Castle in the Air
By Steampunk . Chuckster
Summary: Sarah has opened her dream bookstore just before the holiday season, but when a corporate monopoly announces their reduced-price brick-and-mortar is going in a block away, she must band together with her fellow small businesses to fight for their lives, even if it means getting past a slew of bad first impressions to work with Chuck, the owner of the comic book shop next door. AU Charah.
A/N: Appreciate the attention y'all are giving this story. Hope the next one is fun for you to read. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck or its characters, and any similarities in this fic to any corporate entities are just coincidence... shh.
"Still finding everything okay?"
The middle-aged man turned from where he stood in front of her fiction wall. "Oh, I think I'm fine. Just taking in what's here." He gestured at the shelf.
"Need any recommendations?"
He pursed his lips, seeming to think about it for a long moment. And then it was as if he'd given up, letting out a sigh and facing her better. "I'm interested to hear what you've got for me, actually."
"Okay, what are you in the mood for?"
"Not for me. See, my wife's brother is a giant snob. A real asshole." Well, Sarah hadn't expected that. She pressed her lips into a tight line and raised her eyebrows. "Pardon my French, but asshole is the best way to describe Bernie. We're celebrating his birthday tomorrow, so I need to bring something for him. And like I said, he's a real snob. Thinks he's smarter than everybody. Pulls out these fancy, smart guy names like Proust and Kant. Thing is, I don't want to get him something he already has, so none of the classics. But I also want to get something that's out of his wheelhouse."
"You want to broaden his horizons a bit, hm?" she asked in amusement.
"Yeah. Exactly. He's in his late-forties, but it's never too late."
"I agree. It's never too late. Sounds like your brother-in-law is a fan of the super literary stuff." She paused, not wanting to offend one of her very few customers she'd had all day. But she needed to make sure she went in the right direction. "Would you say he only reads old white guys? …No offense."
He laughed. "None taken. Especially because the answer is yes. That's exactly what he reads. The dead ones, especially."
Sarah wracked her brain for a few seconds, and then she thought of something, excitement lighting her face as she gestured for him to follow her. "I think I've got it."
"That's a relief. Otherwise I'll be standing in here for hours."
She giggled, grabbing the book she was thinking of and taking it off the shelf, thrusting it towards her customer.
He took it and looked it over. "Hmm."
"Saraswati Raje is huge with literary fiction readers. This one in particular. She takes you on a journey of philosophical self-actualization as her main protagonist attempts to survive an attack on his research site in the middle of the North Indian jungle."
She heard the jingle of the bell on the door and glanced over her shoulder.
}o{
For months now, it'd become the norm for him to literally dive behind his car, or behind the wheel of his car, to avoid being seen by the woman who owned the bookstore.
And because life hated him sometimes, as if to punish him for childishly hiding from the other small business owner—the other small business owner who was extreme levels of beautiful, at that—when she did catch sight of him, every single time it was a mortifying situation in which he had no say.
Caught cursing the living daylights out of John Casey the landlord's retreating butthole form.
Caught talking himself through a difficult conversation with his now-ex-girlfriend when he knew he wouldn't be able to keep their dinner date due to a comic shipment's late arrival, sitting on the shared railing behind their shops, mumbling to himself, even doing all the gestures, not realizing she'd been out there the whole time, until he heard the swish/thump of her garbage being tossed in the dumpster. That was her second impression, and he'd made it worse by then telling her he'd wanted to rent her space and expand but Casey'd fucked that up.
Months earlier
"You know how it is. You have your own shop. When the meats get delivered late, they gotta go in the freezer, you gotta make sure they go where you need 'em so they're ready the next day. My comics are like your salamis!" He huffed, rolling his eyes at himself. "Dude, don't call your comics her salamis. Christ."
He tried a different tack. "Remember we said our shops are the most important thing? That we wouldn't let our relationship get in the way of that? This is just fun, right?" He shook his head hard at that one. "Nope. Not that. That's a bad one. Retreat…"
He cursed softly as he heard the sound of a swish and a thump behind him, spinning from where he sat on the railing in the back alley behind his comic shop. He staggered down off of it and stood as he saw she was standing at the shared dumpster and had already tossed one bag of whatever garbage was in there and had another waiting.
Chuck had used taking out their public restroom trash to give himself the time and space to figure out what he'd say to his girlfriend this time when he canceled yet another date. And the bag of trash was sitting at his feet.
It was her.
Damn it, she'd seen him, too. More than that, she'd gotten all the way from the back door he hadn't noticed was propped open by a metal plank thing until now. Why was he talking to himself in a spot in which someone could easily sneak up on him? The way she had? Why didn't she make any sound? God, how much had she seen and heard? Fuck.
There was no quietly backing to the door again because he'd shut it. She was staring at him. And he'd look even more stupid than he'd looked a few weeks ago when she first showed up here, the day he found out his shop wasn't expanding after all because this woman decided she absolutely needed that space for her dumb books.
She raised her eyebrows, hoisting a large bag of what looked like…floor tiles or something into the dumpster. It crashed loudly, and she looked at him again. Then she smiled a little. "Hey."
"Uh."
Her smile went wan. "You work there? At the comics place?" She pointed.
"I-I do. Yes. Sorry, no. I mean, yes. I do work there. But I own it. I'm the owner. Yeah. I own Ashcan."
"Oh. Cool. Great!"
"Yeah." He smiled. And then he realized he had a giant bag of garbage that had who even knew what in it and he quickly tossed it into the dumpster with her weird floor tiles. Was she even allowed to do that? He didn't know how construction trash worked.
"Sorry, I'm—Erm, I know we sort of…saw each other already a few weeks ago. Just wanna, um, apologize…for that. I wasn't…at my best. Probably a bad first impression." He cleared his throat. Why was he acting like such an idiot?
Was she unfairly gorgeous? Yes. Yes, she was. He had a girlfriend, but he also had eyes that worked. And this woman's eyes absolutely worked, at a deeper level, all blue and flashing with intelligence.
Bottom line: Lou was out of his league.
This woman was like if the whole idea of leagues had been disbanded altogether and instead everyone was forced to sit, look up into the clouds, and watch as the gods slapped the sun and moon around with giant sticks.
So there was nothing to worry about here.
He could calm the hell down. He should calm the hell down.
And yet…
"No. You were…fine," she tried, brushing off his worry with her hand cutting through the air. "I barely noticed."
"Heh. Yeah. It just…Casey gave me some bad news. M-Mr. Casey, our landlord. And I was kinda…" He gulped. "Pissed off."
"Bad news… There something wrong with this place? Uh oh." She made a sort of cute oops face and widened her blue eyes.
"No, no. It's great. Totally. No problems. It's just that, uh, yeah…this was supposed to be mine." He pointed at her shop she was apparently gutting by the looks of the dust and grime all over her capri jeans and button-up shirt, her blond hair tugged up in a bun high on her head.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "My shop?"
"Yeah, it was supposed to be mine."
"Supposed to be? I mean, it isn't yours. It's mine. I've got a lease and everythiiiing," she said drolly.
"Right, you do, but I was on the verge of striking a deal with the big man, y'know? Super close to it."
She seemed confused. "Um, right, but…you have that space already."
"No, I know. I meant to expand into that spot. That's what I was in meetings with Casey over. I was this close to hiring a contractor to get work done on this immediately."
She tilted her head dubiously. "Without having signed a lease?"
Chuck felt a little bit of frustration rise in him. "I was gonna sign it. Like, we were gonna finalize talking about the lease." He heard how dumb that sounded the moment it left his lips. They were gonna finalize talking about it? Really? Damn it…
"Well, it's a moot point now because I've got the space and I'm gonna open a store in it."
He licked his lips slowly, and finally nodded, forcing a wide, closed-mouth smile on his face. "Yep! You do!"
She gave him a bit of a searching look. "Okay, well… Sorry, I guess?"
"No, no. It isn't like you…snagged it out from under me on purpose. That's why I yelled curse words at, um, at…Casey. Yeah."
"Got it." She pursed her lips, twisting them to the side. It was kind of cute. And he felt like there was a lot of tension between them here and none of it felt like the good kind of tension. Way to start things off on the wrong foot and then ensure they stayed on a very wrong foot. Freaking doubling down on wrong-footedness. "Well, I'm gonna get back in there. Lots of work I gotta do still."
"Yes!" he rushed out. "Work, yeah. Good-Good luck with all that. The…floors." He pointed at the dumpster.
"Thanks. Nice meeting you…erm…?" She arched her brow questioningly.
"Chuck," he said.
"Chuck. I'm Sarah."
"Good to meet you, Sarah."
He gave her a lame little wave and she sent him a barely polite smile over her shoulder, disappearing back inside of the space he should've been fixing up to house more discs and collectibles than he could shake a stick at, damn it.
He let out a low growl, rolled his eyes to the sky, and slumped back to the door to go inside.
Chuck shook himself of that memory. He still felt pangs of deep embarrassment and shame about that second meeting. Or first real meeting. Yeah, because she saw him mumbling to himself, but mostly because he'd conducted himself horribly.
And instead of being icy with him, she just sort of politely kept her distance, waved politely, smiled politely. She was polite with him. Which was more than he deserved after that.
Oh God, and then he'd been caught dancing like an idiot in MegaJamz, thinking only Morgan and Martha had been in the shop seeing him act a fool. He could still feel that utter dread that coursed through him when he turned and saw her watching with barely contained amusement, and that damned politeness, always the damned politeness. He hoped she knew he didn't actually…dance like that. He was just playing around. If he took her out dancing, he'd dance way better than—well, not way better, but he wouldn't be so—Wait, why was he thinking about taking her out dancing? Where in the hell did that come from?
Then he'd been caught eating lunch by himself at the same bench he used to only eat at when Lou would come visit him. He'd avoided it after she broke up with him, and for some stupid reason he'd decided to torture himself by plopping down and nomming his burger. He still couldn't figure out why she'd seen him sitting there and decided to take her own lunch out to sit across from him, eat with him, talk to him.
When had he done anything to redeem himself from that first conversation?
Did she feel bad for him, having seen from her window as his girlfriend broke up with him? GOD, that was another mortifying thing! She'd seen Lou break up with him from her bookstore window. God damn, everything was just so embarrassing and he hadn't been in the driver's seat for any of these situations.
So he decided today, he would be in the driver's seat. He was controlling the how, the when, the why, the where of meeting Sarah Walker, the bookstore owner.
By walking into her bookstore of his own volition. Seeking her out, well…rather, one of her books. Seeking out one of her books.
Not her, in particular.
He just knew she'd be in here since she had no employees yet and the open sign was turned invitingly next to the door.
But he was freaking controlling this situation. No being caught flat-footed, cursing out their landlord, talking to himself, getting dumped, dancing like an idiot, being a sadsack with a burger… This was his moment.
And when she glanced over her shoulder towards the door from where she stood beside a customer, those blue eyes hitting him, he caught the dubious interest and hint of amusement in her face. The polite mask wasn't there this time.
Having lunch together had maybe made her drop that and now he was seeing Sarah Walker's maskless responses to him.
Chuck was a little surprised by how relieved that made him. He wanted that mask gone. Even if it meant she was teasing him. And it felt like she was teasing him, sending him a look like that.
She held up a finger for him to wait, a subtle gesture as she turned back to her customer.
He slinked a little closer to listen to her do her thing. He couldn't help being curious if she was a book reader and also a good saleswoman.
"If you want something to broaden his horizons a little further, this just got released last week. I haven't read this one yet. I couldn't get my hands on an advanced reader because I'm not one of those huge established bookstores in downtown LA…" He heard the way she'd drawled that, and he stored that bit of info away for later. And…she got advanced readers of books? Was that a bookstore thing? That was kind of cool. "But I've only heard really good things about it. Victor Stumpp has been in the conversation for over a decade, always kind of skirting the edges of expressionism, but with this book, he dove headfirst into stream of consciousness."
"I don't understand much of what you're saying to me, but it's good?"
"It's good," she giggled. "Sorry to drop those terms on your head. I just feel like if he's a big Joyce guy, he'll enjoy Stumpp."
"Well, I'll get this one too. I like how thick it is. He's always reading thick books like this to make himself look smart." Chuck held back a snort. But then the guy spoke up again, lowering his voice a little and looking around, and Chuck snuck closer to the shelf of books, quickly pulling one out and pretending to read the synopsis on the back, as if he wasn't listening. "I notice this author is Black. And the other author is a woman, Indian descent?"
"Saraswati Raje was born in Mumbai—well, then it was called Bombay. But she's been living in Boston for most of her adult life now. Teaches at Boston U," Sarah explained. How'd she know all of this stuff?
"Hm."
Chuck didn't like that hum. What was this guy looking for exactly? Who cared if the Stumpp author guy was Black and who cared if Raje was a woman who was born in India?
He felt his hackles raise a little.
And Sarah oh so smoothly responded with, "You won't broaden his horizons at all if you give him exactly what he'd get himself if he were to walk through that door into my bookstore. He'll read the same James Joyce wannabes he's always read. Those two books give your brother-in-law a new perspective. I promise you those two see the world in a much different light than your brother-in-law. But their writing will draw him in if he likes Joyce's writing."
The man was waffling. Chuck could feel it in the air.
"I don't want to get in trouble with him… and in turn, that'll put me in the dog house with the wife. She knows I like to poke fun at him."
"You aren't poking fun," Sarah argued. "You went out and took into consideration what he likes to read. You searched for something he'll enjoy. You didn't just go to the best seller whatever book by the same guy who always is on the New York Times best seller list, like, 'Oh so-and-so likes books. I'll just get him this. Whatever.' And here's where I stand on all this, which makes sense, I guess, considering I own a bookstore…" She paused, and Chuck listened with bated breath, having been staring at the same freaking sentence on the back of this novel for a good two minutes now. "Books are portals. They take you to places you'd never get to go otherwise. But they're also doors. You get to open these doors and step into someone else's shoes. You get to see the world through someone else's eyes. Buying your brother-in-law these books is the same as buying him a couple of doors he gets to open and walk through. He'll enjoy the read and he'll learn about someone who doesn't look like him, who hasn't had his same life experience."
The man was silent for a few long moments, and Chuck Bartowski couldn't help lifting his gaze from the book he'd been staring at, just…freaking gazing at Sarah Walker's profile.
His mind was blank, but he could hear his heart beating in his ears.
"Well, that absolutely sold me. And if I tell my wife what you just told me, not only will she not stick me in the doghouse, I think she'll even like me a little more," the customer chuckled.
That went in a way better direction than he'd thought it would go. He'd experienced his fair share of customers looking at comic books with the "what do you mean, Spider-Man is Afro-Latino?" bullshit. He'd assumed this guy was the same.
He silently apologized to this guy.
As they swept past him through the next aisle over, Chuck went so far as to open the book he'd been holding, pretending to read the first few pages.
It took another couple of minutes or so, but Sarah made her sale and the guy walked out with both of those books, and the new Stephen King for himself, and the new Kingsolver for his wife.
The bell jingled, the customer gone, leaving the store empty save for Chuck and Sarah. And he kept his eyes on the words on the page, his small smile reaching deep inside of him as he realized this bookstore owner wasn't just some person who decided that opening a bookstore would be a fun thing to do. She loved her books. She loved selling books.
She was good at selling books.
"Into romance, Chuck?"
He looked up at her, eyes wide. And then he looked down at the book he'd been holding and shut it. Oh boy. Fauxmance was an actual word used in the title and the two cartoonish women on the cover were blushing over baked goods. Then he looked up and saw the sign over the section he was standing in said very clearly: ROMANCE.
Chuck pursed his lips, holding up the book, trying not to blush hard as she looked right at him with those eyes of hers sparkling. "Yes. Specifically really trope-ish lesbian romcoms."
Sarah laughed, taking the book from him, her fingers brushing against his in the process. She paused for a moment, her grin dimming just slightly for that moment, and then she stuffed the book back where it went on the shelf. "Nice save."
"Thanks." He cleared his throat, feeling the need to clarify. "You know, it… I mean, I'm not against, um, romance or lesbian romcoms. There's this comic that only has two issues out so far…it's for kids, teens. These two dragon slayer girls are in this dragon slaying competition and they're rivals, going for the same prize. Only they super dig each other. Enemies to lovers sort of thing. It's pretty good, and the art is fantastic."
She tilted her head at him and smirked. "Poor dragons."
Chuck snorted, nodding. "No, you're right. But so far I have yet to see that any dragons were harmed in the making of that comic book." She laughed again and he gestured out the door. "You handled that really well."
"Did I?" She shrugged. "Thank you. I figured you were only in this aisle to eavesdrop."
"Busted. I'm a salesman myself, and I wanted to see how that whole conversation went. You kicked ass."
"Thanks," she giggled. "His brother-in-law sounds kind of like a douchebag."
"Oh. Yeah, it took me a sec to realize the brother-in-law was the problem, and not this guy."
"Shall I rescue you from the romance section?" she teased then, gesturing to the books.
"Sure," he chuckled, following her out of the aisle and back towards the front counter. "But I stand by what I said. I'm not anti-romance. But if there's gonna be a romance in my comic books, it better not be the whole falling in love out of nowhere thing. There needs to be character growth."
"You sound like your sister," she said, smiling at him as she move back behind the counter and picked up some printed receipts with people's names on them, before filing them in a little box. Special orders, maybe? There weren't very many in there. "We got to talking quite a bit about books the last time she popped in and helped me with my website. Which, please, when you see her, thank her for me again and tell her I owe her, like…a coffee or lunch or something." She bit her lip in a wince. "She's a saint."
Chuck raised his eyebrows. He was going to have a talk with that freaking sister of his. "Ellie didn't tell me she's helping you with your website."
"She has made everything so much clearer for me. She even wrote things down for the next time I need to put stuff on the front page. I kind of love her. A lot." She poked her computer monitor's screen and huffed. "This has all been a brutal learning curve and she made it a lot less brutal. At least this part." She must've read something in his face, and read it wrong, because she rushed, "I wouldn't have accepted her help; in fact, I almost didn't. Having someone do work for me in this store and not paying them, isn't… I don't want you to think that's something I'd normally do. Only, she offered and insisted she didn't need me to pay her and I'm…"
He watched her try to explain accepting his sister's kindness, he watched the shame in her, the way her shoulders slumped a little, her lips turned down at the corners. And he quietly responded, as kindly and as understandingly as he could make it, "But you're in a tough spot."
Chuck watched her even closer then as she looked away, seeming not to have expected him to get so candid as suddenly as he had. She pursed her lips, then pushed a hand through her hair, and then sort of dragged it oh so slowly down her face. Then she sighed and her blue eyes swept up to meet his gaze. "You have no idea how hard it is for me to say it out loud to another person. It's hard enough even admitting it to myself, but…" She huffed, leaning her elbows on the counter, a sort of cute half-wince on her face.
"Hm. I can see the pain on your face right now." He got a droll look for that and he smirked a little. "Now that right there is sarcasm."
She snorted, ducking her head, clearly amused. "I made a mistake being so honest with you."
"Maybe. But don't worry. I'm not gonna use it against you." He smiled kindly at her, then turned to take in the store. "Like I said before, it's always hard for a bit. You just gotta get through the tough bit at the beginning. Maybe I can help in my own small way…"
She leaned in and narrowed her eyes at him. "I swear to God, if—out of pity— you do what your sister Ellie did and buy out my whole store, I'll go right next door and kick over that freaking life-size cardboard stand-up of Superman you've got standing outside of your shop. I will kick its ass."
Chuck cracked up. "Okay, don't do that. It's my favorite Supes stand-up. He's got the little curl on his forehead." He reached up and tugged one of his own strands of hair down to curl over his forehead, then let go of it, allowing it to spring back up into place. "I'm not buying out your whole store, but…am I allowed to buy a few things I need?" He winced.
"Seriously? Sorry, I don't have much that's full of pictures."
He glared slightly. "Wow. I do know how to read, thanks."
"Right. Pictures." He sent her a look and she crossed her arms, tilting her head and smiling innocently.
"Are you gonna help me or not? You've got a customer here, maybe a little customer service might be a good idea?"
"Oh, I definitely don't need your advice, but thank you," she chirped, coming out from behind the counter. "What can I help you with?"
"You have kids books?" She furrowed her brow dubiously and he realized then that maybe he needed to cover his tracks a bit. "Ahem, there's a…kid I know. And I wanna…get him some stuff."
"Okay." He followed her towards the back of the store. "What's he into?"
What was he into? He chewed on the inside of his cheek, stuffing his hands in his pockets and glancing around the kids section, noticing that there wasn't…much. The adult section was packed with all sorts of stuff, but the shelves were sparse back here. "Um, adventure? I—He likes adventure." Had she heard that? She didn't react to it, instead scanning the shelves thoughtfully. "Oh!" He pulled his hand out of his pocket and snapped his fingers. "You have the Ashraf series? It's called…crap, what's it called?" He wracked his brain and she stared at him with a blank look. "Ah, it's called the Cairo Chronicles. They were written in the 'eighties and all my friends read 'em, but I… Well, comic books." He shrugged. "It's a classic series, alongside stuff like…Golden Compass and… Do you not have it?"
Sarah pressed her lips together and shook her head. "I don't have any Cairo Chronicles."
"Golden Compass?"
"Erm…"
"What?!"
"I have, like…The Hobbit and stuff."
Chuck snuck past her and started looking at the shelves. God, there was Charlotte's Web, a few things with Scholastic logos on their spines that looked old and had only so-so cover art. But what struck him was that there was almost nothing at all. When he turned to check out more, he realized she hadn't even separated the fantasy stuff from the non-fantasy.
He wrinkled up his face and slowly turned to look at her. "I don't know books, but I know kids should have more books in this store."
She narrowed her eyes. "Look, I'm doing my best here."
"But no Golden Compass? No Cairo Chronicles?" He shook his head, cutting his hand through the air. "Like I said, I don't know a lot about books, but I know this is a bookstore for all people, yeah? There should be more of a section for the kiddos."
Sarah seemed to get defensive immediately, crossing her arms and pulling her shoulders back. "I went through the publisher order catalogs and got plenty of stuff for kids to read. But I've only been open for, like, a month and a half. This is just…first blush, okay?" She shifted her weight. "I'm gonna get more once I settle."
"This kid I know, erm, who I'm buying for… He isn't gonna want stuff like this." He pulled a book out and flashed it at her. "Fido and Jake Go to the Park? Sarah. Come on."
"Plenty of parents are gonna want their kids reading Fido and Jake Go to the Park," she argued.
"Sarah, it isn't about the parents, though. Is it? What are the kids gonna read? A Dad comes back with this?" He held up the book again and slid it back where he got it from. "That kid's not gonna read it. Who's gonna be interested in this? Where's the fun, the character?"
"I see what you're saying. I need more kids books that have fun and character. No kids walking their dogs at the park. Okay." She took a deep breath, he thought probably in an attempt to have patience with him.
"The kid I know, he likes stuff like Cairo Chronicles." He nodded adamantly.
"This kid you know… What's his name?"
Chuck was silent for a while, and then he came up with, "Billy."
"Uh huh. And this…Billy wants adventure books, does he?"
"Yep." Chuck pulled a book with what looked like a pirate ship flying through clouds on the spine. When he looked at the cover, it was sky pirates. He gasped, bouncing on his toes in excitement. "Okay, sky pirates?! This one. Definitely." He realized belatedly that she was staring knowingly at him and he sighed, letting out an amused huff and shaking his head at himself. "Okay. Fine. Billy doesn't exist."
"You don't say…"
"I'm Billy. I-I mean, I'm-I'm Chuck. I just mean that this isn't for some…kid I know. It's for me. I'm looking for a couple of kids books to read."
She raised her eyebrows. "Oh. I wasn't expecting that. …Why?" she asked. He felt like she was legitimately curious rather than judgmental. "You wanna read kids books?"
Chuck raised his eyebrows and lowered his chin, looking at her through his eyelashes. "You don't? You're a bookseller. What's more, you own a bookstore."
She frowned. "You didn't tell me why you wanna read kids books."
She crossed her arms even tighter, almost in something of a warrior stance. Like she was challenging him to continue cutting at her for not seeming very interested in the kids section of her store, or in outfitting it with a good selection of books.
He opted for the truth. "Honestly, I'm sick of grown-up shit." Sarah snorted, sending him an intrigued look, the tenseness in her shoulders easing. "No, really. Stuff for kids is easier to digest. And it isn't like you'd think, at least not in comics. They don't dumb stuff down for kids, but it lands…easier. It isn't like you put it down and have this giant pit in your stomach. I just want to be able to rest and enjoy what I'm reading. And comics for kids do that so I figure books'll be the same. I just wanna read about kids diving headfirst into adventure and…" He wiggled the book he'd found. "…fight, or join, whatever the case may be, a band of roving sky pirates. Find treasure. Defeat the bad guys. Save the day. I can't stomach cynicism right now. And kids content just doesn't have that shit." He shrugged. "So I thought maybe I'd try an actual book this time. With words. No pictures. Maybe it'll give my imagination a workout."
She pursed her lips. "The…kids section needs work. I'll give you that." He merely shrugged helplessly. "If you like adventure stuff, there's this spy series here. I got it 'cause I thought kids who like spy stuff might be interested. They make art forgeries and steal the real ones to give back to the people who had it stolen from them during, like…war and colonization." She took the book off of the shelf and pushed it towards him. "Maybe you'd like that?"
"I'm very interested."
But halfway through reading the synopsis, he looked up at her profile as she continued eyeing her scant selection. He knew it wasn't his place, and still, it felt like something she needed to hear. From someone.
"I wonder if just, like…picking up kids books and reading them to familiarize yourself with 'em wouldn't be a bad idea. It's important to rep kids, like, actually rep 'em. Not just going off a catalog but knowing what's good and what they…want."
He could see the annoyance crossing her beautiful features even before he finished what he had to say. He cleared his throat, deciding that maybe he should've just kept his mouth shut.
"Thanks so much for the advice again, comic book guy."
"It was just an idea I had," he said defensively. "You know, bring more people in here."
"Oh good, now some advice about bringing more people into my store. Thanks so much." He shrugged, not sure what he was doing wrong here. "I guess I didn't realize you had experience opening a whole-ass bookstore from scratch with zero idea what the hell to expect and no blueprint at all."
"Not a bookstore, no, but a comic shop, yes."
"Books aren't comics. A bookstore isn't a comic shop," she argued.
"Well, that's for sure," Chuck snarked. He wiggled the art thief kids book. "There are no pictures in this which is a waste of a page. How do I know what things look like?"
"The words tell you," Sarah sassed. "And then you make your own pictures in your head. It's more work, maybe, but I've never been a fan of cutting corners."
He gasped. "Wow. Reading comics isn't cutting corners. Nor is it easier. You have to multitask."
"Uh huh, sure."
The comic shop owner bit back a chuckle at that. "You're biased against comics."
"You're biased against books."
"Okay, is that why I'm buying some right now?"
"You're buying them, yeah, but are you gonna read them?"
"Why else would I buy them?" he asked, laughing even as he pretended to be aghast. "The snobbery, oh my God."
"Me a snob? Mister This Doesn't Have Pictures and It's a Waste of a Page? Calling me a snob?" She laughed breathily in disbelief.
She had a point there.
Still, he smirked at her.
"Anyway, if I need to fix my kids section so badly, why are you finding things you're interested in so easily?" she challenged.
"Duh, because I'm really friggin' good at picking out kids books. But for the layman, it'll be much, much harder to wander in here."
"Layman? You mean freaking children?" she giggled.
"I just felt like you needed a little help, that's all. What's wrong with helping?"
"Because you came in here to dictate what I put on my own shelves, that's what's wrong with it." Oh. Shit. She had another point there. "Do you think I'm gonna waltz into your comic shop and tell you to stock more Jane Austen comics?"
"Probably not, but they actually do exist and I can find you some if you wanna try out this comic genre. Regency era comics? Pffft, please. So much is out there." He shrugged.
She didn't speak for a moment. And then she blurted "God damn it" as she threw her hands up. "You're annoying, anybody ever tell you that?"
"So many people. So many."
Chuck watched as she pulled her lips between her teeth and bit down, her blue eyes shimmering as if she wanted to laugh because she'd found that funny but her pride wouldn't let her.
"Can you just buy these books if you're gonna make a purchase and go read them so I don't have to suffer through more comic book advice for my bookstore?"
He bit back his own amused grin. "Sure. I'd like to purchase these books, please."
"Are you sure? There aren't any pictures," she tossed over her shoulder at him, the amusement clear in her face now as she led him back to the counter.
The bell rang at the door then and an old white-haired woman came in with her walker, a smile on her face.
Sarah's face lit up and she turned back to Chuck. "Just a second. Don't go anywhere, okay?"
"Okay but don't take too long, I've got a store to run," he teased.
She sent him a sidelong look. "You have employees."
"Touché."
He watched as she bent down behind her counter, grabbed a rubber-banded stack of books from the shelving back there, and hurried around the counter to the old woman.
"Hello, Helga. How are you today?"
"Good, good. I sent you an email. I have other books I want to order. Did you get the email?" the elderly woman asked as Sarah pulled the rubber band from the books and pulled the receipts from them, burying them in a tote the woman had at the front of her walker and sliding them into the small basket attached to it. She tossed a few Castle in the Air bookmarks in there too.
"I got the email and I've ordered all of them for you. You didn't have to get so many."
"Oh, I did! The grandkids are on vacation with their friends for the holiday so all I do all day is read, read, read," she said with her slight German accent. "They wanted to get me a TV and I said nussink doing. I have my books from my favorite bookstore."
Sarah giggled warmly. "Well, that's why you're my favorite customer, Helga."
"Do I owe you for these?"
"Yes, I can run you up now, no problem."
"Oh." She rummaged in her purse. "Here is my credit card. The stripe is a bit worn…"
"It's all right. I can tap it."
"I don't know what that means but whatever works," the woman chuckled. Then she caught sight of Chuck standing off to the side of the counter, and she shook her hand through the air. "Oh, no no. You were in line already. I can wait."
"Please," he insisted. "I'd rather you go first. I had another book I was thinking of grabbing anyway. I'm waffling on it."
"What's the book?"
He was charmed out of his mind by the conspiratorial glint in her watery gaze behind her glasses.
"Kids teaming up with monsters to take down bad guys. It seems like a mystery, too."
"Oh, I love mysteries. Somebody gets z'e kkkgghhkkkk?" She cut her thumb across her throat. "I need to read it."
Chuck and Sarah both burst into laughter.
"Well, you've sold me. I'm gonna go grab it. I'll add it to my pile. But please, you go first. I insist."
"Oh, I'm already running her order," Sarah insisted, sending him a teasingly direct look.
He smirked at that and went back to the book he'd spotted earlier but hadn't taken. Could he read three of these? He wasn't sure. It had been a while since he'd read a book. He tried the one Ellie bought him, but it hadn't swept him up, and the other Star Wars one surrounded the origin story of an evil fascist Sith lord. It wasn't her fault, she saw Star Wars and got it, but he didn't want to know the origin story of that rat bastard.
When he came back, Sarah was already helping Helga put her card back away and was guiding her to the exit. He heard the older woman hiss, "Who is z'at? He's veddy cute," in her sweet little accent. "My Joe's hair used to curl like z'at, too. He v'ill never go bald." And she sent Sarah a wink.
Chuck blushed hard, especially with the way Sarah sent a wide-eyed look back at him, and he turned to put his pile on the countertop, staring down at it, pretending not to have heard any of that.
After Sarah helped Helga back to her car, she came back in and appeared on the other side of the counter again. He wasn't sure if he still had a blush on his face as he tried to play it off with a, "She's super charming. I like her."
"She's my favorite customer, I wasn't lying."
"She likes stuff with kggghhhkkkk, huh?" he asked, dragging his thumb across his neck the way Helga had.
Sarah laughed, scanning his books. "Yep. She really does."
"Hm." He sent her a sparkling look. "Maybe I can get her into comic books…"
She immediately narrowed her eyes and pointed at him. "You better not steal Helga from me, I swear."
"Or the Superman standup won't be long for this world?" He leaned his palms on the countertop and leaned in.
Sarah leaned in as well, gritting her teeth. "You'll find him in pieces in some dumpster in El Segundo."
His jaw fell open…then he tilted his head and furrowed his brow. "Why you gonna dump him all the way over there?" She rolled her eyes at him, clicking at something on her computer. "But no, of course I won't steal her. I'm talking about sharing her. Maybe you can just share her."
"Yeah, that goes both ways, buster. I see all the people who pile into your shop day in, day out," she said glibly, scoffing as she grabbed a bag.
"I don't need a bag, I'll carry 'em. Thanks, though."
"You're okay with your employees seeing you walk around with a book that doesn't have pictures in it?"
"You're really enjoying playing that card with me, aren't you?"
"Yes," she said immediately with her wickedly pretty smirk.
He couldn't help chuckling, shaking his head as he took his card out. "All right, then. You want me to share my customers? Challenge accepted."
That earned him a dubious but wily look from the bookstore owner.
He tapped his card on the reader to buy the books. All things considered, it wasn't as expensive as he'd been prepared for it to be. And he accepted the bookmark she handed over with a quiet smile on her face. Their fingers brushed again and he swore to God, it wasn't just him who was pausing every time that happened.
Then she handed over his receipt, and again…fingers brushing, the slight pause, eyes meeting. He looked away, down at the receipt, and he laughed, reading the Customer Name she'd give him. "Chuck the Comic Book Guy? Is that who I am in your POS system?"
"Yep."
"Okay. I'll take it." He backed away from the counter towards the door. "Thank you for the semi-okay customer service. I appreciate it." She gave off an affronted laugh and he grinned teasingly. "I will report back on these."
"Yeah, you better not buy books from me and not read them."
"D'you need a book report?"
"Mhm. On my desk tomorrow."
"On all three?!"
She grinned.
He got to the door and put his hand on it, pausing when she called his name.
"Hey, Chuck…" They met gazes, the bell jingling as he opened the door a few inches. "I really hope those do the trick for you."
"Thanks. I have a feeling they will." He lifted them in his hand, wiggling them in the air between them. "I'm rooting for you, Sarah the Book Girl." She blinked at him as he saluted with his stack of books and ducked out of the store.
He smiled the whole way back to his store, swinging inside with a bit of a skip to his step.
A/N: Thought I'd give the mega-teasing thing a try with these two. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading, more soon!
-SC