The Encounter

At Ralph's

As she surfaced from her thoughts and looked up, she saw the sign, 'Ralph's Knowledge Chest', and she let out is brief sigh of relief, as the sign on the door still said "Open". It was a quaint little spot. Soft aesthetics with 7 wooden shelves, stacked high with books of all kinds. It's been there for as long as she could remember, ever since moving to this city, couple years back. The owner was a charming, book enthusiast, who's been the owner since he took over from his old man, Ralph II. This was one of her go to spots, even if she wasn't going to get a book, but just to sit in the cosy reading corner and just breath. As she pushed the door to enter, the bell dinged quite smoothly, Ralph looked up, a huge smile creeped across his face, and he said "Jen Jen, I was wondering when you'd get here, I've already signed out 'The millionaire Next Door' for ya." as he pulled the book from under the counter. Jenny who had a close relationship with the bookstore owner, smiled back, whilst she shook the excess water from her umbrella and put it into the umbrella holder next to the door.

As she made her way to Ralph, with the lighting in the store adequate enough for her to notice about five other persons, moving from shelf to shelf conducting their book hunts. Three of them were men, and one of which specifically caught her eye. He was standing in the cookbook section, directly across from the counter where Ralph stood. From the side, she saw that he had on a knee length beige woolen trench coat, a black slim fitted pants, topped off with a black leather oxfords. She couldn't see the shirt that he wore under his coat, she could however see his dark chocolate skin, his strong broad shoulders, his height towering about 6'5"; his dark kinky coily hair, his strong jaw line as he stared intently at his smart phone, then back at the shelf, tracing the books with his finger tips, mouthing the title he was looking for.

She slowly took her eyes from him as she made her way to Ralph, but the butterflies had already been let out their cage. "I'm sorry," she related to the bookkeeper, "I got held up in this weather. I'm just glad I got here before you closed for the weekend." She smiled, as she retrieved the book she was returning from her bag and handed it to him. "No worries," Ralph said, "I would have stayed open, just for you" as he took the book, and signed it into the 'Return Log' and Jenny signed out the next book. When she'd finished and placed the book in her bag, she said, "Excuse me Ralph", as she made her way to the CookBook wanderer.

"Having trouble?" She asked politely as she approached him. His dark brown eyes pulled away from his phone and met hers. "So obvious is it?" He smiled and held her gaze. "Nooooo, not at all...." Jenny replied humorously. "Well, I can't seem to find 'Sunset Italian Cook Book', and I'm sure I've triple checked." he replied. Jenny noticed now, as he turned to face her, that he was wearing a white British style, cotton, buttoned down shirt under his coat. "Classy but simple styling." was the fleeting thought that crossed her mind. "Oh, hmmmm, sounds like something that the owner would be able to help you with, since I don't actually work here" she responded. The cookbook wanderer looked at her puzzled for a moment, then replied with a smirk "Ahhhhh, so it was obvious, since you were kind enough to come all the way over here to ask." His eyes made a quick full body observation, taking in her good figure, broad shoulders, short curly blond natural hair, dark chocolate skin tone, plumped lips, wide eyes settling over high cheekbones, sitting perfectly on her slender face. He also noticed that she was rather tall, 5'11 maybe or 6ft. She really gave off that African Warrior vibe. "So you want me to ask him for ya?" Jenny spoke breaking his thoughts. "Sure, why not, he's the better of us two" he agreed.