Dana rushed into the bookstore as she glanced at her watch, groaning as she realized she had a little less than two hours to buy the book she needed, go home and change, then meet her date. She didn't dare be late tonight. She'd finally scored a date with Rita, this incredibly hot woman who hung out at the same lesbian nightclub that she did. Dana would swear that, every night she was at the club, women were at least three deep at the bar trying to get Rita's attention. And Rita knew it.
Dana's date tonight stood about 5' 10", had a slim, athletic build, long, straight silky black hair and a light olive complexion. Rita was a classic Italian beauty and just oozed sex appeal. Dana was still in shock that Rita had even noticed her the other night. Oh, Dana knew she was pretty, but not a knock out, not like Rita. She was average height with thick, dark brown hair and brown eyes. Dana wasn't model thin, but considered herself slim and curvy.
She'd sat at the bar for hours the other night, watching Rita flick off potential dates like she was flicking lint off her sleeve. When Rita had turned her way, then offered to buy her a drink, Dana damn near fell of the bar stool. Seizing the opportunity of a lifetime, she started flirting with Rita, who seemed happy to flirt back, and Dana had scored tonight's date.
Now, her big problem was what would happen when the date wound its way back to one of their apartments. Dana was no novice, but she wasn't the Don Juan of the lesbian world, either. Deep down, she was terrified of not being able to keep Rita's attention in bed tonight, and then this would end up being their one and only date.
Sitting in rush hour traffic, her mind had created ever worse case scenario known to man. Panicking, she'd decided to seek help from the one thing that never let her down, books. So she'd made a last minute dash to her favorite bookstore, The Written Word. Luckily, the store was only ten minutes from her apartment.
Now she tore through the store, making a beeline for the adult books section. Once there, she started skimming the titles, plucking books off the shelf as she spotted those that seemed to meet her needs.
Within minutes, she had an armful of books and started flipping through them, speed-reading the back covers where they always printed the summaries. Juggling books, flipping them at an increasingly fast speed, it wasn't long before she lost control and they went tumbling to the floor.
Dana winced at the sound of books crashing, and quickly bent to pick them up. Suddenly, a hand appeared in her line of vision and Dana's head whipped up, her cheeks beginning to burn with embarrassment. Fear quickly added itself to the mix when she saw who was helping her.
Karen began gathering books, and didn't notice the look of horror that was spreading across Dana's face. The Written Word was her store, and she made a habit of getting to know her regulars. About ten minutes ago, she had been stocking books on the far side of the store, when she looked up to see Dana rushing in. Dana was one of her best customers, frequenting Karen's store at least once a week. Sometimes she bought just one book, other times she'd leave with bags bulging full. Karen would sometimes stop to chat with her whenever Dana came in. Karen believed that adding a personal touch was one of the things that kept her regulars returning to her store.
She'd noticed that Dana seemed to be in quite a rush, so she had hesitated from walking over to say hi, but when she heard the books fall, she hurried over to offer her assistance. Scooping up books, Karen's mind began to register some of the titles: "100 Ways to Drive a Woman Wild in Bed" and "The Lesbian's Guide to Better Sex". Looking up, Karen saw Dana's face was tight with embarrassment and tension. Not wanting to upset one of her best customers, Karen quickly handed the books back to Dana, careful to act as if she hadn't noticed the titles.
Dana accepted the books Karen handed her, returned Karen's smile with a weak one of her own, then muttered a "thank you" as Karen backed out of the aisle. God, she wanted to die! Karen was the storeowner and always went out of her way to say hello, or to talk for a few minutes. That's one of the things Dana always appreciated about the little store. It was about a quarter of the size of the big chains, but Dana enjoyed the cozy atmosphere and thought their selection was very well rounded. Dana didn't advertise, though, that she was a lesbian. People never guessed that about her unless she came straight out and admitted it. Karen had just played things very cool, pretending she hadn't noticed what kind of books Dana had, but Dana had caught her eyes skimming the titles. Dana was in her early thirties and judged Karen to be about ten years older. Because she was older, Dana wasn't sure how open-minded Karen was about sexuality, so she'd always been careful not to say, or do, anything that would tip Karen off about her.
But now the cat was out of the bag, and Dana felt like sinking right into the carpet and disappearing. Picking out two books that seemed to fit her needs, Dana headed to the cash register, silently hoping that today's events wouldn't effect how Karen treated her in the future.
Karen watched the slim brunette pay for her books, then rush back out the door, and noticed that Dana had kept her head down the whole way to the register and on her way out. She felt like kicking herself. She always thought of Dana as incredibly sweet and very intelligent. Karen often found herself wishing Dana would stop in, just so she could talk to her for a bit. Dana had a fantastic sense of humor, and was quick with a joke, or sarcastic quip that never failed to make her laugh. She never would have guessed that Dana was gay, but it really didn't bother her that she was. Besides, Karen knew she had no room to talk, since she'd spent the majority of her college years involved with another woman. Her senior year, the girl had dumped her cold, and she'd sworn never to get involved with another woman again. Instead, she had started dating several guys from the fraternities and eventually had ended up marrying one of them. Twenty years later, she was divorced, her son and daughter both away at college, and a small business owner. Karen had received a very nice divorce settlement, and she and her ex-husband had agreed to put enough money in a separate account specifically to pay for their children's education, but Karen wasn't well off enough to be able to afford scaring away customers, especially ones as loyal as Dana. Not to mention she truly liked the woman.
Karen sighed and returned to her stock work. Silently she vowed, next time Dana came in, to apologize and make clear to Dana that she wasn't one to judge others. Satisfied with her plan, Karen went back to work.
##
Three weeks later, Dana sat in her car in the bookstore's parking lot. Thanks to her books, and her own experience, that first night with Rita had gone quite well. The problem turned out to be that, out of bed, Rita was a diva and a complete bore. It had taken a week for Dana to figure that out, another week trying to ignore those facts because she really enjoyed the sex, then a third week to work her way around to breaking things off, which she had finally done last night.
She'd avoided the store this entire time, partly because she was embarrassed about the other day, and partly because she'd been too busy getting laid. This morning she'd gone looking for a good book to read, and realized she didn't have anything. She'd driven to the small bookstore automatically. Now that she was here, she suddenly felt unsure about going in. Dana was afraid that things were going to be awkward now. Well, she'd never know for sure if she didn't get out of the car. Sucking up some courage, Dana climbed out of her new G6 and headed for the store.
