Chapter 144

"Rory!"

"Grandpa!" Rory smiled, hugging Richard as he walked through the entryway to Truncheon. "It's so good to see you."

"And you," he smiled, "And Jess! Thank you for inviting me."

"Thanks for coming," Jess nodded, smiling, "It's just about closing time, so you can have a private tour…if you'd like?"

"That sounds fantastic. And after that, maybe we can grab dinner? My treat."

"Grandpa, that's not necessary…"

"I insist. After all, it's not often that I get to see you at your home," Richard smiled. Rory nodded.

"Well then, that sounds great. We'll show you around here first. Jess, why don't you lead the way?"

"Alright…so having just entered, you're basically in our bookshop space," Jess said, gesturing around to the shelves.

"Yes, I gathered that," Richard said, a little cheekily. Jess smirked.

"To be fair, your granddaughter owns at least half this many books in her personal collection."

"Only half? Rory, I'm dissapointed. Do you need to come peruse my shelves again?"

"I'm plenty well outfitted in books, Grandpa," Rory laughed, "Especially thanks to Jess. Somehow my collection seems to keep expanding now that I'm here."

"Somehow," Jess echoed, rolling his eyes good naturedly, "But yes…this front room, and the areas to the left and right are mainly the store areas. A little further back, you'll see some tables, chairs and couches- that's a performance space, where we occasionally invite authors to read, and occasionally artists to come present. Mostly just local community folks," Jess finished.

"That's very impressive, Jess," Richard said, walking towards the back of the store, "Have you been holding salons since you opened?"

"Well, I wouldn't say they rise to that level," Jess said, his face coloring, "But…yes. We've done events since pretty early on, basically when things got off the ground."

"And were you part of the initial setup?" Richard asked, having moved on to inspect the bookshelves. Rory smiled, as did Jess, noticing the resemblance between grandfather and granddaughter.

"Yes, pretty much," Jess nodded, "I was one of the first authors Chris and Matt found, before they even had the building, when it was just them in their apartment. I met them basically by chance, and as we worked on the edits for my book, they decided to offer to make me a part-owner. I had a little money saved up, and not much else happening…writing had been taking up most of my time for a while up until then. We found this building a couple months later, and moved in upstairs. After a couple years, I bought them out of the apartment and they moved into their own place not far from here."

"So you were really in it from the beginning? What made you choose this location?"

"At the time, the price," Jess admitted, "The area's got some cool history, and the building was a steal. Between the three of us we could just swing the down payment, and we wanted to own the place outright rather than be beholden to somebody else. It needed some work, but I'd learned a little from Luke, and he actually came up to help a bit for a while." Richard nodded thoughtfully.

"And how did you scale the business to where it is now?"

"I mean, a lot of it was luck," Jess shrugged. Rory shook her head.

"Jess is being overly modest, Grandpa," she said, putting her hand in Jess's, "He gets like that."

"Definitely not a Gilmore then," Richard quipped, causing Rory to laugh softly and Jess to smile.

"Well…I guess a lot of it came down to what we could offer writers. It's still just the three of us…with Rory pitching in when she wants to," Jess said, "We publish differently than pretty much anybody else."

"How's that?"

"All three of us have our own methods, but most of them bypass the enormous amount of red tape you're normally dealing with. A process that would take a year with a larger publisher takes us a month, three tops. We dedicate ourselves totally to a smaller number of writers we really believe in. We don't do a lot of marketing or publicity at a really high commerical level…which means we can put more money into circulation, from bookstore copies here and other local places to library circulation. And for a lot of our writers, getting their work out there is more important to them than making a fortune."

"Yeah, when Jess is working with a writer, I usually barely see him for a couple days," Rory jumped in, "They just sort of hunker down and…push through it?"

"All at once?"

"Yep. Intensive," Jess nodded, "It definitely doesn't work for everyone. But the writers I work with seem to like working that way, and it works for me. I've been lucky enough to have a couple folks come back more than once, that have put out a couple really great books…who just really like that process. I'm grateful they keep coming back."

"I'm sure they're grateful to have found someone that can get things done that quickly," Richard said, impressed, "You'll have to send me home with some reading recommendations."

"That sounds great, Grandpa. I'll put a bag togehter for you after dinner," Rory smiled.

"Actually, Rory, I was talking to Jess," Richard smiled. Rory grinned widely.

"Um…sure. I'd be happy to," Jess said, taken aback.

"So, where does the publishing piece happen, if this is mostly retail space?" Richard asked, looking around. Jess pointed to the office doors.

"We have a small office back there."

"Just one?"

"Yeah. It's pretty cramped between the three of us," Jess admitted, "Though Rory made it a lot more functional."

"I mean, you needed it."

"We really did," he agreed. "But yeah…we try to use that space as little as possible. For meetings, we'll often have them out, or by the performance area, which kind of doubles as a lounge area. Folks are also welcome to come read there if they're browsing- we don't sell coffee, but we always have some black coffee around, and usually offer some to the regular folks if they come in and are here for a bit."

"I can't imagine you do these intensive author editing sessions there, though," Richard said.

"Nope. For those we generally go to a coffee shop. If the author prefers, a bar," Jess admitted. Richard grinned.

"Have a couple Hemingways on your roster?"

"I'm sure they'd like to think so," Jess rolled his eyes. "But yeah- I have a couple spots on rotation. I have favorites, but often usually to the author. There's one coffee shop I'm at for it more often than not. It works okay for now. I think eventually we'd like to have more office space."

"Have you considered converting the upstairs?"

"Grandpa…"

"Sorry, I don't mean to pry."

"No, it's a fair question," Jess nodded, "I did, a while ago, but honestly it was a pretty convenient living space, and allowed me to put more of my money into the business for a while. It still does. That said, the business has grown a lot. If we ever…weren't living there, I'm sure that's something we'd consider." Richard nodded.

"Oh, what…interesting art. What exactly is this supposed to be?" Richard said, moving close to a painting.

"Abstract," Rory mumbled, pulling him away from it. Jess suppressed a laugh.

"We put up pieces by local artists, without charging them much commission," he answered, "That was from a couple months back. It's probably time to get something new in. We try to get new stuff in frequently, which isn't hard. There are a lot of struggling artists here, but a lot of the people who shop here for books also want to support other local creatives."

"It seems like a lot of this is based in the local community," Richard said carefully. Jess nodded. Richard smiled.

"Well…thank you for showing me around. This is very impressive, Jess. You should be proud of what you've accomplished here."

"Thank you," Jess said, lowering his eyes. "Want to see upstairs?"

"Just quickly, if you don't mind me imposing, and then to dinner. But I'd of course love to see where my granddaughter's been living." Richard nodded. Rory frowned.

"Grandpa, I know Grandma…"

"Rory," Richard said, cutting her off, "Your grandmother has her opinions, and I have mine. Now I'd like to see where you live." She sighed, opening the door and leading them upstairs.

"This is our place," Rory said, gesturing around awkwardly, "We like it."

"You're only saying it because of your proximity to a bookstore at all times."

"I did want to live in one as a kid," Rory smiled, gazing off a bit. "Or no, I think it was a library."

"This…really isn't nearly as bad as Emily made it sound," Richard said, taking a quick look around, "Structurally sound, a decent amount of space, for two," he emphasized, giving Rory a look that she quickly decided not to interpret, "Humble…but that's not necessarily bad. Especially if it's in the interest of building your business."

"Thank you, sir," Jess said, "But I also understand that…Rory deserves more."

"Well, of course she does," Richard agreed, with utmost certainty in his tone, "But Rory is happy. So I'm happy. Rory, you are happy here, right?"

"Incomparably," she smiled. Richard grinned.

"Well then, I see no reason that this arrangement should be considered unacceptable," Richard said, "I will of course want to make sure you have this building properly insured…"

"Matt could tell you more about that."

"Have him give me a call, just so I know everything is up to code. And I do think that down the line…should this continue…this is not where you will want to spend the rest of your lives," Richard said, attempting to be delicate. Rory sighed, Jess smirked.

"But…for now…this is a perfectly fine fit for you both. And congratulations, Rory. I can see why you're so happy here," Richard said. Rory smiled.

"Thanks, Grandpa. Now let's go get you some food.

"Yes, let's!"