The Perfect Fan

When Norman came back to the store he had a cup holder with three coffees and a bag filled with bagels. Leo and Paige had been picking up books and placing them in piles around the store. Norman had called three of his friends and had made arrangements for them to come over and help with the clean up. One of his friends knew about Paige already. Norman had been talking about her, admitting that he liked her. He had been smiling and feeling good about it until some guy spilled his coffee all over Norman's shirt and didn't even look back as he walked away.

" Hey, let's sit down and eat for a minute. I brought bagels." Norman said, making them look at him. He smiled and shook his bag at them.

The three sat down on the couches, with Leo and Paige sitting together and across from him. Norman got out the different bagels and cream cheeses then handed out the coffees. Leo and Paige said thanks while Leo was awestruck. Paige had to keep nudging his leg so he would stop staring and muttering that he was being stupid. Norman smiled and assured her it was okay.

After breakfast, Leo sent her to clean up her office. He could tell by her expression that she was feeling overwhelmed. He hugged her before he sent her to the back. She still had to call Hailey and James, the other employee she had. Leo also wanted to know what was really going on. He wanted to why Norman has shown up, buying lunch for Paige and asking about her the day before and he wanted to know why he was at the store, helping them clean.

" So, how did you and Paige meet?" Norman asked, picking up some books.

" We met through some friends. They were trying to hook us up." Leo said. He was across the store. They had decided to pick up the books before they cleaned up the glass.

" So you guys dated?" Norman asked while he worked.

" Yeah but only for a month then we both were like, this isn't working. I mean, the sex was great but there wasn't anything else between us and we knew it." Leo explained.

" But you stayed friends?"

" Yeah. Well we dated ten years ago and, like I said, it was for a month so we are barely exs. We slept together off and on for a while but she's not really into friends with benefits."

" When was the last time you guys slept together?" Norman asked before he could stop himself.

" Ah....about five years ago." Leo said, casting a look over to the man. " Her and I just work as friends, you know? She's my best friend and I'm hers." Norman nodded, making Leo smile and look away.

XXXXXX

Paige was standing in the middle of her office, looking around and shaking her head. She had put all the drawers back in the desk and picked up all the scattered papers and books. She sighed and shook her head. She turned towards her desk and started looking through the papers. She needed to sort them and get them back into some kind of order. She started looking through them when a knock came to her door.

" Hey." His voice was still a surprise to her every time she heard it. She looked to her left to see Norman standing with his hands in his pockets and a smile.

" Hey." She said before looking back at her piles.

" So my friends are here to help. Sean and I are going to measure the windows then go and get some boards to cover them. Did you get a hold of your insurance company?" Paige sighed and sat down in her chair as she leaned back and nodded.

" I did. I faxed them the police report. They are going to review it then send someone out to look at the windows and door. But no one can come until next week and I can't stay closed for that long, you know?" She shook her head and looked away as she started to tap her fingers on the desk. " I don't know what to do."

" What are you options?" He asked as he watched her.

" Well, I could go and work with Daniel, that guy I got your book from. He said I could work there until I can reopen this store but I have so many orders coming in that I can't cancel plus I have a lot of people that are depending on me to fill their orders." She closed her eyes and leaned forward. She rested her elbows on the desk and her head in her hands. He came forward and sat down in the chair at the side of her desk.

" Just take a deep breath and try to relax." He said.

" Normy!" Some one yelled from the hallway. Norman looked in the direction of the voice.

" In here." He called out then looked back at her. " What are you thinking you should do?" Paige shook her head and then turned so she was facing him.

" I'm thinking I should use the company credit card and buy the glass for the windows and the doors. If the insurance company doesn't pay for the whole amount that I spend that the store will just have to eat it." Paige said.

" Hey Dick, I have been calling you." Sean said when he appeared at the doorway. Norman looked to his right then stood up.

" Paige, this is my friend, Sean. He's going to help us." He said with a smile. Sean came forward as Paige stood up. " This is Paige."

" Hey, it's nice to meet you. You can call me Sean or Flanery." Sean said with his hand out.

" Yeah, it's nice to meet you too." Paige said, shaking his hand.

" So, where do we start this clean up?" Sean asked with a smile.

" We were just talking about that." Norman said. Sean stepped back and was looking back and forward between Norman and Paige. " We will measure the door frame and window frames. I think all we can do right now is board everything up." Paige nodded.

" Yeah, you're right. I think I need to call my pre-order customers. I will tell them what happen and let them know I am still open. Then I guess I will just get the glass and hire someone to fix it." She said, starting to feel clearheaded.

" That's sounds like a plan." Sean said, clapping his hands. " You got a dumpster behind this building for all the glass?"

" Yeah. I also have a ton of boxes we can start putting the books in. I'm going to have to sort them before they can go back on the shelves." Paige said.

" Paige!" She heard Hailey call out.

" You call the people, let us handle the clean up." Norman said.

" What the hell happen?" Hailey asked as she walked into the office. Her expression flushed at the sight of Sean and Norman. " Oh, hi." She said. The boys smiled at her.

" It's nice to see you again." Norman said. " This is my friend, Sean." Sean grinned and came forward to shake Hailey's hand.

" Hey." He said.

" Hi." Hailey said, giggling as she shook his hand.

" So when Normy asked me to come and help his little girlfriend he didn't tell me she had such a cute friend." He said. He took her hand into his arm. " Show where the boxes are so we can start packing the books up."

" Yeah, Okay." Hailey said, still giggling as they walked away.

" I didn't call you my little girlfriend." Norman muttered. His face was flushed and he knew it. He wanted to punch Sean in the face as soon as he said that. Paige sat back down and sighed.

" This is a mess." She said. He moved back to his chair and sat down. He reached forward and placed his hand on her arm which was resting on the top of the desk.

" Look, we are doing this one thing at a time, okay? Right now, make your phone calls. Troy and I will measure the front. Leo is picking up the books, Sean and Hailey can put them away and that other guy, your other employee, he can help Leo when he gets here." He started to rub her arm.

" Why are you helping me?" Paige asked suddenly. He sat up straight and looked away from her as he let go of her arm.

" Ah," He paused. He brought his left hand to his chin and started to rub it as he laughed. " I, ah, well..." He shook his head then looked at Paige. He dropped arm back on to her desk. " I like you." He started off slowly.

" What?" Paige asked in shocked. ' Did he really say he liked her?' He chuckled softly and shook his head.

" Yeah, so I like you and was coming here this morning to ask for you number. You interest me. I want to know why we keep meeting up. New York is huge but I managed to find you twice here. I ran into you at the bar after the Com, I mean, seriously, what are the chances of that, Paige? I want to know why we keep running into each other. Someone has to be trying to tell us something, don't you think?" Norman smiled at her then.

" I guess." She said softly.

" Look, let's just through today and we can talk about this stuff later." He reached out and patted her arm then stood up. " I'm going to go up front so you can start making your calls."