Arthur smiled as he took another book of the cart, placing it onto the shelf. He worked at a small quaint bookstore at the edge of the town. Tapping his foot slightly to the beat of the music playing from his headphones, he took another book, putting it in its right place on the shelf.
The bookstore originally belonged to his uncle. But he was getting old and found it hard to keep the business running. Having no children of his own, he asked Arthur's mother if Arthur would like to take over running the store. When Arthur heard that from his mother, it was almost a dream come true. Soon, the store was pretty much his.
It was rather simple really, this shop had been around for a long time and had many loyal customers. It was a secondhand bookshop. Customers could sell their old books for some money, depending on the condition of the book and others could come in and buy secondhand books.
As Arthur grabbed another book of the cart, he heard the bell ringing, alerting him to a customer entering. He smiled and paused his music. Taking his headphones off, he turned around "Oh it's just you" he said, smiling at the lady who just walked in.
"Just me?" she replied, chuckling a little. "I thought I was special."
Arthur smiled at her and laughed a little, "Oh Aunt Rue, you know I don't mean it that way."
"I know, I know." she replied smiling fondly at him.
"so what do you need today?" Arthur asked as he walked over to the counter, pulling the cart along to load more books into it. Arthur stopped it right next to the counter and took some more books from behind it, arranging them in alphabetical order on the cart.
"Oh, you know, just here to get another book to read." she replied. She stood there for a while looking at Arthur. "You've really grown a lot, I remember when you were just a little boy! Back then those eyebrows looked even bigger on your small head, it was adorable!"
Arthur pouted a little and blushed faintly "Do you have to bring this up all the time?" he asked.
She laughed at his response and said "I really never thought that you would be running the store one day."
Arthur smiled at her politely and took the last book off the table, placing it onto the cart. "I need to shelf these, just call me when you're done alright?" he told her, pushing the cart and walking towards the books starting with the alphabet A. He picked up the first book and read the title, scanning the shelf, he found where to place the book and pushed it between the space. He then took another book of the cart and did the same. He enjoyed this, the brainless repetitive work allowed him to just enjoy the music and his thoughts.
Soon, he felt a light tap on his shoulder and he turned around, "found a book?" he asked her. She nodded and he started walking towards the counter. He waited for her to join him and took the book from her, scanning the barcode. "five dollars" he said.
He watched as she took her wallet out of her handbag, taking out a note and passing it to him. He took it from her and put it into the cash register, passing her the book. "have a nice day!" he said softly as she took it from him.
As she was walking out of the shop, she suddenly stopped and turned around, laughing softly, she said "Oh Arthur, I almost forgot that I brought some old books here today."
Arthur raised an eyebrow at that. "More books again?" he asked. "you really do have a lot of books don't you?"
She smiled and walked back to the counter, placing a paper bag of books on it. "Have a look" she said "let's see how much their worth."
Arthur took out each book, writing down their prices and then adding them together. "For these eight books I can pay you...thirty-two dollars."
She smiled and nodded. Arthur took the money out passing it to her and put the books behind the counter, "see you soon." he said as she took her wallet out, placing the money in.
As soon as she was done, she walked out of the shop "see you soon Arthur, I'm glad to see that ole Joseph's shop ended up in your hands."
Arthur smiled and continued what he was doing. He hummed along to the music, swaying his hips slightly as he shelved the books. As he did that, he felt a presence somewhere and turned around looking around his shop. There wasn't anyone. He looked around once more, furrowing his eyebrows, but there really just wasn't anyone.
Pursing his lips slightly, he continued what he was doing but was a little on guard. After a while, when nothing happened, Arthur finally relaxed a little. Just as he did that, he felt eyes on his back again. He sighed and turned around, only to notice a man crouching below the display outside his window watching him. He continued on, trying to ignore the eyes on his back, but he felt really uncomfortable knowing that he was being watched.
Finally, he couldn't ignore it anymore. Arthur scowled as he walked over to the door. Pulling his headphones off, he yanked the door open and glared at the man "What is it that you want." he snapped.
To his surprise, the man stood up from where he was crouching below the display and lightly brushed himself off, smiling "Bonjour mon cher." he replied.
Arthur blushed a little, the man was...beautiful… that was the best word he could think of to describe him, really, men weren't usually described as beautiful, but he truly was. After staring at him for a while, he noticed what he was doing and snapped out of it. Blinking, Arthur crinkled his nose in disgust, still blushing slightly "french?" he asked.
When the other nodded he shook his head, trying to clear the fog that still seemed to have invaded his mind and asked "why were you watching me?"
The man looked down and fidgeted with his fingers for a while before looking back up and smirking at him. "I enjoyed the view." he said.
Arthur blushed deeply and sputtered "Shut up you creep!"
The man rolled his eyes and smiled at him. "My name is Francis Bonnefoy."
Arthur scowled at him and growled slightly "I don't care what your name is frog face."
Francis gasped in mock horror and held his chest dramatically "Oh how you wound me mon papillon."
Arthur rolled his eyes and crossed his arms above his chest, still scowling at the other. Francis just laughed at the adorable pout on the Arthur's face. He took a step closer to him and asked "so you work here alone?"
Arthur blushed a little and stepped back away from him. Glowering at him, he asked "what's it to you?"
"Oh, it's nothing" Francis replied slyly.
At that, Arthur glared at him and said "if there's nothing you need, please leave." With that, he gave him one last glare before walking back into the shop, slamming the door behind him. He put the last book on the shelf before turning around to check if Francis was still there. He rolled his eyes as he saw Francis standing outside his shop watching him with a smile on his face. Arthur gritted his teeth and turned around walking towards the counter. He spent the next hour blatantly ignoring Francis while tending to the customers who came in.
His customers of course did ask him who the man standing outside was. In response, he would indignantly reply that it was just "an idiot."
As the time for Arthur to close the shop came, he packed up his things and put on his headphones. He then walked out, locking the door behind him. He really expected Francis to be gone by now, after all, who in their right mind would stand outside a shop to watch him for more than an hour?
As he stood up, ready to walk home, he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He jumped slightly and instinctively whirled around, slapping the offender harshly before running off. As he reached the bus stop not too far away, he turned around to see Francis holding his face. Arthur immediately felt a pang of guilt. No matter what an idiot he was, he was a gentleman. and gentleman didn't hit relatively innocent people that most probably didn't mean him any harm. He sighed and rolled his eyes a little and walked back slowly.
As he reached the front of his shop, he stood in front of Francis and took his headphones off. "I'm sorry, you startled me." he said softly, feeling rather guilty as he saw Francis rubbing his red cheek.
Francis shook his head and smiled at him a little, still rubbing his sore cheek. He then winked at Arthur "It's alright mon cher...love is painful after all..."
Arthur scowled and glared at him "Shut up, you bleeding git! And to think i felt sorry for you!" his cheeks were coloured a faint pink. 'Love?" he thought to himself, the man must be insane!
Francis laughed at that and moved his hand from his face to his front pocket to take something out of it. He then stepped towards Arthur and leaned closer, placing his lips right next to his ear and whispering "I hope to see you around soon." and slid the object into his back pocket. Stepping back, he winked at the now heavily blushing Arthur once more before saying "see you" and walking off.
Arthur huffed and stomped off walking in the opposite direction towards his house. All the way home, thoughts ran through his mind, he couldn't get his mind off him really, he didn't understand! The other was positively infuriating! He scowled as he reached his door and pulled the keys out of his bag fumbling with them and finally pushing them through the lock. He then pulled the door open, more harshly than required and went in, slamming the door behind him.
He then walked towards the couch, throwing his bag carelessly onto it before noticing that he had stepped onto his rug with his shoes on. Pursing his lips, he walked back to the door, taking off his shoes. He then walked back to the rug, trying to sweep off some of the dirt that got onto it. Once that was done, he went to the kitchen and washed his hands before making himself a cup of tea. He took out his phone and mindlessly fidgeted with it as he waited for the water to boil. As he heard the kettle whistling, he poured the water into a cup, making some tea. He smiled as he walked back to the living room, cup of tea in hand. No matter how bad his day was, a cup of tea always made things better.
He finished his tea and walked to the kitchen, placing the cup in the sink. As he walked to his bedroom, he thought about the events of the day and sighed, no matter how much he loved his job, he was starting to find life meaningless, day in and out, it was the same boring routine, get up in the morning, shelf books, serve customers, shelf more books, close the shop, go home, rest. He didn't have much friends. Simply, he didn't have much of a life. His life was boring, he was boring, it was monotonous.
As he reached his room, he pulled the door open and stepped in. He walked towards his cupboard and suddenly, Francis's face came to mind. He felt his heart race at the thought of his beautiful bright blue eyes and charming smile. He then frowned and looked down, pushing the thought away. Gathering his clothes, he stepped into the bathroom and placed his clothes on the hanger behind the door.
He then started taking off his clothes. As he took off his jeans, he saw something fall out of one of the pockets. He looked at it curiously before bending down to pick it up. It was a card of sorts. Upon closer inspection, it was a name card, belonging to no other than Francis. The words Francis Bonnefoy were inscribed near the middle of the card in fancy letters. Below his name it read, 'lamour'. Arthur raised an eyebrow at that and looked at the fine print below. 'French patisserie, 37 wallace street' below that, was a number and a handwritten 'call me!' with a heart shape drawn next to it.
Arthur scowled and stomped out of the bathroom, throwing it into the trashcan. He then went back in and slammed the door, locking it although he was alone in the house.
When he was done, he got out and walked towards his table, pulling his laptop out of the charger. He then walked to the bed and sat down, pulling up the screen of the laptop. He surfed the net for a while, music playing in the background, but he couldn't help the nagging feeling at the back of his mind telling him that something was missing.
With a frustrated sigh, he finally stood up and walked out of the room to make himself another cup of tea, trying to clear his mind. As he waited for the water to boil, he suddenly had an intrusive thought about the name card in the trashcan. He frowned and pushed the thought away, but he couldn't help it, the thought refused to leave him. He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of the kettle whistling. He took it off and poured some water into his cup, making himself a cup of tea. When he was done, he walked up to his room, cup in hand and placed it on his bedside table, continuing his surfing.
The thought refused to leave him, and with a frustrated huff, he opened a new tab and typed in 'l'amour' into the search engine. He groaned slightly as he noticed that that was a really stupid thing to search. Next he typed in 'l'amour patisserie'. He clicked on a few results before noticing that it was a hopeless search, trust the idiot to come up with such an unoriginal name. He sighed and got off the bed walking towards the trashcan. Picking it out, he walked back and went to google maps. He then typed in the address. It came up with the name of his patisserie and Arthur almost beamed at his success.
He clicked on it and saw some pictures. It was a disgustingly sweet looking cafe, with floral cupcakes on display outside and colourful cakes. The exterior of the shop was truly sickening, a glass door with a baby pink notice reading 'open' in cursive letters. The door was framed by a light blue frame that looked like it came out of a child's tea party. Above it was a thin ledge in the same disgusting pastel shade, looking too fancy. By the sides of the door, it seems the displays followed the same, 'ugly pastel barbie doll' theme. He grimaced and read the reviews. Surprisingly, the reviews were pretty good, the food was apparently really good there.
Suddenly, he pushed his laptop screen down. What was he doing? checking up on a guy he just met? And that freak of all people! He groaned and buried his face in his pillow,
"it doesn't mean anything" he told himself. yea he thought the guy was attractive but that doesn't mean anything right?
"but then why are you reading up about him?" he thought, He sighed, it didn't mean anything, he had every right to be curious didn't he?
With that he took his laptop and put it back into it charging port, and walked back to his bed, switching the lights off. He wasn't going to call him or go to the cafe, good reviews or not, definitely not.