The Broken One ✔

Chapter 36

It was a week after Blake left Washington when Andi and I walked by a local bookstore, with her hand in mine.

Everything was different without Blake, the apartment felt empty -
Probably because most of the stuff was his and so it looked like I was robbed.

He called me once he settled in, telling me that he finally felt like he was on track. I was glad to hear it.

"What are you we doing here?" Andi laughed. "I thought we're going furniture shopping"

"We are...but my college professor told me that this is his favourite bookstore" I informed as we stood in front of the large window. "I thought we could check it out while we're here"

I began to miss all those books from college, that my English lit professor had us read. So I decided to hit up the local library to read some of the classics.

"You can read?" She smirked.

"Ha ha" I rolled my eyes as we linked our arms.

We walked into the bookstore with a grin. I ran my fingers down the spines of the classics. Every book imaginable were on those shelves. The Great Gatsby, The Three Musketeers, War and Peace, Little Women.

I found myself reading the blurb off the back of Alice in Wonderland.

Before my mum left she used to read Alice in Wonderland to my siblings and me before bedtime every night. She left before we had to the chance to finish it.

"Ned look!" Andi cried from the row behind me. I turned around, looking at her through the gaps between books on the shelf. "I found little women! My mum used to read this to me when I was a kid"

That's the great thing about books. It has a way of connecting those around us. I think that's what got me back into reading, feeling connected to people.

"We should buy it" I smiled.

Andi nodded "you know what, I will" she grinned.

I took Alice in Wonderland and To Kill a Mocking bird, before following my girlfriend to the counter. 

"Have you been in town long?" The man behind the counter asked a woman whom just looked down at her book.

"Next thanks" the other man behind the counter smiled in me and Andi's direction.

"No, just for this week" the woman admitted as we passed the man our books.

"...what book did you get?" Andi asked from beside me.

"Well, I've always wanted to finish Alice in Wonderland" I grinned." and apparently it's a classic so..."

"Good choice," the woman from beside us said as raising her copy in our direction "...Sorry I didn't mean to overhear"

"It's fine" Andi assured as turning to me.

I held the woman's gaze curiously for a solid minute of silence. I recognized those eyes too well, I often saw them in the mirror and in old photographs.

The woman smiled, before laughing at herself for a moment. "I used to read Alice in Wonderland to my kids" she admitted. "....we never had the chance to finish it"

Andi furrowed her brows, she knew my story too well. I had told her all about my mother, a woman named Isabel who left my siblings and me behind to be with her boyfriend when I was only four years old.

"Where did you say you were from?" Andi asked the woman.

"San Francisco" she responded to Andi, still holding her eyes on me "I'm only in town for another night"