There was something very weird about the cellar, Faun had only been down there once when she was first shown where the thermostats were for adjusting the shop’s temperature which were set on an automatic timer.
“What is that strange smell?” Faun asked as they went down the stairs. There was a dampness down here too, and an odd hum, like some kind of constant motor running.
“Oh, well this is where the old movie theatre was, the popcorn maker there?— Aunt Fiona makes gourmet popcorn for the shop—or had done…. not sure what will happen now but that’s part of what you smell —and, they roast the coffee beans that are sold in the shop and on line—did they tell you about that?—but there’s also Aunt Fiona grows a vegetable garden right out there and she’s big on her onions which grows right by that exit door,” Grant pointed
She understood most of what he said this time as he slowed down his speech a bit as they were walking,
“this way,” he said and showed her down a narrow side isle she hadn’t known was there.
“It seems inconveniently placed from the shop’s access,” Faun remarked
“I believe that was intentional,” and they turned another corner, “however it is accessible from the street on the other side.”
At last at this turn she could see the convenience of being inconveniently out of the way.
“This is a botany lab,” he told her
“I smell eucalyptus,” she sniffed the air
“This way,” he said again
and then there it was—a glass wall with adjustable blinds revealed a wood paneled office lined with dark wood filing cabinets and furnished with a heavy dark wood desk, leather chairs and of course —bookcases loaded with vintage leather bound books
“Please, have a seat—“ and he pointed to the chair at the desk that faced a wide screen computer monitor
“You want me to sit there?” she pointed to the desk
“Please,” he said as he pulled one of the leather wing chairs over for himself and placed it next to the swivel desk chair in upholstered burgundy leather that matched the other
Once seated he tapped the computer and the screen lit on
“I wanted to ask your opinion—the figures —you’ve been doing the daily totals ….see, these are the online orders for the website sales and that column are those figures there….”
Faun looked at what he pointed to not knowing what he was trying to ask of her to see
But then she said,
“I didn’t realize they had such a successful online store, I mean —if that’s how much they made last month.”
“Hmm,” Grant made a sound of the affirmative
It was impressive and accounted for how it was possible to have kept up the shop so well….but—
“I don’t understand why they bother with a shop when—“
“Exactly! But, no—here’s the thing, I set up Uncle Arthur’s website several years ago and I’ve helped him run it from over there as he was not the most tech minded person —but do you recognize any of these titles?”
Faun turned her attention to another document Grant opened now which listed titles of books along with their isbn number, store sku and their listed prices. In all her years working with books, she knew popular titles snd authors so well that she could count them instead of sheep at night in her head; classics?—she was a walking Amazon search engine and ….these titles she was looking at were ….completely out of her knowledge and page after page of the document she searched looking for at least one title or author she recognized
“What are these?” she felt herself get curious as she read the titles, “‘Hit Man Bash’ ‘Chronic Youth’ —Dom Demenico ….wait—do you have Google on your phone—can you look up this author?”
And as he reached for his phone there was suddenly a kind of bond between them; it was a subtle shift but it felt as if some kind of unspoken level of a kind of intimacy had been formed between them as their shared intrigue drew their attention
“Nothing!” Grant said and showed her what came up. It only showed a spelling correction and then instead of an existing author, a suggestion with the origin of the Latin name
When she looked up from his phone to look up at him she was aware of how close he was leaning as he showed her the screen of his phone and —she found that instead of pulling away from his nearness, she liked his presence there
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