Something Good and Right and Real

you are in love

The shop is almost empty when Karlie walks in. It caught her eye because it was small, tucked in between a jewelry store and a clothing shop, and because she has always loved books. She slips in and looks around. The ceiling is high, and the shelves lining the walls go almost all the way up to it. She glances to the right, where the counter sits.

"Hello!" the girl standing there chirps. She's blond and tall and her beanie is to die for. She's also adorable, with a bright smile and wisps of blond hair poking out from beneath her hat. "Can I help you find anything?"

"Yeah," Karlie says before she realizes that she can't exactly ask the girl to help her find a date, at least not right off. "I'm looking for something new that I haven't read before."

The girl nods. "We can do new. What genres do you like?"

Karlie hesitates. "I don't know anymore," she says at last.

The girl nods, like it's something she hears all the time. "Do you want me to get a few of my favorites, and you can pick from them?"

"That would be great. I'm Karlie, by the way."

She smiles again. "Taylor. It's nice to meet you! I'm super excited to do this. I don't get to share my favorite books with people every day."

The man standing under the fiction sign across the room snorts. He's ginger and shorter than both her and Taylor. Karlie hadn't even noticed him. "Tay says that, but she's always spouting off recommendations, asking people if they've read Bluets or what they think of the Harry Potter play."

"I'm scared to read it," Karlie says. "I'm worried it'll, like, ruin the rest of the books for me or something."

Taylor shakes her head. "You can't live your life afraid of books. And don't listen to Ed, he just has a vendetta against Maggie Nelson."

"You can live your life afraid of anything." Karlie leans on the counter. "We aren't all Gryffindors."

Taylor pulls a book off the shelf. "Have you read Lab Girl?"

"Not yet."

"You know how priests used to only keep the Bible in Latin so that no one could read it? And then Martin Luther got fed up and created Protestantism. Which really goes to show what'll happen if you're afraid of books, especially ones that are a part of what you love. Like Christianity."

"I'm not sure that's how it happened," Ed says.

"I think Harry Potter is a bit more important than Christianity," Karlie says. "Didn't Albus Dumbledore say it best—'Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic'?"

Taylor grins. "So you'll read it, then?"

"I didn't say that," Karlie protests, but she already knows she will. Taylor must be able to see it in her eyes, because she crows with victory and grabs a copy of Cursed Child off the shelf.

"It's worth it," she promises. "Not quite the same as seeing it live, but between this and the Hamilton soundtrack, I feel almost like I've actually been to the theater."

"A Hamilton fan, huh?"

Taylor hops up on the stepladder. "Who isn't? Have you read David Sedaris?"

"Who?" Karlie asks. "I really like Aaron Burr."

"Perfect, you haven't. He's hilarious, you'll love him." She deposits the books she's picked up on the counter, where Karlie still stands. "And I've always identified more with Alexander Hamilton."