red herring [h.s.]

7.

Stella.

"Thank you, have a nice day." I smiled at the customer who just bought a couple of books.

He was the classic wannabe-hipster-New Yorker-boy who came in with his large glasses and bought Catcher in the Rhye and something from Bukowski. Classic. And so predictable.

It was a Thursday and my shift was ending in about an hour. Whitlock's was never really a busy bookshop. It was tiny, just stacks and stacks and stacks of books piled up everywhere without much structure. Yet Mr. Whitlock – the owner – still expected us to know perfectly where everything was.

Which is why Axel and I worked out our own system a little. Axel was a literature student who usually did the afternoon shifts while I did the mornings. With the pencil behind my ear and a stack of books in my hand, I walked through the narrow alleys of the shop to put some books back into their places.

The bell of the door dinging caught my attention and without even looking up, I greeted the customer, "Welcome to Whitlock's."

"Hey."

The gravelly tone in his voice made me look up in surprise, seeing Harry standing near the cash register with a long, brown coat on as he took his beanie off. He had a dimpled grin on his lips and I chuckled as I walked over to him, "Hi."

It was slightly awkward for a minute before he dipped his head and shortly kissed my cheeks, "How've you been?"

"I'm good." I breathed, putting the rest of the books back down on the desk, "You?"

"Fine, nothing special." He shrugged, "So this is where you work?"

I looked around, "Yep. Don't you have to work today?"

"Oh, um, I have kind of a fluid schedule. Depends on if I have clients or not and no one booked me this afternoon." He simply shrugged and I nodded, "So what brings you here?"

Harry licked his lips as he tucked his hands in the pockets of his coat, "Actually... you. I wanted to see you."

A smile crept up my lips at the thought that Harry came all this way just to see me, and also that he remembered that I worked here. I had only mentioned it once and it just showed me how good of a listener he was, "Yeah?"

He smirked back, "Mhm. You look pretty today."

"Stop." I chuckled, hiding my blushing cheeks as I looked down to stop my wide smile.

"Not still too shaken up about what happened on Tuesday?" He checked and I quickly looked up, shaking my head, "No, no, I was exaggerating probably." I dismissed, "I need to stop being so paranoid and watching all these crime documentaries. They mess with my head."

Harry softly chuckled and then cleared his throat, "I, uh, I wanted to come by and ask if you wanted to go out with me again. Maybe tomorrow? Or Saturday? I'm also free this afternoon." He listed.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest as I smiled up at him, "I'd like that."

Literally all week I had been dropping hints for Harry to ask me out again. I had asked him to the movies so it felt a little like a waiting game to see if he was going to ask me out once more. I felt like the ball was in his court and the last thing I wanted was to bother or annoy him by asking him out all the time, so I left that up to him.

When he asked me on the phone on Tuesday what I was doing later that night, I had thought for sure that that was the moment. When I said I wasn't doing anything and then he said he wasn't doing anything, I had waited for it. But he never did, so I just dropped it.