The party
Owning a bookshop is not as easy as it seems. Take it from James, who quite literally owns one. He imagined it kind of differently.
The picture he had in his mind consisted of mysteriously walking among the bookshelves, helping his customers find the books they were searching for, and hosting tea parties and author meetings.
It’s safe to say reality (so far) has been very different, starting with the fact that the bookshop had no visitors the first few days.
That did change but James is suspecting not due to the books but due to his looks.
Those four girls have been coming to the shop almost every day and James is pretty sure they’re scaring any other potential customers away.
The first few times they were there, everything was fine. It all changed when Remus kindly informed him, they were not interested in his debate about how Oscar Wilde was a raging homosexual.
It was an early Monday morning and James was convinced he still had a few quiet hours before they came in, but he was mistaken. As soon as the clock rang 8 o’clock and the shop officially opened, they were already standing in the doorway, waiting for James to welcome them.
“Good morning, ladies! How are you today?” He figured making small talk with them was better than pretending they don’t exist. Right?
Just before they managed to answer, Remus walked through the door. He was the only customer who bought books and enjoyed reading them. James was so grateful for him; he could kiss him in the middle of the shop. Not that he would ever do it.
He’s been listening to Sirius rant about Remus for the last week. Basically, ever since they met, he hasn’t shut up about him. His eyes and his smile, if you were to listen to him ranting, you would get the idea they are at least engaged.
“Oh James, but you weren’t there to see it.” He told him for what has to be the sixth time this week. “He knew my name is the dog star. He knew it before I even said it. I swear I think I started drooling. It was a bit embarrassing actually.”
James loved his best friend but sometimes he was acting like he doesn’t know the effect he has on people.
“Sirius, I love you with my whole heart and soul and I’m saying this as a friend, for god’s sake, just ask him out. It’s not that hard, just walk up to him, start singing ballads about how his eyes sparkle in the faint sunlight and how his beauty can be compared to the moon on the night sky.”
“Wow, thank you, James, I really need your help and you’re just taking the piss. C’mon, this is a serious matter.”
It was like that forever. When Sirius got his first crush, and his first kiss (which he described as wet and not at all enjoyable) James was teasing him for ages after it. It was not like he was jealous. He knew his time would come, and besides, he was more of a hopeless romantic type of lad, he believed in one true love that changes one’s perspective on the world, himself, and love as its own.
It was just that, ever since Sirius discovered the wonders that are getting and giving head, it was his main priority.
James knew he valued his friendship over anything, but sometimes he was more on the side track if Sirius had the opportunity to get laid.
Currently, James was concerned and tired and worried about the future of his bookshop and he just needed his best friend. He needed him to tell James everything will be okay.
“James, I can see something is wrong. Want to talk about it?”
No, James didn’t want to talk about it. James wanted Sirius to know what was wrong, he wanted him to hug him and save the shop with his glorious ideas. But he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Nah, I’m fine. Just a bit tired, you know how it is.”
The thing is, James knows Sirius doesn’t buy his bullshit for a second, he can see it clear as day. It’s like he can see directly into his brain.
“Yeah, whatever you say, James. And don’t get into your head about the shop. It’s only a week since it’s been opened. Give it time and I’m sure it’ll get better.”
And that was just what he needed to get through the day.
And that brings us back to that sad Monday morning.
Remus was already disappearing behind the shelves, leaving James alone to deal with the girls.
“Good morning, James.” The girls were now and first name terms (something James did not consent to, nor did he appreciate 4 girls squeaking his name so early in the morning).
He usually liked talking to them, and today was no exception but for the love of God, he begged them to lower their voice.
It was usually just one girl actually speaking to him, the others just followed her and giggled at the right times.
“How come we never see your girlfriend in here James?”
“A bit of a personal question don’t you think? It’s also because I don’t have a girlfriend but that’s beside the point.” James almost forgot Remus was in the room with them and he panicked for a second but then he realized he hasn’t said anything that would make Sirius’ little lie look like what it is. A lie.
“Oh, well that’s good to hear then.” The girl was a bit annoying, to be honest. She had a loud voice and she was constantly playing with her hair, twirling it around her finger or just winking in James’ general direction.
She picked up Pictures of Dorian Gray (a phenomenal book in James’ opinion) and he was busting to just start talking about it, to tell someone something about it.
The girl didn’t seem interested though, she just put the book back where she found it and continued walking.
Luckily for him, Remus seemed interested in the book.
“Is this any good?” He asked him, clearly very amused and trying to hide his smile.” I know it’s quite famous, but still, stuff that definitely shouldn’t be famous; is sometimes, so I can’t really decide the quality of it.”
“Oh, It’s phenomenal. People say Oscar was an unbelievable man, it has been said that he spoke even better than he wrote. The book itself is very good, I would recommend it.” He wasn’t finished talking when the girl interrupted him again.
“Do you have that Dickens dude? I’d really like you to show me Dickens’ work.” For some reason their words made Remus burst out laughing and he had to cover his mouth with his hand to hide it, doing a rather bad job at it, because his shoulders were still shaking with laughter.
“Yeah, we have his work, come here, I’ll show you.”
Later, when all the girls left and he and Remus were the only on left in the store he finally asked him what was the deal.
“James she was literally fucking you with her eyes. Dickens? She said she wants you to show her Dickens. How does that sound to you? Aren’t you supposed to be smart?”
Has she been flirting with him? Oh god, everything makes sense now, of course, she was asking about his girlfriend and of course, she would come in here literally every day with her friends.
“Well, yeah, I should be. Not as much as I thought.” James wouldn’t really call himself shy or prudish but sometimes it took just the right person to bring out his more expressive and flirty side. He couldn’t flirt with anyone without some intentions behind it. He also wasn’t a fan of one-night stands (despite popular beliefs apparently). Not that he had anything against careless sex or anything like that.
For James’ whole life (well ever since he knows what love what) he was waiting for the one. The person or the love; he still isn’t sure.
Perhaps it was growing up with his parents who kind of taught him what to look for in a partner.
Of course, this has nothing to do with the situation, it’s just that James always has an extensional crisis when a girl tries to flirt with him. First of all, he’s as gay as the day is long, second of all he is terrible at rejecting people. Oh, and another tiny, itty, bitty detail he forgot to mention. In Remus’ eyes, he has a boyfriend.
“How come I never see your boyfriend around here? I swear I’m starting to think Sirius made him up.” Remus just laughed and continued looking for the perfect book of the day, not knowing he just took 5 years of James’ life. He singlehandedly made sure James will go bald due to stress before he hits 40.
“Oh, why would you think that, that’s total nonsense, he’s just busy you know. I promise you’ll meet him soon. “And now why would he say that? Oh, Sirius is going to be pissed.
Lucky for James, right as Remus is about to reply, the bell above the door made a sound announcing a new customer at the store.
James always welcomes some new people in the store but seeing this man made him extra happy. The man had messy blond hair, but it was messy in the way it looked intentional. James was always extremely jealous of those people whose hair had this ability but he couldn’t bring himself to be jealous of this particular man. He just wanted to demolish his hair and the grin on his face. And don’t even get me started on his cheekbones. Sharper than the edge of a knife. He could cut James up and he would probably thank him.
Overall, he was pretty good-looking.
He looked around the store for a while, before his eyes landed on James.
He started walking towards him, his eyes shining in the faint sunlight from the city street.
“Hey man, do you maybe know where the owner of the store is? I have a couple of questions.”
James just stared for a while before snapping back into reality. It’s him. He’s the owner of the store.
“Yes, that would be me. James Potter is my name. And you are?” He saw Remus from the corner of his eye silently observing the interaction, reminding him to pull himself together.
“Oh, that’s great. My name is Evan. Evan Rosier. I have a huge request for you, but it’s okay If you can’t do it. I know you’re new here and I just wanted to ask you first. I just wrote a book and wondered if I could host a book signing here. There won’t be many people I swear, I’m not that popular.”
Evan Rosier is a miracle on two legs. This is exactly what James needed. This will get his bookstore going.
“Evan, yes, a thousand times yes. Please, this would be the perfect opportunity for you and me as well. Did you have any particular theme in mind, and dates picked? Just let me know your wishes and we’ll make it work.”
The next morning Evan was the first and only customer since Jams decided it would be for the best to close the bookstore while they were preparing for the event.
When Evan arrived, he seemed to be under a lot of stress for some reason. If confused James to be honest. For a second, he thought Evan had changed his mind and only came here to cancel but that soon turned out to be just anxiety.
“Good morning, Evan. I closed the shop for today, I hope you don’t mind, I just thought it would be easier for us to work if there wouldn't be any people bothering us.”
When James said people, he was thinking of a certain group of girls. He didn’t need them to make assumptions about him and Evan. He also didn’t want Evan to think he isn’t a serious businessman because he most definitely is.
“Oh, that’s amazing but please, don’t bring yourself more work because of me. I really don’t mind if you keep the shop open.” He was so kind to James and so thoughtful. Our man might drop to his knees and propose right now.
“Oh no, don’t worry about it, it’s fine.” It wasn’t because the fact that he could just close the shop meant there were no customers which meant this was James' final fight. If this doesn’t help the shop he might as well just close it.
“If you’re sure,” Evan said, shrugging his shoulders. “Perhaps we should start making plans then? I thought the best time would be this Friday in three days. About decoration, I don’t have any wishes, please do what you think is most fitting.” He stopped talking to look around the space. “I think it would be best to have my table right here, next to the windows so people from the outside will see the crowd and stop by.”
This may be the best thing James has heard in months.
“I love everything you just said and I think we can do all of it. Now please, tell me more about your book, I gotta say, I’m pretty curious.” The truth is, James has spent the entire evening googling Evan Rosier and he found nothing about his writing career. He did find some awfully hot pictures from last year when he was traveling in Spain but he thought that would be better to keep to himself.
“Oh yeah sure. I mostly write poetry, but this book is sort of a collection of works. Some of them are written by one of my close friends. He said I’d have to pry the poems out of his dead hands but here we are. We figured if nobody knew he’s the author we might as well publish it with the rest of the stuff I made. “he said all of that as if it was nothing, but James found it beautiful. He knew how it felt to have something so dear you didn’t wasn’t people to know you had it at all.
Like when he read a new book and he wanted someone to talk about it with but he also wanted to keep it to himself. He figured if the poems weren’t belonging to the author anymore, since they were published under a different name, the author maybe felt less emotionally connected to them. Maybe if people didn’t know the emotions were his, he could share them. Feel less connected to them. They were his but they also related to so many other people. Isn’t it like that with everything? Nothing is ever just yours.
“That’s nice of you. How did you choose the title? I must say I find it rather interesting.” The title is one of the first things that made James interested in the book. ‘All the people I’ve loved, hated, and fucked.’ Even the book itself is parted into three pieces. The first third is dedicated to all the people Evan’s loved, the second to everyone he’s hated, and the third to everyone he’s fucked. It’s a very intimate look into his life but somehow James found himself relating to almost every poem he read. It was extraordinary.
“Oh well, the work of my friend I’m afraid. He’s a genius. He thought it would be a good idea and I must agree. It’s bold and it makes the reader interested in what’s inside the book. Everyone goes in for a bit of gossip maybe some name-dropping on some nasty exes but I like to imagine they all leave with a little different view on love, hate, and sex. Those three things are more intertwined than we think. You cannot feel one without feeling at least one other. Think about it.”
It was true. You can never just hate someone. In most cases, you love them first. If you fuck someone you love them or maybe you fuck them because you hate them. The only connection James wasn’t able to make was the one where hate was the first feeling. Maybe he just wasn’t that type of person. He always tried to see the best of people- His mum always said to be nice because you can always turn mean if you need to, but if you’re mean from the beginning, nobody will believe when you turn nice. He tried to live by that.
“I love it honestly. Is your co-writer coming to the party? I’d love to meet him.” The truth was, James needed to meet him. He was a poet and James loved poets. Especially if they made masterpieces such as this.
Evan shrugged and looked around the store. He looked a bit uncomfortable. James wondered if he asked the wrong question. Maybe he was dead. That would be awful and James would never forgive himself for it.
“Oh yeah, you see I’m not supposed to tell people I didn’t write the whole book. He agreed to do this but under the condition his identity stays a secret. So, I can’t tell you. Maybe he’s coming or maybe he’s not. Sorry, Potter.”
As sad as that made James at least his friend is not dead. That is something, right?
“Oh yeah, I understand that and I respect it. I’ll stop asking about it now.” They soon returned to the topic of their so-called party and before you know Friday was here.
Turns out that when Evan said there won’t be a lot of people he lied. He was a big, terrible liar. At least 150 people were crowding in James bookshop at the moment. He has never felt so overwhelmed and happy at the same time. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves so much.
Evan was glowing. Beside him was standing a tall man and for a second James thought that was his writer's friend but then he reminded himself he wants his identity to stay a secret so he stopped wondering. Not really though. He just told his thought to be quieter in case the man is a mind reader. He hoped not.
“Evan man, remember when you said there won’t be a lot of people? Are you crazy? This is a lot of people.” And don’t get me wrong, James is so, so grateful to have this opportunity but he also feels like he let Evan down but not preparing the space better. He should buy more drinks and more cookies and he should have cleaned better and put more toilet paper in the toilets. It was too late now. He just didn’t want to disappoint anybody.
“Oh yeah sorry about that,” Evan said. “Honestly, I had no idea this many people would show up. But the place looks wonderful James, thank you so much. Everyone I’ve talked to loves it. I think you will be surprised to see many more people become regular clients now. Please remember me when you’re old and famous Jamie.”
At that moment, James truly felt on top of the world. As the night was coming to an end, he realized Evan wasn’t joking. More and more people approached him to tell him they loved the place and can’t wait to return. Everything was perfect. Sirius stopped by after and James could see the relief in his eyes when he informed him everything went perfectly.
I was crazy to think how much a night can change. In the next couple of weeks, the shop was almost constantly filled with people. It came to the point James was having trouble keeping up with everything.
Of course, he would never say anything. I mean he is James Potter at the end of the day. His friend come to him to solve problems, not the other way around. And besides he could deal with everything. It didn’t matter if he was only getting 4 hours of sleep, had irregular eating habits, and a growing addiction to anything that kept him awake. All that mattered was that the bookshop was running smoothly, he made people around him proud and he didn’t bother anyone while achieving that.
Truly everything was great.
Until one day it wasn’t.
“Sirius, I’m telling you I’m fine. It’s just that I have to make this perfect, okay? I need to make this work.” This conversation was the second of this sort, mainly because James kept falling asleep during his break when he and Sirius would usually have coffee.
“I know James, and I totally support you but I can see that the whole thing is getting too much for you to handle on your own. I’m not saying you need to take a break right now; I’m saying you need to be able to take a break any time which you are not. Maybe you need to hire a co-worker or something. It would be really good for you.”
That is actually not the worst idea. I would go as far as saying it’s a great idea. Certainly, one of the best Sirius has ever had.
And that’s why James found himself printing out some job applications. He also spread them around the city and gave them to every client that seemed responsible enough.
And luckily enough of course the girl that was borderline obsessed with James applied. Of-fucking-course.
For a long time, she was the only one that applied and James was seriously rethinking all of his life choices when his life turned upside down when a certain someone walked into his store.