Page 6 of The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove

‘Hey, Nancy.’

‘Dennis.’ I nodded, and then moved my head from side to side to stretch. Stooping over the counter painting really did make my shoulders ache.

After he’d told me that I lived with my head in the clouds and that this fluffy little world that I lived in wasn’t reality, I still wasn’t completely over it. I’m not sure he was even aware of how his frankness came across as offensive but my sensitive little soul had been really hurt. I couldn’t really bring myself to be overly nice to him right now, but he smiled as if he’d forgotten the way he’d treated me last time. He probably had.

‘Nan asked me to pop in and see whether the book she’d ordered had come in yet?’

‘It has yes. It’s just under the counter. I’m just going to go and wash my hands if you don’t mind hanging on a minute or two. I’ve got paint everywhere.’

I nipped to the small bathroom at the back of the shop and had a quick wee before washing my hands, wiping them down my apron as I walked back into the main shop. Dennis stood with the book his nan had ordered in one hand and I was horrified to see that he had a pile of brown envelopes in the other. We both yelled at the same time.

‘What the hell are you doing, Dennis…?’

‘What the hell is going on, Nancy…’

5

I could feel the blood rush through my body, the rage building inside me as I snatched the envelopes from his hand.

‘What the hell do you think you are doing snooping around in my private papers?’

‘You told me to get Nan’s book from under the counter.’

‘I most certainly did not. I said it was under the counter. That was not an invitation. This is a bloody shop.’

‘I assumed that you meant for me to get it.’

‘You must have heard the old proverb, Dennis. The word assume makes an ass out of you and me.’

He dipped his head to one side and frowned. Clearly, he hadn’t got a clue what I was talking about.

‘The word assumeobviously,’ I explained. ‘It has the letters a, s and s and then a u an m and an e. Ass. U. Me. Get it?’

His blank expression told me that he still had no idea.

‘Oh, forget it. Clearly you are not as clever as you think you are.’

‘More’s the question, Nancy, why are all these letters sat unopened under your counter?’

‘You wouldn’t understand. Someone like you wouldn’t understand at all.’

A great big sigh escaped from him at the same time as a tear rolled down my face.

‘Try me.’

I took a big breath and just blurted it out.

‘I think I’m in a spot of trouble.’

6

I walked from the small kitchen area carrying two mugs of coffee, and placed them down on the coffee table next to the two wing-backed armchairs in the bay window. Dennis didn’t even look up from the pile of papers he’d been looking through.

A little fake cough seemed to break into his thoughts and he placed the papers on the table, and looked at me over the top of his glasses.

‘So, what’s the verdict?’

‘Oh, Nancy. You just have no idea, do you?’

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