Page 54 of Crazy in Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop
Posy stared at Nina. Then she narrowed her eyes. ‘Have you doubled your dose of painkillers?’
‘I have not, though now you come to mention it my arm is throbbing like an engine,’ Nina noted. The sheer excitement of watching their Instagram numbers increase had completely taken her mind off the nagging pain of her fresh tattoo. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘You’re not normally this enthusiastic about work,’ Posy said, which was hurtful though actually now that Nina stopped to think about it, kind of true.
‘Actually Posy, I’m enthusiastic about some things,’ Nina protested. ‘Doing the window displays, for example.’
‘And calling first dibs when a new order of erotica comes in and that’s about it,’ Tom chimed in like the traitor he was. They were standing side by side at the counter and Nina did think about kicking him in the shin but she settled for an exasperated glance at Noah who shook his head like he couldn’t believe it either.
‘I’m very dedicated to my job,’ Nina insisted. ‘Look at me on the Instagram. That’s taking on new responsibilities, that is.’
‘I’ve already made a note of it,’ Noah murmured and Nina beamed at him.
‘Talking of taking on new responsibilities …’ Posy said, then stopped. ‘It’s a pity that it’s past the mid-morning bun break, this is the kind of news that would go better with buns.’
‘What is it? Are you sacking one of us?’ Tom asked, his voice getting a little shrill. ‘Have you any idea how large my student loans are?’
Even Verity felt moved to get up from her desk and stand in the doorway of the office to demand: ‘Are the council putting up the rates? Again?’
‘Oh, just spit it out, Posy,’ Nina advised because Verity and Tom would keep coming up with worst-case scenarios and Posy would keep dithering and they’d be here all day waiting for her to deliver her glum tidings. ‘It is bad news, I take it?’
‘Well, not necessarilybadnews,’ Posy decided. ‘Depends on your definition of bad news, I suppose.’
‘Before next Christmas would be great.’ Nina made a big show of yawning and stretching her arms over her head. ‘Ow! For the love of God!’
Noah was at her side in an instant. He even put down his iPad. ‘Are you all right?’ He gently touched the elbow of Nina’s sore arm, caught the pained expression on her face and snatched his hand away as if Nina were coated in a fine mist of hydrochloric acid. ‘I’m only asking because you don’t appear to have a first-aid box anywhere, which I’m pretty sure is against Health and Safety reg—’
‘All the traders have agreed that we’ll do extended summer opening hours,’ Posy yelped quickly. ‘Starting from May we’ll open until seven thirty every night, nine on Thursdays and we’re opening on Sundays too. And, FYI, Noah, we do have a first-aid box, it’s under the sink in the back kitchen.’
Everyone froze. Nina was the first to recover. ‘Are we getting paid to work extra hours?’ she asked, because she knew her rights.
‘Of course!’ Posy looked wounded that Nina would think otherwise. ‘Not time and a half or anything fancy, and time off in lieu when we’re quieter and we can do the Sundays on a rota, if that’s all right. The Traders’ Association have all sorts of plans for pop-up shops and food trucks and a street festival for the August Bank Holiday weekend. Sounds like it might be quite good for business.’
There were general murmurs of excited agreement then Posy went off to deliver the news to Mattie and the tearoom staff. ‘Mattie is going to be a much harder sell than you lot. She’ll want to make sure that none of the food trucks will be selling anything that even resembles cake,’ she said morosely before she went.
‘I don’t really think Posy is enjoying her new-found power,’ Tom remarked. ‘Now that the novelty’s worn off.’
‘She thought it was going to be all book-launch parties and author meet-and-greets and it turns out that actually it’s filling in VAT forms,’ Verity added.
‘Not that we’ve had any book-launch parties, not since our reopening week.’ Nina managed to drag her eyes away from her phone screen and the shop’s Instagram page where they were now thundering towards two hundred and ten followers. ‘I could help with organising book launches and stuff. I’ve already followed a ton of authors on Instagram and I haven’t even got started on Twitter. And then there are editors and publicists, I should probably follow them too and then I can tweet them about what the shop’s doing. What do you think, Very?’
‘Hmmm, sounds good,’ Verity said vaguely, her gazed fixed on Noah, even though she already had a boyfriend. ‘Why are you writing down everything we’re saying? We weren’tcriticisingPosy. We were just commiserating about her new workload.’
Tom turned slowly. ‘We would never criticise Posy. We love Posy.’
‘I’m just observing,’ Noah said mildly. ‘I’m not here to pass judgement.’
‘Huh! Says the man who’s eavesdropping on private conversations,’ Verity said and she was getting the tight, pinched look she always got when she was steeling herself to have it out with someone.
‘Noah’s not eavesdropping,’ Nina protested, putting herself between Noah and Verity. ‘He’s just doing his job, a job Posy asked him to do. He’s working with her, with us, not against us.’
She had her back to Noah while she did a very good impersonation of a human shield so Tom and Verity couldn’t see that Noah had placed a warning hand on her shoulder blade. ‘We’re meant to be stealthy,’ he whispered, his breath tickling Nina’s ear in a way that wasn’t at all unpleasant.
‘If you say so,’ Verity muttered. ‘I don’t know how much observing you need to do though. It’s a small bookshop with three full-time employees. It shouldn’t be taking youthislong, surely?’
‘And one very valuable part-time member of staff,’ Tom added urgently.
‘He’s just crossing the i’s and dotting the t’s,’ Nina insisted and this time Noah’s hand pushed her lightly to the side so he could step forward and defend himself.
