by Lee Matthews
I turn back to the customer, who is staring at the giant rolls of wrapping paper. “So what’ll it be?” I am very into themes, especially when they involve the holidays, and holiday baking is one thing I’m always in favor of. So a guy buying a cookie cookbook as a gift makes me happy. Maybe he’s going to surprise his girlfriend with homemade sugar cookies. Or maybe he has a little brother he wants to teach how to bake in time for Saint Nick. I smile, imagining the heartwarming kitchen scene.
He cuts me off mid-fantasy, frowning. “Uh…do you have something a little less…Christmas?”
I can’t stop myself. I frown back. Less Christmas? Less Christmas is right up there with No-Egg Easter and Firecrackerless Fourth, obviously a phrase that would never pass my lips, but I try to maintain my professional composure even though I’m wearing a plush red Santa hat and a strand of blinking lights from Five Below around my neck. “Oh, sure,” I say smoothly, reaching under the table and hoisting up a roll of wrapping paper. The rolls are even heavier than they look. “We don’t have room on the table for all our choices. Here’s another Happy Hanukkah…and we also have Dogs in Stockings.”
He shakes his head, his shaggy bangs covering his eyes. “Nah. How about something purple?”
I stare at him. “As in red meets blue?”
He nods. “Yeah. Purple.”
I’m about to object when Sam awakes from her nap and whips into action. “Here you go, sir,” she says, grabbing the books and wrapping them in a flurry of white tissue paper. She puts them in a fancy cream-colored WINSLOW’S bag, slaps a gold foil sticker on it, and ties it up with a purple ribbon that she apparently pulled out of thin air. “Happy holidays!”
“Cool. Thanks.” He pushes a couple bucks into the donation jar and heads out the door, the little bells dinging upon his exit.
Sam turns to me and holds up her hand in anticipation of what I’m about to say. “Don’t even start.”
My shoulders rise and fall. “I just don’t understand people,” I say sadly. “Purple? For Christmas?”
Sam’s scrolling rapidly through her texts. “Not everyone’s as into the holidays as you are, Bailey.”
“So I’ve noticed,” I tell her, dejectedly picking at the fuzz on my red wool sweater.
“Anyway, are you going to that party tomorrow night at Joe’s house?” she asks, not looking up from her phone.
I shake my head. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
Sam sighs in the overly dramatic manner I’ve come to know well these past few weeks. “Joe Shiffley invited a bunch of people over to hang out. You should come.”
I shrug. “Maybe.” I don’t even know Joe, so the idea of showing up at his house for a party feels very awkward.
No one is coming over to the gift-wrap table. Sam heads to the restroom, and while she’s gone, I decide to rearrange everything. I line up the ribbon spools on the left—green, red, white, blue, silver—and put the tape dispenser next to them, along with a giant pair of scissors, a candle jar we now use to hold pens, and two gigantic rolls of paper. I pick up all the stray bits of cut ribbon from the floor and fluff the money in the donation jar.
When the bell at the shop’s entrance rings, I glance over. And when I see who it is, my eyebrows shoot up. It’s Jacob Marley, this guy from my grade at school. We were in biology together in ninth grade. The main reason I know him is because he had gone out with this girl, Jessica Dolecki, that I dislike. She has thick wavy blond hair, a pushed-up nose, and a high-pitched laugh, and she always wears a Canada Goose jacket. I think Jacob is on the track team—or maybe he’s a wrestler?—but other than that, I don’t really know him. He’s wearing dark track pants, sneakers, a gray sweatshirt, and a Boston Red Sox cap.
He lifts his chin in my direction. “Hey, Bailey.”
“Hey,” I say back, giving him an awkward wave. I’m a little surprised that he knows who I am.
“Nice hat,” he says, smirking. “Goes with the necklace.”
“Why, thank you,” I say, adjusting the white furry rim while ignoring the fact that what he said is most likely not a compliment.
“So, uh, you work here?”
I shrug. “I do, actually. But tonight I’m just here to wrap.”
He laughs, and a dimple in his right cheek makes an appearance. “Never would have guessed you and Drake had something in common.”
“I never would have guessed I’d see you in a bookstore on a Friday night,” I retort before I can stop myself.
He shoves his hands into his pockets. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, um, I don’t know,” I say feebly, feeling my cheeks pinken. Why did I say that? He doesn’t exactly seem like the reading type, but really, I don’t even know Jacob. That sounded a lot meaner than I meant it to.
“So, yeah, I’m doing some shopping. For Christmas.”
Something in my heart gives a little flip. Any boy who comes to a bookstore for Christmas shopping gets bonus points. Now I feel extra bad that I insulted him. Most boys I know give gift cards for presents—if they even give a gift. Oliver and I weren’t together at Christmas, but something tells me he would definitely have been the gift-card type. Or, if I’m being honest, the no-gift type.
“And so you came in here,” I say, stating the obvious.
He nods. “Would you want to help me?” He holds up his phone. “I’ve got a list.”
“Oh,” I say, surprised. “I mean, I’m not technically working now but…” Known fact about me here at Winslow’s: giving people book advice is my thing. There’s something about matching the right book with the right reader, putting the right book into a customer’s hands: I love it. And helping a customer like Jacob is extra-satisfying, like watching my parents master a TikTok dance I’ve taught them.
I’m in.
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