Enzo shrugged.
“Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.” He bit his lip.
I rolled my eyes and patted his shoulder.
“Then I can’t wait to meet the love of my life,” I screamed with fake-enthusiasm before I put my shoes on, and we made our way outside.
Fat chance of that happening though.
For starters, I already had, and she’d died.
And secondly…
Who would ever want to go out with a grumpy, depressed, single dad?
Be for real, Cole. Be so for real, right now.
4.Samir
Ipushed the blade in and cut carefully until the tape was split, and I could open the box. It wouldn’t bode well for my hungry customers if I damaged their brand-new books before they managed to get their rabid hands on them.
I proceeded to open the rest of the boxes that had been delivered yesterday but which I hadn’t managed to sort. Saturdays were always hectic at Books and Claws. Especially as the Christmas festivities started to pick up. Thankfully I’d have extra hands for December from a kind young teenager, Elliot who had dropped out of school and had plenty of time, and appetite, for work.
With every box opened, I started to sort the books out in piles by title before I picked up my order sheets and separated the pre-orders from the regular stock. It wasn’t hard work, but it did require care and attention lest a faithful patron was left without a book to read for the week. But I wouldn’t want to be any other place.
Ever since I remembered myself, I had my nose buried in a book—even when it wasn’t proper for a young, hormonal man to be reading but instead to chase after girls looking for his futurewife. Even then, I preferred reading. First the Quran, then other religious texts until I discovered fiction, fantasy, and romance.
I remembered getting home from school and hiding the latest young adult novel under my bed as if it were a dirty magazine. I read it after bedtime, under my sheet with a flashlight, until I almost passed out from exhaustion.
And even when I did get married, I only did it to stop my parents from nagging, and to shut up some vipers who spread nastiness as if it was a sport. Thankfully, Zainab had been a bookworm too. It had never been all that weird when we stayed up all night in bed, each absorbed in our own paperback, several inches apart. A line had been drawn between us silently, subconsciously, and it was only crossed as soon as an auntie or an uncle mentioned kids.
I’d never felt freer than when we decided to move away from home into Mayberry Holm four years ago. Being away from parents, family, and friends had allowed us to breathe for the first time in forever. When we accepted our truths and got divorced… that had been the most liberating experience of my life, even if it had immediately come with a whole new set of worries I never had the time or ability to agonize over.
“Earth to Samir.” Zainab waved a hand in front of my face, and I blinked, bringing my attention back into the storeroom and the task at hand.
“Huh?” I asked, looking at her.
She was wearing a teal hijab with a matching eyeshadow that made her dark eyes pop and her tan skin glow. Unfortunately, it was paired with the narrowed eyes of eternal irritation that I’d been the victim of too many times to count.
“Are you daydreaming again?” she asked, and I shook my head.
“No,” I lied. “I was just distracted for a second. What’s wrong? Do you need me out in the front?”
“No, but Hwan is here looking for his order, so I thought I’d come get it for him. Do you need help in here?” She scanned the storeroom, with its messy piles of books, boxes, scraps of paper, and dust as if she were judging me. I stood up a little straighter.
“No. I’m all good. What book did he order? It was a Hudson Bell, wasn’t it?”
Zainab checked a sticky note on her palm and nodded.
“All The Ways I Hate You,” she said.
I put my hands up, because I’d just seen that book, so I took a moment to breathe and orientate myself before I found the new release and handed it to Zainab.
“Tell him I expect a full review by next week.”
Zainab chuckled and opened the storeroom door again.
“I think he already knows, dear,” she said, just as a little black void bolted into the room, meowing up a storm. “Oh, shoot. Who was that?” Zainab asked, looking around her feet.
