Gloria was reshelving a stack of books when she heard the
bell ring.
She picked up the few remaining books and headed to the
front of the store.
“Oh, hey, hi! June, right? From the bar the other night. You
were waiting to see a friend and putting worthless men in their places?”
Jade laughed, “It’s Jade actually. But yes, that’s me. Tell
me your name again, please, I’m great with faces and lousy with names.”
“As you can tell, so am I. It’s Gloria. Nice to see you
again. How can I help you today?”
“So, is there some sort of bookseller, book buyer
confidentiality arrangement?”
Gloria laughed, “What happens at the bookstore stays at the
bookstore. No worries. I will not out you as a romance reader to your science
fiction friends.”
“It’s much more embarrassing than that. I’m looking for
relationship advice. Like how to change patterns. Break out of my type being
straight women and married men. And you didn’t really need to know that much…”
“No worries.” Gloria zipped her lip shut. “I’m a vault.”
They walked over to the selection of relationship advice
books.
“Do you recommend one in particular?”
“Honestly? I’m not really familiar with them. I probably
should be, but I haven’t had many relationships so not many relationship
issues. And now I’ve said more than you needed to hear so we’re even.”
Jade smiled and made the same zipped lip gesture.
Gloria thought for a moment and then said, “But maybe a book
about finding out what you really want? Not just in relationships but in
general. Maybe that would help you figure out why you are self-sabotaging by
only being attracted to unavailable people? I’m reading this one right now, and
it’s been pretty helpful.”
Gloria pulled a book off of an adjoining shelf and opened it
about halfway. “There’s even a little quiz to help you see what is really
important to you. I’m a sucker for a good quiz.”
“Did it give you the answer to what you were asking?”
“It didn’t give me a direct answer, ‘you should be doing
this!’ moment so much as a ‘here are the things that are important to you’
clarification. Sometimes you just need to see it written out. You know? Like
you have your whole life planned out to go a certain way but is that the way
you really want it to go? This is helping me figure that part out. Without
boring everyone else in my life with my constant but what if…navel gazing.”
“Okay, you’ve sold me
on it. I’ll give it a try. Maybe it’s like you said, I’m just self-sabotaging
because I don’t know what it is I actually want. I mean, even just hearing you
say that out loud made a lot of sense so if the book is a bust, I’ve still
gotten something out of the store.”
“Good to hear!”
Gloria rang up the sale and wished Jade good luck with her
search.
Later that night when Jade settled down to start reading,
she noticed the note on the receipt: “Come back anytime. -G” She thought, “Oh,
Jade, don’t think it. She’s just doing her job. But…then again, maybe another
trip in might not be the worst idea.”
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