Chap­ter 85 of We Solve Mur­ders begins with Bon­nie Gre­gor spend­ing over three hours at Cos­ta Cof­fee, a qui­et yet con­tem­pla­tive set­ting where she ini­tial­ly con­sid­ers leav­ing after nine­ty min­utes. She feels the uncom­fort­able weight of judg­ment from an Alban­ian barista, which makes her ques­tion whether stay­ing longer is worth it. How­ev­er, when a new employ­ee arrives and starts read­ing atten­tive­ly while not serv­ing cus­tomers, Bon­nie is some­what reas­sured by the calm­ing pres­ence. She opts to stay a bit longer, reflect­ing on her busi­ness and the chal­lenges of her day-to-day life. She buys a lemon-and-pop­py-seed muf­fin, acknowl­edg­ing that run­ning a busi­ness in the cur­rent cli­mate isn’t easy, but it remains her pas­sion. As she con­tem­plates her next steps, she decides to send an email to Felic­i­ty, think­ing it’s bet­ter to main­tain cau­tion and uphold good man­ners, even when times are tough. This care­ful approach to com­mu­ni­ca­tion helps her nav­i­gate the unpre­dictable nature of her busi­ness deal­ings, a deci­sion that seems increas­ing­ly impor­tant as her day unfolds.

Bon­nie’s thoughts shift as she heads to the air­port, and the check-in process begins. Although her work with estab­lished brands like For­est Paints has been reward­ing, Bon­nie is eager to cre­ate her own busi­ness ven­ture. She dreams of devel­op­ing her own brand, one that reflects her val­ues and brings pos­i­tive change to the world. She imag­ines invest­ing the twen­ty thou­sand she has saved into new equip­ment and stock, hop­ing to build some­thing that can offer real val­ue to her cus­tomers. When she reach­es the check-in desk, the staff jok­ing­ly com­ments about her pro­longed stay at Cos­ta Cof­fee, light­en­ing the atmos­phere just a bit. Despite the ten­sion from ear­li­er, this play­ful exchange reminds Bon­nie of the small­er, more human moments that can still be found amidst the chaos of her pro­fes­sion­al life. The seem­ing­ly triv­ial inter­ac­tion serves as a brief break from the more press­ing mat­ters on her mind, offer­ing a small moment of con­nec­tion with the staff.

As Bon­nie con­tin­ues her check-in, the process is inter­rupt­ed when a man in his fifties attempts to skip ahead in the queue, cre­at­ing a sense of unease among the wait­ing pas­sen­gers. The sit­u­a­tion becomes even more com­pli­cat­ed when the man snatch­es Bon­nie’s leather holdall from the belt, which she instinc­tive­ly protests. Just as she’s about to speak up, she notices Felic­i­ty Wool­las­ton push­ing through the crowd. Felic­i­ty quick­ly apol­o­gizes for the mis­un­der­stand­ing, explain­ing that there’s been a mix-up with Bonnie’s flight and intro­duces a man named Tony, who is there to retrieve her lug­gage. The sud­den shift in the sit­u­a­tion leaves Bon­nie a lit­tle con­fused, unsure of what exact­ly is hap­pen­ing, but Felicity’s calm demeanor reas­sures her that things will be sort­ed out. This unex­pect­ed moment of ten­sion under­scores the unpre­dictable nature of trav­el, but Felicity’s quick inter­ven­tion restores a sense of order and helps alle­vi­ate some of the dis­com­fort Bon­nie ini­tial­ly felt.

After the brief dis­rup­tion, the check-in clerk reas­sures Bon­nie that every­thing is fine, and Felic­i­ty clar­i­fies that the con­fu­sion was sim­ply a mis­un­der­stand­ing. Once the sit­u­a­tion is under con­trol, Tony leads Bon­nie and Felic­i­ty away from the check-in area, offer­ing them a bit of peace after the com­mo­tion. As they walk, they dis­cuss Bonnie’s time­ly email, and Felic­i­ty express­es relief that they’ve man­aged to avoid any major delays. She also men­tions the road­works that caused their late arrival at the air­port, a reminder of how trav­el can be dis­rupt­ed by the small­est of fac­tors. In a rare moment of calm amidst the hus­tle, Felic­i­ty offers to buy Bon­nie a cof­fee, sig­nal­ing a shift from the chaos of the day to a small, human moment of con­nec­tion. This offer, while sim­ple, high­lights the impor­tance of tak­ing time to relax and reflect, even dur­ing a busy and stress­ful day. Bon­nie, feel­ing the weight of the sit­u­a­tion lift slight­ly, agrees to the ges­ture, and the two women take a brief moment to share in a more per­son­al con­nec­tion, cre­at­ing a sense of cama­raderie in an oth­er­wise hec­tic envi­ron­ment.