"We are all fools in love." -Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Sarah checks out the renovations and building on a new project with work as she walks through the complex with her friend and coworker, Izadora at her side.

"The electrical contractor called, he had an accident with his car so he's not going to be here till tomorrow. And the shelves for upstairs are late because the pine we ordered has beetles. And we got a $50,000 ticket for construction workers peeing off the roof."

Meanwhile, Sarah is just looking around, not really listening to Izadora, "Great, great, this is all great. Do you know when the electrician will be here?"

Izadora sighs, "I just told you he had an accident. I knew you weren't listening to me."

"You're right I wasn't. I hear nothing. 'Not a sound on the city streets, just the beat of my own heart.' I think that's how it goes. Something like that."

"You and Alice got engaged, didn't you? You can tell me."

"Engaged?"

"Come on."

Sarah looks at her with disbelief, "Are you crazy?"

"I thought you liked her."

"I do. I do. I love her. I love Alice. She's amazing, she makes coffee nervous," changing the subject quickly, "We should announce ourselves to the neighborhood, let them know, here we come."

Izadora walks alongside Sarah, "We might as well tell them we're opening a crack house. They're going to hate us. They're gonna be lining up…," Sarah joins in with her, "To picket the big, bad chain store…"

Nodding Izadora continues, "That's out to destroy everything they hold dear."

Sarah's confidant that won't last long, "We're going to seduce them with our square footage...and our discounts and our deep armchairs and our cappuccino. They're going to hate us at the beginning, but we'll get them in the end. And you know why? Because we're going to sell them cheap books and legal addictive stimulants. In the meantime, we'll just put up a big sign: 'Coming Soon, a Alder Books Superstore. The end of civilization as you know it."

Izadora just laughs and follows after Sarah as they finish up their tour of the construction.

Meanwhile, across town Tally has just made it to her work, a pumpkin held under her arm, "Good morning, Raelle!"

A blonde sits on a green bench in front of the bookstore they both work at, waiting for Tally to open shop, "Morning, Tally!"

Tally hands the pumpkin over with a cheery bounce in her step, "It's a beautiful day. Isn't it just the most beautiful day?"

"I guess. Yeah, sure."

Tires screeching and horns honking and men arguing with each other is heard behind them.

"Don't you just love Salem in the fall?"

Raelle looks from the arguing men to the oblivious Tally who pushes the store front's cage up and unlocks the door. Letting them both into the store. Grabbing a vase of flowers from the register area, Tally smells them with a smile, "Perfect!"

Raelle trails behind her, pumpkin still in hand and a look of disbelief at how cheery Tally is this morning. Tally sets her vase down and picks up a package of new scotch tape and smells it, "Ah, the smell of scotch tape."

"Stop that! What is going on with you? You're in love!"

"In love? No. Oh, yes, that's right! I'm in love with Gerit. I'm practically living with Gerit. Hmm. Do you think you could get our Christmas mailers out this week?"

Raelle sets the pumpkin on the counter and takes her coat off along with Tally, "Yeah, by Monday, I promise. I have this paper due Friday," but it doesn't seem like Raelle's listening anymore, "What is going on?"

"Nothing, nothing. Nothing at all."

Raelle places her hands on her hips and waits, "You know, I am just going to stand here until you tell me."

Tally cringes at herself, "Alright. Is it infidelity if you're involved with someone on email?

"Have you had sex?"

"No, I don't even know her."

"Oh, a her, hmm Tally. I didn't know you had it in you," Tally glares at her as Raelle continues, "I mean cybersex."

"No."

"Well, don't do it. The minute you do, they lose all respect for you."

Tally glares after Raelle as she runs around setting up the store, "Well, it's not like that. We just email. It's really nothing. On top of that, I'm thinking of stopping because it's getting…"

"Out of hand?"

Tally sighs, "Confusing….but not because it's nothing."

"Where'd you meet her?"

Tally feigns innocence, "Listen, I can't even remember."

Raelle highly doubts that as she walks back over to the counter where Tally is pouring some candies into a jar.

Tally gives in, "On my birthday I wandered into the "over 30" room for a joke, sort of. And she was there. And we started chatting."

Raelle grins at her, "About what?"

"Books and music, how much we both love Salem...harmless, harmless. Meaningless. Bouquets of sharpened pencils. Oh."

"Excuse me?"

Tally laughs and waves her off, "Forget it. We don't talk about anything personal, so I don't know her name...or what she does or where she lives exactly, so it'll be easy for me to stop seeing her, because I'm not."

Raelle stares from Tally to the shop door, "She could be the next person to walk into the store."

"I know!"

"She could secretly be….," in walks their other co-worker, "Gregorio."

And they both stare at him as he walks in with a coffee in hand and an unenthusiastic look on his face, "Morning."

Raelle smirks at him, "Are you online?"

"As far as I'm concerned...the internet is just another way of being rejected by a woman," and off he goes.

They smile and turn back to each other only to be interrupted by another of their coworkers, "Good morning, Abigail!"

Abigail walks over to them with a smile on her face, "What are you girls talking about?"

Raelle nonchalantly says, "Cybersex."

Abigail nods, "I tried to have cybersex once, but I kept getting a busy signal," then walks off towards the back of the store.

Raelle is still going, "I know, I was really depressed one Saturday night about 9:00-"

Abigail yell's, "Time to open up!"

Tally shakes her head and goes to flip the closed sign to open, opening the door for their first few customers, smiling at them as they waltz right in.

Back across town Sarah is in a meeting with her mom and an old family friend they work with, "Construction is going well. We should open on time. Although Izadora and I are concerned about the neighborhood's response. And another independent bookstore closed today. We'll also have a section dedicated to writers who've lived on THAT side of Salem."

"As a sop to the neighborhood."

Sarah's mother butts in, "Perfect. Keep those liberal nuts, pseudo-intellectual-"

"Readers, mother. They're called readers."

"Don't do that, Sarah. Don't romanticize them. It'll keep them from jumping down your throat."

Family friend, Bob, butts in, "What competition is left?"

Sarah continues, "One mystery store, Sleuth, at 78th and Amsterdam...and a children's bookstore, Shop Around the Corner. It's been there forever."

Bob realizes which store she's talking about, "May's store."

Sarah has no idea who he's talking about, "Who?"

"May Craven. Lovely woman. I think we might have had a date once. Or maybe we just exchanged letters."

Sarah smirks, "You wrote her letters?"

"Mail. It was called mail. Stamps, envelopes-"

Sarah waves her hand and nods, "I've heard of it."

"May had beautiful penmanship. She was too young for me but she was enchanting."

The brunette raises her eyebrows, "Enchanting?"

Bob nods as he continues, "Her daughter owns it now."

Sarah's mother chimes in, "Too bad for her now."

Later that night and the next fews days Sarah and Tally exchange even more emails.

SA152: My father is getting married again. For five years, he's been living with a man named Jack...who studied decorating at Caesar's Palace.

Shopgirl: Once I read a story about a butterfly in the subway, and today...I saw one. It got on at 42nd and off at 59th where...I assume it went to Bloomingdale's to buy a hat that will turn out to be a mistake. As almost all hats are.

SA152: Listen to this: Every night a truck pulls up to my neighborhood bagel place and pumps about a ton of flour into underground tanks. The air is filled with white dust which never seems to land. Why is that?

Shopgirl: Confession: I've read Pride and Prejudice about 200 times. I get lost in the language. Words like: Thither. Mischance. Felicity. I'm always in agony over whether Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are really going to get together. Read it. I know you'll love it.

SA152: The purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, nonfat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only 2.95 get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self. Tall! Decaf! Cappuccino!

One morning Gregorio is passing by a giant building on his way to work when he notices the signage for the building across the street and immediately rushes to work to tell Tally and Raelle. Standing on the street corner they look at, "A Alder Books superstore."

Raelle glares," Quel nightmare."

Tally sighs at the sight of the building, "It has nothing to do with us. It's big, impersonal, overstocked and full of ignorant salespeople."

Gregorio responds, "But they discount."

Tally stands her ground, "But they don't provide any service. We do. This'll be like the book district, if they don't have it we do or vice versa."

Raelle and Gregorio look at her like she's completely lost her mind. But honestly Tally's mind is too busy thinking about if Sarah has emailed her back yet today. She can't wait to get home tonight and read another email.