Marley was laying with her arms crossed and her head resting on them as she leaned on the front desk. She was extremely tired and it was Monday, so everybody was kind of feeling the same way.
Marley had gotten back late last night from visiting her mom so there she laid, until the bell dinged and she sat up and pushed some of her black curls back. She smiled at the elderly coming in, greeted them and allowed them to wander the book store that she owned.
It was her grandmothers but since she passed away three months previous, Marley had dropped out of college and came back to run the store.
It was a beautiful store, all original architecture from the late 1800's. The hardwood floor had been replaced and it definitely needed to be done again with the scratches and dents in it that Marley tried to hide with rugs and potted plants. The bookshelves were original but had gotten a darker stain put on them when her grandma passed to match all the hardware in the store.
"Excuse me?"
Marley turned her head to see the lady peaking around a corner with a gentle smile. "Yes?" Mar stood up and came around the desk and came up to the woman.
"Could you possibly grab that crochet book up there? We're both too short to grab it." The woman pointed up to the shelf where the colourful book rested against other books and Marley nodded and went to grab a ladder to grab it down.
As she stepped back down and handed it to her, the woman grasped her hand. "This store is so beautiful. How long have you worked here?" The woman asked, as what Mar presumed to be the husband wander off looking at other books.
"Oh, I actually own it but it's been passed down through my family for quite a few generations." Mar smiled. She loved seeing people's reactions when she told them about the store because it truly was a wonder.
The woman tugged Mar into a conversation until the husband came up and wrapped an arm around the woman's shoulders.
"Olivia, leave the poor girl alone. Let's go." He chuckled and looked at Olivia and she swatted his chest.
"It's ok! I don't mind!" Mar tried to soothe Olivia before she sent Marley a soft smile and started walking up to the counter and Mar followed suit and went behind the counter to cash out them.
"Have a great day!" Mar called out them as they left. She took a deep breath in and laid her head back down on the counter.
It was now about lunch time and she saw sat in the chair, a book between her fingers and was slowly picking away at her vegetarian stir fry. She took a sip of her water and the bell dinged and she looked up and smiled at the man walking in. He had auburn hair and a nice smile. He had sunglasses on, and he was carrying a couple books in his arms and came and set them down.
"Wow! Lots of books for me today." Marley smiled at him and moved forward to start tugging the books out of the pile to read them. "A Little Life? I have been meaning to read this."
The man chuckled and nodded. "I'm trying to declutter my flat and the first step was books." His voice was soft and her eyes widened a bit. Now that she was closer to him she could really look at him as the man pushed his sunglasses up on his head. His eyes were brown but golden. His hair was styled nicely and his hand came up to fix his hair as he locked eyes with Marley.
"One of my friends sent me here. They said you accept pretty much anything, and have a lot of stuff. I've annotated some of them I hope that's ok?" He continued and Marley smiled at him while using her finger to push her glasses up her nose more.
"Yep. That's been our thing for years." Marley went back to looking at the books and finally she looked up to him and smiled. "Yeah I can take these off your hands."
"That's awesome. I'll be stopping in more as I go through them." He shoved his hands in his pockets looking at the girl who had flipped open one of his previously owned book. She noticed his scribbly hand writing as her eyes scanned over it in a book called Six of Crows.
"Please do. A lot of the customers who come in love previously owned books due to the love and wear they have to them. Especially annotated ones. I know I do. You kind of get to meet a person through a book." Marley ranted and bit and looked back up to the guy with a sheepish grin.
He gave her a smile back before pulling out his hand and offering it to her. "I'm Kit." He looked over her face again, taking notice of her nostril and septum piercing, having a few freckles asking her face. She had a bit of a softer jawline and chubbier cheeks. Her smile was a bit lopsided but to him, it was cute. Endearing. She had curly black hair that she had put half of it up in a bun.
"I'm Marley." She took his hand and shook it and adjusted her glasses again. "It's nice to meet you."
♡
The next day, Marley was sat in her chair again, her legs tucked under her reading A Little Life. She was enjoying reading the book, as well as reading Kit's annotations. Her fingers danced over the pages and the small indents from the pen he used. It was a very slow day, seeing as it was Tuesday morning and it was quite cold out.
She truly did love previously annotated books and she was already half way through the book. It came around lunchtime again and she had put the book down, got up and headed to the back of the store where a metal spiral staircase was and climbed it, coming up to her house. She lived above the store and it made her life so much easier.
She went to the fridge and pulled out her pre-made parfait and grabbed a spoon and headed back downstairs. Marley was stirring it all together as she walked and the bell dinged. She picked up her pace a little and saw that it was
Kit. He had a bag this time and was carrying a tray with what looked like two coffees in it and a small paper bag on the tray as well.
"Hi!" Marley greeted him and she went and sat on her chair as he set the tray down and then put the bag on the counter. She could see the outline of more books and she smiled.
"I brought coffee this time. I brought cream, sugar, milk and just sweetener just because I don't know how you take your coffee." Kit rambled a bit as he tugged the cups out of the tray and handed one to her and then dumped the small paper bag full of little cups and packets of said things.
"That's really sweet, you didn't have to do that." Marley smiled as she took off the plastic lid and grabbed a milk and a sugar to pour into her cup. Kit took notice of it and made a mental note for the next time. He was banking on there being a next time because he really wanted to get to know her for some reason.
"Well, I also brought more books." He said, taking some of the books out of the bag. Some of them were children's books, other YA books. As Mar looked through them she looked up over her glasses to see Kit looking around the store.
She set the book down that was in her hands and stood up. Kit looked to her as she came around the dark wooden desk that was intricately carved with a gold plate on the front with the stores name on it. 'Little Reads'.
"Did you want me to show you around?" Mar offered as she came up to him, becoming very aware of their height difference. The top of Mar's head reached Kit's nose.
Kit looked down, taking notice of Mar's outfit. She was wearing an oversized knitted cream jumper with wide leg brown corduroy pants and a pair of dirty black and white converse. She had left her hair down today but her curls still looked really nice. She looked comfortable as she beckoned him forward.
As they started walking, Kit was very intrigued by the design choices. "This place is beautiful."
"It's all original architecture from the late 1800's, I think, 1876? It's been passed down through my family since then. My great great great great grandfather had bought it when he moved here from Europe. When the bill was passed that women were allowed to own businesses in 1988 my grandmother had taken it when my grandpa passed. She wanted it to be women who owned it from now on so here I am. Owning it. She passed a couple of months ago." Marley went on a tangent as she spoke about the store. She loved this bookstore with everything in her and she wants to keep it alive and going.
"That's beautiful Mar." Kit turned to her as they walked and he smiled at the girl who looked down and smiled. "What about your mom? Wouldn't it have gone to her?" He asked as they came to her favourite spot. It was a window nook with a blanket and pillows and a back rest.
She stuttered in her walk a bit before she went and sat and leaned back and pulled her legs up to her and rested her chin on her knees. Kit came and sat next to her and looked at her.
"Yeah. It was supposed to go to her. She's currently in a long term care facility a couple cities over. She has early onset Alzheimer's." Mar avoided eye contact as she spoke.
"Oh Mar. Im sorry to hear that." Kit reached up and gently grabbed her hand. He sent her a soft smile and then stood up. "Let's go grab our coffees. They've probably cooled down."