right?”
“Right.” I smiled.
We dropped hands. “Okay, so if you want to look over that book and when you’re ready, head down to the desk.”
“Thank you, but I already know I’m buying it, because you recommended it. Then I’m going to go home and read as much as I can before we meet tonight so we can talk about it over dinner.”
I was just ready to head back downstairs with him when Broody called me over.
“Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt, but do you have any books with death in them?”
I stood stock still. I mean there were millions of books with death in them, in all guises.
“I’ll leave you to it and make my way to the cash desk. See you at eight,” Lawrie said.
“Okay.” Disappointment flowed through my veins like a morphine drip, numbing my excitement as Lawrie stepped away from me, giving a small wave as he went downstairs to pay. Oh well, at least I’d see him later.
I turned back to Broody, once again struck by his own mega hotness.
The dude was forgiven for the interruption because he was MIGHTY FINE.
“Could you be a little more specific?” I asked him. “Like there’s death in so many books. Almost all of these paranormal books will feature some gruesome demise.”
“Ah, actually I meant Death as in him being a character.”
My interest level perked up another level. “Ohhh. Like the Grim Reaper?”
“Or just Death. You know, as the hero maybe in one of these books.”
“Death as the hero?” I tilted my head. This was a new one and I’d been asked many weird questions in this store during my career here.
“Or love interest.”
Broody is a weirdo, I thought, glad I had a date with the other hot guy. But, even so, he was still interested in my fave genre and I could satisfy another customer. Just not in the Batman fantasy way my mind kept trying to take me back to. Later, mind, later!
“There are actually a couple of series where the character of Death is a potential love interest, though it’s rare. We don’t carry the titles, but being a ravenous reader of the genre, I have come across them. If you’d like to come downstairs to a computer with me, I’ll do a quick search for you and we can order to the store if you like?”
“That would be perfect,” he replied.
“Okay, follow me,” I told him.
Wait until Cathy got a look at this one. Fingers and thumbs wouldn’t be enough for marks out of ten. I’d have to see if she also turned up her toes.
Alas, I’d find out later, it wouldn’t be Cathy turning up her toes.
No, that would be me.
Death
The worst part of my job was not being able to warn people about their impending death.
I had some control over the situation, some power as Death himself, but most of it was in the pages of The Book of the Dead.
Yes, there was a book. The ancient tome with its faded brown cover sat at home on my desk. Its pages were blank until you asked for information. In recent times, an app had been developed, so now I could bring up whatever intel I needed on my iPhone, but I still loved looking through the original, taking in the smell of the old pages. Death and decay was my thing after all.
The Book of the Dead had revealed that tonight, after her restaurant date, Mya Malone was going to die.
Her death wouldn’t be by chocolate.
Nor the ‘little death’ of a climax.
Nope, it would come via the canines and mouth of the vampire she’d just agreed to eat dinner with.
She would be his main meal.
For someone who said she was knowledgeable about her favourite genre, she’d not managed to notice even though she’d touched him, that the guy was cold due to his undead, non-beating heart. But the woman still had options, because I had a job to offer her.
I just needed to finish checking out her suitability for the post.
She tapped into the computer. Proficient with a keyboard. That was good. An information gatherer. Perfect.
Pretty with an enticing smile.
Down boy. You’re Death. It’s pathetic that you asked this woman about romance reads because you’ve only dated once since you took on the role. It tended to put future dates off. They all feared I was going to take their souls.
“I’ll just write down these titles and authors for you,” Mya grabbed a pen and paper and started writing. Neat penmanship. Excellent. “The ones I’ve put