The next day was looking bright for Pierre. He woke up early and cleaned up his messy apartment. Along his way out the apartment building he told Amanda that he was going to pay her tomorrow. Pierre was lucky that he found his gas card underneath the bed. After his car was filled up he drove to the bookshop slash candy shop. The blond was whistling merrily as he parked in front of Houdini. He came in after and saw Serena carefully packing books inside a box.
"What are you doing...?"
Sealed up boxes laid on a corner beside the empty shelves where the jars of candies used to lie. The stack of books that was on top of the counter were gone along with the chairs where they sat yesterday. Pierre's eye darted all over and realized that Serena was packing things up. Are they closing down the shop?
"Sorry, it was kind of sudden so it's messy around here right now." Serena said.
"Why are you packing up...?" Pierre asked. The boy walked to the raven haired girl. "You're not closing the shop, right....?"
Serena placed the last batch of books inside the half full box before turning to Pierre. "We have to." she answered.
Pierre's glow faded, his smile left his lips and he stood there stiffly.
"Pierre? Are you okay?" Serena worriedly asked.
"Serena, where should I put these?" a man wearing a carpenter outfit came in with buckets of paint in his hands.
"Just put it on that corner." Serena instructed as she pointed on the empty space beside the window. The pale girl turned back to Pierre who now looked so dumbfounded. "Grandpa suddenly decided to have the place fully renovated." she said as she sealed the box half full of antique books with packing tape. "What brings you here anyway?" she asked and then placed the box on top of the counter before dusting off her t-shirt.
The blond cleared his throat, his cheeks were colored bright red and he looked embarrassed about his assumption. "Erm... Didn't we agree that we're going shopping for new clothes today? For you remember?"
"Oh, yeah... that's today." Serena laughed then gave her forehead a smack. "I'm so forgetful! Sorry! But I still have things to do... can we move it to tomorrow?"
"You can go." Someone suddenly chimed in. "Since everything is packed up you don't need to do anything else here today." An old man who came from the back of the shop said. Pierre recognized the man from his fierce grey eyes, he's Serena's grandfather. "And here's your donation yesterday, boy." He held out his hand and gave Pierre his quarters back.
"Two quarters is a cheap donation for the people in need." he said. "Next time keep your quarters to yourself."
Pierre's mouth gaped and his face turned red once again. "T-That was all I had in my pocket sir, if I had any money I could've given you more."
Serena laughed. "He's just kidding. Don't take that seriously."
Pierre looked at the old man who was silently chuckling to himself. "Yes, Yes I was kidding. I don't really take the money from the people for myself, I give it to charity." He said and then picked up two piled up boxes labelled with 'Candies'.
The blond gazed at Serena for confirmation, the girl nodded with a proud smile. "If you don't mind sir, I'll take that." Pierre said then took the boxes from the old man. "Where do I bring these sir?" he asked.
"To the truck over there." Serena's grandfather said.
Pierre hastily went out the shop to bring the boxes to the parked truck on the other side of the road.
YOU ARE READING
The Houdini Bookshop
RomanceWritten in © 2012 ('ω｀) Pierre was having some of the worst days of his life. One day when he was out to search for a job he stumbled upon an old man asking for spare change. He gave him some of his remaining money and as a token of gratitude the ol...
