“How dare you tempt me with a small bookstore!”
They go to a book store. She rifles through the books and babbles to him. He doesn’t take in a word- looking at her with a moment of realisation, a smile.
“Oooh how about this one?” She squeezed past a rickety trolley of second-hand books, juggling the stack of novels tucked into her left arm to show him. He hummed in response, flipping the book over to read the blurb. “I think I read this at school. I remember stumbling my way through lots of confusing English lessons with Mr. Harper.”
She giggled as she took the book back from him, adding it to the books nestled in her arm now threatening to topple onto the wooden floor. “Well I’m definitely going to give it a go. I’ve been wanting to read this for ages!”
He glanced at her as she tucked the book under her chin and moved on to the next bookshelf, and sighed softly. He watched for a few seconds as he thought back to a few hours ago when he’d agreed to meeting her here before heading to the pub for a friend’s birthday, her voice shining through the phone as she talked about a new bookstore that had just opened up close to her flat.
“Well, do you want to pop in for ten minutes or on our way out?” He had asked, smiling to himself at the sudden intake of excited breath that came from her. “How dare you tempt me with a small bookstore! You know you’ll have to physically drag me from there when we need to leave for the pub?”
“Yes, I’m fully aware, I even have some experience in that area actually. Do you remember that book-store in London Fields that we went to?” He shook his head in amusement as he remembered that day, “I practically had to carry you kicking and screaming as they locked up”.
The sunshine had shone down on them as they strolled from bookstore to bookstore, steaming cups in hand on a beautiful March Sunday morning. Laughter bubbling out from her as she took another sip of her coffee; a soya cappuccino for her, Americano with oat milk for him.
She cares so much, he had thought, as he watched her browse through the dusty shelves of the bookstore, head tilting in contentment as she read blurb after blurb, bag filling up with novels he knew she’d get through in two weeks. No one read more than her, it was becoming a laughing point in their friendship group as she continually handed out books to friends and family that she knew they’d love, she had just read it before hand to make sure.
“Ok… have you read this one? I think you’d like it! It’s a great example of a historical novel with a bit of fictional narrative sprinkled in” He blinked as he was jolted back to the present, back to her, as she brought another book up to him, eyes softly looking up at him in anticipation. He took the book and looked at it, pretending to concentrate when all he could hear was his thumping heartbeat, the thoughts racing in his head, Oh my god. How did I not realise before.
“Hmmm, no I don’t think I’ve read this one before but I like their work. I think I’ll take it home with me, give it a go.” She squealed in excitement to his response as the books clattered to the ground from her arms, quickly bending to pick them up as she continued to babble about the accuracy of historical novels with fictional stories woven in.
Lost in his own swirling thoughts, he grabbed a canvas bag from the shelf for her, bending down to help pick up the books. He was barely listening to what she was saying as one sentence clouded his mind over and over again, swallowing thickly to stop the words threatening to slip out,
I love you.