"The recent streak of violent burglaries in the city of Oak Grove continued today. Hartman's Grocery was robbed by force early this morning. Three men in hoods entered the small grocery, gathered the customers and Mr. Hartman, and forced them into a deep freezer. But not before viciously attacking one of the customers who tried to resist. The men then proceeded to empty the cash drawer and safe, which was holding the previous day's earnings of six thousand dollars. The men have so far evaded custody, but police are on the case. In the meantime, Chief Martin Brooks advises all store owners and citizens in general to be a little more vigilant."
The small bell above the door rang and Cori stirred from her morning drowsiness. She muted the small television and stepped out of the back office. The smell of books greeted her once again. "Good morning," she called. "Can I help you find anything?"
A tall man with broad shoulders smiled back at her from the near the door. He looked bewildered, as though he'd been dropped into the bookstore unexpectedly. Cori was slightly flustered as well. The man's figure was quite striking, silhouetted by the morning sun coming in from the front windows. Tall and broad, he rippled with muscle as he looked through the different books. As he stepped further into the store, she a scruffy face with sun baked skin and stark green eyes. Though she couldn't see the man being any older than thirty, his cropped hair had streaks of gray through the top and around the temples. He wore a tight fitting knit shirt and a pair of worn jeans which did an excellent job of drawing attention to his ass, whether that was his intent or not. The man smiled nervously as he made his way through the shelves, "I think so, yes. I'm looking for a book of short stories by William Faulkner."
Cori stepped from behind the counter and made her way over to the fiction section. She beckoned the man to follow. "Forgive me for saying this, but you don't really look the type to be interested in Faulkner."
The man rolled his head from side to side in blushing embarrassment, "Yeah, it's on my list."
"List?" He slid his hand into his pocket and Cori bit her lip as she watched. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but she would have given anything to be the one reaching into that pocket. The man pulled out a folded and crumpled piece of paper and handed it over to Cori. A few of the titles, mostly the short story collections, were crossed out. The others works could be found on any top one hundred list for readers. "These are the one's you've read? Love in the Time of Cholera? Jane Eyer?"
"Sure," he said, somewhat boastfully. He stepped closer to her and she could feel the heat radiating off his body. After a quick search, Cori plucked a copy of Faulkner's short stories from the shelf and handed it to the man. He flipped through it until he realized Cori was still staring at him. "Um, I'll take it."
"Oh, right, sorry," she stammered. She went over to the register and he followed. As she started to ring up the book, her curiosity got the better of her. "I don't want to be rude, but I have to wonder. Why are you reading all those?"
"Yeah, it's a little weird right," he admitted. "It's my dad, actually. I didn't get to go to college, so he wants me to read a bunch instead. I don't get it, but he thinks it's best. I like them though. Gives me something to do when I'm hanging around at work."
"What kind of work do you do?"
"Construction, mostly."
"Mostly?"
"Yeah, I do a little contracting work on the side. Say, mind if I ask your name?"
"I'm Cori."
"Nice to meet you, Cori. I'm Andrew. I gotta say, you're a lot nicer than the people at those other stores. I usually just go into one of the big chain stores on the other side of town, but we're working over here this week and I noticed your sign."
"I'm glad you did," she replied. Cori had never flirted with a man a day in her life, but this man, with his perfect physique, startling green eyes, and strange interest in literature seemed like a gift sent from the gods.
Andrew grinned at her, "I, uh, I'm a pretty fast reader. I might need to stop back by sometime this week, pick up something else."
"I"ll be here. Enjoy the book." She handed the bag over to him. As he took it, his hand brushed against hers intentionally and he smiled.
"Say, you know any good places to eat around here?"
"Marco's down the street is good. Sandwich place."
"Do you want to have lunch with me?" Despite her attempts to get him to notice her, actually being asked out came as a tremendous surprise. After she didn't respond for a while, his confidence faltered. "I mean, if you can't make it, I understand."
"No, that's...I mean, yes, I'll have lunch with you. I can close up about 12:30, say we meet at 12:45?"
Andrew nodded enthusiastically. "I'll see you there."
Cori watched Andrew leave the bookstore, making no attempts to be discreet in her admiration of his body. His invitation to lunch had started her heart pounding and it had not slowed since. Once he was out of sight, the heady daze that had seized her the second he walked in abated. Immediately, she felt a new anxiety. Guys like Andrew don't pay attention to girls like me. She drummed her fingers on the counter for a few minutes before going back to the office. She looked at herself in a small mirror that hung beside the office door. She'd never made much of an effort to subdue the mousy nature of her appearance. Even when she'd dated guys, she didn't think her appearance was much of a factor. Cori did not think herself lacking in any good qualities. For her entire life, she'd loved two aspects of her appearance while willfully ignoring the rest. She loved her eyes and spent an almost egregious amount makeup to enhance their appearance. In her daydreams, it was always her eyes that ensnared her future husband, and she hoped that Andrew had been no different. His eyes had certainly jumped out at her.
She turned around in the mirror, frowning at her choice of wardrobe for the day. The other feature of her body that she felt proud of was her butt. She'd actually enjoyed a brief period of attention in high school when her lower half developed before her peers upper halves. Once the boob fairy showed up, and somewhat skipped over Cori, all the boys stopped giving her the second glance. Cori tried to think back to when Andrew had stopped being a customer and started being a guy interested in her. Was it when she turned around? Or had it been her eyes? After a moment's thought, she honestly didn't care which.
The morning dragged by and Cori thought of little other than her lunch date with Andrew. All her life she had been prone to daydream. The tendency to let her mind wander drew her to literature in the first place. She dabbled at being a writer, but found that she preferred to live out the stories written by others than trouble herself to write her own. She imagined sitting across from Andrew in a cozy, dark bar, the haze of smoke swirling around their heads while soft music played from an old juke box in the corner. She would reach out and touch his hand and run her fingertips along the length of this forearm. He would reach over and pull her chair closer, bringing her within radius of his body heat and masculine scent. She would lean into his chest and his arm would wrap around her. Their hands would cross paths underneath the table as each reached out for other's leg. His strong hand would slide against her thigh as fingertips crept slowly towards her sex.
The bell dinged and Cori's daytime fantasies dissipated as a little old woman tottered into the store. A few more customers came and went. Cori pretended to read or attempted to tidy up the shelves when the store was empty, but mostly she watched the clock and thought about putting her hands against Andrew's bare chest. When the time finally came, she locked up the store, spent a few minutes in the bathroom making herself a little more presentable, and then headed out the back. Marco's was a short walk away and Cori made it in record time, her nerves driving her to a quicker pace than usual. As she approached, she saw several burly men all dressed in similarly entering the small sandwich shop and Andrew among them. She had hoped to have time with Andrew to herself and was slightly insulted that he would invite along his whole work crew. She considered going back to her shop and having her planned lunch of chicken salad, but she figured that Andrew's workmates could help to break the ice.
"There she is!" Andrew called out as Cori stepped through the door. He was sitting at a small table near the front windows, the other construction workers had dispersed through the restaurant. Andrew hopped to his feet as she came in, pulling her chair out for her. "I've actually spent all morning wondering if you'd show up."
As she sat down, the feeling of preternatural attraction returned. Maybe it was a cologne he was wearing or something about the shape of his jaw, but Cori couldn't deny that he was almost magnetic. "Why wouldn't I?"
Andrew shrugged, "I don't have a lot of luck with women."
"I find that hard to believe." She more than found it hard to believe. She had to choke back an incredulous laugh at the idea that someone who looked like Andrew would have trouble finding a date.
"Ok, let's say you didn't meet me in your bookstore. Let's say you and I met at a bar after about three drinks. I meet girls like that. They're not much interested in having lunch. You saw me fumbling around looking for something on my reading list. Starts us off in a different place, I hope."
"What bars do you go to?" Something about the idea of Andrew picking up women and sending them off without breakfast the next morning needled at her. She'd barely spent thirty minutes with the man and had no right to be jealous. Even so, she knew jealousy when she felt it.
"I don't. Not much anyway, maybe for one of the guy's birthdays, but I don't have time for that kind of thing. I mean, like Billy over there, the one in the hat, he loves the bars. Comes home with a different girl every night. Like a wild dog. Dad doesn't mind it so much since he's, well he's Billy."
The waitress arrived and they placed an order. While Andrew perused the menu, Cori took a better look at Billy and the other men who had come in with Andrew. They were all enormous. Billy, in fact, seemed to be the smallest and he was likely six feet tall. None of them had so much as an ounce of fat on them. A few wore safety vests, but beneath that they all had on similar tight fitting shirts which showed off their muscular torsos. As she scanned from one to the next, she realized they were all staring at her as well. Green eyes would dart away from her as she turned her head slightly. The waitress moved off and Cori turned back to Andrew, "You mentioned your dad again..."
