"Sure you don't want me to park?"
Harper hated the way Evie was looking at her. With pity.
She'd been determined to salvage the weekend, but so far, she wasn't on the right track. She grumbled. Gripped the steering wheel. "It's a tight spot," she acknowledged, "but I've got it."
Evie nodded from the passenger seat, eyes wide like she was kind of afraid of her best friend.
After a couple of deep breaths, Harper re-aligned her car against the one in front of the spot, then managed to parallel park with only a couple of small adjustments. "See?" she said, though it almost came out as a snap. "Easy. Let's go."
Retail therapy. That was what she needed. It always helped. Whenever she had a bad day, she treated herself. A new blouse, shoes, even a purse if things were particularly bad, like the time she got rear ended. Today might be another new purse day, actually. Like a Coach purse day. It felt that shitty.
She checked her phone screen out of habit. "Stop it," Evie said. "It's not going to do you any good."
"I'm not expecting--" She stopped herself, shaking her head. She didn't even want to say his name.
She'd thought today would be her first full day as an engaged woman, not her first full day single in three years.
Fuck.
They'd gone to a different town, twenty miles out of the way, because Harper was nervous they'd run into her ex if they went to their usual haunts. But this downtown was smaller, and more crowded on a Saturday. They'd had to park a couple of blocks from the main strip, clip-clopping in their heeled shoes up a hilly street.
"You're better off," Evie said. "Seriously, I never liked him."
"I don't want to talk about him," Harper said. And the truth was, it stung to hear that, after all the years she'd spent with him. But maybe Evie was just trying to make her feel better. She'd invited Evie to come out with her today without even thinking about it, since they did pretty much everything together. But now she wondered if it had been a bad idea. She turned away from Evie's gaze, towards the shop they were walking by.
She stopped in her tracks, almost tripped in her shoes at what she saw in the window. "What the fuck?"
Evie stopped behind her. "What's up?"
Harper could have sworn she saw her ex in the window of the bookshop. Tall, dark-haired, wearing a button-down shirt and slacks. A second later, he went behind a bookshelf and disappeared.
"What's he doing there?" she said out loud.
"No shit, is he in there?"
Harper didn't answer, didn't even think of an answer, before she pulled open the door and went inside.
An old man, the picture of doddering grandfatherliness, stood at the counter. "Hello ladies--"
Harper ignored him and went to check the shelf she'd seen her ex disappear behind while Evie tried to make awkward small talk with the proprietor. "Sorry," Harper heard her stage whisper. "She's having a bad day."
He wasn't anywhere. There hadn't been enough time for him to disappear completely.
Great. So now she wasn't just single; she was also going crazy.
"Was there a guy in here?" she asked the old man. "Just now."
"In this room?" He shook his head. "No one in here but me, until you two came in. We have a few folks scattered in some of the other rooms."
"Other rooms?" Evie asked. "How big is this place?"
He chuckled. "Guess you ladies didn't find us on Instagram, huh? We went viral there recently. We're built out of the basements of a couple of different old businesses, including a bank. More books than I can inventory too." He absently scratched the head of a black cat that was curled up on the counter.
"Woah," said Evie.
Harper looked around. Even this one room had hundreds of books lining the shelves. She wasn't much of a reader, so she would never have thought to come in here, even if she had seen the Instagram post. She'd never realized how comforting the smell of books was, how well their pages absorbed sound and created a sense of calm that seemed to melt away all the tension she'd had before she walked in.
"All the new ones are in here," the man explained. "The rest of the rooms are all our used books, arranged as well as I can. We have so many it can get a little unruly sometimes. I've got rooms with children's books, fantasy and sci-fi, cookbooks..."
"Great." Evie gave her patented fake smile that only a few people knew was fake, including Harper. "Well, I think we gotta get going, so--"
"No," Harper said. "This is it. Retail therapy." A new Coach purse was suddenly the furthest thing from her mind. "I'll find something here."
"Here?" Evie seemed to be holding back a laugh. "Just 'cause you thought you saw..." She stopped herself. "Alright, girl. Whatever. It's your day."
Yeah. It was her day. Damn right. She bit her lip and looked around again. She had no idea what kind of book she was looking for, but she knew that she'd know it when she saw it.
Deeper.
She scratched behind her ear. Yeah, the old man had said this place was huge. Of course she wouldn't find what she was looking for in this first room.
"Come on." She grabbed Evie's hand and dragged her down a narrow hallway.
The first room, right on their left around the corner, was lined with chapter books for children. At first, she thought this might be the place. Her breakup had left her feeling frustrated and vulnerable. Maybe instead of new accessories, she needed something to help her tap into her childhood memories, a book her parents had read to her, or something like that.
She ran her fingers along the worn cardboard spines, reading the titles, trying to see if anything stood out.
"Check it out!" Evie eagerly pulled a book off the shelf. "Pippi Longstocking. I loved this book when I was a kid." She looked down. "Oh!" The black cat had followed them into the room and was rubbing its head on Evie's ankle. "He's super cute. She? Whatever." She bent down and petted the cat's back. "I thought this would be lame at first, but this place is actually pretty neat."
"Yeah," Harper agreed distantly.
Your future isn't in the children's section,
a voice inside her seemed to say. It didn't sound like her at all, if she was being honest. It almost sounded like a man's voice, even followed by a deep chuckle.
When she'd gotten home from the restaurant the night before, she'd sworn off men forever. At least for a month. But now she was hearing a sensual male voice from out of nowhere that honestly, tickled something in her. So maybe she'd spoken too soon.
She could imagine the voice right next to her ear, even forming an invisible hand that pulled on hers. It was made of something gauzy, like smoke if it could be touched. The voice was smoky too.
Go deeper, Harper. There's so much you've yet to explore.
Yes. Deeper. She took in a sharp, shuddering breath.
"Harper?" Evie finally noticed her best friend was staring into nothing. "You good?"
"Yeah. I think I want to check out the next room." Her tongue felt heavy, like it suddenly wasn't meant for speech.
"Okay. Call me if you get lost."
"You're not coming?"
Evie was already sinking to the floor, eagerly cracking open the copy of Pippi. "Girl, Mark would never stop teasing me if I came home with this book, so this is my only chance to re-read it. Plus, this kitty wants me to keep petting him, and I don't know about you, but I don't turn down a cat that wants to be scritched."
Harper thought about telling Evie that she was being ridiculous, that this was supposed to be a day for Harper to do what she wanted. But whatever. They weren't going to stay long, anyway. She'd check out a couple more rooms, see what she could find, and then they'd go. If Evie still wanted Pippi, she'd buy the damn book for her and keep it at her place. "Cool. See you." She turned and went back into the hallway.
Is she always like this?
the voice said, and she swore that now, the invisible hands were on her shoulders, wrapping along her collarbone. It was so soothing that she felt warmth and a bit of wetness growing in her sex.
So easily distracted? So quick to abandon you?
"She's my best friend," Harper found herself saying, without even thinking about it. She paused, waiting to see if Evie had heard her.
The voice chuckled.
Sound doesn't carry well here. Too many books. Besides, she's very well distracted.
Yeah, that made sense, Harper thought. She had no idea why she was thinking things in a man's deep voice, but everything it said made perfect sense.
Every square inch of the walls was covered in books. It almost seemed to warp space and make it hard to figure out where the hallway walls ended and curved into the corner of another room. That combined with the horribly sexy voice echoing in her head were probably the main reasons why, a moment later, she blinked and realized she didn't know where she was.
No, obviously, she knew where she was. In the bookstore. But when she took a few steps back, there was no sign of the room she'd left Evie in. "Evie?" she called. The books might inhibit sound, but surely Evie could hear her name being called loudly. Or maybe an employee or another customer would come out and point her in the right direction.
Hadn't the shop owner in the front room mentioned something about other customers? She hadn't seen anyone else in here except for her and Evie. And of course, the cat.
Evie didn't come, nor did anyone else. "Hello?" she called again.
