Page 41 of Even If the Sky is Falling
Actually, below the bookstore.
In the midst of cleaning up Donnie’s apartment, he found a key. But neither he nor his dad could find the corresponding lock.
“Might wanna check the store,” Ike told him after the exhaustive search.
Which was what they did. Behind the counter, the drawers in the back office, nothing yielded results. It wasn’t until Nick flopped into his granddad’s office chair and tapped his foot beneath the desk, did he hear an odd metallic thud beneath. He remembered that was the moment he and his dad looked at each other with curious expressions.
Together, they pushed the great oak desk, bunching an old oriental rug and scraping the aging wooden floors in the process. Nick had laughed out of nervousness when they found the trapdoor on the floor.
“Goddamn...” his dad murmured, rubbing his chin.
The key fit the lock like something out of anIndiana Jonesadventure. They went down expecting to find something frightening, but their discovery was much more confusing. A couple of army-issued cots, shelves of canned food, a few lanterns...a tiny bathroom. “Granddaddy was a prepper?” Nick had asked, in awe of the small space.
While Nick quickly learned the ins and outs of running a bookstore, he slowly worked on the upstairs apartment and the bunker. His new living space came together easily. Ordering new cookery and a bed was far simpler than dealing with a subterranean survival room. But there was a benefit to owning a bookstore. Nick was able to order prepper guides and read them while customers filed in and out of his store.
What he hadn’t counted on was meeting Professor Anderson.
The first time she walked into his store with those surprised bunny eyes and warm smile, Nick lost his breath. He would have asked her out for a coffee that day but changed his mind when she nervously searched his shelves and stumbled over her words. Maybe she wasn’t interested, he thought. Maybe hollering at female customers was a bad idea. But she kept returning. Each book she ordered made her blush, nibble her plump bottom lip and stutter her words.
When she wasn’t in his bookstore, he pictured her at the front of the classroom wearing those cute professional clothes, or at home wearing glasses while she graded papers. Possibly wearing an oversized sweater that came to the tops of her thighs, nothing underneath...
“My parents wanted me to come over for dinner.” Her quiet voice permeated his lust-filled imagination.
It snapped Nick from his thoughts long enough to blush from embarrassment. “My dad is like that too. Always checking to see if I’m eating.”
Did he imagine her eyes darting over his body? She licked her bottom lip before averting her gaze and sweeping a glossy black curl behind her ear. “You look like you stay in shape,” she offered, but then her brow shot up to her hairline. “I meant—not that I’m looking at—I didn’t mean anything by that!” Shea squeaked.
Nick chuckled, waving his hands. “You’re fine, Shea. I appreciate it.” He picked up her book. “Did you still wanna browse, or would you like to check out?”
He didn’t want her to leave so quickly, but if she needed to, Nick had slipped a message in her book order. He’d wanted to give her his phone number for a while, hoping he hadn’t misread her constant visits.
After her twenty-second book order, he said, “Fuck that” and decided to shoot his shot. No harm in trying...
Shea
Now was the moment to ask Nick out on a date. What was the worst that could happen? His bright smile could dim into a pitying closed-lipped grimace before telling her he had a gorgeous girlfriend waiting for him at their home. No big deal.
“I was wondering,” she started, eyes glancing between his beautiful face to her book order. “If you had time...” She gestured to his shop. “I know you’re busy running a business, but if you’re interested in maybe having some coffee, I know a place near—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the lights in the store flickered twice and a deafening siren, from the streets, filled the air. The noise came from nowhere but settled over them like a chest-rattling blanket. Shea screamed in fright as she quickly looked around for the answers she already had.
It was the Global Warning System alerting them that space projectiles would soon impact the Earth. Unfortunately, it was blaring days before the first scheduled drill. Americans had marked next Wednesday on their calendars...so this was something entirely different. This was the real thing. If the event was to occur outside of school hours, Shea’s shelter plan involved grabbing her go bag and running from her apartment, near Hyde Park, back to campus. But she was in Nick’s store, and couldn’t think of Chicago’s layout with that roaring siren.
Nick jumped into action, moving from the counter to the front door. From where she stood, she saw people running for cover. She wondered if she should also get going.
“Do you trust me?” Nick shouted from the door, peeking out the window at the scattering citizens of Chicago.
Shea didn’t know how to answer. A few seconds ago, she was trying to ask the man out on a date. Now the world was about to end. “I...um...” She checked her phone. What about her parents? At home with their shrimp alfredo? They would be safe in their basement. The house might take a good thumping, but the basement was solid.
“Shea, I can take you someplace safe, but we have to go now.”
“Yes.” Her voice shook as she nodded, but she quickly squared her shoulders and said in a louder voice, “Let’s go!”
Nick locked his door, flipped the Open sign in the window to Closed and extinguished all of the store lights. In the sudden darkness, Shea’s heart leaped to her throat as she threw her hands out in front of her. “Nick?”
She felt his muscular chest against her arm. “I’m here, I’m here. Just watch your step and follow me.”
His arm wrapped around her shoulder as he guided her toward the back of the store. She turned the flashlight of her phone on and held it aloft as they walked. “Do you have a basement or something?” she asked, trying not to lean heavily into his chest. His warm spiced cologne made that difficult, but she marched on with dignity.
