Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Henry
“We’re lucky to live in the greatest city in the world. It’ll change over time, but the love for it will always stay the same among New Yorkers. Just Kids by Patti Smith is touching and real, exactly like New York.”
—Leo’s Staff Pick
My grandfather told me once that when the store first opened, decades ago, there would be a line waiting outside the store every morning.
People would linger at the front door or wait for the discount carts to be rolled out.
But somewhere along the way, the novelty of the store wore off and the crowd disappeared.
Today, when Ella and I walked into the store early, there was already a crowd of people lining up around the block.
“Holy shit,” Ella muttered as we approached our store’s block, hand in hand. The crowd outside was diverse—children, college students, elderly, and more. Today was the big day.
Although we had a stressful day ahead of us, my main focus was to relieve any stress from Ella.
Ever since that weekend at her parents’ house, she had been pulling out her hair with worry. I’d had to drag her out of the store and to bed each night. But she’d run through everything, certain we’d missed something.
I was holding Ella’s hand and squeezed it three times. “It’ll be fine.”
“Really?” she asked quietly.
“Really,” I promised with a solemn nod.
The truth was I was nervous as hell. I’d brought an extra shirt, a little worried that I’d sweat through the one I was wearing.
We weren’t sold out like we had hoped, but ticket sales were high. And I had a secret.
Today was my birthday.
I hadn’t told anyone, especially Ella. I knew she’d just stress over it, but it wasn’t worth it. All those months ago when we scheduled the fair, I hadn’t put up a fight because I usually don’t celebrate my birthday. Today was no different.
We had great support from the neighborhood, thanks to the surrounding local businesses. Their discounted items drew lots of people to buy tickets, but we needed to sell merch and books, especially used ones, because those resulted in the biggest profit for us.
Ren designed exclusive, vintage-looking merch that said “Welcome to The Last Page Book Fair.” They had drawn the outside of The Last Page and had Leo standing in front, waving and smiling.
We took a risk and closed The Last Page yesterday. There was too much setup to do while the store was open and we were hesitant to ask the booksellers to stay late to set up without any overtime or extra pay.
Last night, we had transformed the store exactly like Ella had envisioned.
Red-and-white ribbons hung from the ceiling on the main floor to look like a carnival tent.
We had cleared the tables from one side of the store to make room for the booths for the local vendors.
Each of the sections had been newly designed, too.
Romance was now the tunnel of love and horror was the mirror room.
Once the store opened, two booksellers would sit outside to collect and sell tickets.
At the back of the main floor, at Leo’s desk, there was a memorial.
We framed pictures of him with as many booksellers as we could find and placed them on the desk, along with flowers, fake candles, and his favorite books available for purchase.
We had deliberated on bringing it to the front of the store or not but decided that Leo should be where he would’ve been while all of this was going on: at his desk, recommending books.
The basement was decorated similarly, except there was a small corner with some speakers and a microphone for some up-and-coming acoustic and jazz musicians to play softly.
On the second floor, there were arts and crafts available in the children’s section.
We’d planned to hire actors to play children’s book characters, but it turned out to be cheaper to rent a Clifford costume for a full day.
And Lyle graciously offered to wear it and spend a few hours in the kids’ section.
The event space upstairs had a red carpet leading to the stage, fixed with disco balls and a circus sign.
Ella and I silently walked through the store, inspecting but also admiring the work. We stood on opposite ends of a table of books, smiling at each other.
“Looks good,” she said.
I looked her up and down. She was wearing a denim dress with a white T-shirt underneath and a black bow in her hair, as always. “I agree.”
“I meant the carnival, you nerd.” She turned on her heel, taking everything in. “We’ve triple-confirmed the event guests, right? And the schedule allotted enough break time for the booksellers? I just want to—”
“Take a breath,” I said, moving toward her. I rubbed her arms up and down. “It’s going to be fine.”
Ella nodded, then hesitated, looking up at me through her lashes. “Do you think Leo would like it?”
I wrapped her in my arms, resting my chin on her head. “I think Leo would be immensely proud. I think he’s up there jealous he can’t be part of it all.”
Ella laughed and said, “Alright. Morning meeting is soon. Let’s get ready.”
It was all hands on deck today. All the booksellers would be working in the store at some point today.
We’d offered overtime to anyone who wanted to work a double, but no one was required to.
Just like I suspected, most of the booksellers volunteered to work a double, but didn’t want the money.
They just wanted the store to stay open.
Ella was sitting on the main info desk, legs swinging nervously as the booksellers slowly streamed in. There was a buzz of anticipation as the booksellers chattered excitedly among themselves.
“Good morning,” Ella said once everyone came in.
“Today’s the big day! I’ll give out assignments in a moment, but I really want to thank you all for all the hard work you put in today.
I know the past few months haven’t been easy.
Things have been rocky since Leo left us and you all have been nothing but graceful toward me as I figured out my footing. ”
A tear slipped down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away. A few of the booksellers hugged each other or squeezed each other’s hands as she spoke.
“Henry said Leo’s probably jealous he couldn’t join us.” Ella sent me a tearful smile. “And he’s right. So today, have fun and remember who we do this all for: each other.”
Ella gave out assignments and usually, there would be complaints. Booksellers begging to switch. But it was like they were all about to go into battle.
Once she was done, Ella smiled and set her clipboard down. “Alright, let’s open the fair.”
The store was full to the brim. We still had a wait outside, and David was at the front of the store, counting the number of people exiting and entering just to make sure there wasn’t a fire hazard. Each booth had their own line and the registers were backed up.
And despite all of this, the booksellers found time to act how they usually did. On each floor, there was some dilemma that needed fixing. Only two hours in and I was exhausted from running around trying to prevent it all.
“I can’t believe you invited him,” Stewart snapped, stomping his foot in the scavenger hunt area, which was our mystery book section.
“It’s a free country,” Joey said with his arms crossed. “He can come if he wants.”
“I do not want to hear about him coming,” Stewart nearly yelled right as I shushed him. Stewart turned to me. “Henry, go kick him out. Weren’t you a linebacker or something? Just pick him up and toss him out.”
“Just like Stewart did to me,” Joey said. “You said you didn’t want a relationship. It’s not my fault I moved on—”
“Enough,” I said sternly, trying to emulate my dad’s voice. “Not today, you two.”
“I didn’t move on,” Stewart said, hurt. “I haven’t been ready for a relationship yet, Joey, but I don’t know, maybe I am.”
“Oh brother,” I muttered.
“I can’t wait for maybe to turn into a certainty,” Joey said, lifting his chin.
“You two need to figure your shit out, alright? This back-and-forth isn’t healthy.”
“You’re one to talk,” Joey muttered.
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Stewart guffawed. “As if you and Ella haven’t been skirting around each other this whole time.”
“What? We’re not.”
“You know Mabel said she saw them walking into the store together with coffee from the same truck,” Joey said conspiratorially.
“Noah said he saw them canoodling in the art section.”
“Who even says canoodling anymore?” I muttered.
“See? He even talks like her now,” Joey said.
“You two are split up for the rest of the day,” I snapped.
“Wait, Joey,” Stewart said. “He’s right. And I-I’m in love with you. I have been for a long time and I didn’t know—”
Joey held his hand up, stopping him with tears in his eyes. “You had me at hello.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said, shaking my head. “No making out in Espionage or anywhere else,” I called over my shoulder as I headed toward the basement.
But just as I was about to go downstairs, I caught sight of Ella’s family. Ella was walking backward, giving them a tour as each of them grinned ear to ear.
As I approached them, Ella ran right into me. I grabbed her waist, stabilizing her.
“Careful, hijita,” her mom scolded from behind her. “You’ll fall and break a tooth!”
“You okay?” I murmured.
She nodded. “Sorry, a little frazzled today.” Ella turned to face her family. “Everyone, this is Henry, Henry this is everyone. But I think you all might know each other.”
I waved at them with a soft smile. “Hi y’all, thanks for coming by. You enjoying the fair?”
“Por supuesto,” her father said, a proud smile on his face. “Look what our daughter did!”
“Dad, Henry helped out—”
“I know,” I said, cutting her off. “She did amazing.”
“Hi Henry!” Carlos said eagerly from his mom’s arms. He wiggled out of them to come say hi to me. He looked up at me and I held out my hand for a fist bump.
“Hey, little man. You having fun today?”