A Readers Guide to Romance

Chapter 2

Sunday May 22:

The bright afternoon sun was blaring through the windshield as Avery reached for the visor and pulled it down, before groaning and reaching to pull out her sunglasses - because of course the sun was right at that spot just between the visor and rear view mirror, where absolutely nothing could be done but to just deal with it. Today has just been one of those days; the days where it seems like the entire world is against you, but just for the smallest details. From the minute Avery woke it had been minor inconvenience after minor inconvenience - from there not being enough milk for her cereal, to the register not working at the grocery store, and now this.

Instead of continuing straight down Grape road for another two miles, Avery makes an impulsive right turn. Muscle memory takes over as she makes her way down a twisty road - one that had always been her favorite when first learning to drive, and thankfully blocked that God awful sun - towards the old bookshop she used to work at after school and on weekends.

Pulling into her favorite spot, right by the median to the left of the front door, Avery shifted the car into park and hopped out, leaving the groceries in the back seat. They'd be fine for 20 minutes.

Someone was crouched behind a shelf restocking books as Avery walked in, it felt exactly the same as the last time she had been there. It was still organized the same way; resister to the left of the front door and rows of tall bookshelves to the right, and a tiny bell above the door which chimed as she entered.

The man didn't look up from his spot on the floor, even while he addressed Avery, "welcome in, let me know if you need anything."

Avery walked deeper into the little bookshop, back to the shelves she knew were labeled 'romance' and skimmed over the spines. Most of the titles were ones that had been there for years, but there were some new additions that Avery hadn't seen before. One caught her eye, a bright blue book with swirly lettering on the spine, and she pulled it off the shelf. The cover was similar to a lot of the rom-com books, bright colors and cartoony designs of, presumably, the love interests.

Reading the description Avery was brought back to her time in highschool, when she would use her employee discount to purchase countless books of this same genre and spent her spare time reading the cheesy novels - when she really should have been studying. Of course that didn't last for long when they stopped holding the same appeal as the first one did.

But it had been a while since she last read one of these... Maybe she could give it another shot, really what was the harm? It was only... six dollars, seven with tax. Not too bad. And  maybe she could sweet talk the employee into giving her a discount, she used to work here after all - four dedicated years for that matter.

The employee had seemed to disappear fully by the time Avery made it back to the front of the bookshop. Walking up to the register Avery peeked over the counter and through the open door that led to the employee break room, only to be met with a very familiar face.

James hadn't noticed her yet, too busy stuffing his face with a sandwich - one that appeared to be a PB & J, just like the ones his mom would make him - and Avery smirked to herself, leaning a little further over the counter.

"Do they pay you to hide back there while there are customers in the store?" James jumped at the sound of Avery's voice and looked over where Avery still leaned on the counter. He looked absolutely ridiculous; brown eyes wide and eyebrows raised, his cheeks bulging from the food and goofy grin starting to grow on his face. Avery couldn't stop her own smile from growing to match James'.

James swallowed his bite of sandwich so quickly Avery feared he might choke, and then he jumped from his seat and ran around the counter and pulled Avery into a tight hug. Avery's arms held James tight around his shoulders, while James almost squeezed the life out of her, holding her so tight her feet raised off the ground and she had to slap his arms away to get him to release her.