Little Reads ♡ Kit Connor

1.

Marley was laying with her arms crossed and her head resting on them as she leaned on the front desk. She was extremely tired and it was Monday, so everybody was kind of feeling the same way.

Marley had gotten back late last night from visiting her mom so there she laid, until the bell dinged and she sat up and pushed some of her black curls back. She smiled at the elderly coming in, greeted them and allowed them to wander the book store that she owned.

It was her grandmothers but since she passed away three months previous, Marley had dropped out of college and came back to run the store.

It was a beautiful store, all original architecture from the late 1800's. The hardwood floor had been replaced and it definitely needed to be done again with the scratches and dents in it that Marley tried to hide with rugs and potted plants. The bookshelves were original but had gotten a darker stain put on them when her grandma passed to match all the hardware in the store.

"Excuse me?"

Marley turned her head to see the lady peaking around a corner with a gentle smile. "Yes?" Mar stood up and came around the desk and came up to the woman.

"Could you possibly grab that crochet book up there? We're both too short to grab it." The woman pointed up to the shelf where the colourful book rested against other books and Marley nodded and went to grab a ladder to grab it down.

As she stepped back down and handed it to her, the woman grasped her hand. "This store is so beautiful. How long have you worked here?" The woman asked, as what Mar presumed to be the husband wander off looking at other books.

"Oh, I actually own it but it's been passed down through my family for quite a few generations." Mar smiled. She loved seeing people's reactions when she told them about the store because it truly was a wonder.

The woman tugged Mar into a conversation until the husband came up and wrapped an arm around the woman's shoulders.

"Olivia, leave the poor girl alone. Let's go." He chuckled and looked at Olivia and she swatted his chest.

"It's ok! I don't mind!" Mar tried to soothe Olivia before she sent Marley a soft smile and started walking up to the counter and Mar followed suit and went behind the counter to cash out them.

"Have a great day!" Mar called out them as they left. She took a deep breath in and laid her head back down on the counter.

It was now about lunch time and she saw sat in the chair, a book between her fingers and was slowly picking away at her vegetarian stir fry. She took a sip of her water and the bell dinged and she looked up and smiled at the man walking in. He had auburn hair and a nice smile. He had sunglasses on, and he was carrying a couple books in his arms and came and set them down.

"Wow! Lots of books for me today." Marley smiled at him and moved forward to start tugging the books out of the pile to read them. "A Little Life? I have been meaning to read this."

The man chuckled and nodded. "I'm trying to declutter my flat and the first step was books." His voice was soft and her eyes widened a bit. Now that she was closer to him she could really look at him as the man pushed his sunglasses up on his head. His eyes were brown but golden. His hair was styled nicely and his hand came up to fix his hair as he locked eyes with Marley.

"One of my friends sent me here. They said you accept pretty much anything, and have a lot of stuff. I've annotated some of them I hope that's ok?" He continued and Marley smiled at him while using her finger to push her glasses up her nose more.

"Yep. That's been our thing for years." Marley went back to looking at the books and finally she looked up to him and smiled. "Yeah I can take these off your hands."