A Penny For Your Tears

Seven

"Just place the new books in alphabetical order, when we get back your Grandpa will arrange everything properly." My grandmother explained through the phone and I nodded my head impulsively before rolling my eyes when I realized she couldn't even see me.

"Yeah, got it. But what do I do if someone comes into the shop wanting to buy something?" I questioned, balancing my phone between my ear and shoulder while picking up a box, placing it on the counter. My grandpa had asked if I could help out in his shop while he was on holiday and for lack of better things to do I agreed. Honestly, I needed this, I needed to find myself something to do during the day, make myself useful and perhaps earn some money. With every day that passed my urge to stay here increased. I had already found myself looking at universities here and even planning a future myself. Initially, I had planned on staying here for three months, after that I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I was hoping that Luca would be too busy looking for me elsewhere that he wouldn't notice I was right under his nose. But now, being here, I've come to love this place. I loved the quietness of this little village and though I was yet to visit big cities like London, I could imagine it would be better than New York. Quite frankly, I'd fall in love with any place that wasn't New York. It wasn't only that though, somehow I had fallen in love with the people. I mean, the English were known for their brutal honesty which isn't something you're eagerly looking forward to after recently escaping an abusive mob boss. However, I found their honesty refreshing, I knew whenever I was with Aaliyah or my grandparents that they were saying all they wanted to say, there was nothing they were holding back. For some reason I found that comforting.

"Olivia, honey, are you still there?" My grandma's voice called me from my thoughts, I hadn't even realized I had zoned out.

"Yeah, sorry, what did you say?"

"I said not to worry about that, just tell them the shop is closed."

"Ok, I'll call you later.I love you Grandma, bye." I waited for her response before ending the call. I sighed heavily placing my hands on my hips as I stared at the vast amount of boxes in front of me. My grandpa was supporting struggling authors by creating a showcase displaying all their best work, it was a sweet sentiment but contained a lot of work. He had received thousands of books from different authors and somehow I had to arrange all these books for the perfect showcase. "Well, let's get started. " I muttered to myself.

I had been working for about two more hours and I had managed to successfully go through six boxes. Some of these books seemed genuinely interesting and I was proud that my grandpa was providing these authors with a platform to further their exposure. I got up for a quick water break, when I noticed through the window that someone was walking towards the shop. The person began knocking profusely on the door and I pointed to the sign on the door, indicating that the shop was closed. I don't know if the person didn't see me or was just ignoring me but they kept knocking on the door. I huffed angrily, placing my glass on the counter before making my way to the door. I opened it and was shocked to see it was the curly-haired man from yesterday, outside Elias' home.

"Can I help you?" I questioned slowly, the man was tall and unlike Elias I wasn't at all intimidated by him, despite his large and muscular physique. He wore a soft smile that immediately made me feel like I could trust him. However, I was taken aback by his attire; he was wearing a rather flamboyant outfit. He had on a pink shirt and on his bottom half he wore blue wide-leg suit trousers and pink sneakers. I hadn't imagined any of Elias' friends to be dressed like this, but it was pleasant surprise because Lord did he look good.

"Thank God, I've been wanting to get the new Twilight book for so long." The man sighed in an exaggerated manner, He leaned over to peer into the shop and I caught a whiff of his cologne, which smelt heavenly. "You do have it right?"