The Boy Between Us

Chapter Three

The time flew by quickly and soon it was time for my afternoon break. It hadn’t been too busy today. I locked up and went to the nearby coffee shop for a cup of tea and a sandwich. I decided to have lunch there instead of back at the shop as I normally did, so I ate hurriedly and walked back. A few yards to the shop, I noticed a familiar looking fellow standing near the door of the shop. It was the man from a few days ago, the rude one I had bumped into. I paused a little, wondering what he was doing in front of the shop. He seemed to be waiting for someone because he kept on looking at his watch and tapping his feet. I waited a few minutes in hopes that he would leave soon because I didn’t want to have another encounter with him again. Much to my displeasure, no one came to him and he didn’t leave either. I walked slowly towards the shop with my head bent, and quickly entered the shop once I was there.

In my bid to rush into the shop, I fumbled with the keys and accidentally dropped them. Groaning inwardly, I bent down to pick them only to realise that the man had picked them and was offering them to me. He was without his hat today and though he wasn’t smiling, he didn’t have the scowl from before. Also, he looked surprised to see me. Mumbling words of appreciation, I myself could barely hear, I grabbed them a bit sharply from him and proceeded into the shop.

And to my utmost displeasure, he followed me right inside. I thought that maybe I had dropped something else and turned around but it didn’t seem to be the case since he wasn’t holding anything that belonged to me. I ignored him totally because somehow my entire mood had been ruined at the sight of him. I went to the counter and took my seat, scowling as he came over to me.

“What do you want?”, I couldn’t help but ask, and I must say that I myself was shocked at the intensity of mirth in my voice.

“I believe that this is a bookshop, unless the sign outside is presumably inaccurate. Therefore, I would like to purchase a book.”, he replied with a smile despite my rudeness. He added: “I spent quite some time waiting for you earlier and...”

“As the sign clearly said, I was out for my lunch break.”, I replied. “Maybe you do not know how to read and so I wonder what you even want here. Anyways, what book would you like to buy?”, I asked.

He looked around and said: “Do you have any children books?”, he inquired.

“Yes, we do, of course.”, I had to stop myself from sounding too mean because it was getting unreasonable to do so. I sighed and told him: “Follow me.”, leading him to the kid’s section, which was the more vibrant and colourful side of the entire shop.

“Here you go. You can look through and pick the ones you like”, I said and went back to my seat.

“Okay. Have you got any recommendations or anything?”, he called out after a while. “I’m having a hard time selecting.”

“I don’t know, kids read anything. Just pick whatever their interest is in.”, I said and went back to using my phone.

He took a long while, and my mind drifted a bit. I couldn’t tell him to hurry it up and I knew that the proper thing to do was to hang around and make suggestions and be ‘nice’ but my wounded ego wouldn’t let me. I wondered who he was getting the book for anyways. He looked too young to have a kid; a kid who could read anyways. But then, you can never be too sure about stuff like that these days. I didn’t check for a wedding ring either so I couldn’t confirm my guess. Other customers came in and soon I was so occupied that I lost track of the time and him. And when finally, the shop was about empty I realised that I hadn’t seen him or heard from him.

“Great, just came in to annoy me and he didn’t even by a single book.”, I murmured to myself. Just then, he came out, a stack of colourful books in his hands and a wide smile on his face.

“Sorry it took so long, Ryan. I just didn’t know what to pick.”, he said as he placed the books on the counter. “Wow”, he exclaimed, looking down at his rather expensive looking watch again. “Time does fly when you’re distracted.”

He had picked quite a lot of books, most of them about space and astronomy and stuff like that. Maybe his kid liked those.

I looked over at his hand and notice a ring. So he was married after all. My suspicions were right.

“Are you going to buy all these?”, I asked him, giving the books a side eye.

“Am I allowed to?”, he grinned. Shaking my head, I calculated the cost and begun packing the books in a bag.

“Wait a minute!”, I said with a start. “How did you even know my name?”

“Oh, well, I heard one of your customers say it a while ago.”, He replied with a smile. For a moment, I was sure he was lying but I only gave him a suspicious look and handed him the bags.

He pulled out fresh looking bills from his wallet and placed them on the table.

“Keep the change, will ya”, he said and with that he left the shop. I kept staring at the notes on the counter and even by simply looking at it, I could tell that the amount he had given me could pay for those books twice more.