Unforeseen

Chapter XIV

As promised, I arrived at The Page Turner about a quarter after eight to give Benson enough time to get settled in and carry out whatever his morning routine held.

"Late I see," Benson croaked as I closed the door tightly behind me. 

"Late! Weren't you the one who told me it didn't matter what time I came?" 

"And weren't you the one who told me you'd still be here a little after eight?"

"It is a little after eight," I said, feeling slightly irritated at the back and forth. 

"It's quarter after, I'd hardly say that is a littleafter eight."

Staring at him wide-eyed I wasn't quite sure what to think. Was he deliberately treating me this way to try to run me off or was rude and argumentative just his nature? I began to open my mouth to say something, but then I quickly shut it, unsure of where we go from here. 

Bursting into laughter Benson threw his head back and clutched his chest. "You should see your face little girl, you don't know what to make of me or what to do and it's hilarious," he said as he wiped tears from the corners of his eyes. "Oh, never mind I'm just messing with you, geez lighten up a bit and learn to laugh a little!"

At that moment there were so many things I wanted to say to him, so many things I could've said to him, but instead, I decided to hold mytongue and carry on as normally as I could. Conjuring up a small smile, I forced at least thatmuch out of myself before heading past the front counter and towards the back bookshelves.

"You know I'm more of a morning person...really," Benson shouted after me. 

"Oh, is that so?" I asked, trying to act uninterested.

"Well not really, I'm a morning person today.My wife actually took a turn for the better through the night, and well...I guess I am just glad about that. Now I am not going to be stuck taking care of her anymore." he said wondering off in thought.

"That's great news Benson, Congratulations." I was trying my hardest not to act cold and let my mood get the best of me, after all, he did seem genuinely pleased about this, but it was hard. He was getting on my last nerve.

"Err...I'll let you be so you can do your exploring I just wanted to give you a quick rundown of the current setup. Well, every book that is in the same genre has its own section to help keep things 100organized. I have found over the years that customers rarely come looking for authors they come for genres," Benson said.

 "Thank you that sounds most helpful but I–" Benson unexpectedly cut me off mid-sentenceby holding his pointer finger up to his mouth as if to hush me.

"Well, that's how it used to be, now there's just rubbish everywhere. Everything's mixed in and it's a total disaster so good luck. Oh, and yes if you were wondering the upstairs is the same way," he said while turning to walk away. "I left this place for one week and see what happened? The person I left in charge didn't keep up on returning the books to their respective places, and it all became haywire. By the time I returned it was too much of a wreck for me to try to get control of and fix. And yes,believe it or not, we did use to have a nice little rush of customers back in the day. Well...enjoy your adventure."

With this he returned to the front counter, disappearing behind the closed door that was positioned behind him. Lucky for Benson and I boththat's exactly how I preferred it when it came to searching for books, utter chaos. I found that's when you find the ones you didn't even know you were searching for. Besides, there wasn't a particular author that stood out to me either, I could like anyone as long as the book was interesting enough to me. Taking a look around the room Isoon realized I was going to be here a long time, maybe even all day, with that in mind I removed my jacket and hung it on the closest chair I could find. Then beginning at the spot that had first caught my attention, I went book by book and read their titles. When the name caught me, I pulled it from the shelf and read the back cover. If that piqued my interest then I read the first few sentences of the first chapter, and from there it either went back on the shelf or got placed on the table where my jacket resided.

After finishing the lower level, I decided to take a break at the table. The clock on the wall hanging high above the front counter told me that I had been here for about four hours and that noon was now upon us. I hadn't even the chance to settle in and getcomfortable in my seat before Benson arrived at my side.

"Wow you're a serious book worm, more serious than I ever could have imagined you were," Benson said, scratching his head as he looked up and down at the stack of books on the table.

"Yes, I am very serious about my books," I saidwith a light laugh as I patted the stack closest to me."And this is just the lower level."

"You're not telling me you're going to do the upper-level today too?" At this point, Benson's eyes were bulging out of his head with both disbelief and astonishment.

"Of course I am, I mean no offense, but I don't want to be in here every few days each week, and at the rate I read books that time frame is probably close to accurate. I would rather just get through the place now instead of losing my spot, and then thenext time I come in I end up wasting time on sections I already combed through."

Scratching his head more, he fell silent still staring at my stack of books. Which in my opinionwasn't a lot considering how many I just laid eyes on, on the lower level?

"Benson, do you ever get any new books from an outside source?" 

Leaning in on the table to meet me eye to eye he said, "Girl, didn't I tell you last night that neither that door nor doorbell has seen any action in yearsand I meant it. Now if I don't get customers in here what makes you think I get a delivery boy bringing me fresh books to stock the shelves with?"

Since I had neither a good response nor a sarcastic comeback, I decided to ignore his previous statement. "I am going to get something to eat for lunch, and then I'll be back. Do you want me to bring you something?"

Looking at me unenthused he said, "No, the Mrs. made me a sandwich."