Page 26 of Surprise! I'm Engaged To My Boss
But that’d be difficult with the limited space we had there.
I walked to the cashier's counter, where I found my grandmother practically hidden, with her head down and her eyes fixed on papers and more scribbled papers.
“Is there a problem, grandma?” I asked.
She jumped, taken aback by my voice, and began to gather the papers, looking at me and smiling.
“No, dear. Nothing much. I was just checking the bills.”
“Checking the bills is always much.”
She sighed and declared in a defeated tone. “Electricity prices went up a lot this month, and sales were well below the standard, which is already low. I'm going to have to dip into my savings to pay off this month's bills.”
“You can't touch your savings, grandma. We're saving up to buy the land next door.”
“Oh, dear... it's no use anymore, we won't be able to do it. I met the owner of the land out front earlier today. Apparently, a couple interested in buying it came to see the place, and... he said they're quite willing to close the deal. They only asked for a few days for the final response.”
I heard a tone of tears in my grandmother's voice as she gave me the news. And that made a wave of despair take over me.
“He can't sell to someone else, grandma. What if we match the offer?”
“How, Cami? We still haven't gotten even a third of the amount he's asking for the land. And he's already made it clear that he'll only sell it for cash.”
“But we can't give up, grandma. If we continue like this, we'll end up having to close our doors.”
I had barely finished saying those words and I already felt terribly regretful when I saw the first tear running down my grandmother's face.
Nothing in this world could tear me apart more than seeing my grandmother crying.
And she knew it. So much so that she quickly forced a smile, at the same time she got up from her chair and ran her hands over her face, drying her tears.
“We'll figure it out, my love. I need to go to the bathroom to wash my face. Some new books arrived; can you help me log them?”
Without waiting for an answer – even because it was clearly a question just to avoid the previous subject – she entered the store's storage room, where our small bathroom was, and closed the door.
I sat down in the chair where she had been before, still feeling the strong pain in my chest from seeing our only chance of reviving that bookstore go down the drain.
That place had been so special to my mother... and it was still so special to my grandmother. I felt it was my duty to take care of everything there and keep the bookstore from closing its doors.
But what could I do? The only solution would be to get, in a few days, enough money to cover the offer for the land next door.
It was ironic that I knew exactly where to get that.
There was still the risk that I would be arrested for lying to a judge.
But that would only happen if someone found out.
And, for my grandmother — for the bookstore that was the reason for her life — this risk would be worth it.
Chapter twelve
MICHAEL
With a gentle push of my finger, the pen rolled across the desk until it stopped at my other hand. Then I pushed it back again, making it go from one side to the other—just like my mind, repeating the same motion as it tried to find a solution to my situation.
That boring image was probably not what anyone would expect to find in the CEO's office of the most famous architecture firm in the country, but I was already doing a lot of work there pretending to be productive, when all I could do was mentally search for some solution for my life.
And the worst part was that I had no one to talk to about it. Janet had been very clear: no one could know about the video until we found a solution. Not even my mother or my brothers.
