Page 28 of Grimoires & Glamoury

“She’s awesome, isn’t she?” I said, picking up my coffee to sip.

“You gotta admire a woman bold enough to wear oversized leopard print glasses.”

“Have you seen her sneakers?” I asked him.

“No.”

“They’re the same type of print.”

Dex grinned. “Lord almighty.”

“I wanna be that cool when I grow up,” I told him.

“Me too,” Dex agreed.

The next two weeks ran smoothly. Ruth and Dex put the deposit down on the venue for the ball, and the uproar had quickly subsided in the community with the news that the funds had been replaced by an ‘anonymous’ donor. Sales were solid at the bookstore, and Kathleen was working three days a week.

I’d started her out with four-hour shifts. On Fridays, Dex’s day off, I had her working the floor. A voracious reader of romance, Kathleen was up on all the popular series, and she was fabulous with the customers. I often found her discussing various plot points or characters with them.

Currently she was ringing up a pair of young women who were loaded down with two separate fantasy romance series. Between the two of them, they were purchasing ten novels.

I stood at her side and bagged up the purchases. While I did so, I learned that it had been Kathleen’s suggestion that they each buy a different series and swap books with each other once they had finished them.

Kathleen gave the customers a wink as she handed them their receipts. “Be sure and report back and tell me what you think of these series.”

“We will,” they said in unison.

I waited until the pair left the bookstore before I turned to Kathleen and said, “I’m giving you a raise.”

“Won’t argue with that.”

“I’m serious, Kathleen. Whenever you work the floor my sales bump up by a good thirty percent.”

Kathleen straightened the neckline of her cheetah print top. “I really enjoy talking about books with the customers. It’s fun.”

I nodded. “Let me ask you this. Are there any fictional series that you believe would sell well here that I don’t currently offer?”

Kathleen pursed her lips. “I may have made a list of a few series I think some of your customers would go for. In fact, I’ve passed along some customer requests to Dex for specific series or individual titles. He said he would order them and let the customers know when they arrived.”

“Were these requests and orders due to you suggesting an author or series?”

“Yup.”

I smiled. “Mind showing me your series list?”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll go run in the back and get it.”

The store phone rang and I moved to answer it. “New Moon Books. This is Lorna speaking. May I help you?”

“Hey gorgeous, it’s Nash.”

“Hey,” I said, tucking the phone under my ear. “Any luck?”

“Took me a while longer than I’d like, but I finally have some information for you.”

“Excellent,” I said.

“I can either come by the bookstore in a bit; or if you prefer, I’ll drop by your place tonight and we can talk.”