Falling For Seconds

Chapter Twenty-One

  I found a contractor. He came five days a week and took care of getting the bookstore back to its former glory. I had gone through all the books, thrown away the ones damaged in the drive by and reorganized the ones that were still sellable. All it took was one call to Lowe's and I was on my way.
  The internet had told me I needed drywall to repair the bullet holes, so I then looked up all the places drywall was sold and called the first one that popped up. I explained the situation...that I had bought a run down and damaged bookstore and needed drywall to fix holes.
  The lady on the other end asked me how big of pieces and I didn't know the answer. She asked how many of them I needed and didn't know that either. Then she changed the subject entirely and asked how much damaged I needed to repair, I told her it was a whole store renovation.
  She explained that I should get ahold of a contractor before wasting money of drywall or anything else. The contractor would know exactly how much everything was going to cost and could most likely hire all the people I needed to get the job done.
  I felt like a child, but finally had the answers I was looking for. Dale had taught me everything about the inventory and ordering new books and multiple times throughout the day looked up to the ceiling and thanked him.
  He was my guardian angel and everything I was doing for the bookstore was in his name. I did, however, reposition the cafe. I upgraded the machines and even added new registers, although they were nothing too high tech because Dale loved his old registers without the touch screens.
  I had the store up and running within a month after beginning construction. The only thing that didn't feel right was the smell. Everything smelt too new, nothing like the coffee and gently used, book smell I had grown to love. I looked for hours at twenty or so different candle and fragrance stores trying to find something that even came close...to no prevail.
  Apparently, old books smell wasn't too high on any candle company's demand and supply list. So, I waited. Waited for my book pages to ripen, waited for millions of coffee beans to be ground and brewed. I waited for that smell to slowly seep back into the store. I was ready, however long it may take.
  The contractor had taken a decent chunk of the money Dale had given me, but I figure he wouldn't have minded. The bookstore looked better than ever and I even updated the name. Instead of Her Lost Loves, the name on the front read, Reunited Hearts Bookstore and Cafe.
  I ran it alone as well. There was a paper in the window telling passerby's that the business was hiring, but not a single person had stopped in for an interview. No high school students, no homeless people...no one.
  I opened the store at 8 in the morning and closed at 9 at night, all by myself. It kept me from becoming bored with my lack of social life. Dale would have loved the dedication as well. I felt like everything I was doing was to make him proud.
  The revamped store had been open for four months and received a steady flow of buyers. Whether they came for the coffee and bagels or for the gently used book section, I wasn't sure. The only thing I was sure about was the fact that I was making a profit and I wasn't going to close it down anytime soon.
  The weather was flirting with us as well. Some days it was almost 80 degrees, well unheard of for April in Chicago. But today there was no sunshine. Rain battered the windows as I organized the newest shipment of novels and picture books.
  The only sound to be heard was that of the rain and the soft melodies playing from the speakers mounted to the walls. I had finally hired someone to work in the cafe, but said person had called in sick. I should've been frustrated, but after all this time, I finally liked being alone. The silence wasn't so deafening anymore.
  I was in the back of the store when I head the chime of the front door. I made a mental note to greet the costumer, but when I gazed over one of the bookshelves I couldn't see anyone. So, I took the mental note a stuck it against my cork board of tasks to be done.
  The bell rang three more times as more and more people enter the shop. I smiled to myself, grateful for the business. I gently closed the cardboard box and pushed it against the back wall before heading to the cafe.
  In times when I had been the only one working, I kept the bookstore cash register closed and operated solely off of the one in the cafe. I felt brilliant at the time I'd thought of it, but realized soon after it was a common sense thing.
  A woman with two small children shedded their raincoats and padded to the back corner of the store where all the children's books were kept. They'd obviously been in the store before.
  An older gentleman examined the history books laid on a small table in the middle of the room and another man with his back to me was in the science fiction on the far right of the room.
  I watched the kids sit on beanbag chairs as their mother sat on the floor in front of them. I smiled as the little girl folded her hands and listened as her mom opened a large, blue book and began to read. It wasn't technically a library, but the rain was slightly frigid and
  I'm sure they enjoyed the pit stop. Who was I to ruin their parade?
  I looked down at my wrist and read the time off my watch. 2:35 pm, the day was passing all too slowly as I made my way to the cafe.
  A shadow darkened the countertop causing my to lift my gaze. "Hello, what can I get for you today?"
"A medium black coffee."
  I nodded and turned on my heels to fulfill the order. "Can I get you anything else?" I asked in between pulses go grinding coffee beans. "No..."
  I wasn't sure if the man was pausing to think or if he was actually just saying no. Either way I poured the coffee grounds in the small coffee machine and pressed the green button. I turned back to him and smiled. "That will be three dollars and eighty-seven cents."
  The man handed me his card but held to it tightly when I tried to grab it from him. "By the way, you've got a great ass. Would you like to go to dinner tonight?"
  I smirked but kept my eyes on the card. I couldn't let him see my reaction. It had been five months on my own, how could I just jump back on the dating bandwagon so soon?
  I looked up to him and looked between his copper eyes. I slowly opened my mouth to respond, but he already knew my answer.