Page 32 of Safe With You

“I am not.”

“You alphabetized the bookmarks once.”

“Because they were mixed together.”

“They were bookmarks.”

“They were out of order.”

Naomi looked at Maya as if asking for backup.

“You see what I deal with?”

Maya shook her head, laughing as she rinsed the last coffee mug.

“I stopped arguing with her months ago.”

“I can hear y’all,” I muttered.

“We know.”

“Seriously,” Naomi said, softening this time. “Leave the rest. Maya and I have it. Close the register and go home.”

I looked around the room, instinctively searching for the next thing that needed my attention.

A chair sat crooked near the front row.

Someone had left a scarf draped over the back of another.

A stack of programs still needed to be recycled.

One thing at a time.

“Fine,” I sighed. “I’m leaving it. Going to the front.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

I smiled to myself and wandered toward the front windows instead, more out of habit than intention. Outside, Main Street had quieted considerably. A few cars rolled past beneath the glow of the streetlights, and somewhere farther down the block, laughter drifted from a restaurant that hadn’t quite closed for the night.

I turned just in time to see Ellis adjusting the strap of his camera bag before glancing around the bookstore as though he were making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.

For a second, I simply watched him.

Even now, he wasn’t checking his phone or rushing toward the door. Instead, he paused beside one of the displays, studying a framed print from a local artist that hung on the wall.

“You survived,” I said as I walked over.

He looked up, a smile spreading across his face.

“I was about to say the same thing.”

“I wasn’t the one carrying two cameras around all night.”

“No,” he agreed. “You were only carrying the entire event.”

I laughed quietly.

“When you put it like that, I think I got the worse deal.”