King of Harts

14

Emory

"It's 7 am, Mo" the older man behind the counter sighs all grumpy and annoyed.

He adores me.

"I'm aware of your hours, Charles" I say, my chin in the air because I just love annoying him.

"You're a pain in my ass" he glares and I just shoot him a grin before heading towards the romance section.

Charles owns the bookshop I spend half of my time in. When I first moved into my apartment, I took a walk and basically called it fate when I found Charles' shop was only a 5 minute walk from my front door.

He owns the place with his wife Danielle, who I adore almost as much as my own mother, and I've grown very fond of them and this shop over the last 3 years. Charles is a grump. Well, he pretends to be, I know he's a huge softie and I love that about him.

I'm stress shopping. Decided to hold off on the baking because I've run out of people to hand treats out to.

Dad keeps calling and texting and he's only ever this persistent when he needs money.

I don't answer because if I do, I'll give in and probably give it to him.

I'm an idiot, I know.

My minds been drifting over to Adrian a lot lately, which is no surprise because how can you not think about him, you know?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we had such a normal time on our own the other day that it kind of scares me. It felt nice, I mean, the guy was teasing me and being all playful. It seemed like he was concerned for me when I received another call from my father and that was also nice.

I enjoyed not being the target of his attitude for once and I don't want to get my hopes up but it seems that we're both very capable of being friends.

Still weird though. It's going to take some getting used to.

Hence why I'm here so early, just before I have to go to work. I need to calm down because something tells me Gary isn't going to be in his best mood today and I simply don't have the energy today. I just have that sixth sense about him.

Not to mention that I was up all night reading because sleep definitely wasn't going to happen with the thoughts that clouded my mind.

The last few days just haven't been in my favor if I'm being honest.

I browse for a good hour and cut myself off when I've piled a total of six new books in my arms.

I already feel better, wanting nothing more than to finish my shift at work so I can admire my new purchases some more at home.

Charles scowls at me as he rings me up, grumbling to himself like he hates me and all I can do is grin up at him before reaching into my bag.

"For you" I smirk, sliding the container of cookies over the counter to him as soon as he plops my bag of books in front of me.

I watch him narrow his eyes at me, then the container and then me again. Then, Charles accepts the cookies with a mumbled "Thank you" and I leave with a big fat smile on my face.