It didn’t deter her. She merely changed the subject. “Now, what about what happened with Josh?”
“Nothing happened with Josh.”
“That’s what I meant. Doesn’t sound like much of a date.”
“It doesn’t have to be champagne and rose petals every time we get together.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Is it ever champagne and rose petals with him?”
Again, I had the weirdest feeling that I didn’t know. I had a couple of memories of previous dates with him, but they were isolated incidents, not woven into any larger tapestry. “Let’s face it, I’m not exactly a champagne and rose petals type. I’m more milk and cookies.”
“If he’s cookies, then it’s the kind we sell here. By the way, we had some leftover sugar cookies yesterday, so I finally got that table by the stairs to stop wobbling.”
I felt obligated to defend my boyfriend, even though my heart wasn’t really in it. Putting my hands on my hips, I asked, “Do you have a problem with Josh? Last time I checked, you weren’t dating him.”
“But why are you dating him? You don’t have to settle. There are other fish in the sea. Namely our new boss, Mr. Blue Eyes.”
I couldn’t meet her eyes because then she’d see that I didn’t know. This was all so confusing. I blamed it on a restless night full of crazy dreams in which I’d been chased by magical monsters with a dark-haired, blue-eyed man at my side. Oh no, I’d been dreaming about my boss, I thought, stifling a groan. That had the potential for serious awkwardness.
*
Owen came up to the café after lunch, carrying a stack of binders and a couple of legal pads. “I thought we could go over some marketing ideas, if you’ve got the time,” he said. “We can do it here, and that way you can help if you’re needed in the café.”
“Sure,” I said, hoping I wasn’t blushing. Florence’s wink didn’t help matters. I shot her a glare as I followed Owen to the largest unoccupied table, where he set down his binders and pulled out a chair for me.
After we’d taken seats next to each other, he opened one of the binders and outlined his business plan in more detail than he’d gone into in the all-hands meeting. Then he said, “What I want to do is get the word out about how enjoyable it will be to browse for books here, that sense of discovery from finding something unexpected that you wouldn’t have known to go looking for.”
I almost forgot to think about what he was saying, I was so entranced by the way he said it. His eyes sparkled and he became animated as he described his vision. I’d teased him about being a romantic, but he really did have a passion for what he was doing. I couldn’t help but wonder if that passion carried over to other aspects of his life, and then I had to bury my face in the binder to hide my flaming cheeks. Fantasizing about my boss during a meeting was a new low for me.
“We’ll need to draw people into the store so they can discover it for themselves,” I said, my voice sounding a little too loud and too high. I fought to get it under control. “When you say it, shelving books in different sections doesn’t sound particularly sexy. But when people see it while browsing, they’re sure to see how different it is. We’ll need events.” I mused for a moment, thinking back to my school days when we’d done a class project along these lines. “I know!” I said, looking up. “We’ll have a book scavenger hunt! Have a grand reopening party, and one of the activities will be a book scavenger hunt where people have a list of books to find on the shelves. Since what you want to do is more intuitive than the strict chain-store rules, people will see how easy it is to find books.”
“That’s brilliant!” he said, scribbling notes on a legal pad. “I love it. It’s the kind of thing that should get some word of mouth going. And we’ll have refreshments from our new, improved café.”
We then brainstormed more ideas for the event and how to promote it, and I felt myself shaking off the rust from going so long without working in my field. We were really on a roll and laughing about some ridiculous idea I’d just thrown out when a voice said, “Wow, you’re having fun at work.”
I looked up to see Josh standing at the end of the table. “Oh, hi!” I said. “What brings you here?”
He bent to kiss my cheek. “Just stopping by to see my girl. Do you have a moment to talk?”
I glanced at Owen, who said, “This looks like a good time for a break.”
