Page 35 of Winter Break

“I mean, I don’t think so.”

Austin sighed. “Man, you know I respect the demi-ness of it all, but you were there for months. Did you even try to meet someone when you were up in Alaska?”

“I don’t know. I mean, maybe?”

We hoisted ourselves onto the stools, and I pulled out my phone and found the text message trail between Turner and me. The last picture, from just a week prior, was of the newly designed storage area, full of shelves. A door on the far side was open.

Up next … the main shop floor.

For the first time, he’d sent a second picture, a new angle, showing me the store front from the open door of that back room.

Wow, it’s really coming along!

I ordered the coffee maker. It’s huge.

It’s taking up half the floor in my living room. Anita keeps telling me it should only take one pot to brew a cup of coffee!

He’d sent me a picture of the ancient, frighteningly stained coffee pot that Miss Anita still used every morning at the toy store, and later that day, a picture of a box on the floor of his apartment.

“Uh-huh,” Austin responded while I was scrolling.

“Shut up,” I said distractedly.

“You know, he can tell that you’re staring at his texts.” I turned around to look over my shoulder while my best friend laughed at me. Turner’s head moved quickly. Had he been looking at me?

Turning back, I caught Austin with his head tilted, trying to read off my phone.

“Fuck off.” We were attempting to shove each other off the bar stools when Preston sauntered over.

“Welcome home, you two.” He slapped two coasters in front of us. “Two kiddie menus then?”

“Fuck off,” we said in unison.

I wanted to go over there and talk to him, but it seemed inappropriate to interrupt his meeting. I wanted to turn back around and stare at him, but I knew that was wrong too.

Instead, I finished reading our text chain even though I knew it meant Turner might notice.

So we’ve decided the new space will be an actual bookstore.

With the café, of course!

He’d added a coffee cup emoji.

Books for adults? Do you even know how those work?

I mean, they’ll still have fuzzy bunnies on the cover, won’t they?

Or rainbow unicorns.

That had been a few nights ago, and he’d gone on to tell me about a new children’s author he’d discovered in England and how well those books were selling.

I could just sense his enthusiasm about it all, the toy store, his new space, the mini café, even over text. I had offered to come and work at the store for the holidays, but he hadn’t taken me up on it. I might have loved his enthusiasm about new books from England slightly less when he mentioned that the writer he’d met outside of London was a guy about his age.

I glanced over my shoulder one more time, then began to type.

Hi! It’s nice to see you. At the store later? I can’t wait to see the new space.

“Are you texting him right now, dude?” Austin asked as we waited for Preston to bring our lunches.