“Have a good day,” he said as her feet hit the sidewalk.
Oh she would have averygood day. She had a window to decorate for National Candy Day. Candy could be sweet, but it could also be so tart it would make Preston Wheeler’s face pucker.
Zoe was grinning as she stepped back into Cedar Street Books. Yeah, it was going to be a good day, for sure.
When his watch buzzed with a reminder to eat lunch, Preston saved his work and closed the laptop. Rather than eating at his desk, he decided it was a good day to walk to the cafe and get a proper meal.
After replacing his welcome sign in the window with a small Out to Lunchsign, he locked up and started walking.
Do not look.
He tried not to, but he’d only taken a few steps before he turned his head to look in the Cedar Street Books window.
He stopped walking.She didn’t.
But yes, in fact, she had.
Unlike the Halloween display, which had filled the massive window, Zoe’s National Candy Day display was small, but it certainly sent a message. On a tiered shelf was an open bag of Red Hots spilling into a glass bowl. Looking closely, he could see she’d strung the candies on some kind of wire or fishing line and he wondered how long that had taken her. A chalkboard easel had been written on with pink chalk.Red hot reads for National Candy Day!
The covers of the books displayed were...well, they were well beyond entirely unsuitable. He would have choked if he’d been eating or drinking anything while he walked. Every single one screamed sex, and his eyes widened as his gaze bounced from one to the next. Red lips sucking a candy cane was a common theme. A woman that, for some reason, was in a bathtub full of candy that barely covered the parts of her body that needed covering in public. A close-up of a tongue licking a rainbow-colored lollipop.
Movement caught his eye and he saw Zoe looking at him from the other side of the glass. When their eyes met, she smiled and gave him a slow nod before turning her back on him.
His first instinct was to march into the bookstore and ask her what the hell had happened to being neighborly. But he was a smart man and he knew that not only was whatever came out of his mouth going to make it worse, but she was pissed off enough so she wasn’t going to be reasonable.
Their brief conversation this morning hadn’t seemed particularly inflammatory to him, though he wouldn’t have claimed they actually made peace, and look what had happened.
He forced himself to keep walking without looking back and considered his options.
Reasoning with her probably wouldn’t work. But maybe he could talk to the other woman. Carly, he thought her name was.
Or he could file a formal complaint with the town. This was a town that prided itself on attracting tourists with its historical charm and he didn’t think women suggestively sucking candy canes fit their image very well.
Maybe he should start with the landlord, though. The lease agreement he’d signed, which he assumed would be similar if not the same as the one the women had signed, hadn’t specifically prohibited sexually suggestive material in the window, but there had been a bit about maintaining the storefront in a way that didn’t violate any of the town’s articles governing the commercial district. He’d have to look into those when he got a chance.
When he reached the Cedar Street Café, with its simple logo made up of a white plate and cutlery on a blue background with their name in a circle around it, he told himself to put a pin in the issue of the bookstore and enjoy his lunch.
It was his second time in the café, since he’d eaten there after seeing the office space for the first time. He was horrible at packing lunches and didn’t want to snack on a bunch of junk throughout the day, so he’d walked the neighborhood to make a list of viable choices. After perusing those menus and the Yelp reviews online, he’d decided this café was perfect to get him out of the office for at least a little exercise and a balanced lunch for a reasonable price.
The Cedar Street Café also had a lunch counter, so he didn’t have to feel awkward about taking up an entire table just for himself. He sat on one of the stools and once a young woman set wrapped silverware in front of him, he ordered a glass of ice water and a burger with fries. He’d be good and have a turkey sandwich with a side salad tomorrow. Probably.
Then he pulled out his phone, intending to catch up on the family goings-on while he waited for his meal. His first stop was Instagram because he got all the fun pictures with none of the drama and propaganda of Facebook. His account was private and he rarely posted photos, but he liked being able to watch his mother’s account. If nothing else, it helped him keep tabs on where his parents were.
After tapping the heart icon under a photo of his dad grinning in a casino that might have been in Connecticut or Las Vegas for all he knew, his thumb hovered over the search button.
He really shouldn’t.
Cedar Street Books.
The profile picture was the distinctive blue door with the stained glass window, but the most recent photograph was of Zoe. She’d taken a selfie with the window display as a backdrop and directly over her shoulder was a paperback book with a male torso on it. A male torso, naked and so chiseled that Preston almost regretted choosing a burger for lunch, while at the same time, he was tempted to add a strawberry frappe to the order.
But what kept him from scrolling down to the next photo in the feed was Zoe’s face. She was smiling around the tip of a lollipop the same red as her lipstick, and behind the suggestive glint in her eye, he could see the irritation.
The woman certainly knew how to get a point across.
He swiped the app closed and a few seconds later, a heavy hand dropped on his shoulder, making him jump. Then the man sat on the stool next to him and he saw that it was his landlord, Joe Randall.
“Hey, Joe. How’s it going?”
