Sophie stood with her hands on her hips, and tried to blow the hair off her sweating forehead.
Matt stood several feet away, his arms crossed and his feet firmly planted right in her path.
Standoff.
"This is a great find!" Sophie argued brightly, leaning over to push again.
Matt shook his head no. "Where, exactly, do you think you're going to put that?"
Sophie looked down at the gaily slip covered, very comfortable, incredibly heavy easy chair that she was attempting to maneuver into place. Alone.
She shrugged casually. "I don’t know… over there," she gestured vaguely behind Matt.
"Sophie," Matt said patiently. "Those are the stairs."
"Well…"
"You think you're going to be able to pick that up and trundle it upstairs?" Matt asked, incredulous. "When does your pack of sherpas and a few yaks arrive to help you?"
Sophie glared at him. "I was sort of hoping YOU would help me…" she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him, causing him to shake his head.
"Don't even try. I'm immune to the eyelash batting thing," Matt shot back. "Years of practice on honing that skill."
"Well, if you won't help me get it upstairs into the reading nook," Sophie glared at him again, "can you at least help me shove it into the back room? There's a space along one wall there."
Matt sighed as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders, and then took one step forward. "Have I mentioned I'm still not sure about this idea of moving furniture into a bookstore?"
"Everyone does it in America," Sophie shot back, merely because she knew that phrase bothered the heck out of Matt.
They had been arguing back and forth for the better part of an hour over Sophie's delicious furniture find – she'd overheard someone talking about getting rid of an easy chair while waiting for a coffee from Kat, and before she knew what she was doing, she was offering the man a deal on the chair if he would deliver it to the shop. Within three hours, it was sitting in the middle of their main floor.
Sophie could just picture it tucked under the window in the back room, a tiny table nearby to hold a stack of books and a cup of coffee…
Until Matt had rudely interrupted that the point was to have people buy books then go away, not linger and stay, and read through the book and possibly decide NOT to buy it.
Sophie argued that people bought more when they were comfortable.
Matt argued that they weren't in the comfort business, they were in the "buy and go away" business.
Sophie had called Matt anti-social.
Matt had called Sophie anti-logical.
And then the argument had started all over again.
Matt sighed wearily. "Fine, fine. You're the boss…" he said, refusing to bite on her jab about America. He knew this was a losing battle – Sophie was smart and headstrong, so maybe she was on to something…
But he just wasn't sure.
Heaving and huffing, they managed to steer the chair through the doorway, down the narrow passage and into the back room, where Sophie scuttled around to make room for the enormous chair. A few minutes later, Matt sank down into the cushions while Sophie smiled triumphantly.
"Perfect!" she cooed, smiling. "It looks exactly like I pictured it. Now we just need a sofa for the front room, and maybe a couple of smaller chairs for the upstairs…"
Matt groaned inwardly, his head in his hands.
Sophie kicked his foot playfully. "I'm very proud of you, accepting all this change so gracefully."
Matt looked up at her. "Oh yes, very graceful."
"Women like men who are willing to try new things…" Sophie smiled, and then quickly stopped. "I mean that in a normal way, not in some sort of psycho-sexual way. You knew that, right?"
Matt barked out a laugh. "Yeah, I knew that," he said, standing and knuckling his back for a brief moment.
"I'll have to invite Kat over to the shop, see what she thinks of the furniture idea…" Sophie began, her eyes casually sliding over to watch Matt's face as she mentioned his would-be paramour.
Matt swallowed, hard. "Kat would probably… have an expert opinion on that," he stammered. "Um, I can… I can go to the coffee shop and see if she's… available, if you need me to. I'm happy to do… whatever you need. Boss."
Sophie wanted to laugh out loud, but bit her tongue. "You know what, Matt? That's a great idea… do you mind going down and asking Kat to stop by? I'd really like her opinion on this…"
Matt nodded eagerly. "Sure. Um, are you going to ask her about the bookshelves outside idea too? Because I think Kat… might… have a good opinion on that. Maybe she can stay down here for a while and look around at… the space."
Sophie sighed. "Matt, I told you… I really hate that bookshelf idea." Inwardly, though, Sophie was celebrating the smooth transition to her next step in getting Kat and Matt together.
"Everyone does it in Hay," Matt shot back with a loaded grin and Sophie snorted.
"It just seems… weird," Sophie said carefully. "I mean, everyone sets up those huge bookcases outside every morning, THEN, they have to fill them with books, and THEN wait for people to bring books inside, and THEN take it down and unload it every evening."
"We could put out an honour cup," Matt said slyly, making Sophie laugh out loud.
"Yeah, yeah…. You have to admit, the honor cup with the coffee is working, right?"
Matt nodded, "So why wouldn't it work for books outside?"
Sophie reconsidered. "It would… that part would work, but I don't understand all the labor of loading and unloading for only a few pounds profit."
"Well, most other bookshop owners have these specially built bookcases that are designed to stay outside. They are made of metal to resist the weather, and they have these flaps that can be flipped down and locked at the bottom."
"Those sound cheap," Sophie said sarcastically.
"That's the problem," Matt said. "They aren't. But maybe… down the road…"
Sophie nodded. "Okay. Maybe. Down the road. But first, more chairs," she said with a wink, making Matt groan anew. "And we ask Kat for her opinion."
At the mention of her name, Matt's face lit up again, as Sophie's scheming seemed to be paying off to the hilt.
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