And Anton didn’t mind having people simply hang out here, even if they didn’t buy anything. He even made sure all his employees knew that any of the unhoused that wandered in were welcomed to stay and charge their phones, if they had one, and warm up since we lived in the coldest district in Gauhala. Evenour summers were pretty cool, and our winters were icy, snowy, and blizzardy.
There were so many businesses that wouldn’t even allow someone they suspected was unhoused inside their doors, no matter how freezing it was outside. Some of the problem was pure bigotry. Most unhoused were fae because the laws in the Sedoba Territory used to allow people to kick fae out of businesses, refuse services, refuse jobs, housing, and food, and so many other terrible things.
Since King Garrick Von Stein had finally come down from his Tower to see how his people were doing—his advisors had been lying to him and sending fake documents to his office since he’d been stuck up there—things began to change.
Now, no one could refuse the fae anything. They were supposed to be treated as equals in every aspect.
But unfortunately, prejudices and small-mindedness didn’t go away simply because the laws changed.
Things were a hell of a lot better now than they’d been, but there were still people here who did everything they could to keep the fae down, including literally leaving them outside in the cold.
The unhousing problem in the city was getting better under King Garrick’s rule, but since there was still an issue, I was beyond grateful that Anton allowed anyone, absolutely anyone, in his store at literally any time.
I saw that Jed was helping a customer find something, so when another patron came to the register, I stepped up to check them out, making small talk as I rang up their order.
“Thank you for shopping at Sleepless Books,” I called out after they’d paid and began walking out of the store.
“Your snow yeti guy left you something,” Jed said in a sing-song voice as he made his way over, obviously done with his customer as well.
I sighed and turned to him. My gaze followed his gesturing arm, and I eyed the foot-long box wrapped in beautiful silver paper covered in snowflakes with a light blue bow wrapped around it. “Uh…”
What in the world? Why would he, or anyone, give me a present? Honestly, that was just super weird. The man barely spoke to me on any given day, but he was buying me gifts? What the hell?
Jed smirked. “You have to open it.”
Before I could respond, another customer came over to check out, so I rang her up before turning back to my vampire friend. “I don’t have time for that right now.”
“Oh, come on. You can take a break for two minutes to open it.”
“Actually, no. I can’t. Not right now. I’ll open it after my shift.”
He sighed, sounding exasperated and annoyed. “Fine. I’ll set it in the breakroom for now.”
“Thank you, Jed.”
He shot me a grin and wink, proving he wasn’t actually mad at me, then scooped up the box and walked into the back of the bookstore.
He was probably going to be bugging me about this for the rest of my shift. Luckily, I only had a few hours left.
After I finished my shift, Jed didn’t miss a beat. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the breakroom, pointing at the mysterious gift.
I sighed and walked over to it. I stared at the pretty wrapping for a moment before I noticed a little tag hanging off the big bow in the center of the box.
I read the tag.
For my beautiful werewolf.
Yours Truly And Forever,
Lanche Rudolphus
Okay, that was the sweetest card ever. Seriously, how could he get any cuter? He’d called me beautiful. Gah!
I didn’t let my lips twitch even though, as usual, when it came to Lanche Rudolphus, they wanted to smile.
I picked up the small box. It was heavier than I expected—what in the world could be in there?—and something jiggled inside. My stomach fluttered in excitement. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d received a surprise gift like this. I mean, sure, Anton—who was much more than my boss these days—always exchanged with me, and we did a gift exchange thing with my coworkers, but that was different. I knew what to expect with those.
This was… a complete surprise.
