shaking her head a little in disbelief, she responded. "It's hard to explain, but for now you can't be in here after I've left."

"Ah," Chris suddenly said, eyes flashing with misplaced realisation. "Of course. I can't walk through walls. That's so nice of you." As he spoke, he began gathering the books together into a pile, leaving just a single one still lying on the table.

"Aren't you... Don't you like that one?" Naomi asked, pointing at the lone book on the table.

"Oh, that one I've already finished," Chris said, moving his head to look past the pile of books in his arms to make sure he had left the correct one. "I'll put it back on the bookshelf tomorrow."

"You've—" Naomi looked at him, eyes wide in shock, before once again looking down at the 600 page book on the table. "You've already finished it? Wow. You really don't laze around..."

He shot her a grin. "That's how we were taught to do things," he responded, hoisting the books up so they lay more comfortably in his arms.

"'We"? Do you have siblings? And do you want a bag?" She bombarded him with questions, leaving him momentarily confused.

"No. No bag. And I guess you could say I have some siblings," he said, after a moment of hesitation as he debated what to say.

Naomi, sensing he didn't want to talk about his 'siblings', shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "Alright... Well, if you want to head out already, I'll lock the door behind us."

Doing as she said, he made his way towards the main entrance and out through the door into the cold air. Not knowing where else he could go, he placed the books on a nearby bench as he planned to stay there for the night; no one would be able to see him anyway.

It was only when Naomi had left, locked the door behind her and turned to face him that he realised from her next words how strange this must look to her.

"Why are you still here? You didn't have to wait for me," she said; she then noticed the pile of books on the bench between her shop and the next, next to Chris. "Are the books too heavy for you?"

"No, I—" That's when he realised he could play the situation to his advantage. "I mean—Yes. I'm just resting my arms for a second, so you can go on ahead. I'll be leaving soon."

She shot him a strange look, but shrugged her shoulders. "Suit yourself, but don't stay too long; it's meant to drop near freezing tonight."

Without another word, she turned and left, leaving him feel a little warmer on the inside. Not that the cold would affect him anyway, but her words seemed to leave a little flame inside of him that made it easier to fight off the little cold that he did feel.

Seating himself on the bench with a small smile on his face, he grabbed the first book from the top of pile and flicked it to the last page that he'd been reading and continued his learning, not forgetting to hide himself behind the veil once more as he did so. Just as he'd expected, any of the remaining store workers who passed by him during the late hours didn't even spare him a glance – because he wasn't actually there.

It was eight hours and three books later when the sun was beginning to rise and a cold Naomi returned with frozen fingers, much like the rest of the people who worked at a business in this part of the town.

As Naomi approached her café, she immediately noticed the strange figure sitting nearby on the bench and became apprehensive; it was only when the pile of books came into view that she realised who it was

"You... You weren't out here all night... Were you?" she asked uncertainly as she approached him, wrapping her arms comfortingly around herself as she focused her attention on him.

He jumped a little at the sudden interruption, and stopped reading to look up at Naomi. "Wh—What?" he chuckled nervously, avoiding her gaze by closing the book in his lap and standing up, picking up the rest of the books after he'd done so. "Of course not. I just got here and figured I'd read a bit more until you got here."

"You know you don't have to come in if all you're doing is reading... Right?" she asked him, rubbing her arms in an attempt to keep herself warm against the early morning frost. "And... You also don't have to carry all of the books back and forth, even if you do decide you want to read in the café."

"Where else would I do my reading?" he asked her then, flashing her a charming smile as he turned to face her, his arms laden with her books. "And this is good weight training."

Luckily her face was already flushed from the cold, so his words didn't give her an apparent physical reaction, but it did cause her heart to skip a beat – a skip which he noticed, since his area of expertise was the heart.

"Are you alright?" She just nodded in response to his question. Chris nodded too, glad she was. "Anyway, you must be cold; let's get you inside."

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Hmm, not quite sure what to think of this chapter. Feel free to let me know what you think!

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