There it was.
Alyssa sped up her walk as she spotted the last copy of a new book sitting on the shelf. A flash of black caught her eye, and she looked in disbelief at another woman speeding towards the same book she was. Alyssa broke into a run, cursing as the other woman started running too, and she was slightly farther ahead and Alyssa wasn’t sure if she could keep up…
Until the other woman stumbled slightly (served her right, wearing those ridiculous heels), allowing Alyssa to shoot ahead and grab the book from the shelf seconds before the other woman got there.
“Gotcha!”
“Damn it! Give it to me!”
Alyssa gasped at her. “Absolutely not.”
“I was in the store first!”
Well, that wasn’t technically wrong, Alyssa had seen the other woman in the store before her. But still! “That doesn’t count! I grabbed it first!”
“I saw it first!”
“No you didn’t!”
“Yes I did!”
“How can you even prove that?”
“Well- I-”
“Exactly. And even if you could prove it, it doesn’t matter, because I grabbed the book first!”
“But I was going to get it first!”
“But you didn’t!”
The other woman growled at her and stomped her foot. “Oh, come on! It’s the last one on the shelf, and literally every other bookstore around here is out!”
“And you think I’m not in the same predicament? Back off, it’s mine!”
The other woman took a deep breath and actually seemed to calm down. When she wasn’t up in her face, Alyssa found that she was actually very pre- no, no Alyssa, you’re supposed to be mad at her.
“Okay. How about this. I will give you-” She checked the price tag- “3 dollars. 20% of the actual price. When you finish the book, you lend it to me until I finish, and then you can get it back.”
Alyssa bit her lip. It actually wasn’t a bad idea, and she certainly had sympathy for the woman, after all, she would feel much the same if the woman hadn’t stumbled and gotten the book in her stead. And she could always appreciate a fellow book lover (the fact that the woman was getting prettier by the minute had nothing to do with the decision. Nope. Not at all.)
“Well- alright. But I have to have insurance that you won’t just run off with it when you’re done with it.”
“And I need insurance that you won’t just walk off after this conversation and never get it to me.”
Alyssa considered her. “I guess that’s fair.”
“Right. I’ll need your number, then.”
Ignoring the blush rising to her cheeks, Alyssa nodded. “Right. O-of course. Here, I’ll just, um- well. Here’s mine.”
Smirking, the woman put the number into her phone and started out of the door.
“Wait! I, er- I didn’t catch your name.”
The woman turned around slowly and smiled at her.
“Eva. Eva Lu Ator.”
**