OLDER
CONTACT ME
DIARYLAND
2003-06-14 - 12:03 a.m.
"That's all I ask, Natalie. That's all I ask." We slowly let go of each other and she wiped the tears from her eyes.
Martin stood in the doorway and watched the two of us for a few moments, then he stepped in. "Come on Nat, we've got some painting to do." He put his arms around her shoulders and walked her to the door. "I don't feel like doing it tonight. I'm just going to go to bed, I'll paint it tomorrow." And she pushed his arms off of her and went into their room. I heard her fall onto the bed and cry some more. It was normally around 2AM when she got home, so it had to be near 3AM by now, and I had to be at work at 7AM, so I almost immediately fell back to sleep on the floor. I had some strange dreams about protecting Nikki from some kind of a demon or something. It felt somewhat prophetic, but I don't have prophetic dreams anymore. My stereo went back on at 6:30AM, again blaring random rock songs. I rolled over and smacked my head on my dresser, I guess that should teach me not to sleep on the floor; especially when I have a perfectly good bed next to me. I made my way down the hall to the bathroom, Martin was just walking out, also on his way to work. We grumbled incoherently to each other as we always do. A quick shower, forget shaving today, and back into some black clothes. I grabbed my backpack and ran downstairs. Ran through the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of my own special blend of tea, out the door and into Martin's truck. He drops me off at work if we have to be there around the same time. "You're seeming pretty spry for someone who only got around five hours of sleep." He drank coffee out of a lidded mug. "Does anyone even say 'spry' anymore? Besides your dad anyway." That got a laugh out of him. Rev. Rollins isn't a big fan of Martin and Natalie's cohabitation, but she doesn't want to get married yet and he's willing to wait. Martin stopped in front of the bookstore and let me out, 6:50AM, my standard five minutes late. I grabbed the newspapers by the door and let myself in. No one comes in this early except to by the paper or some magazines, both of which are right by the door. By quarter after seven I'm basically done until noon. So I head to the back and bring out the early morning deliveries. A large amount of new books and some special orders. I don't know why we even get new stuff in, the only thing we sell are newspapers, magazines, and some romance novels to the older women. I usually end up reading a lot of the new science fiction and fantasy stuff that comes in, rarely someone will pick up one to send to a relative for a birthday or something. I don't know how Mr. Dent stays in business like this. I put up all the new stock, rotated the magazines, and did a sketch of the next window display and left it on Mr. Dent's desk for his approval. After that I really didn't have much to do besides read my book. So I sat behind the counter and went back to reading East of Eden by Steinbeck. Around noon the next wave of people came in and picked up their magazines and the newspapers they didn't get this morning. Then it died down again. A few people that work third shift trailed in as if they just woke up, which most of the have. But nothing spectacular. More time passed and nothing happened. A slower than slow day. Around 2:30 the bell above the door jingled, but I didn't look up. I didn't think anything of it. I saw whoever it was move back towards our small new age section. No one ever goes back there, besides me and Nikki the other day. Rather quickly the customer came up to the counter carrying a copy of the Kama Sutra and the latest Neil Gaiman book. She put both of them down and leaned on the counter. I finally put my book down and moved towards the cash register. "You mean you don't already have a copy of this?" I looked up and asked. Her blue eyes sparkled back at me. "I never had a copy, it belonged to an ex-boyfriend who took it when he left me." She pushed her blonde hair behind her left ear. "Tell her to meet me at my house around six-thirty. She has twenty minutes leeway, if she doesn't show, then I don't want to see her." She laid her cash on the counter and took her books. "Oh and Amy, it was nice to see you."
