Fact or Fiction?

Nothing happened for a few days. Every time I went home, I checked the book but it remained stubbornly blank. I tried to remember if I had been dreaming but I couldn’t remember. So, I did my best to get my mind off of the mysterious book.

I was decorating the bookstore for Halloween when there was a loud crash and swearing from the door. I jumped off the stool, the paper bats fluttering to the floor, and my jaw dropped.

“God damn it,” he mumbled, running a hand through his hair.

Zackary Hamilton was sprawled out on the floor, a box full of books on the floor in front of him.

“Are you all right?” I asked, hurrying to help him up.

“Yeah,” he sighed and he picked his books up. “I’ve always been a klutz and- Oh!”

He finally looked at me and I smiled.

“Hi,” I breathed.

“Hi,” he said, blinking at me. “Do you work here?”

“I own it,” I laughed and his jaw dropped.

As did the box of books again.

“You’re Ophelia Ramsey?” he breathed and I blushed.

“Er… yes,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

“Oh shit,” he said when he realized he had dropped the box again. He picked it up. “Look at me; acting like a star struck teenage girl.” I laughed a little. “Um…. I came to see if you guys needed any donations.”

“Sure,” I said, beckoning for him to follow to me the counter.

“I heard a thud,” Lucy said, running out from my office with a book in her hand. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” I said and her eyes landed on Zackary.

She blinked a few times. “I saw your flier,” she said. “Any luck?”

He brushed his hair out of his face irritably. “Not yet.”

“Well, some guy knocked me on the ass the other day,” I said seriously as he put the box down on the counter. “Think you’d take the case?”

“Hmm…. Maybe. You see, I heard he gave you his number but you never called him.”

I laughed, aware I was blushing, as Lucy backed out, smirking at me. I cleared my throat and took some of the books out of the box as he leaned on the counter.

“You have quite the collection here, Mr. Hamilton,” I said. “Stephen King!? Why the hell would you want to get rid of him?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said, taking a copy of Bag of Bones out of the box. “These I have other copies of.”

“Oh good,” I said. “I was about to stuff them in your face.”

He laughed as I sifted through his other books.

“Quite the romance fan, huh?” I teased and he chuckled.

“Yeah but those books are so old and I need to make room for new books I bought.”

“What’d you buy?”

“This great book called Edge of Reason by Ophelia Ramsey,” he said and I looked up.

His eyes were shining and I cleared my throat.

“It’s one of my favorites,” I said. I shook my head. “It’s why my manager had me away for five freakin’ months, though.”

“Ouch,” he said. “So, what do you think?”

“Well, some of these we already have. I would suggest taking them to the high school. Dude, for real?”

He groaned at the copy of Twilight.

“Not mine,” he said immediately. “Not mine at all. It was my sister’s.”

I smirked at him. “Sure it was.”

He just laughed as I whistled, going through each of the books I didn’t have yet. I flipped through to look at the state of them and wrote them all down. I could tell he was watching me but books always held my attention more than anything else.

“Okay,” I said finally and passed him the paper. “Those are the books I can take and how much I’ll pay for them.”

He arched a brow at me. “Come on. Don’t tell me my favorite author doesn’t know what the word ‘donation’ means.”

I blushed at his compliment but rolled my eyes.

“Of course I do,” I retorted. “But some of these are in such good condition it would be a dick move for me to just take them from you.”

“How about instead of buying them from me, you let me buy you dinner?” he said smoothly.

I cleared my throat. I tried to avoid relationships. I was too busy for them.

“She’d love to,” Lucy said, barging through the door and I glared at her. “She’s big on Italian and steaks. Just no alcohol and-”

“Dude,” I interrupted.

“It’s a date,” Zackary said before I could say anything else. “I’ll come pick you up tomorrow after you close.”

He winked at me, taking the box of books back to the door. He ran into it and I tried not to laugh as he cleared his throat and opened it.

“What the hell?” I said.

“Oh come on,” Lucy said, rolling her eyes. “The guy’s totally into you! He even said you’re his favorite author!”

I blushed. “I heard,” I said defensively. “But….”

“But what?” she pressed. “Afraid you’ll actually like someone?”

I narrowed my eyes and shoved the fifteen books into her arms.

“You get to tag and get these in the system.”

“Bitch,” she grumbled but went to the back again.

As I finished decorating the store, I thought of Zackary. He truly had looked like a teenage girl meeting her favorite actor. Could I really be his favorite author? It wouldn’t surprise me that he didn’t recognize me. I hated having my picture taken so I didn’t put it on my books. It just had a brief description of where I lived and who my parents were.

“I’m done with your boyfriend’s books,” Lucy said an hour later and I threw a fake spider at her. She smirked. “Do you want me to put them on the shelves?”

“If you would, that’d be awesome,” I said.

I was at the window setting up the Halloween display. It was a little graveyard with LED lights and a small fog machine. A few small fake skeletons leaned up against the gravestones and the lights changed color. My mother had been an epileptic so I knew how important it was to avoid strobe-like lights.

I sprinkled some glitter over the gravestones and stretched out fake cobwebs. I stepped back to admire the affect. Someone outside the window knocked and I looked up. It was the woman that ran the diner down the street. She pointed at the display and gave me two thumbs up with a grin.

I grinned back and winked. When that was done, I took pictures for my Facebook page and Instagram. I didn’t like doing Instagram so I always let Lucy take care of that.

After closing up and saying good night to Lucy, I rushed home. It was cold and, even though I had dressed warmer, I shivered. Something felt weird tonight and I wanted to get home quickly.

Just like every night, my eyes wandered to the book. I had been giving up hope that it would change but I had a random desire to open it. So, putting my coat on the hook, I sat in front of it.

I opened it and gasped. There was writing but it wasn’t about me.

Zackary couldn’t believe his favorite author not only lived in his new town, but she had somewhat agreed to dinner tomorrow night. He was nervous. He hadn’t been on a date in nearly five years. The last one-

I stopped reading and slammed the book shut. I didn’t want to keep reading if it was going to tell me all about his past. That creepy stalker from the tour had taught me that, knowing everything about a person, was really weird; especially if a strange magical book was involved.

It glowed gold again and I hesitated before opening it.

It was blank.