Roses

Chapter 29

Zoey

You know when you face an obstacle in your path there's two ways to look at it; you either see it as a sign from the universe to take a different path or you see it as a challenge to overcome. Adam seemed to fall in the latter category of people.

Things have only got worse since we left my house. His car broke down and a bout of off-season rain meant that we got drenched walking to our destination. He took off his suit jacket to drape it over my head and body, so his shirt was practically painted on his skin, making it very hard for me to look away.

But not once did he even mention canceling our plans.

"What is this place?" I ask, when we stop in front of a rustic looking door. I assumed he was taking me to the best Italian restaurant in town, which was still another block away.

"I think you'll like this place," he replies as a soft smile graces his face. He opens the door for me, gesturing me to step inside and look for myself. I do and a low gasp erupts from me almost instantly.

It's a bookstore.

I turn to look at him and he smiles widely at me. "So?"

I look around at the cozy space with only two windows on either side of the entrance door, a small seating area with a brown leather couch and a couple white plastic chairs to the right and the rest of the space completely filled with floor to ceiling bookshelves. It's haphazard and at first glance, looks kind of cluttered, but I love it. I can bet good money whoever runs this place knows exactly which book is tucked in each nook and corner.

"It's beautiful," I whisper, not taking my eyes away from the bookshelves.

"Anything you want, it's yours," he whispers close to my ear. And I don't know if it's his warm breath against my cool skin or his alluring offer, but I feel it right in my bones.

"This is why you didn't want to cancel," I say and he simply shrugs in response, his beautiful smile still in place.

I don't see anyone else in the store and we could just be visiting at an odd hour, but something tells me he arranged for us to be undisturbed.

I take off his jacket and give it back to him, and then I can't be bothered by the world as I start perusing the bookshelves. I pass the self-help and non-fiction section without so much as a second glance, and give the poetry books a few minutes. But the real treasure awaits me as I step towards the shelves filled with fictional books.

I try not to judge a book by its cover (pun intended), but it's really hard to open a book with a boring cover.

Just as I'm reading the back cover of a thriller, my eyes fall on the spine of a black hardcover. On first glance, it appears just like another book. But as I look at it for a few moments, I'm quite taken by it. I don't know if it's the font style of the title (which I can't really read from where I stand) or the little design below it or the name 'SIA' near the bottom, but I put down the book in my hands and pull it out.

Covenant. By an author called Sia.

Oh wait. I bring the cover close to my face and see the words 'The Devil's' written in a much smaller font size above Covenant. Hmm, The Devil's Covenant.

"What's that?" Adam asks me.

He sort of disappeared into the background doing God knows what when I entered my little fictional world around an hour ago.

"I don't really know. But it looks interesting," I answer. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh nothing. Just..." He glances behind him and then I see. There's a table next to one of the windows with two chairs and what looks like takeout and candles on top of it.