Page 32 of The Bookshop Ladies

‘Online? They’re all buying their books online?’ Robyn rolled her eyes and sighed. But of course, wasn’t that exactly wheretheywere selling most oftheirbooks?

‘Mostly, from what I can gather… You see, the problem is, they want new books, or at least, they want the blockbusters, the ones currently in the charts.’

‘That’s it then, I suppose, we are officially buggered. I’ve lost before I even started.’ Robyn puffed out her cheeks. ‘Do you know how much it would cost to stock this place up with the latest bestsellers? I can’t afford to take that sort of risk…’

‘Well, maybe there’s a way round that, we’ll talk to the suppliers.’

‘More shortbread?’ Robyn licked some crumbs from her fingers loudly.

‘Hey, even my baking isn’t going to cut sway when it comes to some things,’ Joy laughed, she was pleased the cake had worked as a PR gimmick, but it had its limitations.

‘God, we’ll have to start putting out breakfast, dinner and tea for them next.’

‘Not necessarily. Meg Stapleton has offered to help us.’ The postmaster’s wife had as little to do as Joy had and she’d happily settled in for an hour-long chat. ‘Obviously, she can’t give us names, but…’ and this is where Joy thought her plan was beyond brilliant.

‘Meg knows exactly who’s getting book-shaped packages regularly and, say we wanted to give a reception here for readers, she would be happy to place a sticker on the back of each book package for three or four weeks beforehand. So, we go out, get a bookplate made, something like the sign outside the door, with space for a handwritten message.’

‘Ah, brilliant, really, brilliant. At least they’ll know we are here… Thanks Joy, that’s just, inspired, what would I do without you?’ Robyn threw her arms around Joy who stood stock-still for a moment and then relaxed.

‘That’s not all. Once you have a date for the reception, and maybe a local author to speak, we can put the details on the bookplates. I think we should order a tonne of them, use them not just for this launch, but for future literary events, or really, if you just want to remind customers that you’re still here.’

‘Oh, seriously Joy, that’s inspired.’ Robyn’s face lightened, she actually looked like a different person. Joy thought,this is what hope looks like when you think all is lost.

‘And,’ Joy put up her hand, ‘Meg is happy to remind people to come along on the evening; particularly the people who regularly get books in the post.’

‘I don’t know what to say.’ Robyn clapped her hand over her mouth. ‘It’s amazing, truly, Joy, you are just…’

‘Well, don’t thank me yet, we have a lot of organising to do and we still have to sell some books once we get them in here and, more than that, we need to convince them we can cater for their future reading needs, yes?’

‘Oh God.’ Robyn closed her eyes, as if the enormity of the task ahead had just hit her. She took a deep breath, but there was determination in her voice when she spoke next. ‘Yes, Joy, yes, I’m up for it. If bloody Imogene Norton can have a string of successful beauty parlours, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the bookshop slip through my fingers. Let’s get started designing those bookplates.’

21

They say disasters strike in threes, but thankfully, that morning, as they set about prioritising jobs for the big bookshop party, that didn’t even enter Robyn’s mind. Instead she felt quite content sitting there with Joy, wrapped up in the velvety sweetness of a new friendship unfolding between them.

They spent the day making plans. Robyn designed the bookplates, a job she really enjoyed, while Joy walked the shop floor with her measuring tape calculating how many people they could fit in on the night.

‘If we’re lucky the weather will hold and people can spill out onto the street. We can even move some of the lighter bookstands out there if we need to,’ Robyn said and then she dragged Joy outside to show her the old-fashioned canopy that could be used to protect stock in the window from the sun. ‘My grandparents were greengrocers, so they used it all the time. The whole path was extra display space.’ She was wittering on, hardly noticing that Joy had gone out on the road to look at the bookshop from a distance.

‘I never really looked at the sidewalk before, but what a great idea, Robyn!’ She clapped her hands together and held them under her chin. ‘Can we still do that, there aren’t any by-laws that stop you, say, putting a chair outside?’

‘No, I can’t imagine there would be…’

‘You see, we could make it a reading space. If the readers don’t come in to us, maybe we can go out to them,’ Joy nodded towards the little café where they ordered their coffees each morning now. ‘Shane would love to have extra seating room for his clients and if we pull out the canopy for the summer months and put chairs outside, people could have coffee and read the paper or a book, what do you think?’

‘Oh, that’s brilliant. I LOVE it!’ Robyn made a small noise of appreciation, she wasn’t even sure where it came from. It was such a simple idea, community focussed, good for the coffee shop and for the bookshop. They couldn’t lose.

‘Great, it’s your shop, you’ve gotta touch base with Shane…’ Joy smiled.

‘Okay, well, I suppose.’ Robyn looked at Joy, knowing she was waiting for an answer, then she took a deep breath. ‘Right then, as you are so fond of saying, no time like the present.’

‘Summer won’t last forever.’ Joy was kind enough to not mention that they needed to start making money as soon as they could. ‘How do you…’ she pointed up at the canopy. The mechanics were simple enough, but it had always been opened out by Robyn’s grandfather, so a little muscle power was probably needed.

‘Don’t worry, if we can’t manage it, I can ask Shane to open and close it each day.’ Without the time to think and talk herself out of it, Robyn tripped along the path and into the coffee shop, which was not as busy as usual, thank goodness. Shane was at the back, checking a delivery.

‘Hey,’ he said easily when she pushed her way through. ‘We don’t usually get too many customers wanting to come back here, hope it’s not a complaint about the coffee.’ He was joking; his coffee was the best around.

‘No, actually, much better than that, Joy has just come up with a brilliant idea that could help us both…’ and so she told him.

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