Chapter Two

Ben

Wow. Okay, so Hannah’s cute. Gorgeous might be the right word. Normally, I’d roll my eyes at someone who says they’ve never read a book they weren’t assigned in school, but she was so eager that it was kind of…charming.

I’m still watching her leave, still off-kilter from the whole encounter when the bell over the front door rings and in comes another customer. Except it’s not just any customer. It’s Alex.

Alex and I have been dancing around each other for nearly a year now, ever since she started working at the coffee place across the street. I keep thinking it’s inevitable that we’ll end up together, but months have gone by and we’re still not.

“Hey, Ben!” she says as she crosses to the register.

I straighten and smile. Alex always looks pretty without even trying. Her long, dark brown hair is up in a ponytail, she’s barely wearing any makeup, and she looks great. She sets a coffee cup in front of me.

“A bribe,” she says. “I need you to dig The Pelican Brief out of this mess for me. I know you’ve got a copy somewhere.”

I wince internally. Grisham? Really? Okay, so maybe we don’t like the same books, but I’m not going to give her grief about her love of lurid legal dramas. Everybody’s got a guilty pleasure.

“You didn’t have to do that. It’s my job to find books for people.”

“Yeah, yeah, but us customer service drones have to take care of each other, right? God knows nobody else will.” Alex is a senior, like me, but unlike me, she hates her job at Coffee Oasis. “Rough day at the Oasis?”

“Looks like you had your hands full yourself with that wide-eyed kid I saw leaving.”

For some odd reason, that makes me bristle slightly. “Nah, she was all right. I liked her.” That’s a pretty tepid description considering how much fun I had while she was here. Picking out that book for her was the most enjoyable thing I’ve done all week.

“Well, lucky you. You would not believe this woman who came in this morning.” She props an elbow onto the counter and angles her long, lithe body to the side, settling in to vent about her day. We do this a lot. “So there are a dozen people in line because, hello, it’s a Saturday. She takes ten minutes to read the menu and asks all these ridiculous questions before she finally orders four salted caramel lattes. The line is out the door by the time I finish making them, and then she flips out because I didn’t use soymilk she didn’t ask for. Ugh. I can’t wait until I’m through law school, and I never have to wait on anyone again.”

Alex and I are friends partly because we’re both students, working part-time jobs on this same commercial strip, and partly because we’re both going to law school next year. Maybe. Alex is seriously gung-ho about it. Me? Not so much. I envy her certainty. I wish I could want it the way she does.

She’s beautiful, smart, and acing all her pre-law classes. My dad would die of happiness if I brought Alex home to meet the family; she’s everything they’d ever want for me. I do genuinely like her, but every time I try to work up the nerve to ask her out, the words get stuck in my throat. For all the time we’ve spent swapping stories from retail hell, I can’t tell if she sees me as anything more than a friend. I think she does, but it’s been nearly a year, and I’m still not sure what I want from Alex.

“Wow, sounds like a nightmare.”

“You have no idea. So, you think you can find the book before my break is over?”

“You seriously underestimate my skills, Alex.” I slide out from behind the register. “It just so happens I know exactly where your book is.”

She laughs and follows me back into the stacks. Sure enough, the copy of The Pelican Brief is right where I expected to find it.

“You’re like the book savant, Ben.”

I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not, but I decide to take it as one. “This place only looks like chaos. I’ve got it all up here.” I tap my temple.

“That skill will serve you well in law school.”

I scowl. “Right. Law school.”

“How much do I owe you?” she asks, not noticing my grimace.

I wave her off. “Consider it a trade. I was coming over for a coffee later anyway.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Thanks!”

I leave Alex browsing through the rest of the Grishams and head back to the register, surreptitiously watching her while I work. She’s hot by anyone’s estimation. Smart, ambitious, and we’ve got the law school thing in common— This should be a no-brainer. So why am I still stalling?

“Ben, did you catalog this one yet?” Adele’s voice startles me out of my Alex fixation.

“That’s supposed to be in modern philosophy.”

Adele smiles and shakes her head. “You’ve got every book in this store in that head of yours. Who needs a computer when we’ve got you here?”

“Not every book. Not when Ralph keeps dragging more in every day.”

Ah, Ralph, the owner of Prometheus Books. As fearless a leader as he is an old grump.

Ralph loves books, but he doesn’t like dealing with customers. Or people in general. So he works a couple hours in the morning, when almost no one comes in, and then he takes off and goes scrounging for more inventory, even though we’re out of space. I work when I’m not in class, and Adele, Elliot, and me—mainly Adele and me—actually run the place.

Adele hesitates. “How do you think she’ll enjoy her book?”

“She loves those law dramas. She’ll probably like that one, too.”

“Not Alex. The other girl. The wet one.”

The wet one? My heart skips a beat as I put two and two together. “Oh, you mean non-reader Hannah.” That’s a good question— Will she even read The Book Thief I gave her? Will she ever turn back up and tell me what she thought of it? She was freaking adorable when I gave it to her… I hope she keeps her promise.

“I guess we’ll find out,” I say. “She said she’d come back and tell me about it.”

Adele glances at Alex and smiles a little. “Maybe.” Then she drifts off into the stacks with her book.

Alex lingers for a while longer, long enough for the coffee she brought me to get cold. Finally, she heads back toward the door.

“Break’s over.” She sighs. “Back to the grindstone.”

I smile in sympathy, but it’s different for me. The truth is, I’d probably be hanging out in Prometheus all weekend even if I didn’t work here. “Hang in there. Try not to kill anyone.”

“No promises.” She winks. “Have a good weekend.”

The weekend— Here’s my opening. If I’m ever going to man up and ask her out, this would be the perfect time. I could ask her about her weekend plans, suggest we do something together. But when I open my mouth, my throat closes up, and I make a strangled little sound instead of actual words.

Jesus, I’m hopeless. I try again, but Alex is nearly out the door, so I end up just waving with my mouth half open. Brilliant. A year of this and I still can’t manage to get it done. I drop my head down onto my arms and groan. Hell, I couldn’t even manage to flirt with Hannah, who didn’t even make me nervous.

My future’s basically been planned out for me, and while my dad hasn’t been so old-fashioned as to pick out my girlfriend for me, I have to admit, she’s perfect for the job. So why am I hesitating? What’s wrong with me? And why am I thinking about that girl Hannah when I just let the perfect girl walk away from me yet again?