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“I am,” I said. “Now I just need to write a business plan and think about a location.” And tell my parents, and Theo, and my friends. I wanted to have my business plan ready so I could hand it to them and prove that I wasn’t chasing an impossible dream. There was also a small-business owners association for my county that I wanted to join. They had all kinds of meetings and classes and so forth where I could learn even more.
I was diving headfirst into this, and I wasn’t going to do anything half assed. My whole ass was going to open this bookstore.
In addition to the books, I also knew that I had to have gifts and other items, and I hoped that Em would be willing to sell some of her shell creations on consignment.
“And you’ve got to come up with a name and make sure it isn’t already taken,” Sarah said. This was something I’d been mulling over and over, and I still didn’t have the right one yet. For that, I was going to need some help.
Sarah gave me a hug at the end of the day, and I ended up buying a stack of books to thank her for everything. She made me promise to stay in touch and never hesitate to reach out with questions as I got started.
I grabbed a sandwich and cup of soup at the coffee shop next door before heading back to Castleton.
My couch was arriving tomorrow, and I was so ready for it to be in. Once I had it in the room, I was going to get a rug, and start working on the wall art. I also needed a TV and to look for a lamp for my reading corner.
When I got out of my car, someone called my name and I saw Paige and Esme on their walk with Stormy, so I joined them. I was bursting to talk about my potential bookstore, but I hadn’t told my parents yet and they came first. Paige still noticed my energy, though.
“You are glowing. Has something happened with Theo?” she asked, and I gave her and Esme an update about how Theo and I were trying out being friends.
Paige and Esme shared a look.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing, it’s just that we didn’t think Theo did friends. She must really like you, and I don’t think it’s in a friendship way,” Paige said.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. She doesn’t even want to give herself the chance to like me.”
That was brutal, but it was true. Theo had other shit going on that had nothing to do with me, and those walls were staying up for now.
“She knows that you can’t stop yourself from falling for someone, right?” Paige said. “I mean, I speak from personal experience.”
Esme smiled fondly at Paige. “I’m just irresistible.”
“You are,” Paige agreed. “And I was a dumbass.”
“It’s okay, I forgive you,” Esme said. “But Paige is right. Falling isn’t something you can put a lid on, once you’ve started. And trying to fight it just makes everything so much worse.”
I hadn’t bothered to fight my attraction to Theo. Maybe I should have? But like they both said, could you fight that kind of attraction? What I felt for Theo wasn’t some small little crush. It felt crushing. Like sometimes I couldn’t breathe when I was around her due to the weight of it.
“You still with us?” Paige asked.
“Yeah, just pondering,” I said.
“Want to ponder and have some cake with us?” Paige asked. “Martha dropped one off for us, for some reason. I think she’s trying to encourage us to have babies now that Linley has one.”
I snorted. “Sure, I’ll have some baby cake. Oh, that sounds bad.”
Paige burst out laughing. “Yeah, let’s not call it baby cake.”
I did go over to their house for cake and helped Paige with a puzzle in the living room until it got dark and I started yawning. I was out of practice with working a full day at a job, so I was going to need to get back in the swing of things if I wanted to open a bookshop.
“You’re coming to the Carr barbecue, right?” Paige asked me. I’d gotten an actual printed invitation from Amanda Carr for a backyard barbecue next Saturday. From the amount of people I’d heard were coming, it was an unofficial Castleton town party.
“Amanda asked me to tend bar and I really hope we don’t run out of alcohol. We’ve got bottles, but we also said you could BYOB and we’re hoping that means people will come with cases of beer and hard seltzer if we run out of everything else,” Esme said.
“It’s gonna be fine. It’s not even our party,” Paige said.
“I know, but have you ever been to a party where the alcohol ran out early? Not pretty,” Esme said with a shudder.
