"We are all fools in love." -Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Cat is checking out the renovations and building on a new project with work as she walks through with her friend and coworker, Lois Lane 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, Cat is just looking around not really listening to Lois, "Great, great, this is all great. Do you know when the electrician will be here?"
"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."
Cat 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."
Lois walks alongside Cat, "This is the Upper West Side. We might as well tell them we're opening a crack house. They're going to hate us. They're gonna be lining up…," Cat joins in with her, "To picket the big, bad chain store…"
Nodding Lois continues, "That's out to destroy everything they hold dear."
Cat'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 Grant Books Superstore. The end of civilization as you know it."
Lois just laughs and follows after Cat as they finish up their tour of the construction.
Meanwhile across town Kara has just made it to her work, a pumpkin held under her arm, "Good morning, Siobhan!"
A brunette sits on a green bench in front of the bookstore they both work at waiting for Kara to open shop, "Morning, Kara!"
Kara 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 New York in the fall?"
Siobhan looks from the arguing men to the oblivious Kara who pushes the store front's cage up and unlocks the door. Grabbing a vase of flowers from the register area Kara smells them with a smile, "Perfect!"
Siobhan trails behind her, pumpkin still in hand and a look of disbelief at how cheery Kara is this morning. Kara 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 James. I'm practically living with James. Hmm. Do you think you could get our Christmas mailers out this week?"
Siobhan sets the pumpkin on the counter and takes her coat off along with Kara, "Yeah, by Monday, I promise. I have this paper due Friday," but it doesn't seem like Kara's listening anymore, "What is going on?"
"Nothing, nothing. Nothing at all."
"You know, I am just going to stand here until you tell me."
"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 Kara. I didn't know you had it in you," Kara glares at her, "I mean cybersex."
"No."
"Well, don't do it. The minute you do, they lose all respect for you."
Kara glares after Siobhan as she runs around setting up the store, "Well, it's not like that. We just email. It's really nothing. On top of which, I'm thinking of stopping because it's getting…"
"Out of hand?"
"Confusing….but not because it's nothing."
"Where'd you meet her?"
"Listen, I can't even remember."
Siobhan highly doubts that as she walks back over the counter where Kara is pouring some candies into a jar.
"On my birthday I wandered into the "over 30" room for a joke, sort of. And she was there. And we started chatting."
"About what?"
"Books and music, how much we both love New York...harmless, harmless. Meaningless. Bouquets of sharpened pencils. Oh."
"Excuse me?"
Kara 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."
"She could be the next person to walk into the store."
"I know!"
"She could secretly be…." in walks their other co-worker, "Winn."
And they both stare at him as she walks in with a coffee in hand and an unenthusiastic look on his face, "Morning."
Siobhan 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, Eve!"
Eve walks over to them a smile on her face, "What are you girls talking about?"
Siobhan nonchalantly says, "Cybersex."
Eve nods, "I tried to have cybersex once, but I kept getting a busy signal," then walks off towards the back of the store.
Siobhan is still going, "I know, I was really depressed one Saturday night about 9:00-"
Eve yell's, "Time to open up!"
Kara 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 Cat is in a meeting with her mom and an old family friend they work with, "Construction's going well. We should open on time. Although Lois and I are concerned about the neighborhood response."
"Your mother's getting married again."
Cat sits on the couch in the office, "Really? Congratulations."
"Thank you."
"Why?"
"Who knows."
Cat throws out there, "Love?"
Her mother responds, "Possible."
And their family friend responds, "I think you're a damn fool."
"Well, in other news, mother. Another independent bookstore closed today. We'll also have a section dedicated to writers who've lived on the West Side."
"As a sop to the neighborhood."
Cat's mother butts in, "Perfect. Keep those West Side, liberal nuts, pseudo-intellectual-"
"Readers, mother. They're called readers."
"Don't do that, Cat. Don't romanticise them. It'll keep them from jumping down your throat."
Family friend, Bob butts in again, "What competition is left?"
"One mystery store, Sleuth, at 78th and Amsterdam...and a children's bookstore, Shop Around the Corner. It's been there forever."
"Alura's store."
"Who?"
"Alura Danvers. Lovely woman. I think we might have had a date once. Or maybe we just exchanged letters."
"You wrote her letters?"
"Mail. It was called mail. Stamps, envelopes-"
Cat waves her and and nods, "I've heard of it."
"Alura had beautiful penmanship. She was too young for me but she was enchanting."
"Enchanting?"
"Her daughter owns it now."
Cat's mother chimes in, "Too bad for her now."
A knock on the office door draws their attention and business resumes. Later that night and the next fews days Cat and Kara exchange even more emails.
NY152: My mother is getting married again. For five years, she'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.
NY152: 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.
NY152: 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 Winn 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 Kara and Siobhan. Standing the street corner they look on, "A Grant Books superstore."
Siobhan glares," Quel nightmare."
Kara sighs at the sight of the building, "It has nothing to do with us. It's big, impersonal, overstocked and full of ignorant salespeople."
Winn responds, "But they discount."
"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."
Siobhan and Winn look at her like she's completely lost her mind. But honestly Kara's mind is too busy thinking about if Cat has emailed her back yet today. She can't wait to get home tonight and read another email.
