Page 86 of An Unexpected Kind of Love

She considers, rubbing the small of her back. “Well, Neil’s working. Jackie’s… I don’t know. I’ll text her. What’s the show, anyway?”

“Um.” Frowning, I shrug. “I don’t know the name of the exhibition, but it’s some edgy fashion thing with street art and punks?”

Gemma beams. “Brilliant. I’ll go if Jackie can make it.”

“Great,” I say, relieved. People successfully avoided. I’ll apologize to Lily. She’ll understand, won’t she?

“What will you do instead? Hot date?” She peers at me.

I snort, nodding at the mess around us. “No. I’ll just keep working. There’s loads to do.”

“That’s not very fun.”

“I’m Aubrey ‘No Fun’ Barnes, remember? Just keeping my reputation in check.”

Resigned, I sigh and reach for another armful of romance books. A cheerful, bright cover of a light-hearted romance is at the top of the stack. Hurriedly, I shelve it, safely out of view. Happy things remind me of Blake, and thinking of Blake’s just going to lead to more moping. I’ve spent the afternoon successfully avoiding thinking of him after the earlier poetry book debacle.

She tuts, hands on hips. “You seem even more out of sorts than normal.”

“Yeah. Speaking of reasons why,” I say, frowning at her, “by the way, there’s that whole issue about you signing the consent form for filming. That was terrible, Gemma. Like, the sort of thing people would get fired for.”

Gemma shrugs easily. “Look, I know it’s beyond what I’d normally do, but I knew that you really needed the money for the shop. And you won’t fire me—you need my help too much and can’t be arsed to train someone else.”

I sigh. “Fair enough. I guess that’s all true.”

“See?” She looks triumphant, holding an armful of books too.

“Just…don’t do that again? Please. I really can’t bear it.”

“I solemnly vow that if anyone comes in here wanting to turn the shop into a film set, I’ll send them straight to you.”

“Thank you.”

We work in silence, or near silence. The radio’s on, playing some rock tunes by Halfpenny Rise. The front door is open for fresh air but I have a rope across the door with aTemporarily Closed For Businesssign hanging from it in Gemma’s best block printing.

As the afternoon passes, sultry with heat, Gemma leaves at 5:00 p.m. to go home to round up Jackie and get ready for the evening’s private view. I pop out for a quick kebab since I skipped lunch and get back to work right after, steadily working on the rare and collectible books section by the front counter. Slowly, the stacks of boxes everywhere are starting to thin, and the stack of flattened boxes is starting to grow to a respectable height in the middle of everything, where my entry table with featured books would ordinarily go. Bits of cardboard litter the floor, but they’ll be hoovered up soon enough.

“Knock knock,” calls an all too familiar male voice after 6:00 p.m. at the front door, wide open again for the evening breeze. “Can I come in? I hear the safe word’s Noble.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Of course. Nothing like the universe kicking sand in my eyes when I’m already down. That’ll teach me to make like an ostrich and try to hide in plain sight. Why not a little more torture?

“Come in,” I call over my shoulder as I finish alphabetizing the section.

Eli can wait.

There’s the sound of footsteps across the wooden floor, the rugs not down yet. Eli comes to stand beside me, admiring the wall.

“Looking good,” he says lightly.

I glance at him, unimpressed. “You need to try harder if that’s some sort of come-on.”

Eli holds his hands up, eyes wide, sandy hair falling over his brow. “I come in peace. Honest.”

Scowling, I’m not so sure.

“Have you eaten?” He looks at me with concern.

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