“I’m just dandy. I have some money stashed away. Tell me about working with Old Cantankerous.”
“It was fun,” I said, and I meant it. Heathcliff and Morrie were both profoundly odd, but despite Ashley’s visit, they’d completely taken my mind off my eyes and everything that happened. It didn’t hurt that they were easy to look at, and that every time Heathcliff growled something in his gravelly voice I imagined him saying my name as he thrust into—
Yikes.I buried my reddening face in theDa Vinci Code.
Plus, I was surrounded by books. Their comforting smell brought me back to my childhood, when they were my one escape from the shittiness that was my life. It was fitting that after everything that happened in New York City, I’d come back to Nevermore Bookshop to escape once more. Books really were my salvation.
And I’ll only be able to read them for a short while longer.
The thought slapped me across the face, startling me out of my happiness. The ophthalmologist said the changes would be slow at first – my peripheral vision would shrink away until I saw the world through a narrowing tunnel. Then I’d start seeing random colors and lights. Then, at some undetermined point in the future, I’d go completely blind.
Blind.
No more colors. No more turning the pages of my favorite books. No more fashion or art or fun. Only darkness. Only nothing.
“Hey, earth to Mina.” Morrie snapped his fingers in front of my face. “You went off somewhere. Your face has gone all blotchy.”
“I’m fine. I’m just a little terrified of that archaic thing.” Fishing for a change of subject, I glared at Heathcliff’s ancient computer, the only thing standing between me and Morrie’s hot, lanky body. “Does he even have a website?”
“We don’t need a website.” Heathcliff yelled from deeper in the shop.
Morrie leaned across the desk, his face lighting up with wicked glee. Up close, his scent hit me – fresh and tangy, lavender and vanilla, with a hint of something much, much darker. “I’ve been trying to get him to make one for years.”
“It’s the twenty-first bloody century. Every legitimate business needs a website. How do people find the shop?”
“I don’t want them to find the shop,” Heathcliff yelled.
Morrie flashed me a smile that melted my panties. “Here’s an idea,” he whispered. “Come around to my place tomorrow night. We’ll build a website. He doesn’t get any say in it.”
“Why don’t we just work on it during the day? Your place is his place, and it’s not as though you have a job to go to.”
“Can’t. I’m heading down to London for a standing appointment with my bank.”
“You go to your bank in person? And you call Heathcliff a dinosaur?”
Morrie blinked. “It’s a very specialized bank. What do you say? I’ll be back around seven, so you could come by at eight? I’ll make sure he leaves the door open for you.”
“You mean, I’d get to go upstairs?”
“No,” Heathcliff yelled from the depths of the shop.
“Yes.” Morrie grinned.
“Croak!” agreed the raven.
I reached out and shook Morrie’s hand. “It’s a date.”
Chapter Seven
Mum arrived home from her wobbleator sales seminar just as I put two bowls of leftover curry on the table. “I’ve had the most brilliant idea for my vibration training starter packs, Mina. I need you to go to the market and get me some cheap towels and water bottles. I’m going to peel the labels off and put my stickers on them.” Mum slapped a roll of garish stickers bearing an out-of-focus image of her smiling face and the words, ‘Vibrate Your Way to a Nu Life with Brenda Wilde.’”
I cringed at the spelling ofnew. “Wow, Mum, those are… something.”
She grinned. “Aren’t they splendid? Tonight I learned that branding is vital for an entrepreneur to succeed. My business mentor has a machine that prints these in an instant. And they only cost me two hundred quid—”
“Two hundred?I could have got you something better off the internet for a tenner. Mum, how much are you spending on this new enterprise? You’ve got enough for the rent, haven’t you? Because Heathcliff isn’t paying me much and I—”
“Relax, darling. I’m going to make it all back by Sunday, plus a two hundred percent ROI. That means return-on-investment. See how much I’m learning?” She paused. “Actually, better make that next Wednesday. But definitely no later. Will you go to the market?”
