The Book Boyfriend

Six.

I didn't think leaving work for the last time Friday would be as painful or as hard as it actually was. Mrs. Collins never worked Friday, but she came in just for me with a couple of bottles of champagne from her husbands' wine cellar and a cake big enough for the whole campus. It was fine at the time but come saturday morning, I was hung over and emotionally exhausted, which was exactly how I wanted to look going in to see my Nana at her shop.

"How are you feeling?" My Nana refused to accept her seventy something age, still keeping her hair grey free and spending more than I did in a year, each month at the beauty salon having her nails done and whatever the latest craze in facials happened to be. To her credit, she looked younger than my Mum and with all the yoga she did, she was probably in better shape than me too.

"Fine" She raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow in my direction not buying it. "OK, I feel like shit. Mrs. Collins bought in champagne and I ended up being the only one drinking it."

I collapsed into the chair behind the desk, not objecting to her hands gently working on my shoulders as she kissed the top of my head. "We don't say shit at work darling"

"Sorry" She disappeared, returning with two painkillers and a bottle of water. "Thanks Nan"

"You know what, let's close today and I'll take you out for some pampering and have you feeling like a million bucks in no time" She offered, inspecting her broken finger nail I had a feeling it was more for her benefit than mine.

"You don't have to do that, but you go. I can handle the store" I offered only to have her shaking her head.

"I insist. We may turn away one or two customers," She shrugged, "You know I only have this place for Wednesday night wine, I mean book club night"

It was true.

The store was all hers, it didn't matter much anymore since she had practically no expenses to cover after my Granddad passed away five years ago and while I got my love of books from my parents, they had a lot of help with that from her. Now all the wives in her book club used it to catch up on weekly gossip and to keep track of who was still alive. In their younger days it was a night away from husbands and kids. The wine part hadn't changed.

"Besides, you're my favorite granddaughter. Let me spoil you." She winked as she went over to the front door and turned the sign from open to closed.

"I'm your only granddaughter!" I laughed; knowing there was no point in arguing with her now her mind was made up.

"Even more reason to go then!" With the shop closed we headed off to the day spa she practically lived at and I gave in the pleasures of pampering. After all, I did have a big vip party to go to tonight.

By the time we went back to the car I felt like a different person. Every muscle was relaxed and on top of that, once Nana found out about the party she made sure I had my hair cut, dyed and styled as well as getting my makeup done. I couldn't think of a better way to spend six hours and neither could Jess, as she literally turned green at seeing me.

A couple of hours later, I had just done Jess's hair and gone back upstairs to get changed when our doorbell rang and quickly doing the zip up my side I ran back down the stairs, screaming in surprise as John stood there with a suitcase in hand.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, hugging him quickly.

"Visiting, got a week off now the festival has all wrapped up and I got that promotion. Came to celebrate with my baby sister" He paused, stepping back to look at my outfit. "Where ever you're going, that better be stage one of your outfit"

Dad had nothing worry about with him around, if anything he was worse.

"Don't worry it is." It wasn't a total lie. I still had to put shoes and accessories on.