"Clary! There you are." Luke's voice sound tense but releaved to see her.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! There's awfully a lot of people out there now and I didn't want to knock anyone over while running here. I already bumped into someone... Luckily no body got hurt." Clary said and left her handbag and jacket to Lukes apartment before going to the bookstore.
"I will be back in few hours. Call me if you need anything." Luke said and Clary just nodded, watching him go.
When Lukes car drove away from her sight, she turned away from window and looked around small bookstore.
Dust. That there was if nothing else. Thankfully for something to keep herself busy- she go to bathroom and took small hand towel, getting wet before going back to store area and started wiping the dust from tables and bookshelfs.
Ringing of small bell by the door told her that someone entered the store and put her towel away.
"Hello. Can I help you?" She asked from black haired boy with baby blue eyes who was scanning his surroundings.
"Yeah.. I'm looking for any comic books for my kid brother. His birthday is tomorrow and he likes comic books more than anything."
Clary nodded, "We have some over here." She lead him to collection of comic books they had in store.
The guy nodded and Clary left back to dusting. "Call me if you need anything."
She knew how irritating it could be when someone was practically breathing into your neck while you were trying to look at something, so she gave him some space without leaving out of sight in case if he needed her help.
"I think I found what I was looking for." He said, holding couple comic books in his hand.
"Would you like me to wrap them up in giftpaper? It doesn't cost anything."
The guy seemed purely thankful, "That would be great, thank you."
Clary nodded again and went to check what kind of papers they had left.
"Silver with black tribal prints or red with teddy bear pictures?"
"Teddybears will be fine. He's just turning seven"
Clary smiled and took out giftpaper.
She took pricetags from books and wrapped them up.
"You're good at that. My sister Isabelle, she makes it such a mess when she's wrapping gifts."
Clary shrugged, "I've been taught well then I guess. I've been working here for long time."
The guy nodded, his phone ringing before he could answer to her.
"Sorry.. " He said to Clary who just nodded. She could wait. There wasn't any other costumers at the moment either, so it wasn't a problem that he took his time.
"Jace? Where are you?"
Clary heard a male voice through his phone. Well of course- Jace hardly is womans name.
"I'm at the bookstore now, I got the comics for Max... Okay, I wait you here."
He put his phone away and looked at Clary, "How much?"
"10€"
"Here you go." He handed her 20 and she took out 10 to give it back to him.
He took the money and the books, stopping then and handed Clary few coins.
Clary looked puzzled and he smiled, "A tip. For you."
Clary blushed slightly, taking the coins from him thankfully. He didn't know how much she really needed every penny she could get.
"Thank you."
"You welcome. Do you mind if I hang around here for while? I promised to wait my brother here."
Clary nodded, put her precious coins in her jeans pocket and took the towel again to keep dusting.
"I haven't seen you here before." The guy said, casually killing time by chatting with her.
"Yeah- uhm.. I- I work part-time."
She could feel his baby blue eyes scanning her, "Are you studying something while you're not working here?"
"N-no."
She heard him sigh. It was compassionate sigh. Damn it. Was it that obvious she was poor and miserable.
For her luck, the door opened again and she turned to greet her next costumer, but her words died in her lips.
She just stared in shock.
Right there, at the doorstep of Luke's bookstore stood the same guy she has bumped onto earlier.
"Hey Alec, you ready to go?" He said for black haired boy who just nodded, then he turned to look at Clary, a smile creeping to his face. "Hello to you too."
"H-hey."
Alec patted his shoulder, "Lets go." Then he turned to Clary, "Thanks again."
Clary just nodded.
When door closed behind those two guys, she released the breath she didn't even realize she had been holding.
She sit down and took out the coins she had got. It made 8€ and 40sents in total. She felt tears filling her eyes, she could buy some food now.
The door opened again and she dropped couple coins to the ground, quickly bending down trying to catch them all back together.
"Hey.. Are you alright?"
"Yes.. I- I'm okay. I just d-dropped something." She said, putting her coins in her pocket and wiped her eyes before stood up.
There he was again. The golden boy from the street.
"Would it seem awfully fast forward if I asked you out?" He said.
Clary's jaw dropped, and she stared at him. Actually stared at him. "E-Excuse me?"
He chuckled and held out his hand, "Jace Wayland."
Clary reached out her pale little hand and shook his hand. "I'm Clary."
"Well Clary, when you're free for lunch or dinner or something?"
"Is.. Is this some kind of joke?.. I-it's not funny."
Jace frowned, "No... Is there something to joke about in that a guy meets a girl and finds her cute and want to get to know her better? Look it's fine if you don't want to go for a date, we can hang out as friends. It can't hurt you to have some more friends, right?"
"D-date?!"
Jace held up his hands, "Take it ease Redhead, I got it.. I'm sorry I disturbed you." He lowered his hands and turned to go.
"No! Wait!" Clary called after him.
Jace stopped, turning to look at her.
Her cheeks were shade of dark red and her hands were shaking. He frowned slightly at her nervousness, his eyes softening, waiting for her to speak.
"I.. I'd like to.. Go out sometime." She stuttered.
Jace smiled to her. "If you give me your number, we can agree the time for that later."
She wrote down her number in piece of paper and handed it to him.
Jace took the paper and took hold of her hand- he had strong and warm hands, leaning little closer to her, lowering his voice to a whisper: "Just for the record, you're cute when you blush."
Clarys cheeks burned and she wished she could disappear. She managed to smile at him a little when he waved at her and left.
