by Bryce Oakley
It was unreal how stunning she looked.
She stood, clearing her throat. "Is the event over?"
Emilia nodded. "You look like you just woke up."
Cody took a moment to look down at her, lifting her hand to brush her hair from her cheek. “I feel like maybe I have," she whispered.
For a moment, Cody thought Emilia would laugh at her, or at least make a remark on how cheesy the comment had been. To be fair, she had just said the first thing that had come to mind, and how accurate it had been.
For years she had been searching for someone just like Emilia, it seemed.
Emilia was compelling in a way that Cody hadn’t encountered. She was independent and strong, and not obsessed with superficial things, which were incredibly sexy qualities.
But Emilia didn't laugh. Her eyebrows rose, and her face softened, her gaze flicking to Cody’s lips.
The air between them charged with electricity.
"What are you doing tomorrow?" Cody asked, biting her lip as nervous excitement swelled in her stomach.
"Oh, I have a thing," Emilia said, waving her hand in the air and rolling her eyes.
"A thing." Cody nodded, getting the hint. She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
"It might be boring for you, but do you, maybe, want to come with me? If you don't have to work?" Emilia asked, a slight grimace on her face as she stared up.
She looked vulnerable for maybe the first time. Even when she was begging for baked goods earlier that night, Cody had thought she still held quite an air of authority.
Cody nodded immediately. "Of course," she said, genuinely excited.
She would have agreed to anything at that point, just to see her again.
"Okay, I'll message you the address. I'm getting there at 5:30 am," Emilia said, patting Cody’s shoulder, her round eyes crinkling with mischief as she grinned.
Cody’s eyebrows rose as she began to question what she had just so readily agreed to do. "What could possibly be happening at 5:30 am on your day off?"
Emilia's eyes twinkled, and Cody could see she was trying to suppress a grin. "Guess you'll have to show up to find out."
Chapter 7
Emilia
Emilia pulled up in front of the late William Godfrey's home, a modest craftsman in the classic Denver square style. Albeit a giant version. She loved those brick houses and promised herself someday she’d buy one, maybe when her priorities about living near the shop changed.If they ever did.
She looked around, trying to determine from which direction Cody might be coming. She checked her phone, realizing that she was fifteen minutes early. She turned her car off, hoping she wouldn’t freeze to death while waiting.
She had been so nervous to invite Cody.
In fact, she still wasn’t sure if she’d enjoy it at all. Sorting through book collections was sometimes dull even for seasoned pickers like her, so it was a gamble to invite Cody at all.
That energy she felt around Cody had stirred something inside of her that had laid dormant for a long, long time. Excitement, a thrill of the unknown.
Something about Cody seemed… special. She made Emilia feel desired in a way that she hadn't felt… ever? The side effect of having two breathtaking women — Frankie and Nico — around her at all times meant that she was mostly invisible.
Before, that had been perfectly fine with her. She had work, which had made her feel completely fulfilled in life.
She was getting ahead of herself.
She barely even knew Cody. And yet, she couldn't get the woman off of her mind. She’d definitely never had that problem before. Significant others had come in and out of her life so quickly they were barely significant, and even then, the short-lived relationships never burned as brightly as what she already felt with Cody.
Maybe she was jinxing it. Cody was bound to have some giant, weird flaw, or deep, dark secret, or she was one of those people who clapped when the plane landed, or they would be completely incompatible long-term.
She flipped her phone over in her hands, and then dialed Frankie's number.
“Everything okay?" Frankie said, her voice groggy.
Emilia grinned. "Yes, I'm fine. No one's hurt or dead." It was their customary phone-call-out-of-nowhere greeting. Morbid, but helpful in getting to the point.
"It's… uh, 5:15 am, champ," Frankie moaned.
"I'm meeting Cody and I'm really nervous," Emilia admitted.
Frankie made a surprised noise. "Why are you meeting Cody so early in the morning?"
“I think I might have asked her on a date… ish thing?” Emilia said, although it came out as a question.
"And you didn't tell me this last night when we were driving home?" Frankie asked, exasperated, and she could hear metallic banging and a water tap turn on. Emilia figured she was making coffee.
She took a sip of the black tea in the travel mug she had brought.
"I wanted time to process it, you know?" Emilia said, holding her fingers to her mouth.
“Did you kiss last night? Seriously, that woman is unbelievably sexy. And she can bake. And save your life. Total package. Ugh, I'm so jealous you kissed her before I could," Frankie teased.
“No, no kissing,” Emilia rolled her eyes, grinning at Frankie’s jests. “Well, finders keepers."
Frankie sighed. “I technically found her first," she said.
"Are you coming into the shop later or am I running solo on this fine Saturday? I was only planning on a half day, anyway,” Frankie asked. “But it sounds like you’re starting early…”
"Well, we'll see how this Cody thing goes," Emilia said.
"Right, what is going on? 5:30 in the morning?” Frankie yawned.
A dark SUV pulled up in front of Emilia’s car, and Cody hopped out. She wore a leather jacket and tight-fitting jeans that made her look incredible.
Emilia blinked, then remembered her manners. She opened the door and held the receiver away from her face. "Good morning! I'm coming, let me just hang up with Frankie," Emilia called out to her.
"Already coming at 6 am. God, I don't think I've ever felt so proud," Frankie said, giggling. “Call me later.”
Emilia faked a scoff. “You’re a dirtball,” she said. “Later, gator.”
“After while, crocodile,” Frankie said, yawning again.
Emilia hung up before climbing out of the car.
"Good morning," Cody said, holding her hands in her pockets.
Emilia pulled her coat tighter around her body. “Good morning.”
Cody turned to look up at the house. "So, what did I get myself into?"
"It’s just a cult initiation, but the animal sacrifice is optional, so don’t worry." Emilia smirked, raising her eyebrows as she watched Cody oscillate between thinking she was funny and wondering if she was serious.
"I’m joking," Emilia quickly added.
"You can’t joke this early in the morning, Emilia," she growled, wrinkling her nose, but Emilia could tell she was teasing, too.
"It's an estate sale for William Godfrey," Emilia explained. When Cody looked blankly back at her, she added, "Apparently he has an amazing rare book collection. I assume his estate has already claimed the really, really good stuff, but my friend is facilitating the estate sale, and that's why we got in an hour early." Even just thinking about the gems Emilia might find made her feel giddy.
Ah, there was the old Emilia. Talk about books. More books, less feelings.
"Wow, so you're like, really nerdy," Cody teased, leaning back and nodding with a smile.
"I prefer passionate, or even evil genius," Emilia replied. She was feeling a bit embarrassed to have asked Cody to join since she could see how it could be a tedious task to go through book collections.
At estate sales, Emilia went into full treasure hunter mode, and thankfully, she had done her research to know exactly what she should be looking for. She had found that so many collectors felt protective over their most precious treasures, often o
verlooking manuscripts, letters, photographs, and rare books that might not fetch tens of thousands of dollars, but would still sell or auction for a pretty penny.
She had kept Between the Covers afloat and profitable in an economy not altogether kind to indie bookstores with such knowledge.
"Of course, lead the way, evil genius," Cody replied smoothly, raising an arm to point the way.
Emilia saw the edge of Cody’s t-shirt rise, showing just a tiny sliver of the band of her underwear –– boxer briefs by the quick glance she had. She blushed, looking away quickly.
Lois, Emilia’s favorite no-nonsense estate sale planner, answered the door after a moment, greeting them with a cheerful hello, and then she watched the woman pause and look Cody up and down with raised eyebrows.
"This is my friend Cody," Emilia explained awkwardly, feeling a bit transparent. "Cody, this is Lois. She gets me the good stuff.” She winked mischievously.
"Is this legal?" Cody asked in a stage whisper.
Both Lois and Emilia shrugged noncommittally at the same time. "Frankie writes all of my marketing materials and Nico delivers fresh-brewed coffee to my office on Fridays, so I'm not too worried about a little favoritism," Lois said, leading them down a hallway.
The house was overwhelmingly cluttered. There were piles of knick-knacks, cooking utensils, even children's toys. There was an alarming amount of furniture.
They followed Lois into the library, where the books were still neatly arranged on bookshelves around the room. She wanted to clap her hands and jump up and down.
"Have at it," Lois said, "But just know that the estate already sent the 'Letters of Colonel Lee' to auction and are expecting over thirty grand, so many, many eyes will be combing this collection."
Emilia swatted the idea out of the air. "This isn't amateur hour," she joked and then began inspecting the shelves as Lois left the room.
Cody looked around awkwardly, shoving her hands into her pockets. "So, this is what knocks your socks off, hmm?” She pointed to Emilia’s travel mug. “Wanna share the wealth?”
“Of course,” Emilia said.
She watched as Cody lifted the cup to her own lips, completely entranced by the idea that Cody’s lips were touching where her lips had just been.
Dusty books, dusty books.
She traced her fingers over the spines of a few older tomes, but could tell just by sight that they weren't first editions/first printings by the more modern type, and therefore, not as worthwhile.
"I suppose this is what knocks my socks off,” Emilia answered finally, pulling another book off the shelf and turning it over in her hands.
"So, what should I be looking for?" Cody said, lifting one of the dozens of paperweights that lined the desk.
"Well, my research says Godfrey was a collector of Americana, specifically the Civil War, so that's the obvious choice. But I've dug through a few collections and found gems hidden in plain sight. Most collectors can't pass up something precious. I think the best day of my entire life was when I found a first edition Jane Eyre in an Irish Revivalist collection," Emilia beamed, remembering how her heart pounded when she traced her fingers over the words Autobiography and Currer Bell.
Cody raised an eyebrow, looking amused. "This is the most excited I've seen you yet, and that's counting when I presented you with hundreds of cupcakes,” she teased.
Emilia laughed, leaning against the edge of the desk. "Rare books became a passion of mine only a few years ago, and since then, I've become a bit obsessed. It feels like I'm searching for lost treasure. Of course, all books have value, but when you come across something special, or something that existed in a time way before us, it feels like I'm connecting with something so much bigger than myself."
Cody smiled, tucking a strand of Emilia’s hair behind her ear. Emilia stayed perfectly still, afraid to move.
”I know that feeling," Cody said, but there was something sad, or perhaps wistful in her tone.
Emilia stood, turning back to the shelf. It felt strange to see Cody so vulnerable in front of her, and her gut reaction was to ignore it and let Cody collect herself to avoid embarrassment. But her curiosity was piqued.
She chewed on her lower lip and knelt down to scan one of the lower shelves. It felt too invasive for her to question Cody directly, so she’d try to find a way to let the story come out more naturally.
”Do you like working in the bakery?" Emilia asked, hoping it was a softball question.
"Baking was my first passion. You know, I did work in Henry's bakery for seven years," Cody said.
Emilia snapped her head to look at Cody, surprised. "Truly? I imagined like, one summer. I thought you were a paramedic?"
Cody shrugged. "I was young, I grew up here, and I started when I was sixteen, working all the way through college. I even wanted to go to culinary school, but after I worked in a kitchen for a while, I hated it. Working at the bakery and working in a kitchen could not have been more different."
"But then why not just go back to baking?" Emilia asked, tilting her head.
"You remember being 24?" Cody said with a small smile.
"I was getting my MBA at 24," Emilia said self-consciously, pulling another book off the shelf and flipping to the title page.
Cody said something more that Emilia vaguely recognized as teasing, but her eyes had just landed on the cabinets in the closet. On a hunch, she crossed the room and started searching through the drawers. Most of them were just full of papers.
"What are we looking for?" Cody whispered, appearing beside her.
"Dust jackets. They're incredibly valuable, but some collectors want to show the pretty binding of their books and store them apart. See how none of these books have jackets?" Emilia said, waving to the shelves behind her.
Cody peered over her shoulder. "Those drawers have false bottoms. See how deep the drawer is, but how shallow it seems inside?"
She reached inside, her hand hitting the bottom of the drawer much higher than what it should have been.
Emilia looked up at her with wide eyes. "Well, check you out, Nancy Drew."
She laughed, rolling her eyes. "I'll accept that one. She was a badass."
They worked together to empty out the papers, and Emilia reached in, feeling around the edge of the drawer until she found a small cut out towards the back that allowed her to lift out the false bottom.
Neatly stacked in the little hideaway appeared to be several presentation books.
Emilia’s heart skipped a beat as excitement made the hair on the back of her neck rise.
"No fucking way," she whispered, her hands trembling as she reached down to take the first one in her hands. Its delicate gold scroll cover shined in the lamplight. “It’s Dickens.”
“Oh, even I know Dickens,” Cody said, shoving her hands in her pockets as though she was suddenly afraid to touch anything.
Emilia carefully opened the cover. “It’s signed,” Emilia whispered, taking care not to open it entirely, and checked out the edition notice page. She was walking the fine line between jumping around, squealing, and bursting into tears.
"Are these… good?" Cody asked.
Emilia almost laughed. “Uh, yeah. These are presentation books. One just went at Sotheby’s for $200,000. These are the books you find displayed with a whole lot of fanfare. They're like art. They're meticulously crafted, and you can see how individual each one is. You show them off. You don't bury them in drawers, unless…"
"Unless you don't want someone to find them so easily," Cody finished.
Emilia nodded, handing Cody the book in her hands.
Cody handled it with the fragility of something that might explode at any moment. She took out two more of similar style, her heart pounding wildly. "This is unbelievable," she whispered, taking less care with the files in another drawer and reaching to see if there was anything else hidden.
“Hey, A Christmas Carol, how festive,” Cody remarked, grinning.
About fifte
en minutes and many drawers later, they had amassed nine books.
Emilia felt as though she had just won the lottery. Her hands still shook with excitement and her mouth was dry.
Cody gingerly set the books down and put a hand on Emilia’s shoulder. "Are you okay? You look like I just told you we're going to Disneyworld."
"This is better than Disneyworld!" Emilia squealed, wrapping her arms around Cody. "Thank you for realizing that. I might have overlooked it."
"I highly doubt that. I have a feeling you have one of the most brilliant minds I've ever met," Cody smiled, hugging Emilia back.
"You know what we should do to celebrate?" Emilia wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Well, I have ideas, but you go first." Cody’s eyes glistened with mischief.
"We should go back to my place…" Emilia started, pausing to bite her lip and grin. "And then I want you to…"
Cody raised her eyebrows, waiting expectantly.
"Make me scrambled eggs and bacon and hash browns. I'm starving, and I bet you have an incredible recipe up your sleeve." Emilia laughed, reaching for the books they had found.
Emilia paid Lois $145 — a downright steal, to be honest, and then gave Cody her address. She sat in her car for a moment, staring at the very, very carefully packed box of books beside her and the woman in the SUV in front of her, and squealed with delight.
She couldn't remember the last time she felt this happy, as though she was floating.
Chapter 8
Cody
Cody pulled up at Emilia's apartment building, thinking of how adorable she had been, beaming about finding those books. She didn't understand it, but what she did understand was wanting Emilia to be that happy every single day.
She had a fleeting thought that she wanted to be that reason. For a long time.
Her mother’s voice rang in her ears with her constant refrain: “Stop letting your hopeless romantic heart get hurt.”