Bookshop Girl in Paris by Chloe Coles

Author:Chloe Coles [Chloe Coles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2019-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

I turn to walk away from him, wiping chocolate off my face frantically. UGH! I sulk for a moment behind the counter. I rifle through the pen pot, to at least try to look like I have some kind of purpose here other than humiliating myself.

I can usually find sanctuary in stationery. Biros, a wooden ruler. A really lovely fountain pen that I write my name with a few times. An eraser. It’s different to the Rubber of Destiny at Bennett’s. This is sort of pinky-brown. The colour of old plasters floating on the surface of a swimming pool. With a Biro I write OUI on one side and NON on the other. C’mon, French Rubber of Destiny, I could do with a friend.

Is this entire trip going to be a disaster? Flip. NON.

Great. Génial. Not the answer I was expecting.

Am I going to get into trouble when my mum finds out I’ve made the French headlines? Flip. OUI.

Stupid French Rubber of Destiny.

Is Blaine Henderson an idiot? Flip. NON.

Well, this is faulty. I shove it to the bottom of the pen pot where it belongs and stab it with a Biro.

I don’t even know why I’m wasting my time on this stupid rubber. What is destiny anyway? According to Simone de Beauvoir (the cat), we all have the ability and the free will to write our own destiny. It’s not down to fate, or rubbers. It’s down to us. Blaine Henderson is an idiot and that is entirely down to him.

Audrey jumps up on the desk behind the till and begins working through a pile of books, labelling them with a big clunky price gun.

‘So, you and Blaine.’ She says it just like that. You and Blaine. I freeze, dropping the stabby Biro into the pot of stationery.

What’s she going to say? She looks at me steadily. She’s pretty terrifying. My eyes dart around the shop, looking to see if he’s nearby. He must be slumped in one of the book nooks, reading or looking at himself in a portable mirror, because there’s no sign of him.

‘Uh? Who?’

I don’t know why I ask that.

‘Your friend, Blaine. You know, the one you campaigned with at Bennett’s?’ She laughs because obviously I’m acting like a weirdo.

‘Oh, no way. We’re not friends. I mean, we don’t really know each other that well at all.’ That sounds defensive. Way too defensive. ‘And besides, I don’t really think he deserves to be here on this trip anyway.’

‘Oh … wow. That sounds … dramatique.’

It is a bit. I don’t know what to say.

‘I just wish someone else from Bennett’s could have been here instead. We don’t actually get on that well with each other … but everyone else in the Greysworth bookshop is a total babe.’

‘I had no idea that you didn’t like each other. You know, I actually thought maybe he liked you …’

‘No way!’ I shudder. Is she kidding?

I don’t feel like Blaine goes out of his way to be mean to me. It’s

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