Peppermint Kisses
December 5th
Arizona’s pov
It’s been countless days of putting up Christmas decorations after our Black Friday Sales. The Sales that locals seem to partake in and sadly, only locals partake in. My boss says the Christmas season always goes fast for her, maybe because she doesn’t have to sit at the cash register staring at all the people walking by the shop; it could also be that my boss hasn’t worked this part of the store in a decade. It’s a simple Thursday afternoon where kids will still be in school and college students will complain about all the cramming and testing. I’ll simply laugh in their face from behind the counter, reading a book from the shelf as usual. You’d think people would like the warm looks of the store and the coffee cup sign hanging brightly outside with the added Christmas lights.
My boss says I’m the only one to take so much interest in Christmas decorations; my boss is also my mother who hasn’t touched tinsel nor a tree in thirteen years.
The bookshelves are decorated with snowflakes made by little kids when Santa comes in to read a story and share his cookies. Santa also looks a lot like my brother Wesley who works the café on the weekends and studies during the week. So, tis the season to be alone in a beautifully decorated book store all alone.As the hours pass from six in the morning to one in the afternoon I decide some window displays might draw people in. At least they do in every other store on this street.
As I’m hanging yet another strip of lights a couple I assume walk slowly past the store. The guy points his thumb behind him and turns around to enter the store. The woman with him sighs and follows. I thought of greeting them cheerfully but my hands were kind of full and I didn’t want to sound like a voice coming out of nowhere. The woman went towards the romance novels and the man went towards the cookbooks. I looked away as soon as he caught me looking. I swear I saw him smile, but continued decorating anyways. As I checked every time I went to put something new up I realized he had probably four cook books and she had eight novels. I gently set down what I was doing and walked over to the counter, picking up my book reading where I last left off.
“Hello”
I looked up and saw them standing with their handfuls of books.
“Will this be all?” I asked out of habit while scanning the cookbooks first. As I scanned the novels I pointed out little things like, “This one is tear jerking” and “That was hilarious” not to mention, “This one is so sweet”, maybe even, “My favorite of all time, but it might help to read the first book though”. Her eyes lit up and she asked, “There’s a first one? My life is a lie” I slipped out behind the counter and found the copy immediately. “It explains the whole story a lot better than getting the gist in the beginning”
“Really?”
“Yeah, what book did you start on?”
“The second one, I probably picked up the first one and didn’t like it all that much so I picked up the next one and liked it so much more”
“You’ll be coming back for the next like six books don’t worry”
Her boyfriend I assumed looked fairly interested in our conversation. Their total was more than we’ve gotten in a whole season, which isn’t a lot to be honest. I handed them their three bags with a bright smile and said, “Hope you come back soon”.
~
That had been the only business we actually had gotten, save for the few wanders and coffee wanters who sat down with a magazine while sipping every now and then on the warm beverage. My life has dragged on so much at this point. Twenty days till Christmas and something big is missing. My mom is on the other side of the wall crunching numbers and my brother is however many blocks away learning about being an architect. There are so many decorations everywhere and even a small tree in the corner. I don’t know what all could possibly be missing.
