Your Cheesy Bookstore Romance Pt. 2

Outside, Gryphon sat in his truck and tried to figure out why he had suddenly gotten so antsy when the bookstore manager started talking about his name.

Jess brought the UPS boxes to Andie to scan. “How’s that cat of yours doing?” Anything to try to get her to talk. “What’s his name? Frank?”

“Turtle. He’s been sneezing lately.” And she said no more. Jess took a moment to look her over. “Why don’t you let your hair out of that clip once in a while? Set it free. You’ve got really nice texture there you could work with.”

“I don’t think so. It would just get in my way.”

“Then how about a cut? Maybe some bangs, give it a little lift, like—“

“Thanks, no.” Andie got up and went into the back room.

“I have a real knack with people today,” Jess muttered to herself.

Andie, Gabrielle, and Jonah were the last ones to leave the store that night. Gabrielle and Jonah were headed for a late movie and pleaded with Andie to come along. As she left them for her car, Gabrielle shook her head. “How can you live like that?”

“That’s not living,” Jonah replied solemnly, looking after the solitary woman.

“Do you think she’ll ever shake it off?” Gabrielle wondered.

“I think it’s more a matter of coming back from someplace far, far away. Or of unlocking some doors. A shattered life doesn’t shake.” [NOTE ENTRY OF SENSITIVE FOREIGNER]

Andie unlocked the door to her room, put down her things, and lay on her small bed. Turtle came in from some other part of the house when he heard her, and sat down near her head, both in greeting and waiting to be fed. As her body began to shake violently with sobs, he moved to lean protectively against her side. She was all he had.

Mrs. Graves knocked gently on the open door. “How are you tonight, dear?” Andie took a deep breath and told her landlady she had a bad headache. She didn’t want to be seen like this. “Let me make you some chamomile tea, honey,” the woman replied and hurried off before Andie could refuse. Mrs. Graves knew this was more than a headache. And dear Lord, if this girl needed anything it was some company, to let someone in again, just a little, just a start. To let someone take care of her for just a few minutes. Mrs. Graves had respected her grief and privacy for over six years. Now it was time to respect the need in the heart Andie continued to ignore. Somewhere, a spirit waited, and slept.
[NOTE ENTRY OF FEISTY, WISE CRONE TO SERVE AS MENTOR AND FIRE-LIGHTER]

Peter was leaning against the counter when Mrs. Graves got to the kitchen. “Hello, Peter; what brings you around this late?”

“Just wanted to see my Aunt Gracie,” he leaned in to kiss her cheek.

“Bullshit, Peter.” His eyes widened. She never spoke like that. “You think I don’t see you looking at the poor girl? Notice you only come by when her car’s in the driveway? Leave her alone. You’re the last thing she needs.” She set about making the tea.

“Fine. So maybe I do hope to run into her. God, it’s been seven years since her husband died, and all she does is sit in that room with her cat! She might as well be 95 and lying in a nursing home! She could use a man!”

Mrs. Graves glared at her nephew with such ferocity that he felt he’d been slapped (which is what she really wanted to do). “She needs a man—and especially one like you—like she needs spikes in her head. No one else in this town will pay you any mind anymore, so now you’ve set your sights on the only woman who hasn’t had it up to here with your shenanigans. Go to a gym, Peter, or some pottery lessons. Stop prancing around like you’re God’s gift to my gender and get some self-respect. You think we can’t all see right through you? You’re a balding, overweight man who’s terrified of turning 40 and whose mother spoiled him rotten her whole life. I love you like my own, Peter, but it’s about time someone set you straight. It’s time for you to be a man.”
[NOTE ENTRY OF BUFFOONY NEPHEW FOR CONTRAST AND TEA DRINKING]

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Moreover, he couldn’t believe who he was hearing it from. Because, as he would almost admit later in the silence of his dark house as he waited for sleep, it was all true.

“That poor girl,” she kept talking as she lit the stove. “She’s got to be able to look in the mirror and care about what she sees there before anyone can get near her again.”

“She was very pretty once, wasn’t she?”

“Not the point, Peter. Look at me. Wrinkles, gray hair, loose pale skin, all of it. I’m no beauty and I never was. But I love life and I love my life and I’ve done all I can to try to bring a little good into the lives of the people I love. I like myself and the things I’ve done, mistakes and all. As long as my mistakes don’t kill anybody they’re OK. I’ve had good friends and a wonderful family,” she squeezed his arm as she passed to get cups down from the cupboard. “That girl needs to remember what life and living are, and that’s not going to have anything to do with a man at this point, though it’s going to have everything to do with love. It’s better if it doesn’t for now. She hasn’t cared about herself or where she fits into this world since Alex died. I’ve never seen anything quite like it in someone that age. If they’d been older, I’m sure she would’ve died shortly after he did, like so many old couples. But somewhere inside her is a string tied tightly to this world, a part of her that doesn’t want to leave yet. I don’t think she even knows it’s there.”

“Except she loves that cat.”

“Yes. Very true. Good insight, Peter. She does love that cat. That’s something. That’s the string.”

Andie had washed her face by the time Mrs. Graves came back with the tea. But she almost started crying again when she took it from the woman. She had no idea why.

Andie pulled even further into herself over the next few days.

One Thursday a few weeks later, Mrs. Graves came into the bookstore to find her tenant. She was in a bind and hoped Andie would help her. In two weeks, her late husband’s cousins were coming for a visit, and she’d promised to take them to her small house on the ocean. She’d figured on Peter’s coming to help her open the place up after the summer, but he had to go out of town. “We can bring Turtle, too; he’ll love it out there, all the nooks and crannies to explore, the mice to catch and birds to chase …” And somehow she convinced Andie to come to the ocean with her that weekend.