“So today’s the day, huh?” Otis said, sliding me a protein bar from a drawer. He knew I’d skipped breakfast for a triple espresso.
“Today’s the day,” I mumbled, chewing. I didn’t dare look away from the screen. Six minutes left.
“You told her yet?”
I glanced sideways. Otis’s raised brow caught the overhead lights. He’d painted his cheekbones in a stunning highlight, which shifted in color when he tilted his head.?
“I don’t see why she needs to know,” I muttered, eyes back on the spinning upload icon. He didn’t reply, but I could sense his disapproval by the way he swiped a customer's credit card.
A guy with a sparse hairline but impressive chest hair carried a whole stack ofEarth’s Coreup to the counter like this was some sort of famine and only bad sci-fi could save him. The smell of pumpkin spice hit me when two women and their take away cups stopped in front of me. Both of them looked like the typical girl next door: blonde, sweet, non-tattooed. The very opposite of me.
“Excuse me,” one said, “are all ofEarth’s Coresold out already?”
I looked up at the now empty table at the center of the store. Then at the queue of people still waiting to pay. It now reachedpast the front door and around the corner.Holy crap.
“There are more in the back,” Otis said while adding two free bookmarks and what looked like his phone number to the paper bag of a dude in a muscle T. “Nora will be delighted to get some for you.”
“Just a sec,” I told the women, raising a finger. Five minutes left. My palms were sweating. Should I refresh the page? Open a new tab? The tall one rolled her eyes at me but then turned back to her friend.
“You think he’ll look like this in real life?” She asked her friend while she ogled the cardboard cutout like she wanted to take it home and do Bowie knows what with it.
“Totally,” said the other. “Found a shirtless pic of him the other day. All I can say is:smash.”
“Oh my God, stop. You’ll make me drool into my PSL.”
I gagged under my breath. Their attention snapped back to me.
“Allergies,” I said.
“How long will this take?” the tall one asked. “We’re kind of in a rush.”
My eyelid twitched. I bit my cheek, trying hard not to toss the monstrosity she called a drink at her fake fur jacket.
If this file wouldn’t upload in the next three minutes and thirty seconds, I would lose more than my shit. “Just one more sec,” I gritted my teeth, remembering Otis begging me to be nice to the customers.
“I heard he and his fiancée are having problems,” the other one said.
“Already? Didn’t they just get, like, engaged?”?
The tall one nodded. “Should I give him my number?” she whispered, then giggled. “OMG, can youimagine?”
I shuddered. There should be prison time for saying “OMG” and “PSL” out loud like that.
“Nora, we need more books or this will turn into an international crisis,” Otis whispered urgently. His customer service smile had turned tight as more people complained of the empty shelves.
I glanced at the storage door, then back at the screen. Two minutes left.
“Fine,” I snapped.
“Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry.”I squeezed myself through the crowd, sprinted the five steps to the back of the shop, to thesmall storage room we rarely used. The door was ajar, propped open by a chair. Boxes upon boxes behind it.
How many books had Otis ordered?
As I heaved two boxes out of the room, my foot caught on something. A box tumbled to the floor, my hand snapped outbut the door swung in my face and I just stood there, perplexed, as it fell into the lock. With me on the wrong side.I rattled on the handle already knowing this was futile. To fix the lock had been on Dad’s to do list.
Fucking fantastic.
“Otis!” I banged the door. No reply. I knocked harder, probably bruising my knuckles, but I didn’t care. “Otis, open the damn door.” I kicked for good measure. “HELLO? ANYONE?”
