Half an hour later Hannah was on the computer tapping at the keys furiously.
“And I'll have 6000 copies of that, and 2000 copies of that, and-“
“Ooh, hi.” Jess came into the caf� and dumped an armful of books onto the desk beside Hannah. “What you up to?”
“I'm ordering CDs.” Hannah looked at the massive pile of books lying next to Jess. “When did you order all YOUR stock? We've barely been here ten minutes.”
Jess looked puzzled.
“These are my own books.”
“You've got an entire SHOP-FULL.” Said Hannah in disbelief.
“Yeah, I know.” Said Jess. Hannah sighed, defeated by the madness of her friend and turned back to her screen to order more CDs. Suddenly there was a beep and a box popped up on the screen.
“What's that?” Asked Jess, sitting up and looking over the top of her copy of War and Peace.
“It's an instant message.” Said Hannah.
“What does it say? Who's it from?” Asked Jess, dropping her book (which promptly made a hole in the floor) and leaning forward.
“It says…'Hello, I am your secret admirer.' Oooh!” Hannah giggled. She typed something back and waited. The computer beeped again.
“What does it say?” Jess repeated, interested.
“It says, 'I wasn't talking about you.' Oh, crap.” Hannah grimaced. “Who the hell is he talking about then?”
The computer beeped again. “'Your friend.'”
Hannah blinked. “JESS?!”
“Wow.” Jess said. “I'm appreciated.”
“Who…are…you?” Hannah read aloud as she typed.
“'That's for Jess to know, and you not to find out.'” The admirer replied.
“Why you little-“ Hannah growled and submitted the computer to Jess.
“Don't go! What do I say?” Jess exclaimed, indicating to the screen.
“I dunno. I usually deal with real guys rather than a computer.” Hannah said crossly, checking the caf� to see if it was Grant having a laugh. She didn't recognise anyone, although she did look twice at a guy in the corner who looked KINDA familiar…but after a few moment's inspection she decided he must just have one of those faces.
“Fine, suit yourself.” Jess sat back down at the computer and inspected the screen. “Hang on,” she said, suddenly. “There's no other access on the Orion. Whoever it is MUST be in the room.” She leapt up and looked around but before she could look at everyone properly she heard another beep from the computer. She bent down to read the message.
“Have to go, bye.” She looked back up again and both girls scoured the caf� with their eyes…but failed to see the small dispersing cloud of smoke in the corner.

Later on that afternoon, (if such time scales can be applied in space), jess walked from her bookshop over to Hannah's record store to find her hard at work. Since Hannah had no other outputs in her life at the present time she was enjoying putting her heart and soul into it.
“Who are they?” Jess asked, pointing over to two random men who were too young and had too baggy clothes to be of any interest to her. They were stacking shelves.
“Oh, I've employed them,” Hannah explained. “That one's Todd,” She pointed to a man that Jess reckoned to be around 19 with spiky blond hair. “-and that's Kyle.” Jess looked at the other well-built fellow.
“Hmm.” Jess summarised. “Uninteresting.”
“EXACTLY!” Hannah enthused quietly to her. “They're right up my alley but they're clearly not interested!!” She yelped, clutching tearfully onto Jess's trousers.
“You really are having problems, aren't you?”
Hannah nodded and sniffed and went back to labelling the 'Recommended CDs of the Week'. “Heard any more from the admirer?”
“Well, I had a bunch of flowers delivered to my shop earlier.”
“Ooh. Any card?”
“No. But they must know me quite well…”
“Why?”
“Because they were blue.”
“Hmm. Interesting.” Hannah gazed out into the shop in thought. “Kyle! Drop anymore of my top 20 and you'll get…you'll get…”
“The sack?” He asked, almost hopefully.
“…a SPANKING!”
Kyle looked terrified and picked up all the CDs as if they were made of glass.
Suddenly two figures passed the window. It was Kurt and Grant.
“This is our chance to find out if the fuzzy dude is your secret admirer.” Said Hannah.
“Hannah! No! It's too embarrassing…” Jess started.
“Don't worry, I'll be subtle.” Said Hannah, opening the door to the shop and running out. “OI! BLUE-FEATURES! DID YOU SEND JESS FLOWERS THIS MORNING?” Jess cringed at Hannah's 'subtlety' and decided to stay in the shop out of sight.
“Erm…nein.” She heard Kurt reply.
“I saw a dude in the florists yesterday making an order.” Said Grant, helpfully. Hannah rounded on him.
“What were you doing in the florists?” She grinned at him. “Were you ordering flowers for…moi?”
“Er…no, I was getting some flowers for my mum's birthday.”
Hannah scowled at him.
“Idiot. Anyway, what did this guy look like?”
“I dunno, average height, jeans, t-shirt, dark hair…”
“Dark?” Hannah interrupted. “You mean brown?”
“Nah, it was more blackish. Looked almost like he'd tried to dye it navy.”
Meanwhile, in the shop, Jess's heart sank. Her admirer was some random dude and not her favourite blue fuzzy elf…she stacked a few Silverchair CDs sulkily.
“Right. Thanks for the information. Come back when you feel more like being seduced, please.” Hannah pushed Grant away. “Todd? How's it going?”
“Fine!” Todd smiled, not wanting to be interrupted from his music.
“Good…it's all coming to plan!!” Hannah cackled evilly and turned to see Natalie walk in. “Hi…” She tried to be complacent.
“Hey,” Natalie lifted a carrier bag from a pharmacy. “Look, I just popped by on the off chance that you might want some of this I had spare-“ She turned the bag upside down and emptied its contents on a nearby table.
“Woah.” Jess said. “That's a lot of makeup.”
Natalie nodded. “It's L'Oreal-“
“My favourite!” Hannah said, smiling.
“Yeah, mine too,” Agreed Natalie. “It's just they've given me way too much free stuff and I can't use it all.”
“Only if you were a clown.” Said Jess.
“Yeah! So, if you'd like some? I was hoping you'd take it off me…” She looked up hopefully at Hannah.
“Sure.” Hannah said after a moment's pause.
“Thanks.” Natalie said.
“What do you say, Hannah?” Jess sternly said as Hannah picked up the makeup.
Hannah screwed up her face and said slowly, “Thank you.”
“That's ok.” Natalie gave a friendly smile, and walked out.
“That was nice of her, wasn't it?” Jess said to Hannah.
“Yeah, I guess so…” Hannah collected up the makeup as quickly as possible and ran out.