I was bored.

It was nearly 12am, so work was out of the question and there were really only so many hours you could play with a cat before you felt yourself slowly going insane.

So instead I picked up my keys and left the apartment.

When Aiden and I first started dating, there was this bookstore that we went to all the time. It was a secondhand store that smelt of old books and that was open until four in the morning.

I don’t think Aiden liked it too much, but I fell in love with it immediately. And when things between us started fading, I’d always retreat to this one bookstore. Aiden never figured it out, not once… it was my little, secret getaway.

So instead of going out and getting drunk, I decided to go buy old books in the hope that their smell would rub off on my apartment. It was always such a comforting smell.

"I’ll be damned." A smile formed at my lips when I heard Doug’s voice. "Haven’t seen you here for awhile missy."

"Rather hectic time unfortunately. Miss me?"

"Fishing for compliments already." He noted before laughing. "Of course I did. Without you and maybe five our regulars, we’d be pretty strapped for business."

"Speaking of, got anything good recently?" I asked as I scanned the store. There were maybe two or three other people browsing the shelves, none of them would stay too long. I on the other hand….

"We got some great stuff just yesterday actually, it’s upstairs at the back. You go on up and have a look, I’ll bring up coffee in maybe a half hour."

I thanked him before making my way upstairs and towards the back, where Doug kept all of the best finds, whistling quietly to myself as I went.

I was still whistling as I turned a corner and walked head first into Spencer Carlin.