I walk past the boutique clothes store. Inside, someone is burning a scented candle: coconut and lime tonight.

From the café next door drifts the warm aroma of high-end coffee and vanilla beans.

I linger in the sweet spot between shops. Should I buy a drink, or just keep inhaling?

Brenda Anderson’s fiction has appeared in various places including defenestration and Fiction Vortex, and will appear in SpeckLit. She loves the offbeat.