Welcome to Stories from Among the Stars.

You're listening to Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorn.

Narrated by Jessica Threat.

Chapter 17. Raina

It was calming, being finished with the bookstore. New Leaf Tomes and Tea was about as

successful as Raina could have hoped, now that the construction was complete, and books lined their shelves.

Nearly everyone in Tani had stopped by at some point, and many had become true regulars.

At least four or five people occupied the bookstore at any given point,

sipping tea and thumbing through handwritten or typed pages.

Kianth and Rayno worked side by side, and occasionally Kianth would make comments about their prior conversation.

Just so you know, Rain, that kiss earlier really earned my affection today.

If you wanted to earn my love this afternoon, you'd clean the

mugs piling up in the storage room. Your hard work is really proving to me that you deserve

a nice dinner tonight. It became so insistent, so sarcastic that Raina was ready to smack her.

But it did reinforce how silly she'd been,

and Raina found herself paying close attention to her own emotions. Were her errands done for her

own benefit, the bookstore's benefit, or were they done to prove her love to Keyanth? She finally settled on a mix of both, but it was encouraging that her girlfriend didn't seem to care either way if the dishes were done or the washroom was cleaned.

She brought fancy dinners home regardless, and kissed Raina senseless when she hesitated.

It was cute, and made Raina's chest when she hesitated. It was cute.

It made Raina's chest warm with love.

Word began to spread within the bandit troops, too.

A few stopped by,

...