This rainy day finds me at Barnes and Nobel in Cedar Hill, enjoying a post-facial grilled cheese panini and a white chocolate mocha. Outside, cool rain is falling steadily. In here, there is upbeat music, and a pleasant vibe. Diagonally across the room is a couple with two young children who are sipping not-very-hot chocolate, one is in some kind of scouting troop and is in uniform. The girl, younger, has a pink top and delicate curls.

In front of me is a group of young people, perhaps sixteen, no more than twenty years old. Their conversation is intense, serious, and low-pitched, the way all such conversations are.

I’m not wearing make-up because I just had a facial, but I am wearing a beret to cover the fact that there’s massage oil in my hair.

I can’t decide if I want to write, or shop for books.

I think I’d rather browse.
But not til my mocha is done.