Brandon shrugged. “Up to you. We could do that but then you’re running the risk of wasting your time picking out another present for him and then finding out they have the books.”
“But it wouldn’t be a waste of time if they don’t have the book,” Adrienne pointed out. “And not doing anything while we wait for them to open would be a waste of time too, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, definitely. But those aren’t the only two options. We could also find something else to do while we wait.”
“Like what?”
“Have you had breakfast yet? I’m sure we could find a good breakfast or brunch place. If nothing else, we’ll be out of the wind and have free refills of hot coffee.”
“Do you think anywhere is open?”
“Sure, plenty of places are open on Christmas Eve. Lots of people do last minute shopping and go out to eat, so they definitely get a good amount of business still.”
“Okay, let’s do it, then. Do you know this area at all? Is there a good place to eat?”
“Looks like there’s a place down the street. Why don’t we check it out?”
“Anything to get out of this cold.”
They walked down the street, their steps unintentionally synchronizing perfectly as soon as they began. Adrienne, filled with nervous energy about whether she would successfully find her brother’s present that day and make it home before she missed too many Christmas Eve traditions, walked with so much of a bounce in her step that she was practically skipping by the time they reached the end of the block, where the restaurant was located. Brandon couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Why are you walking like that, Adrienne?”
“Like what? I’m just walking normally.”
“I highly doubt that’s how you normally walk.” He held the door to the restaurant open for her.
“Thank you. And I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Hi there, can I help you?” The hostess asked.
“Hi, could we get a table for two please?” Adrienne asked.
“Yes, of course. Would you like a booth?”
“Uh…” Adrienne looked to Brandon who just shrugged. “Sure, that sounds great.”
“Right this way.” The waitress led them to a booth next to a window facing a snow-covered school field that was behind the restaurant. Once they were both settled in, she asked, “Can I get you two started with a drink?”
“Some coffee would be great,” Brandon said.
“Same for me, please,” Adrienne added.
“Coffee for two, coming right up,” she said. “I’ll leave you with the menu for a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Adrienne said. She looked around. The restaurant was pretty cozy, with Christmas decorations up all around them and music playing softly in the background.
“This is nice,” Brandon said. He looked at the menu and raised his eyebrows appraisingly. “Lots of options.”
“Good, I love making decisions,” Adrienne said, opening her menu as well.
“What kind of crazy person genuinely likes making decisions?”
“You don’t?”
“No! I’m so indecisive I can barely decide which socks to wear every day.”
“Oh… you should work on that.”
“Yeah, you don’t say.”
“Look, it’s easy! You just have to narrow down your choices to make it easier. For example, what do you want to eat?”
“I have no idea. That’s the whole point.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, so narrow your options down. Do you want something like eggs or something like pancakes?”
“I don’t… I guess eggs?”
“Okay so now you can narrow it down from there. There are only… five options to choose from now. You can narrow it down by sides. Do you want meat, toast, or both?”
“I don’t know! Don’t you get that I can’t make decisions?”
“Okay so get both.”
“But what if I can’t eat all of it?”
“Then you take it to go.”
“What if I don’t want it later?”
“Then I’ll eat it. Get both. There’s only one option for that, the decision’s over.”
Brandon blinked. “That was so fast.”
“That’s how you make decisions,” Adrienne said. “Congratulations.”
“Wait but what if—”
“Ah, there’s the other part of it. You can’t second guess your decisions. Better yet, put yourself in a position where you can’t second guess it. As soon as our waitress comes back, just order the food.”
“How are you so certain in all your decisions that you never second guess them?”
“Years of practice. I realized that whenever I thought about a decision too long, I would quickly overthink it and make a worse decision, so I started going with my gut instinct on everything.”
“And to be clear, you never questioned your decision to go with your gut instinct?”
“I never gave myself the chance to because I knew I would probably end up talking myself out of it.”
“Huh. That’s either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid.”
“I’m going with the incredibly smart option, myself. You’re welcome to have a different opinion. I just ask that you don’t share it with me because I don’t want to have any doubts about what I’m doing.”
Brandon laughed. “Okay, fair enough. Now, let’s see your work in action. You’ve barely had the chance to look at the menu, what’s your gut instinct telling you to order?”
“Oh, that’s easy. 3 slices of French toast with maple syrup, whip cream and strawberries on the side. Maybe a milkshake if I feel like it halfway through the meal.”
Brandon stared at her. “I hate you on principle.”
“Oddly enough, you’re not the first person to say that to me.”
“Gee, I wonder why.”
Their waitress walked back to the table as they were laughing.
“Here are your coffees,” she said. “What can I get you folks to eat today?”
They both placed their orders, just as they had discussed them. Once the waitress assured them the food would be ready soon and walked off, Adrienne smiled brilliantly at Brandon.
“See how easy that was?” She said. “Was I right or was I right?”
“You were right,” Brandon conceded. “But still, I don’t know that that philosophy would work for everything in life. I’d hate to see you on a jury.”
Adrienne laughed. “I vote that this man is innocent because I took one look at his face and felt it in my heart that he didn’t do it.”
“You have to get a unanimous vote on a jury too, so all I can imagine is you convincing the eleven other jurors that you’re right based solely on their gut feelings. And then we’d have guilty people walking free and innocent people going to jail, not because there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt but because there was one girl who decided in her teen years that making decisions took too long.”
“It’s not a perfect system.”
“I really thought there was going to be a ‘but’ in there, something along the lines of if you’re ever on a jury, you’ll listen to evidence rather than your gut instinct but nope, all you have to say for yourself is that it’s not a perfect system.”
“Look, if some murderers go free… is that really the end of the world?”
“Yes!”
“Okay, you’re right. But luckily, I’m not currently on a jury so we don’t need to worry about that right now.”
“Watch you go home and receive your jury duty summons,” Brandon joked.
“Oh no, knock on wood,” Adrienne said. They both knocked lightly on the table a couple of times.
“There, you’re safe. Probably. Maybe. No promises.”
“Well, if I get jury duty summons, I’ll know who to blame.”
“The government?”
She threw a sugar packet at him.
She didn’t realize that the packet was opened already so when it hit him, sugar spilled all over his clothing. She covered her mouth in shock as she laughed.
“I’m so sorry, I swear I had no idea that would happen!”
“What exactly were you thinking would happen?” He asked, though there was an amused tone in his voice as he brushed his arms off.
“I thought it would just hit you, I didn’t realize it was already open,” she said. He got up and brushed the sugar off the front of his shirt and pants. “I’m so sorry! It won’t ruin your clothes, will it?”
“Relax, it’s just sugar,” he said. He slipped back into the booth. “It’s not like you spilled hot coffee on me, or anything.”
“I still feel bad.”
“Don’t. It just looks like I got snowed on. It’s festive. In fact, after we finish our meal, we can go run around in the snow so that it just blends in.”
“I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, Brandon, but snow tends to melt when it gets on your clothes. So, your clothing would just be wet and covered in sugar. If that’s what you’re going for, then by all means go roll around in the snow as much as you would like.”
“Okay smart ass, I wasn’t the one who spilled sugar all over somebody.”
“I—”
“Here’s your food!” Their waitress seemingly appeared out of nowhere and placed their food in front of each of them. “Is there anything else I can get you right now?”
“No, I think we’re good, thank you,” Adrienne said.
“Enjoy!”
“So, tell me,” Brandon said. “When did your brother become so interested in The Lord of the Rings? Clearly, he likes them more than the average fan, seeing as you are willing to throw down a lot of money to buy them.”
“Yeah, he really likes them. I think it’s because my mom read it to him all the time when he was a kid. I would argue that they’re not particularly appropriate books for a child, but he really liked them and read them over and over again. He started to become interested in Tolkien as a whole, and how he even came up with the ideas for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I can’t tell you how many hours he’s spent researching it. And he’s wanted a first edition copy of the books for as long as I can remember but he doesn’t have the money to get them and my parents were constantly on the lookout for it but they had no idea where to get it from. I told them I would try to find it this year and well… here we are.”
“You’re a good sister for doing this for him.”
Adrienne shrugged. “It’s nothing, really.”
“You’re out on Christmas Eve when you would rather be home with your family because there is a remote possibility that this bookstore has the books you’re looking for. That’s not nothing.”
Adrienne blushed and cleared her throat.
“He would do it for me,” she said quietly. “But anyway, enough about me. What’s your favourite book or series?”
“Well, I don’t have any intense favourites like your brother.”
“Most people don’t. But your entire job revolves around books. You can’t possibly tell me you don’t have a favourite.”
“I suppose my current favourite is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. You know it?”
“Hm… sounds familiar but I’ve never read it. What’s it about?”
“Honestly, it’s a really difficult book to explain, but it’s a science fiction book set in the future. It came out a few years ago. It’s really good.”
“I would assume so, seeing as it’s your favourite book. Most people think their favourite books are good.”
He laughed. “Yes, that is true. So how about you? What’s your favourite book?”
“Oh, I have lots of favourites.”
“I think that undoes the validity of a favourite. The more favourites you have, the less special each of them becomes.”
Adrienne rolled her eyes. “Okay, let me think. I guess my all-time favourite book is The Secret Garden. I first read it when I was a kid and I immediately fell in love with it If there was one book that I would be willing to spend money on an early or nice edition of it like I am for the Lord of the Rings, it would be that one.”
Brandon nodded thoughtfully. “Interesting.”
“What’s that look?”
“What look? I don’t have a look.”
“Yes, you do. It’s like you’re devising a secret plan or something.”
“You’ve known me for less than twenty-four hours and you already feel like you can read my facial expressions?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, facial expressions are universal.”
“Oh. Right. But still, I’m usually pretty expressionless.”
“I disagree.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“Definitely. You’re incredibly easy to read. I don’t know who told you otherwise, but they were dead wrong.”
“You seem to be in the minority here. Most people have told me I’m not easy to read. But even so, I will take it up with them and see if perhaps it has changed over the years,” Brandon said. He frowned. “Or perhaps whether it changed recently. I suppose that’s a possibility, though it does seem unlikely.”
“Maybe they lied to you,” Adrienne suggested. “Sometimes we tell people what we think they want to hear, rather than what we actually think.”
“Then how do I know you aren’t just telling me what I want to hear?”
“You don’t. You just have to take my word for it.”
“Your word means nothing to me since I hardly know you.”
“That seems kind of rude, but I guess that’s fair. However, I have a counterpoint: we hardly know each which means that I don’t know what you want to hear or would have wanted to hear. Therefore, I was simply stating what I believed to be true.”
“Unless you were trying to guess what I wanted to hear and got it wrong, but you were unwilling to back down from your position.”
“I guess we’ll never know. Or you’ll never know. I know what my plan was but since you can’t see into my brain, you obviously can never be certain one way or the other.”
“Unless I can read minds.”
“Can you read minds?”
“If I told you that, then I would have to kill you.”
“Oh, and that would be such a shame since you assured me so many times that you’re not a murderer.”
“Exactly, I wouldn’t want to break my promises to you.”
“Wow, you’re such a gentleman.”
“There’s something I don’t hear every day.”
“I find that very surprising. From what I’ve seen, you are a very nice guy.”
“Maybe I’m only nice to sweet girls.”
“I feel like we’re veering dangerously close to serial killer territory again.”
“Mm, okay, forget I said that then.”
“Refill on your coffee, sir?” The waitress asked as she walked by.
“Oh yes, please.” She filled his mug.
“I’ll take your plates. Would you like the cheque?”
“That would be great, thanks.” He reached for his wallet.
“Oh, let me cover the food,” Adrienne said.
“It’s fine, I’ve got it.”
“No, really. You drove us here. Let me cover the food. Or the gas money. Or both. I owe you for driving me.”
“No, you don’t.” He looked at the cheque once the waitress dropped it off and threw some cash down. He checked his watch.
“Perfect timing,” he said. “It’s just ten o’clock. We’ll get there just as he opens and hopefully nobody else will be there so we can get in and out of there quickly.”
“Awesome.” They both put on their jackets. Adrienne threw some cash on the table as a tip. “If all goes well then I’ll be home by midday.”
They went back outside and walked down the street.
“It’s weird how calm it is, don’t you think?” Brandon asked.
“Well, it
is Christmas Eve. Most people like to be at home.”
“Or they’re just at the mall for the best chances of getting all the last minute gifts they need.”
“That too,” Adrienne admitted.
“Does your family usually celebrate on Christmas Eve? Most people I know don’t do much except on Christmas Day.”
“Really? We have tons of traditions for Christmas Eve. We always watch The Grinch, we prepare for Christmas dinner since our whole extended family comes to our house, we bake cookies for Santa—”
“Wait.” Brandon shook his head. “You still bake cookies for Santa?”
“Yeah. I know he isn’t real, obviously, but we did it every year when we were kids and we never saw a reason to stop. My dad appreciates getting the cookies every year, if nothing else.”
“How old are your siblings?”
“My brother that I’m buying this gift for is fifteen and my sister is seventeen.”
“Oh, so they’re still in high school?”
“Yeah. Does that surprise you?”
“No, I just think it makes more sense that you still bake cookies and follow those traditions if your siblings are younger.”
“Wait but you have four younger siblings. How old are they?”
“Oh gosh, let me think… the twins are fourteen, my brother is sixteen, and my sister is seventeen. The fourteen-year-old sister is the one who wants to go to medical school.”
“Are the twins two girls or boy and girl?”
“Boy and girl. Here we go.”
He held the door to the bookstore open. The lights were now on and there was an elderly man working at the counter when they walked in.
“Hello there,” the man said. “Can I help you find something today?”
“Yes, please,” Adrienne said. She walked up to the counter.
“Hey Adrienne, while you do that, I’m going to look around, okay?” Brandon said.
“Yeah, of course,” Adrienne said with a smile. She turned back to the man. “I know it is probably very far-fetched for me to hope that you have this but I’m desperately looking for a first edition of The Lord of the Rings trilogy for a Christmas present.”
“Ah, those are rare enough finds, indeed,” the whole man said. Adrienne sighed.
“You don’t have them, do you?” She asked.
“I don’t have first edition copies, no. But if you are open to it, I did recently come into the ownership of a second edition copy of the whole trilogy. They are not as rare as the first edition, nor do they come with quite as hefty of a price tag, but they are still considered collectibles.”
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