Page 4 of Bea's Book Wagon
‘It was priceless,’ said Bea, smiling. ‘He tried to fire me, but I’d already quit – in front of the whole office, too!’
‘That took guts, Bea, I’m proud of you,’ said Jess, pulling her into a hug. ‘You were too good for that job.’
‘I was.’ She slumped back into the sofa cushions and took another sip of her drink. ‘Although…’
‘What?’
‘What am I going to do now?’ she said, panic rising in her chest.
‘Well…’
‘Jess, what the hell am I going to do?’ Bea asked, bolting upright, clutching one of the cushions desperately. ‘Mum and Dad are going to be fuming. What am I going to say to them?’ Her breathing was speeding up, her alarm evident.
‘Bea,’ said Jess, taking her by the shoulders, ‘you’re panicking. Take some deep breaths,’ she said, modelling breathing in and out slowly. Bea followed suit.
‘Okay,’ she nodded, blowing out a long, deep breath.
‘There, that’s better,’ said Jess, encouragingly. ‘How are you feeling now?’
‘Better, thanks. Sorry, today’s been a lot.’
‘I get it. It’ll be fine though, Bea, I promise.’
‘Actually, I had an idea recently… you’ll think it’s silly, though…’ Bea said, shaking her head.
‘Course I won’t. Go on, tell me!’
‘Okay,’ said Bea, taking another deep breath, ‘I was thinking about setting up an online shop, selling books. A bricks-and-mortar bookshop would be my dream, but I guess I never thought it was… realistic, so publishing seemed the most obvious path to take,’ she shrugged. ‘I tried applying for bookshop jobs in London, too… Waterstones, Foyles, loads of independents, but even that was super competitive.’
‘Okay,’ said Jess, sitting up straight. ‘Well, you’ve always been book-obsessed, I can totally see you doing that.’
‘Can you?’ said Bea, hesitating. She hadn’t given the idea much serious thought, but perhaps she should? ‘So, I was thinking about having a stall at local fairs…’
‘And?’
‘Well, I was at the farmer’s market the other day and they had one of those coffee bars – a converted horsebox, I think it was – and I was wondering, well…’ She breathed in deeply. ‘What if I did the same, only with books?’
‘A mobile bookshop?’ asked Jess, setting down her glass.
‘Yeah, exactly.’
Jess stared back at her for a moment.
‘It’s a mad idea, isn’t it?’ said Bea, shaking her head.
‘Mad? Absolutely not!’ said Jess, seriously. ‘I think it’s bloody brilliant!’
‘You do?’
‘God, yes! It’s a great idea! You should totally do it!’
‘Really?’
‘Definitely! There’s nothing like that around here. It would have a real novelty-factor too—’
‘That’s what I was thinking,’ said Bea, animatedly. ‘I could travel to all the local villages – none of them have bookshops – and there’d be no rent to pay, not like with a high street shop. What’s the worst that could happen?’
‘Exactly! If it didn’t work, you’d just pack up and move on to the next place. What have you got to lose?
