Hearts of Deceit (ManxMan)

Ch 2: Darling

It was the day before my birthday. I kept the box with the tape and walkman under my bed in one of the rooms, my temporary room, above the bookstore. I glanced underneath the bed that morning as I'd gotten ready to open the store. Thoughts of opening it floated around in my head. Thoughts I hadn't considered in the last four years. I probably would have opened it. I'd even set a mental time for tomorrow. But the events of that morning seemed to disagree. 

"They're running us out of business, man!" Vinnie said indicating himself and his wife Sammy who was sitting behind the counter and looking through some papers.

She looked up with a wry smirk to where we sat at one of the old tables for reading. "Don't think Conny knows what you're talking about, dear."

I gave them both a bewildered look, putting down the book I'd been trying to read but had barely the attention span to do so. Vinnie scoffed and looked back to me.

"Really? You haven't heard of the new bookshop that opened last week down the street? It's got a cafe and a section for classic rock records. Damn me, guess I didn't get the memo that bookstores aren't actually for books."

Something in my gut twisted. This wasn't going to be another morning of Vinnie's usual rants. 

"Can't you work something out with them? I mean, who owns the place? Maybe, I don't know, you're a small business...maybe...they'll give you a break...They could see they don't need all your customers..." I trailed off as Vinnie raised an eyebrow and a look of pity came over Sammy.

"Can you believe this guy?" Vinnie turned back to Sammy. "Four years here and still doesn't understand the ways of business."

Sammy sighed and pushed her papers away. She gave me a sad smile before looking over to her husband. "Can't you see, Vinnie? Conny's got nowhere else to go when we close down."

When we close down. It was a sucker-punch to the gut. The bookstore was all I had in Portland. Where else could I go? What else could I possibly do? I was a delta from the slums of New York with no college degree and only my meager savings to keep me afloat. 

Sammy must have seen the distress in my eyes. She rubbed her forehead. Between the three of us, an uncomfortable and awkward silence settled. 

For the past four years, I had refused to outright admit it, and when I implied it, Vinnie and Sammy vehemently denied it. That being that I was more of a charity case than an employee. They could barely afford to pay me state minimum wage. Only two people truly needed to run Kentons Bookstore. Sammy, the accountant and financial officer and Vinnie, the salesman and face of the store. They also happened to conveniently not have the weight of past memories plaguing their mind. 

"His name is Ross Edwards," Sammy later told me at dinner. I tilted my head. Edwards was a familiar name. Some distant remnant of New York perhaps? It was also a common name. Not one I'd hopefully be expected to know. Luckily, Vinnie, as was his way, filled me in while trying to stuff as much spaghetti as humanly possible down his throat. 

"It's that big-shot alpha from the Edwards family. Y'know, Thorephite Inc?" That was a familiar name. Everyone knew Thorephite and the woman behind it. A big mysterious and mostly reclusive alpha woman, Vanessa Edwards. The leader and vanguard of popularizing thorium-based nuclear energy around the world. 

"Her son, Ross Edwards, is a little shit. They think he might even turn down the CEO position at his parents company for a god damn laugh at them. Rich bastard."

"Vinnie. Language." Sammy muttered as she slid more spaghetti onto his plate.

"Anyways, he's dabbling in whatever'll get his name caught on in Portland. That's a fancy bookstore apparently. Really, he should just keep banging omegas, and going to some celebrity worship fest and he's set for life with mommy's paycheck."