AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oliver laughed. “No. Sorry, no, I just work for the company that’s renting it to shift some stock.”
He nodded, like that made sense. “Oh. Okay. Do you mind if I ask how business has been?”
Oliver wasn’t exactly sure what his deal was, but it seemed like an innocent enough question.
“It’s been pretty steady,” he said. “It took a couple of days for word to get out that we were open, but OS Books did a lot of advertising—online and in the papers. They’re not just in Bath. They’ve opened pop-up shops across the country.”
“And are people asking you for certain titles?”
“Kind of. Sometimes folks come in with a list of things they’ve been asked to buy, so they only want what’s on their list. Which is really hit or miss—more miss than hit, if I’m honest. We really don’t have huge variety of stock.”
“Gotcha.”
“And it’s all children’s books. Which… even though it’s on the sign outside…”
“The general public can’t read,” he said, nodding.
Exactly,Oliver thought. “Do you mind if I ask why you’re interested? Are you thinking of opening a shop?”
“No,” he said with a laugh. “I work around here, so I’m just interested in what’s going on with local businesses, you know?”
“Glad I could help,” Oliver said. “Did I help?”
“You did. Thanks again.” The guy stepped away, like he was getting ready to leave, then turned back. “You’re really talented, by the way.” He nodded at Oliver’s doodles.
“Thank you,” Oliver said with a laugh. “I’m actually an illustrator.”
“Like children’s books?”
“Yeah. Exactly like that.”
“Are you famous?”
He smiled and shrugged. “It depends on how you define famous. I’m well known in my industry, if that counts.”
“I’ll look you up.”
“Oliver Rowe,” Oliver said, offering his hand to shake.
“Stuart McDermott.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Same,” Stuart said, looking pensive.
A small queue had started to form behind him, and Stuart seemed to notice all of a sudden and nodded apologetically before rushing back out of the door.
That was weird.
Oliver didn’t have time to dwell on the conversation; business was hopping right through until closing. They’d reached the time of year when office Christmas parties were keeping the energy of the daytime crowd buzzing right through to the evening. When he locked up, the windows in the toy shop across the road were still lit up, with several customers milling around inside. Oliver guessed that the man who worked there could stay open late if he wanted to.
Instead of heading straight to the bus stop, Oliver took a diversion through the main high street, where stallholders selling mulled wine and roasted chestnuts were still working under the tall streetlamps.
It had stopped raining today, though the air left behind was freezing cold, turning Oliver’s nose red in minutes. Against his better judgement, knowing everything targeted to tourists was overpriced, Oliver stopped and bought a glass of mulled wine.
It was delicious—spicy and rich and hot.
He detoured again, walking through the area of the city where the noise from bars spilled out onto the street and people smoking huddled together under warming lamps that struggled against the cold.
