Tethered 01 - Catalyst (10 page)

Fisherman’s Brew table busser was out. For sure. I didn’t even think Twila would give me an application for the position and I didn’t ever feel like setting foot back in that place again. Gas station attendant was out too, because I was not working crazy hours, which is most likely all they would have available for a newbie. Cashier at Ingles and the job at Spellbinding Reads was all that was left on the table. Either would do.

After getting a hot shower, I headed to Vera’s room to see if she wanted to come into town with me and get the applications, but found her lying across her bed, snoring. Guess that meant I was going it alone.

I headed to the bookstore first, because it was my number-one choice. If I was going to spend the summer here and had to work, then what better job could I find than at a bookstore by the beach?

Spellbinding Reads was on Main Street. I pulled my Jeep into a parking space directly in front of the store. The rolling, fluttery feeling of butterflies coming to life in the pit of my stomach began as soon as I cut the engine. I’d only ever applied for a job once, when I was sixteen, but only because I didn’t want to work as a paper pusher at my parents’ chiropractic office. I’d applied at a local Wendy’s restaurant as a cashier, got the job, and only lasted about three weeks.

Fast food had to be one of the most stressful industries to work in. All it took was one lady to toss a dime at me through the drive-through window when I’d nicely told her she was ten cents short for the burger she’d ordered to set me off and make me decide I never wanted to come back. I turned in my uniform the next day and went to work logging stuff in on the computer for my parents after.

I’d been there ever since.

I slicked my hands down the side of my skirt, smoothing out any creases, and tightened the hair tie holding my hair back in a ponytail, before gripping the metal handle to Spellbinding Reads’ door.

A bell hung above the door rang as I opened it. Air the perfect temperature met my skin as the scent of lemon and some sort of spicy tea tickled my nose. My sandals slapped against the dark, rustic-looking wood floors as I stepped inside. A tall U-shaped desk stood along the far wall, but there was no one standing behind it. Bookshelves nearly as tall as me were lined up in neat rows in the center of the room, and larger ones that touched the ceiling lined the outer walls. Celtic music of some sort flowed through the room, creating a calming environment. A makeshift coffee bar stood in the far right corner. Fluffy, overstuffed chairs were placed sporadically through the entire store.

This was definitely a place I wanted to work. It was a book lover’s paradise.

“Come on in, look around, and I’ll be right with you in just a moment,” a male voice called from somewhere near the back of the store.

“Thanks,” I called out to him, trying to pinpoint where his voice had come from. The door at the back wall?

I headed straight to the New Adult/Young Adult Paranormal titles shelf clearly labeled by a sign with the same design as the one hanging above the shop door outside. My fingertips brushed against the shiny new book spines filling the shelf. I pulled out a few that had titles that caught my interest, just to look at their covers. I was too nervous to actually read any blurbs and I didn’t have the money to buy anything today anyway.

There was nothing worse than finding a book you desperately wanted to read, only to determine you couldn’t afford it at the moment. It was the same way with shoes.

“Is there something in particular I can help you find?” asked the man who had greeted me when I walked in from behind me. I hadn’t heard him walk up, and his close presence, mixed with my already nervous energy, made me jump. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said smoothly.

“It’s okay. I just didn’t hear you walk up,” I said, taking in his features. There was an odd familiarity about him, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

He was older, probably in his early to middle forties with short-cropped hair slightly speckled by gray. His eyes, a deep green, were fixated on me in a way that made my skin prickle with goose bumps. I didn’t like it. It was almost as though he were staring at some incredibly fascinating animal that was supposed to be extinct when he looked at me. A large black cat caught my attention as it jumped from on top of a bookshelf behind him and into a chair before hopping down to the floor and strutting to the desk at the back of the store.

“I get my sneakiness from her, I guess.” He pointed in the direction of the cat and then folded his arms across his chest. “That’s Sage; she’s sort of like the store mascot.” His steady eyes dropped to the book I was holding. “I haven’t read that one yet, but I’ve heard good things about it,” he said, pointing to the book.

I glanced down to see what book I’d grabbed. A cover with a girl dressed in a black dress with feathers floating all around her gleamed up at me. “Oh, you read these types of books?” I asked, his confession striking me as odd. I didn’t know why though. He obviously worked in a bookstore. Of course he read the stuff he sold.

“How else would I be able to recommend books similar to others if I didn’t at least make an attempt to read some of the books I sell?” He grinned like I was some small child asking a stupid question regarding why the sky was blue.

“Well, that makes a lot of sense, I guess.” I put the book back on the shelf and readied myself to ask for an application.

“You aren’t going to get it?”

I shook my head. “It’s one I’ve wanted to read for a while now, but I actually came here because of the ad in the paper.”

His eyes lit up, but in a weird way. “Really?”

“Has the position already been filled?” I asked, praying silently that it hadn’t. I loved the ambiance of this place.

“No, it hasn’t. In fact, I just put the ad in the other day. You’re the first person to apply,” he informed me and then headed toward the desk in the back. “Follow me and I’ll get you an application.”

I followed him to the desk and then stood, wondering where I should put my hands, wishing I’d just worn shorts or at least a skirt with pockets. My eyes swept over the novelties resting along the edge of the desk—colorful bookmarks with tassels, dozens of those little lights that attached to e-readers, pens, magnets with what looked like a picture of his cat with a little saying written in the same scrolling script as the signs above the selves. I picked one up and read it.

Books are word windows… Open one and see where its magick may take you.

“My name is Admer, by the way. I own this little place,” he said as he continued to riffle through stacks of paperwork and books littering his desk. “I don’t really need you to fill out an application. I just need it so I can ask you a few questions and get all of your general information.”

I didn’t understand what he meant. “Oh, okay.”

He paused in his search and glanced up at me, his eerily steady eyes meeting mine. “I’m saying you got the job.”

My pulse spiked as a sudden lightness centered in my chest and then spread outward, making my limbs tingle. “I got the job?” I asked unnecessarily, unable to believe I’d gotten it so easily.

“Of course.” He nodded with a small smile and then resumed his search. “I need someone who enjoys reading …which seems to be you. Ah—here it is…” He held up a piece of white paper. “And besides, you were the first person to ask about the position… I’m a firm believer in the old saying
first come, first serve
.”

I smiled. “Well, thanks.”

“All right, now let me ask you some boring questions regarding your address and such.” He pulled out a hard case from in his front pocket and retrieved a pair of small-circled, wire-rimmed glasses. “Oh wait, I didn’t let you know the hours. I’m so sorry; my mind seems to be a little overworked today.”

“It’s okay.”

“We open at ten in the morning and close by four during the week and six on Fridays and Saturdays. We’re closed on Sundays. But I won’t need you for all of those days. I’ll probably have you work three days a week, possibly four. How does that sound?”

“Great!” I said with a little more enthusiasm than I’d intended.

“All right, now on to the boring stuff,” he said, lifting the paper up so he could better read it.

When I got back home, Vera was awake and sitting on the couch watching TV. We didn’t have any cable or satellite, but we did have movies that I’d thought to bring. She was watching one of my favorites,
Superbad
.

“Where have you been? I walked around this house searching for you for like an hour before I realized your Jeep was gone. This place is huge!” Vera said as I flopped down beside her on the couch.

I grabbed a throw pillow and sat it in my lap, tucking my feet beneath me. “I went job hunting and landed one at the first place I applied,” I bragged.

Vera paused the movie. “So, it’s official. You’re staying for the summer, then?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I think I am.”

There was too much I needed to learn from Kace, too much I didn’t know. I couldn’t leave now.

“Awesome, because I’d love to head back out here, even if it’s just for a weekend, before I get settled in at the dorms. One last go around with summer.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

I grinned at her. “That would be awesome.”

“Where did you land the job at? Anyplace cool?”

“That bookstore, Spellbinding Reads.”

Vera made a gagging noise. “Ugh, it would be the only stuffy bookstore in town and not someplace of actual value…like a clothing store where you can get a wicked discount, or even a shoe store.”

I hit her with my pillow. “It works out for me. I’ll be getting ten percent off any books I want to buy
and
I get to read while on the job any book I want for free.”

“Anyway…” she said, completely ignoring my awesome discount news, as she switched the movie back on. “What do you want to do for dinner? I’m starved.”

We ended up going to a restaurant on a completely different side of town than Fisherman’s Brew. I made the excuse of not wanting anything seafood—which was hard to find in a beachside town—but in all honesty, it was because I didn’t want to be anywhere near Twila, Stina, or Theo. There was something unsettling about all three of them, and it went deeper than the little threats they’d directed my way the other night and their odd stares.