Life as a five feet four inches woman is not really as challenging as some people think, especially because she is actually an inch taller than the average British female.
Life as a five feet four inches bookshop owner however, is very different. Her dad was a six feet four inches giant, so when he started building the bookshelves that housed the very first books in their shop, he built them based on how high he could reach.
Now, in every shelves there are three rows that she can't reach.
Three rows that she have to inventory, restock, organize, and clean everyday.
Not that she has to do all of them. There are two college students that work part time for her - Selina, who helps with opening and preparing the shop and Bruce who does the opposite at night. With his five feet nine inches frame, Bruce has no trouble taking care of the unreachable shelves, as does five feet eight inches Selina, though she had to tiptoe a little bit. Because of their advantage those shelves are their responsibilities while Molly takes care of the rest.
They are good workers, fellow bibliophiles that are just the right combination of informed readers and helpful humans. Selina or Lina is a sophomore Art History student that always punctually comes in at 6 in the morning to help her start the day. She stays until 10 am, then leaves in time for her first class. On the other hand, Bruce is a junior Physics major who clocks in at 6 in the evening and clocks out with her at 9. They both seem to enjoy working at her small bookshop and they rarely miss out on their shifts.
It is therefore unfortunate that Lina is on a week long field trip at the same time when Bruce is in bed rest after suffering a minor collision with a careless teenager on a bicycle.
She had been without help for three straight days. Not that there's too much traffic passing through her bookshop door, but she could still use some help especially with the 'blasted' out-of-reach shelves. Unfortunately, she's yet to install rolling bookshelf ladders. This means she has to lug around a step ladder in order to attend to the higher shelves.
There are a total of 10 bookshelves, each 5 meters long, in the store. As the past days had proven, her energy was already at the brink of nonexistence after only going through three shelves. Fortunately, she had managed to lug through the first three days of having no assistants, and the fourth one is about to end. However, she can already feel the heaviness of her limbs. She had to deal with every aspect of her bookshop on her own ever since Sunday. Now, it is already the middle of the week and her body is just about ready to give up.
If only she can find help in such a short notice.
Unfortunately, the one person who can help her, refuses to do so.
He just prefers lounging in her chair behind the counter, drinking her tea while reading her journal. Meanwhile, she's playing bookshelf monkey as she tries to balance the books in her arms.
"Really, why are you even here, Sherlock?" She puffs as she does a carnival worthy balancing act with six heavy books in her arms. "Don't you have a case to solve?"
"If I have a case to solve, I wouldn't be here, Molly." He has the gal to glare at her from behind her journal.
"Then if you are planning to stay, can you please be a decent human and help me." She pleads for the third time that night.
"Can't" He says as he flips through another page.
"Can't?!" She all but shouts at him as she turns around to glare at the lazy consulting detective. Well, glare at the lazy consulting detective behind the Theoretical Criminology journal.
"Hmmm." Another page flip.
"CAN'T?!" Her patience is already hanging by a single thread, but he seems to be determined to pull even that one out.
"More like, won't actually." He lowers the journal just fast enough to throw her a cheeky grin before pulling it back up to resume his apathetic reading.
"That's it." She placed the stack of books in a cleared space before descending down the step ladder. She takes five big noisy steps in order to reach the counter. Without any warning, she leans in and snatches the journal from him.
"Out. Get out." She growls at him as she clutches the journal close to her chest and away from his reach.
Shock momentarily registered in his face when the journal was taken, but he immediately schooled it into nonchalance and boredom. "Is this how you treat your costumers?"
She puts the journal behind her before turning around to glare at the infuriating man who hadn't even existed in her life until five months ago. "First of all, you are not a costumer. Second, you are annoying me. So, it's either you heave your self off my chair to help me or you get out!"
"Well, what will I gain if I help you?" His eyes and his focus had already moved on to his smartphone that he whipped out while she was still talking.
'Oh not you don't.'
As quickly and as stealthily as she can, she leans in and snatches his phone from his hands. Before he can even protest, she runs away and goes back up the step ladder to deposit the said smartphone into the highest shelf.
"What do you think you're doing?" The consulting detective asks. Annoyance completely etched in his handsome face.
Stepping off the ladder, she takes her time in dusting herself from imaginary specks before looking up and giving him a huge grin. "If you want to get your phone, you're gonna have to come up here."
Minutes ago she may have considered kicking him out instead of suffering through the idea that there is a tall man perfectly capable of helping her, but who is instead sitting in her chair, lazing around and generally not being helpful. Now, however, she thinks it's only fair that she ask this much of him. After all the late night runs, crazy experiments and general bothering that he does to her, she deserves at least some help from him. Placing his phone on the shelf was a light-bulb idea that's looking good as each second passes. He is a stubborn man and she had learned through experience that she'll need to do drastic things in order to make him do something that he has resolutely decided not to do. If taking his phone as hostage is what it takes, if putting it as far away as possible, if engaging in a verbal sparring with him is needed and if she has to enter into a heated debate, just to make him get out of her chair, she's willing to do all of it.
"Fine."
...
"Sorry, what?"
He huffs before standing up. "Really, Molly. Pay attention!" With his long legs, it only takes him a few steps to reach the same distance that she had to run moments ago.
"I said 'Fine'. I'll do what you want if it will stop you from further inflicting pain to my smartphone by storing it in the cold, dark and dusty place you call bookshelf."
He had already stocked a fifth of the bookshelf before it even registered to her that he's already on the step ladder and was in fact stocking up as she wanted. Her mind had taken it's time to process the fact that he didn't even put as much fight as she'd expected.
They were at the sixth bookshelf before she remembered her good manners.
"Thank you, Sherlock." She looked up and smiled at him as she handed him the books that were needed to be placed.
She got no response from him except for a small nod. However, the rest of her day was spent on remembering the soft feel of his hands every time she passed him the books.
It didn't even occur to her to wonder why a previously established stubborn man who's famous for really not doing anything that he doesn't want to, had decided to go up the stepladder and help stock her shelves, instead of just grabbing the smartphone that's easily within his reach.
A/N. I was reading Bat-Cat fanfics before writing this. In case someone notices the references. :)