1. Just a peek

1

Just a peek

Ten Years Later

Emma

Looks like I’m the last one standing. The only one of my friends who hasn’t succumbed to the charm of a man. Well, the real kind at least. I’m more into book boyfriends. They’re reliable. They’ll never betray or abandon me. Fictional men are solid.

Unfortunately, I’ve been in a major reading slump lately. Does that have anything to do with the fact that I’m about to encounter my first love again after ten years? Probably.

Crawling out of bed, I grab my phone and type my old address into Google Maps, head to Street View, and tap on “view more dates.” I go back ten years, and as always, the moment I tap on the screen, my heart constricts. There they are, Mom and Dad, in front of our old house. Mom is taking the groceries out of the trunk, and Dad is coming from the front door to help her. I stare at their figures, basking in the sensation I hate to love so much. It’s not even a good picture of them, since their faces have been blurred for confidentiality reasons. Still, I prefer looking at this image over those where they’re posing for the camera. It was such an ordinary moment. They were simply coming back from the grocery store, like so many couples do every day. And for a second, it’s like they’re still there, in front of the house where I grew up.

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath. As much as this was once our reality, it’s not anymore.

I gently press my lips to my phone, then exit the app, knowing that I’ll see them again tomorrow.

Lying back on my bed, I release a long sigh. Just when I start to wonder why I feel particularly lousy this morning, I remember what day it is.

This is the day production of the Velvet Kisses movie adaptation begins, right here in our bookstore. Today’s the day I’m seeing Auston again.

Coffee. I need coffee.

Drag ging myself to the kitchen, I ignore my two best friends who are having breakfast at the table and make a beeline for the coffee machine.

“Morning, sunshine,” Hayley chirps, her voice way too cheery for this dreadful day.

I simply groan in response.

Alice’s light chuckle fills the room. “Come on, it’s such an exciting time! You can’t be Grumpy Emma today.”

“She’s always Grumpy Emma,” Hayley chimes in, and even if I’m turning my back to her, I’m pretty sure one eyebrow is raised.

“Yes, but there are different versions,” Alice continues. “She should be the grumpy-but-excited version today.”

“I can hear you, you know,” I grumble as I turn toward them, a steaming cup of coffee finally in my hands.

“Ah, there she is,” Hayley exclaims. “Thought we lost you for a second.”

“Funny.” I grab a slice of bread and sit down across from them.

“I can’t wait to see everything in action,” Alice bubbles, almost jumping in her seat. I love this girl, but she’s way too chipper sometimes. It’s exhausting.

“Me too,” Hayley says, sounding equally excited. “I can’t believe they’re letting us watch. How cool is that?”

The production crew workers, who have been here for a week turning the bookstore into a movie set, happen to be big hockey fans, and they love the New York Raptors. Since Alice’s brother, Maxime—who’s also Hayley’s boyfriend—is on the team, and we’re friends with most of his teammates, the girls managed to exchange VIP season passes for the right to hang out on set.

Lucky us.

Hayley and Alice are both looking at me expectantly. Unable to wipe away my frown, I clear my throat. “Right. So fun.”

Hayley pins me with a glare. “Come on, Emz! You can’t deny this is exciting. Even if we’re all bookish girls, having a movie filmed in our store is kind of cool. Especially with Madison White and Auston Buckley starring in the lead roles. They’re big actors.”

“And they have the most amazing chemistry on set,” Alice adds, twirling the ends of her brunette locks. “Probably because they were together for so long. I’m pretty sure they still are, but they’re keeping it on the down low. I’ve spotted a few hints in Madison’s Instagram posts. In fact, they were just in—”

I swallow a piece of toast hard, but it stays stuck in my throat, so I wash it down with coffee. Of all the actors who could have been cast in this movie, it had to be him. And his girlfriend. “Well, I don ’t know what’s so exciting about it,” I snap. “They’re probably going to ruin the book anyway.”

Hayley winces, and Alice’s jaw drops a few inches.

“What? It’s true,” I say with a shrug. All movie adaptations are disasters. The on-screen version loses the core essence of the book, and fans end up hating it. I understand that it’s good for authors, and that making a movie introduces their work to a wider audience. But for us, the fans? It’s a blow to the head.

“Maybe they won’t mess it up,” Alice says, her forced cheery tone activated. “Some are not that bad. And besides, it’s such a great book, I don’t see how they can go wrong.”

“The lead actors are a good fit, at least,” Hayley adds. And I know it’s not worth arguing with either of them. Alice and I are opposites. I’m the dark; she’s the light. We may love each other, but we don’t always see eye to eye. She’s optimistic while I’m a glass-half-empty kind of gal. Hayley is a mix of both, and sometimes I manage to drag her to the dark side. Well, obviously not today. And I know better than to argue with my friends. Especially after only one coffee.

Worst thing about all of this? Working soothes me, and with the bookstore closed for the next three months, stocking books and manning the cash register is out of the question.

I still can’t believe this is my life now. I never thought I’d be the girl who has best friends, let alone be living with them and running a business together. Forming connections never came easy to me, yet I’m happier than ever. I had been a lone wolf since the day my parents died, and before I met Alice and Hayley, I was perfectly content with that. Just because you’re alone doesn’t mean you’re lonely.

But then, I met the girls online, and they quickly became my comfort, the steadiness I was craving in my life. So, when we got this crazy idea to open a bookstore, I packed up and left my hometown. Not that I had a lot to pack, anyway.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not always easy to live with other people, especially when we have such different personalities, but we make it work. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before they swapped their book boyfriends for real ones, and now that they’re both in serious relationships, I feel a Damocles sword hanging over my head. Because I know that like everyone else in my life, they’ll leave me too.

They’re still engaged in an animated conversation about the movie when I shake myself out of my dark spiral.

“Should we get dressed and go downstairs to have a look?” Alice asks, her eyes gleaming.

“Ugh. Fine,” I say, finishing my coffee.

I guess we should get this over with. It’ll be no big deal, right?

Per the crew’s request, we have to make ourselves invisible. Hopefully, Auston won’t see me. But just to be safe, maybe I should go see Susan, the hairdresser at the end of the street, this afternoon. She could dye my black hair blonde. Or red? Or any other color, for that matter—though I won’t go pink like Hayley. I could add a pair of sunglasses for good measure. That way, he might not even recognize me.

I let out a sigh. Who am I kidding? Even if Auston Buckley dyed his hair white, wore a baseball cap, and squeezed into a fat suit, I’d recognize him anywhere. But that’s a different story. He was my first and only love. I was just a blip in his life. Just a girl he met among so many others. A girl so easy to leave behind.

I should avoid hanging around the bookstore too much anyway. In fact, I shouldn’t be here at all. It’s a bad idea. One look at him, and my heart will probably shatter into pieces when I’ve been so careful, safeguarding it all these years. I should really stay away. For my own good. For my sanity.

But when the girls come back from their rooms, my legs decide otherwise. And as I head downstairs, my heart beats faster by the second. Even if I should stay away, I need to see him. Just once, from afar. For old times’ sake.