Falling For Seconds

Chapter Three

The smell of old books and coffee filled my nose as I entered the store. I scanned the room, counting how many customers we had before heading to put my things away. Why I had gotten a job here was beyond me. Before I had time to register what I was doing, I was sliding a post-it note with my availability on it across the counter to Dale, and he was telling me he'd give me a call.
  It had been entirely by accident that I found the little bookstore in the first place. The day had been draining with no help from the weather. I had just moved into the new apartment. I was sleep-deprived and anxious. It had been the first time living on my own, ever. My parents threw me an extravagant graduation party the year before, but no housewarming event to back it up. I drove myself to the giant brick building, followed closely by my parents, and we unpacked the few things I brought with me from my family home. When I mean we, I mean my dad and me. My mother stood inspecting her interior decorator's work as my two younger siblings ran around the open space chasing each other until they got tired.
  Every noise in that apartment caused me to overthink. I had been in my apartment for only five days when I flung the heavy glass door to the bookstore open and took refuge from the rain. It was the worst storm I had seen in a while, with thunder and lightning striking and rumbling so close by I thought it would demolish the skyscrapers.
  I stayed in the booth closest to the barista station and tried to keep awake by ordering a cup of tea, but it was no use. I was so sleep-deprived that the welcoming aroma of coffee and the soft hum of music mixed with the pounding rain sent me into a sleep so deep I woke up hours later scared for my life and not recalling how I'd gotten there.
  When I stood to venture back out into the storm, Dale said nothing but smiled at me as I left. I came back almost every day since then. Some days I would walk the aisles and scan the titles of the hundreds of books to feel the calmness that the store seemed to offer. I had been visiting for almost a week when I decided to make a beeline for the register and slid a piece of paper across the counter to the old man who never said much. When he told me he'd call, I figured my gesture wouldn't be received, but he called and accepted my offer that night.
  I had never had a job before, but he welcomed me with open arms. He even taught me how to make an espresso without judgment.
Dale never gave us a uniform to wear, so we wore what we wanted. The only catch was it had to be modest and able to hold a magnetic name tag. Julia, the only other employee, continually pushed the borders on the modesty rule.
She would stroll into the store with too-short shorts or a skimpy spaghetti strap top and roll her eyes as Dale scrutinized her every time she clocked in. At what point would you stop trying to rebel? When did the game get old?
Even when I had to wear a uniform every day at my college prep school, I never once took advantage of when I finally got to wear "street" clothes on the weekends, maybe because my mother would have wrung my neck if I walked down the stairs in something that looked like it'd been made for sleeping.
I walked back to the front of the store and ran my fingers through my hair, trying to locate the shipment Dale had told me about earlier. With no sight of the boxes, I moseyed my way to the café.
"Julia, Dale had a shipment come in today. Do you know—"
"No, he said something about the espresso machine, and that's it."
The small girl behind the counter chewed her gum obnoxiously with an open mouth. I wouldn't say I liked the habit, but I kept my mouth shut. I knew good, and well, she wouldn't stop on my account. Dale had hired her only part-time until high school started back up, but rumor had it she wasn't going back to high school.
Thick, black mascara and eyeliner framed her blue eyes as she stared up at me completely unenthused. I turned on my heels, trying not to make it obvious I was rolling my eyes, but I didn't even make it a full 45 degrees.
My right side collided hard with something that could have been made from brick. A strong hand grabbed my upper arm to help me keep my balance. "I'm so sorry..."
My words trailed as I looked up to the man's face. The stranger who'd complimented my butt was now standing only five inches from me. He wore the same mischievous smirk from the other day.
He was at least eight inches taller than me, almost causing me to tilt my head completely back to look up at him. "You know, they say meeting a pretty girl once is luck, but twice is fate."
I rolled my eyes and slipped my arm from his grasp. I hadn't noticed until I pulled away from that my arm was tingling. I try hard to shake the feeling away.
"You wish," I hissed, trying to rid my mind of his intriguing thoughts of him.
He leaned his face closer to me. I could smell the slight scent of his cologne mixed with cigarettes and mint. The space between us had dwindled to only an inch, and my eyes traveled between his eyes and his lips. "Actually, I do."
Something in his eyes changed, but I was unaware of what it was exactly. Whatever had happened with him had a calming effect on me; my heartbeat slowed, and my breathing leveled despite the suggestive comment. I looked to his mouth again.
The smirk had faded, leaving his thin lips slightly parted. I had a sudden urge to trace the outline of where the pink of his lips melted perfectly into the nude flesh of his face.
I had a sudden need to discover what secrets that mouth was hiding. The rest of the world faded away until we were the only two in existence. I wanted to know what his eyes had seen, the things he thought about late at night. What those fingers...
My body shuddered, and all too soon, I was back in the small bookstore with a stranger who was way too close and a coworker watching us, thoroughly amused. What had I just thought? I took a step back. My lower back collided hard against the counter that'd I'd forgotten was there.
The stranger's eyes danced with excitement at my unnerved state. He chuckled lightly under his breath. I was suddenly struck with anger, and I shot him a glare. "Well, keep wishing because girls like me don't end up with guys like you."
The mean girl inside me was at full force, but I was madder at myself for allowing my thoughts to wander so drastically. The boy shoved his hands in his pockets, unfazed by my last comment. "Thanks for the permission."
I rolled my eyes again and shoved past him, pushing away the fact that my shoulder was tingling from the little interaction. If he were any other guy, he would have been affected by my rude comment, but he stood there with that terrible smirk, totally unaffected. I didn't know how to react to him, so walking away was how I ended the conversation... If one could even call that a conversation.
I walked around the store for a few minutes before stumbling upon the boxes I'd been looking for so desperately. I sighed, relief washing over me as I opened the first out of five cardboard containers. When I had called Dale earlier this morning, I figured working was just what I needed to get my mind off things in my life, but now I was even more confounded than before.