The Book Nook

17

 "So why here?" I asked, motioning to the coffee shop behind us. The view from the patio wasn't too bad though. It seemed like a nice regular place to visit although I already couldn't remember the name of the establishment.

I looked out beyond Alexandria where her back was facing the street. The patio looked down on the cars driving below and if you were situated further enough from the glass enclosure you couldn't even see them. What you did see was the unfurling of this area of the city on the horizon across. Most of the skyscrapers were all off in the distance and it was nice being a few feet above everything else nearby.

"Is this part of Alexandria's Grand Tour?"

"This place? Kind of, yeah."

"Oh really? How so?"

"I used to come here a lot when I lived in the area."

"Like back when you were with your parents?"

She shook her head. "No."

I thought there was going to be a further answer but there wasn't. She was looking off somewhere amongst the other tables around us, lost in some kind of contemplation.

"No further explanation required," I felt the need to say. Some things were fair game for sharing, some things were not. That's the way it was with Alexandria and I tried my best to stay respectful of that.

"Shall we case this joint?" I began to get up from my seat to take leave of the coffee shop's patio and Alexandria slowly followed suit.

"It's a nice place. I really like it," I pointed out as we walked past a few of the busy tables, people talking and laughing, and slipped out the side gate that exited the patio onto stairs that led down to the street.

I had let Alexandria go ahead of me, shutting the glass door behind us. I turned back around to follow but she was stopped at the top of the stairs. She looked off into the distance and pointed.

"That's where I was before," she said.

"Where?" She could've been pointing to absolutely anything.

"We'll go there, I'll show you it. Maybe on a different day."

"Okay. Cool." I didn't question further. I was sure I'd get the answers when she felt set to supply them.

When I inquired as to where it is we would go next, Alexandria surprised me when she cryptically replied that we were "going back to where it all started."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The Book Nook, stupid!" and she slapped me on the arm.

I rubbed my arm instinctually. "Why are we going there? We're already there pretty much every day as it is, isn't that enough?"

"Yeah, but this time is different. You've been with us long enough now and I, as Protector of the Books, have deemed you worthy of knowing all the innermost secrets of our abode of literary treasures."

As she spoke, it was hard not to glimpse some amount of excitement that was suddenly lighting up within her. She was walking way ahead of me and I picked up speed to catch up.

"Protector of the Books, huh? Spiffy new job title."

She laughed and clapped her hands and she seemed instantly more like an excited high-school girl rather than the old soul I was sitting at the table with not minutes ago.

"You are gonna lose it when you see this!"

I didn't say much more, following her to the Book Nook as we passed busy shops lining the street side and I watched her flit amongst other shoppers and pedestrians, stopping once in a while to try something out from a sales rack that some clothes shops had out to entice passersby just like us. I watched her toss on a big, yellow sunhat, throwing on some sunglasses and striking a pose as I caught up to her. The sunglasses, big and round on her face along with the audacity of the hugeness of the hat she had thrown on made her look much like what I imagined a supermodel diva would look like. Hand on her hip, her pose was magazine-worthy.