CHAPTER 13
“So, what can I help you find?” Maisie asked again when the front door closed after India.
“Oh, I don’t think it’s something you can help me find. More like the other way around.”
“Sorry?” she asked, confused.
“When one door closes, another door opens.”
The old woman nodded toward the front door before she glanced at the gap between the shelves on the side wall that had been there since the shop was built.
Back then, there had been a door that led to a side yard between the shop and the house.
Later, after the house had been demolished, the door had remained because it had made it faster for them to get to the back parking lot and the dumpster, but then, they had added the back office and a door just to the right of that and a small nook that could operate as a break room for the few staff they’d hired.
When the shop had first opened and for well over a century and a half, only family had worked there.
Later, they had hired a trusted family friend, and now, Maisie ran it with Sarah, a high school student, and Lainey, her best friend and former girlfriend, who worked part-time, but she wasn’t even sure she would need Sarah beyond the campaign if she lost.
They’d gotten rid of the side door by sealing it up once the new back door had been put in place, but Grams hadn’t ever added more shelves because by then, they hadn’t really needed them.
They had more than enough books and not enough people to buy them, and the rest, they could special order.
Nowadays, special orders were mostly a thing of the past, with only a few of her older customers, like Mr. Barnard, still requesting them instead of ordering things on or directly from a seller, and Maisie had even thought about keeping fewer books in the store.
Outside of the bookmarks and pens, she didn’t carry any other items that tourists would want to buy if they stopped in.
There were no magnets, keychains, or even candy or bottled water that they might need after walking around all day.
The tours used to all stop here, but over the years, only NOLA Guides and one other company still made stops on certain tours, and those didn’t run every day.
“Another door, dear,” the old woman repeated.
“Sorry?” Maisie asked again.
“I was just saying that sometimes, one door closes, but another door opens.”
“Oh, okay,” Maisie said, wondering if this woman had been in the shop when that door had still existed. She was probably old enough. “Well, thank you.”
“That woman you were talking to; she’s a customer?”
“Um… Yeah, she’s a customer, but a friend, too.”
The old woman smiled and said, “I see.”
“You do?” Maisie asked because she wasn’t certain she saw or understood anything right now.
“I do. And you will, too.”
“I will see? What exactly will I see?”
“She’s important.”
“India?” Maisie asked.
The woman tilted her head to the side and said, “That’s a pretty name.”
Maisie smiled and said, “Yes, it is.”
“For a pretty woman.”
Maisie tilted her head this time and replied, “Yes, she’s very pretty.”
“Good,” the woman said with a smile. “I’d like to buy a book now.”
“Okay,” she replied. “What can I help you find?”
“Do you have any books on finding love?”
“Um… Yes. Fiction or something in the self-help or–”
“Whatever you’d prefer.”
“Okay. Well, if you’re looking for something on finding love, there’s a shelf with a few books on that, but there’s also a romance section.”
“Romance,” the old woman said.
Maisie nodded and walked her to the section, motioning with her hand to the books with shirtless men on the covers, thinking she might be interested in those.
“I think this one,” the woman said as she pulled one of the few lesbian romances Maisie carried in the shop mostly because a few of her friends would buy them occasionally. “For you.”
“For me?” she asked in a high-pitched voice.
“This one with the pink cover.”
“You want to buy it?”
“No, but you should put it on the counter now. I’ll buy something else.”
The woman walked away from Maisie and back to the counter. On her way, she picked up a different book off an endcap and dropped it there for Maisie to charge her for. Maisie didn’t know why, but she grabbed the book with the pink cover and brought it with her.
“Just this?” she asked.
“Yes, please,” the woman replied with a smile.
When Maisie rang her up, she was handed cash, so she gave the woman her change. The old woman nodded toward the book with the pink cover, smiled at Maisie again, and left the shop.
“What the actual fuck?” Maisie said to herself.
“Hey, boss,” Sarah said.
“Hey. You’re not working today,” Maisie replied when Sarah came in from the back.
“Lainey said you might need me to cover for an hour or two while you work on campaign stuff. If not, that’s cool. I can just browse and pick up a few books.”
“Actually, that would be great. I need to try to raise more money.”
“I’ll take the register. Want me to restock this?” Sarah asked, picking up the pink book.
“No,” she replied. “You can just leave that one there.”
“Oh. Is someone coming in to pick it up? There’s no slip inside with a name.”
Sarah opened the book to the first page, where they always placed a piece of paper with the name and phone number of anyone who called in to request that a book be put on hold for them.
“It’s not reserved for anyone, but you can just leave it there,” Maisie told her, not knowing why she was saying this.
“Um… Okay,” Sarah said, obviously confused.
“Thanks for coming in. I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Sarah replied.
Maisie walked to the table in the back and opened her laptop, needing to make more calls to raise money.
She had a commercial made and had paid for the creation of it already, but paying for airtime was a different story.
Yes, this election was important, but she didn’t want to use all of her savings on one commercial in an election she might not even come close to winning.
◆◆◆
“Hi.”
Maisie looked up after dropping one of the phones on the table and saw two things: one was India standing in front of her, and the other was the darkness outside the front window.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Just after six,” India replied. “You’re still open up front. Did you know that? Sarah’s there.”
“It’s after six? Jesus. I feel like I just sat down.”
“You didn’t. You sat down a long time ago,” Sarah said, walking back with her drawer. “I checked on you once, but you were on the phone. I locked up. I hope that’s okay. Only two customers came in while you were busy.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Maisie said and rubbed her eyes.
“Are you okay?” India asked.
“I’ve been on the phone for a while now, I guess.”
“And?”
“I managed to get a few people to commit to donations.”
“That’s good,” India said.
“It won’t make much of a difference, but I saw the polls. I am up a couple of points. I feel like I have a chance.”
“Hey, that’s good news.”
“I’m here. Sorry, I’m late,” Lainey said, jogging in from the back. “Paige is parking.”
“Oh, hey,” Maisie said, surprised, until she remembered that her friends had offered to come in to help with the campaign.
“Hey, India,” Lainey said.
“Hi. Did I come at a bad time?” India asked, looking at Maisie.
“No,” she replied. “Sorry, I just have to work on this, and Paige and Lainey are going to help with calls and my speech.”
“A speech?”
“For the election night. I need an acceptance speech and a concession speech.”
“Isn’t that bad luck?” India asked.
“Probably. And I know it’s just city council, but it’ll be printed somewhere, whatever I say, so I want it to be good.”
“Can I help with anything?”
Maisie looked India up and down. She was dressed to the nines, as always, and didn’t look at all like she’d put in a whole day of work.
“You worked all day. Thank you, though. Can I call you later?”
“You worked all day, too,” India said before she set her purse down on the table and sat in the empty chair next to Maisie. “Let me help. I can at least order you dinner or go pick something up from that place you like, the blue shack.”
Maisie laughed and said, “You know it’s not called The Blue Shack.”
“That’s what it looks like,” India replied. “A little shack. I’m not sure how it survives storm season.”
“They’ve rebuilt it twice,” Lainey supplied. “And I am starving.”
“I assume they don’t deliver?” India asked.
“No, but you don’t have to go there. I’ll order us pizza or something,” Maisie said.
“I’ve got it,” India replied, pulling out her phone. “Is Frederico’s okay?”
“That place is bomb,” Lainey said. “They have the best garlic bread in New Orleans.”
“Is it chill enough for you?” India asked Maisie, teasing her.
“Yes.” Maisie laughed.
“Oh. Can I buy this, or are you officially closed?” India asked.
Maisie wasn’t sure what she was talking about until India lifted a book from behind her purse. It was the romance book with the pink cover that the old woman had told her to put on the front counter.
“It’s book two. I didn’t know that the one I’d grabbed the other day was part of a series. I saw it just sitting on the counter. I can put it back if it was there for someone else, though.”
“You can just take it,” Maisie said quickly.
“What? No, I want to buy it,” India insisted.
“You’ve bought me and my staff more than enough coffee to pay for it.”
“I’ll buy dinner, too, and we’ll call it even,” India suggested.
Maisie smiled and gave her a nod.
“Oh, speaking of coffee,” India said. “I had a question for you.”
“A coffee question?”
“Are we ordering pizza or not?” Lainey asked, sitting on Maisie’s other side.
“Here,” India replied and handed Lainey her phone. “I pulled up the app. Add whatever you and Paige want.”
“Cool,” Lainey said and stood up to walk, probably to find Paige.
“She might add the whole menu,” Maisie said.
“That’s fine. She can take all the leftovers home,” India replied.
Maisie laughed and asked, “You had a coffee question for me for some reason?”
“Oh, not about coffee specifically. More about the shop and Southern.”
“Okay…”
“There’s this gap over there.” India pointed to the gap between the shelves that the old woman had looked at and pointed out earlier. “Does something usually go there?”
“Huh?” Maisie asked, still trying to process.
“That space between the shelves.”
“Oh, no. There used to be a door there, but we never bought any additional shelves to fill the space. I was thinking about it today, oddly enough. Maybe I’ll add some shelves.
Not for books, though. I could sell tourist stuff and shove it there.
It might bring in more tours or more people, at least.”
“What if you made it a door again, or an open archway or something?”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because the café is on the other side.” India pointed. “And I can get them to put a door over there. The space between the buildings is really small, so we can connect them easily, and you’d get a café.”
Maisie looked at the space between the shelves, looked at India, looked down at the book with the pink cover, and looked back at India again. She had no idea what was happening, but she’d try to figure it out later. Right now, India was staring at her expectantly.
“Maise?” India asked.
Maisie smiled because her nickname sounded good on India’s lips.
“You want to give me a café?”
“Well, not give it to you. I was thinking the access might get you more customers. People who go into bookstores these days expect there to be coffee or pastries, or at least, it can make them more likely to stick around and buy something. We can open up the space. Southern gets more money, but you would, too. You could even use our logo and advertise that you sell Southern Roastery coffee. That’s a big deal. ”
“Really?”
“It’s a small construction job, and we’ll need a little time on our end to get some of the technology stuff set up, but, yeah.
You’d have to sign a contract about logo and brand use, but that’s it, really.
I might even be able to get you a percentage of the profits, if you’re interested; maybe some kind of deal where anyone who says they came from Chapter & Verse gets you ten percent of the sale or something.
We would have to figure that part out later, and it wouldn’t be much, but ten percent of a cup of coffee could add up. ”
“How can you just do that?”
“I’m the head of the business development department. It’s my job to look for these opportunities.”
“I’d love to just say yes, and I’m open to the idea, but I’d need to make sure that connecting my building to yours wouldn’t get in the way of potential landmark status.”
“Sure,” India replied with a shrug. “And if it does, you don’t have to do the door, but we’re probably opening the café up to customers after all, so we can still discuss how it could help the shop.”
Maisie smiled at her and replied, “India, that’s amazing. Thank you just for thinking of me… the shop, I mean.”
“It was you,” India said with a soft smile. “I was thinking about you, mainly, and making you smile.”
“This definitely makes me smile,” she replied.
“Okay. Paige and I are sharing a pizza and garlic bread, so if you two want garlic bread, get your own.” Lainey said, walking back in. Then, she handed India her phone back and added, “This is Paige, by the way.”
Lainey motioned to her girlfriend, who was now standing next to her.
“Hi, Paige,” India said. “I’m India.”
“Nice to meet you,” Paige replied. “Okay. Put me to work before the food gets here,” she said to Maisie. “Let’s make you some campaign money.”
“Is it that bad?” India asked softly as she scooted closer to Maisie to allow Lainey and Paige to sit at the table, with Lainey bringing over an extra chair for Paige.
“It’s okay,” she said. “No big deal. How many posters can I really make, anyway, right?”
“Right,” India replied. “What do you want for dinner?”
“Um… Garlic bread,” she said. “But the cheesy garlic bread and a pizza. Oh, and dessert. They have really good brownies there.”
India handed Maisie the phone and said, “Whatever you want.”