Page 22 of Battle of the Bookstores

After I graduated from UMass Boston, Elaine assumed I’d want to move on—but the bookstore was my home, the staff and customers my family. So Elaine promoted me to assistantmanager, then manager. Her kids held on to the store for a few years after she passed, but eventually Xander made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, and I was grateful he kept me on.

“We’ve got a small problem.” Indira’s voice breaks me out of my reverie, and I realize the store is overflowing with an eclectic group covering every decade, gender identity, and sexuality. The one thing we don’t have is enough chairs.

—

Next door, Beansis relatively empty.

“Hey, hot stuff,” Eddie says from behind the counter, giving me a wink.

“Any chance I can borrow a few chairs for the next hour or so?”

“For your little knitting event?” a familiar, condescending voice says from behind me.

Eddie tries—poorly—to suppress a smile.

Josie and I haven’t seen each other since she accused me of sending Hades to ruin her event—which, from the looks of it, wasn’t nearly as crowded as ours is tonight.

“Knitting is only half of it,” Eddie says, handing Josie her drink.

It’s late in the day for her to have caffeine. And she looks tired—her eyeliner is smudged, and wisps of hair are coming out of her bun. But I quickly dismiss any sympathy. It’s not my fault if she’s been up all night with stress. Xander may have made this a competition, but she’s the one who made me her enemy.

“What’s the other half?” Josie asks, a mocking lilt to her voice.

Behind her back, Eddie catches my eye and makes aspitting motion into an imaginary drink, his unspoken warning clear.

Message received; I will be perfectly pleasant.

“Knotting,” I tell Josie.

She blinks. “Like crochet?”

“Sweetheart,” Eddie says. “We are not talking about yarn.”

Josie’s eyebrows arch. “What, then?”

“It’s a sex thing,” Eddie says nonchalantly. “In the Omegaverse.”

“The omega what?”

“The Omegaverse,” I repeat, grateful Indira gave me a rundown last week. I’ve read a few books in the genre, but the speculative stuff has never been my jam. “There’s an A/B/O character system—alphas are dominant, betas are neutral, and omegas are submissive.”

“Like S&M?” Josie asks. I’m surprised she’s not more flustered. If I had to guess, I’d bet she’s the closed-door, lights-off, missionary type. I get a flash of her, lying beneath me, her hair falling around her shoulders, and the thought is enough to make my dick twitch.

I adjust myself discreetly and force the image out of my mind.

“It’s basically werewolf porn,” Eddie explains. “And knotting is when the base of the penis swells after penetration, so it kind of gets locked up in there.”

He hooks his pointer fingers together and pulls to make the point. Josie chokes on her coffee.

“It can last up to an hour,” I add. “Until the swelling goes down.”

“Sounds…” She trails off, clearly at a loss for words.

“Kinky?” Eddie suggests. “I’d definitely bang a werewolf, wouldn’t you?”

“Chairs!” Josie exclaims, a non sequitur if I ever heard one. “You needed chairs.”

She’s right; that’s why I came over here. And the event is starting any minute.

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