Page 22 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

He looked back up at Alex, realizing he’d kind of… lapsed.

“Sorry, I was just checking in with my sister. She lives in California, so she’s not awake yet. Otherwise, she’d probably already have called, all excited that I have an employee.”

Alex still looked amused. “Is it that exciting?”

“She thinks I work too hard. And I’ve kind of avoided it for years.”

“Why did you give me a job?” Alex wanted to know.

Max shrugged. “I don’t know. It felt like the right thing to do? A bit like I needed you and maybe you needed me? But not in a creepy way.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, you’re not my type,” Alex assured him.

Max briefly considered asking what their type was, but while he didn’t much care for propriety or lines, he thought maybe it would be best to not get into that with his fifteen-year-old employee. As long as they had no interest in Max, that was all he cared about.

Max cleared his throat. “So, yeah, I like books. I like finding old books and having people appreciate all the great books that can find a new home and be of use to someone.” How to translate what else he did? “I like finding information for clients that they might not have found otherwise. I don’t like people who leave sticky fingerprints on books, dog-ear pages, or break spines. Children who love a book to death are an exception. I try to shop local when I can since I want people to shop local with me. I will never be able to compete with big box stores or online retailers, but I serve a niche market. I just… don’t really want to interact with that market unless I have to.”

Alex chuckled, their eyes twinkling. “Got it. So when I’m working, I deal with people whenever possible so that you don’t have to, allowing you to maintain a viable business.”

“Pretty much,” Max agreed, glad they got it. “Like I said, that’ll give me more time with the research, and that’s my happy place.” He made a face. “I mean, sometimes the people who want that information can be jerks, too, but I don’t usually deal with them face-to-face, and they’re welcome to take their business elsewhere if they don’t like how I work.”

“You should really give customer service talks,” Alex said with mock-admiration. “You’re so inspiring.”

Max snorted. “Hey, I don’t want to give you a false impression of what to expect. I don’t believe in being unnecessarily rude, but if a customer is rude to you or me? I will one hundred percent be rude back. And when a customer is wrong, I will tell them so.”

“I believe you,” Alex said, eyes still alight with amusement.

“It’s just—” Max tried to figure out what he wanted to say. “People can be totally fine. One on one, with the right person, they can be perfectly pleasant. But collectively? People can be kind of awful. And customers can be the worst. When people are entitled, they often exhibit incredibly bad behavior. And really, it’s just us, you know? We’re the beings that do this. With animals, their behavior is all open. They’re honest and never hiding anything. I admire that a lot.”

Without thinking, he raised a hand to caress Red, who chirped, but quietly, rustling their feathers slightly. It hadn’t occurred to Max until just now how awkward it was that Alex could see Red and might wonder why no one else in the restaurant was commenting on the bird on his shoulder. He lowered his hand again. He’d just… brazen through it at this point, he supposed.

“Unfortunately,” he said, trying to sound normal, “animals can’t read books.”

Alex laughed, and Max was saved from needing to say anything else as their server brought their food. They spent a few minutes just eating and then did actually go through a few of those getting-to-know-you topics.

Alex was glad to have moved here. They’d left a couple friends behind, but Max didn’t have to read between the lines much to see that they were safer and happier here, even if they liked to come hang out at a bookstore after school.

As Max had already learned, they were very artistic, and they were thinking about going to school for fine arts. Their mom was supportive but had also made them aware of the difficulties for any kind of artist to try to make a living off their work, so Alex was still considering their options. They hadn’t worked out what else they might want to do—except they were sure they didn’t want to be a nurse like their mom.

“Too many bodily fluids,” they said with a shudder.

Yeah, Max was with them on that one.

In addition to books, Alex liked pop music—and had apparently gotten teased about it in the past—hiking, strength training, and old cars. Their favorite genre was mystery, but they also liked romance, science fiction, and some fantasy. They preferred books with queer content, though they didn’t think there was enough with non-binary representation.

Max didn’t disagree, but he made a mental note to search out more. (If occasionally his queer section included books Max had recently purchased, no one need ever know. After all, once he passed it on to his bookstore, it was secondhand, right?)

It was a weirdly pleasant meal—or maybe that was just the fact that Max couldn’t think of the last time he’d had food with another person who wasn’t his sister when she came on holiday and insisted on them spending time together. (He loved her, but she was such an extrovert.)

“This was employee orientation,” Max explained as he insisted on paying for both of them. “Honestly, it’s probably the best you’re going to get. You’ll have to remind me of all the things I actually need to teach you. I’ve been running around in the bookshop since before I could read, so I really just osmosed everything I needed to know.”

“Got it,” Alex said, not sounding worried. “I’ll ask questions when I need to.”

They parted ways outside the diner, Alex insisting that they didn’t live far away, just a ten-minute walk past the school.

“I know I said no work on Sundays, but if you want to hang out, that’s fine. With the bookshop, obviously, not with me,” Max clarified.

Alex smiled but shook their head. “Nah, I got some homework I should do. I’ll see you tomorrow, though—once I finish school. There will be no skipping and embarking on a life of crime that can be traced directly back to you.”