Written for this prompt from the Quinn/Artie Forum:
Quartie as co-workers
"I don't know why I let you talk me into this," Quinn hissed at him, as she bent over to pick up a stack of books that someone had removed from the shelves and piled onto the floor. "What made you possibly think that I would enjoy working in a bookstore?"
He grinned. "You know you secretly love it. Being surrounded by all these books? All this knowledge?"
"And all these ten year olds that just love taking books from the shelves and moving them around. Yes, you're right. I love it."
"Ok, sarcasm noted," he said, chuckling. "It's not so bad."
"It wouldn't be, if these kids would just get outside like normal kids and play in the park or something!"
"It's raining. And I think they come here because my uncle won't kick people out, and they know that. He thinks knowledge should be shared, and that kids should have access to it at all times."
"But they're not accessing it! They're just making a mess and being brats!" she said, as she finished sorting the books back into their spots on the shelves. "When I was ten...or however old these kids are, I would never have done something like this!"
He nodded. "Yeah, I wouldn't either, but that was a different time."
She giggled. "Ok, grandpa, whatever you say!"
"I am not a grandpa," he muttered. "Maybe that did come out sounding a little...grandpaish, and maybe my outfit choice for today isn't helping my case here, but...you know what I meant! I'm 18...that hardly makes it possible for me to be a grandpa."
She grinned. "I know. I'm just bugging you."
"I'd hope so," he said. "Now...back to work! My uncle left me in charge here!"
She rolled her eyes. "He didn't leave you in charge. He told US to keep an eye on things while he went to take care of some business."
"Keeping an eye on things is almost the same as being in charge!" Artie said. "And I've got seniority, which makes me the boss!"
She rolled her eyes again. "Whatever you say...boss. I still have a hard time believing this place needs more than one person to work in it, let alone two or three, when your uncle gets back."
"He said to find someone to come work, so I did!" Artie said. "And it gets a little crazy in here! I ran it by myself for one weekend, and it was a madhouse!"
"A madhouse? What...you had more than three sales?"
"Two. But a lot of people came in and needed help!" he said, laughing. "They just...didn't buy anything. Ok...it wasn't that busy."
She grinned. "I suspected as much. Are you sure he didn't tell you to find someone to come work just so you wouldn't be bored?"
He laughed. "No. He keeps waiting for the mad influx of customers."
"Oh...ok. Well, I can't let him pay me for this. I haven't done anything," she said.
He shook his head. "He will pay you, regardless of what you say. I've told him a bunch of times that I have fun in here, and that he doesn't need to pay me, because I know sales have been a little slow lately, but he never listens. Something about paying people what their time is worth."
"But I can't take money for doing nothing!" Quinn said. "If you had given me more details, I would have said no. It's not fair to him!"
Artie shrugged. "You can try, but he won't listen. Could you pass me that book please?" he asked, pointing to a shelf that was just out of his reach. "Thanks," he said, once she had passed it to him. "A lady phoned about it earlier, and I told her I'd call her back. I was pretty sure it was just out of my reach. That's the only downside to working here by myself...most of the bookshelves are the right height, but there are just a couple that are full-sized. He's been replacing them for years...just not quite finished yet."
And suddenly she suspected that she understood why Artie's uncle had been so eager to have him find a friend to work with him.
"How long has he had this place?" she asked, trying to remember how long the store had been in business.
"Since I was five," he said. "I always liked coming to visit, and, after my accident, I started spending a lot of time here."
"It's a very nice place," she said. "Really cozy. I really like it."
"He's been talking about me taking it over when he retires for years," he said. "I don't think he'll ever retire, but if he does...I kind of think I might want to. Does that make me one of those people that lacks ambition? I mean...I could still go to college and then come back and run it, right?"
She grinned. "No, I think that's great. Bookstores are important, and, if you ever got bored with it, you could always have someone else run it while you did something else."
He nodded. "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking."
"It's nice to keep businesses in the family, too," she said. "And maybe one day one of your children might want to take it over."
At the mention of this, his eyes lost the spark they had had only seconds before. "Well...that would involve me actually having children...which would involve me having someone that actually wanted to have my children...and that probably isn't going to happen..." he trailed off.
"Artie, stop that right now," she said. "Just stop. You're being ridiculous."
"No, I'm being realistic," he said. "No one wants to deal with this long-term," he said, gesturing to his wheelchair.
"I'm going to smack you if you don't stop right now," she said, a little more sharply than she had intended. "I really wish you would stop talking about yourself like you're some sort of inferior...I don't even know!"
He didn't say anything, so she continued. "In case you haven't noticed, there is someone that wants to deal with 'this,'" she said, gesturing to him, "long-term, and maybe if you stopped feeling sorry for yourself you'd realize that!"
He just stared at her.
"Sorry. It just annoys me when you talk about yourself like that," she said, her voice returning to its normal volume. "I didn't mean to yell at you."
After a couple of minutes of silence, he looked at her. "You...you want us to be long-term?"
She looked back at him. "I thought you knew that. I didn't think I had to spell it out for you."
"Quinn..." he said, his voice cracking slightly. "I didn't, I mean...I...wow."
She crouched down, placing her hands on his. "Every time I tell you that I love you, I mean it. Every time I talk about our future, I assume you know that means I want us to be together. Unless you don't want that..." she trailed off.
"I want that," he said. "You have no idea how much I want that. I just don't want to hold you back. I mean, we're only 18, and stuff changes..."
"Never think that," she said. "I don't want to hear you say that you might be holding me down ever again. I love you, Artie, and that won't change, whether I'm 18 or 30."
"I love you too," he said. "You have no idea how much."
"Stop saying I have no idea about things," she said, grinning. "I'm not dense like you!"
He gasped. "Did you just call me dense?"
"Maybe oblivious would have been a better word," she said. "We'd better get back to work."
"So...we're just going to have this serious conversation, where you basically tell me you want to have my babies and be with me until you're at least 30, and then we get back to work?" he said, a grin spreading across his face. "How does THAT work?"
"Well, seeing as your uncle is going to insist on paying us, I figure we should actually do something," she said. "Now that I've got that out of my system, we can finish this conversation later."
He grinned. "I kind of like us working together. Is this something you could see yourself doing in the future?"
She grinned back. "Only if we can ban the little brats that mess up the books."
A/N: Justine...I know this probably totally isn't what you had in mind when you posted that prompt. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I started to write it, either...it just kind of happened. lol
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