The Perfect Fan

Norman looked up at the sign of the old book store, Barrows' Books. He sighed and looked down at the door. He had been all over New York that day, looking for a certain book and not finding it anywhere. This was his last stop then he was giving up and going home. He was going to go on internet and find the book. He didn't want to wait the 7 days for it but if he couldn't find it in the store, he would have no choice but to order it. He was tired of looking around.

A bell sounded over his head as he walked into the store. There was a counter directly to his left. On his right and left were floor to high ceiling built-in shelves filled with books. In front of him was a stone fire place, two couches, and a coffee table. The store had an old but comfortable feel to it. It smelled like a cross between coffee and cinnamon. A young woman walked up from the back of the store and smiled brightly.

" Oh wow, hi! Can I help you?" She asked, coming to the counter. Norman smiled and leaned against it with his arms resting on the top of the counter with his hands clasped together.

" I am looking for a very rare book and I can not find it anywhere. I'm hoping you guys have it here." He said.

" Well let me get Paige and you can talk to her." The mention of that name made Norman stand straight up. Paige. What was the possibility it was the Paige that had been popping up since he met her at the Com? " She has the entire inventory memorized." The young girl picked up the phone and hit one button. "Paige, I need some help, can you come up front?.....Thanks." The girl hung up the phone and smiled at him. " I'm Hailey."

" Norman." He said, shaking her hand.

" I know. I'm a big fan of The Walking Dead." Hailey said, making him smile.

" Really? That's great." He said.

" What do you need, Hailey? I really need to get this paper work done." Yeah, it was her. He looked towards the back of the store as Paige came out holding papers in her hands and looking down at them. She was wearing a pair of black, thin wired framed glasses on her pretty face. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun and there was a pen sticking through it. Norman smiled and laughed to himself.

" We have a customer with a question." Hailey said. When Paige finally looked up, she stopped walking and small flush came to her cheeks.

" What are you doing here?" She asked, making him grin.

" I'm looking for a book." Norman said. " But now I'm wondering why we keep running into each other."

" You two know each other?" Hailey asked in surprise.

" No, not really." Paige said as she started walking again. She placed the papers on the counter then moved so she was standing in front of him. She took the glasses off and pushed some strands of hair from her face. " What are you looking for?" He leaned against the counter again. His hands came to rest on it so they were on either side of him.

" I need a very old book called Folk tales From The Old Country. I need to do some research for a movie role I'm doing." Norman said. Paige nodded.

" Well, I don't have it but I might know where you can get it. Can you give me five minutes?" Paige asked.

" Sure. If you could find it for me that would be great." Norman said. Paige nodded and picked up the phone on the counter. She quickly dialed a number and waited a few minutes before she started to speaking. " Hey Daniel, I need some help. I have someone here looking for the book, Folk Tales From the Old Country." She reached under the counter and pulled out a small notebook. "Yeah....okay....Thanks." She flipped through the notebook until she came to an empty page then shouldered the phone. She grabbed a pen from the cup by the register. " You have it, great! How soon could you bring it to me?....Oh yeah, cool...... hang on a second." She took the phone from her mouth and looked back at Norman. " I can get it to you by tomorrow morning. It's kind of expensive though, did you know that?"

" I figured as much because it's hard to find." He said, still smiling.

" Well I can sell it to you for $ 100. Do you still want it?" She asked.

" You can get tomorrow morning?" He asked, making her nod. " Then yeah, I want it." Paige smiled then brought the phone back to her ear.

" Yeah bring out to me....I'm here til six but you can bring it by the loft if you can't get here by there.....Okay, thanks Daniel.....see you then." She hung up and smiled at him. " So he is going to bring it to my place tonight. I will be here at eight in the morning. We don't open until nine but I will be here if you want to come early to get it."

" That would be great. Thank you so much." He said.

" No problem. You know that's a collector's book, right?"

They talked for a few more minutes before he left. On his way home, he couldn't stop thinking about her. What were the odds that he could keep running into that girl? Maybe it was a sign. Maybe he should ask her out. She was a beautiful girl and the times he was around her, he could tell her liked her personality. If nothing else, she might be a fun person to hang out with. But then there was his whole, ' I need to not date anyone for a while.' thing he was going through. He decided to follow his heart. When he saw her in the morning, he would have an answer for himself, he decided.

XXXXXX

Paige had Norman's book in a big, clear, zip lock plastic bag. It was sitting on the counter beside her the next morning. She was going over the order list. New books were being released and she was ordering enough to sell in the store and to fill the pre-orders. She was making a list of books she had to order that day. She was looking from one list to the one she was making.

Norman watched her for a second through the window. She was tapping the pen on the counter as she looked over the papers sitting in front of her. Her little mouth was moving and it looked like she was counting. She was sitting on a stool and wearing a long sleeve dark blue shirt that hugged her petite frame. He smiled to himself and knocked on the window, making Paige's head snapped up to the side. When she saw it was him, she gave him his back and slipped off the stool. She walked around the counter so he moved to the door. She unlocked the door and held it open for him.

" So I hope you like coffee because I bought you some." He said, holding out his left hand. It was holding a cup. Paige smiled and took it from him.

" You didn't have to do that." She said. After he walked in, she shut and locked the door.

" Well you came in early, got me the book super fast, it was the least I could do because I really needed it. I didn't know how you take it so I brought a bunch of cream and sugar." Norman said. Paige was still smiling as she walked around to the back of the counter. He set a small bag on the counter and started getting out the creams and sugar.

" Here is your book." Paige pushed the bag across the counter to him then took the lid off the coffee. She was never going to throw the cup away. She grabbed some cream and started pouring it into the cup.

" This is great." Norman said excitedly as he opened the bag and pulled the book out. It was big and very old looking. It was leather bond and heavy.

" I hope it helps you." Paige said, sitting down on the stool so she was directly in front of him.

" Yeah, I'm sure it will." He said.

" It has more then just folk tales in there. There is also urban legends from that time as well as superstitions and how they came to be." Paige said. He looked up at her, still smiling.

" Have you read this book?" He asked.

" I have. I worked at a book store in Ohio. My uncle owned that one too." She shook her head and rolled her eyes. " Yeah. yeah, I'm a loser." She said, laughing.

" You're not a loser just because you like to read. It's a good thing to do. It means you're smart." Norman said. " So are you here all day?"

" Yeah. My uncle is sick so I came here to run this place. I only have two other employees so I'm here from open to close, six days a week." Paige said.

" Do you get to leave for lunch?" He asked, making her shake her head.

" No. I bring my lunch, peanut butter and jelly." She said. A idea formed in Norman's mind, making him smile again.

" Well, I better go." He reached out and took one of the store's cards then slipped it into his pocket.

" Well, if you need anything else, just let me know." Paige said.

" I will. Thanks, Paige. Do you want to re-lock when I leave?" He asked. Norman picked up his book and was backing up towards the door.

" No, that's okay. I'm here so I might as well have it open." She said.

" Thanks, again. You really helped me." He said.

" No problem. Thanks for the coffee."