His touch is slow and revering, worshipful even. He pulls down the neck of my sweater, and I let his lips trace my collarbone. His tail loops around my thigh and tugs on my panties. I’m writhingbeneath him as his hands explore my body. There’s no escaping him and I don’t want to.
His enormity eclipses me. His power owns me. His devotion bathes me in lo—
I’ve stopped taking pictures…
I blink a few times and force the thoughts of a very rude, very controlling dragon from my mind.
Though it’s dim now, I know the lighting here is going to be gorgeous when the windows are cleaned. The real wood shelving is in relatively good condition on the second floor, and while I’ll have to replicate their style on the first, it’s still only half the amount of work I thought I might be getting into.
I’m so glad I listened to DIY podcasts all the way up here.
“Get one of us, for the Frame,” Robbie says.
I turn around to see him striking a pose next to Aaron. His sleeves are rolled up and he’s flexing while doing duckface. Aaron is glaring at him. I snort laugh and snap a picture of them.
It’s good to have eye candy on my page from time to time, which is why I commission artists to render my favorite heroes…sometimes in salacious poses. Aaron’s not too bad himself with the fatherly crossed-armed stare. Plenty of readers are into that. Me too, sometimes.
My aim on socials has always been to entertain. But now I’ve entered an era of profits and losses, so I need all the help I can get avoiding the latter side of that statement. If that help comes in the form of a trashy trash man flexing duckface, I’m going to seize it.
“I’ve got them all, thanks so much for indulging me,” I say after snapping the last picture.
“Wait, get one of me lifting something,” Robbie insists.
“We have work to do,” Aaron barks.
Robbie goes to one of the downed beams of rotted wood and squats. “I know, I know! She’s getting a picture of me working.”
Aaron sighs in my direction, and I shrug.
Robbie lifts the beam but can’t quite get it all off the ground. It’s long and looks quite heavy. Aaron grabs the back end and starts to lift.
“No wait, I’ve got it,” Robbie grunts out.
“You’re gonna hurt your back, numbskull,” Aaron says, ignoring his request and helping him anyway.
I snap a picture of them hauling out the first piece and my heart beats faster.
It’s starting.
It’s really happening.
I’m going to own a bookshop.
My face hurts from how hard I’m smiling, so I snap one more picture: a selfie.
The post comes together quickly, and I take a few minutes to express my gratitude to all my amazing online friends who encouraged me through the years to keep working on my bindery. All that led me here, and I’m so grateful.
I let the men do their work up front while I clear things out in the office. The old desk can go, and in this digital age, I definitely don’t need the filing cabinets. But maybe I should take a look inside.
I pull on the drawers, but they don’t open. There’s a keyhole at the top left, and I remember that the key ring I got from the lockbox had a small, funny-looking key on it.
I run upstairs and give Oscar a pat, then hunt for my keys. Bastian is noticeably absent, though the towers of books remain. I’m grateful he respected my wishes and hid, but he didn’t need to disappear entirely. I wonder if he’s in lizard form somewhere…
I snatch my keys and run back down to the office. The drawers all click at once when the lock is disengaged, and I start at the bottom. There are a few old sheets of paper there, but they appear to be stocking lists. Might be fun to keep for Instaframe, so I set them aside.
There’s nothing in the middle three drawers but dust and my mind immediately goes back to the monsters that ate my stockings the other day. I hope they’re not everywhere there’s dust, or we’re going to have a problem.
The top drawer is too high for me to see inside. I get on my tiptoes and stick my arm in to feel around. My fingers brush the spine of a book and I grin. It might just be something boring, like accounts—which maybe I should review because the past can inform the future when it comes to business decisions. But it could also be something amazing. Like a first edition of something old, or a rare print!
