Ice.

Chapter One.

He winces, "You know I can't."

I laugh again, "I doubt he remembers, Cam. Even if he does, I guarantee he wouldn't bring it up or be awkward."

"Dude," he shakes his head, not even considering my statement. "I told your coworker that he had a nice ass. How the fuck would he not remember that?"

I try to keep in a laugh, but can't do it. I end up laughing a little too loudly as I remember when Cam came to visit me and not-so subtly told James his ass was amazing. James laughed it off, assuming he was just joking. Like I said, you wouldn't know Cam wasn't straight just by talking with him, so James thought it was just a joke and actually found it quite funny. Cam thinks I'm lying to him when I tell him that though, saying that I'm only saying that to make him feel better. He refused to visit me again after that.

"I'm sorry that I disappoint you by being a hard working, independent woman," I shrug, which of course causes him to groan. I grin at him as he shakes his head, finding it funny how he's constantly done with my bullshit. "Come on, dickhead," he says. "Let's get out of here."

I nod as he slings his arm around my shoulder and we walk out to our cars before going our separate ways. The drive to work is short, since I live in a place where it takes 15 minutes to get from one side of town to the other. Once I get there, butterflies fill my stomach when I see James clearing books off the bench by the window. I grab my backpack and get out of the car.

He sees me and waves with a smile on his face, which makes me grin like a school girl who was just asked out by the hottest guy in the grade. Which is incredibly pathetic considering the fact that he just smiled at me.

"Hey James," I smile when I walk in. He comes over and embraces me, something he does whenever we say hello or goodbye. "Hello, love. How was school?"

He walks with me to the break room where I keep my stuff during my shift. There is no one in the store, like usual, so I already have a feeling tonight is going to be a slow night. "Alright. Nothing new and exciting."

After I drop off my stuff and grab my name tag, I head over towards the registers where I am working tonight. I do my best to make myself busy by cleaning up the stray books, organizing the papers, and filling in email registrations for the people who signed up for our newsletter.

Doing all this makes the night go by pretty quickly which is surprising, along with just stopping and talking to James for a bit. I'm helping a costumer when I realize it's almost closing time.

"That will be $46.24," I say to the old woman, putting her books in a bag. "$46 for three books? You really should give a discount or change the prices. No wonder book stores are closing down," she shakes her head at me disapprovingly. Oh yes, because that is definitely my fault.

Sorry lady, but unfortunately prices are one of the many things we average, everyday working people have no control over. But you know what we do have control of? Our attitudes.

Change yours.

Thats what I'd like to say, but for the sake of keeping my minimum wage paying job, I keep my mouth shut, hand her the bag, and say, "Have a great night." Which, as per usual, doesn't extract a response.

When she walks out the door, I roll my eyes, stepping out from behind the registers. There are only the 2 of us here tonight in our tiny little bookstore. Thats the good thing about working here, its small and never really busy, but we are still kept open because its a "family business." The store is owned by a family that has so much money that it makes me dizzy just thinking about it. However, it doesn't make much sense to me because they hire people that aren't in the family to work here? How is it a family business if family isn't working in the business?