set of three
Stepping off the train is surreal. As children, they took this same trip many times for holidays. The last time Narcissa was here, she never thought she would be back, she honestly never intended to come back.
When she made the decision to leave, it wasn’t rash or hasty or impulsive. No, it was calculated and meticulously planned. Every step of the process to leave had been perfectly mapped out for weeks. The hardest part was keeping it all hidden, keeping it a secret from the people that mean the most to her. If it weren’t for them she would have left long before she did. In the end it was much easier than expected.
That was hard to stomach. Narcissa didn’t want that to be true, she wanted to regret it, she wanted to be pulled back by some force and to be able to stay. It just was never an option. As soon as she knew that leaving was possible it was all she could think about. And once she was gone, that was all that mattered. Of course every day she thought of, and still does think of her sisters and cousins, but what could she do? She saved herself and that is all she could let herself focus on. Doing that made it easy. She was okay, so it was easy. It’s not like she could save all of them.
Stepping off the train into King’s Cross station, she really never thought that she would be back. Something just pulled her back. One day she was tired after a long day at work and found herself looking for a flat in London. Two weeks after that her bags were all packed. Now she’s standing in the one city she never thought she would see again, the one city she knows better than any other. Narcissa can’t help but wonder if any of them are still here. Surely they would have gotten out by now, if not sooner. Even still, it’s the only thing on her mind.
She pulls her phone out of her pocket and finds the address of the flat she is moving to. When Narcissa left France, she barely brought anything with her. All those years ago, she made it a point to not set down strong roots, just in case she ever felt like leaving again. It was never in the plans to stay for as long as she did, but she stuck to making sure she could leave whenever she wanted to. Nothing holding her back. She had some friends, but kept most everyone at an arm’s length.
One problem she had always had was getting attached and then ending up disappointed. People leave, people stop caring, people disappoint you. It’s just how it is. So, it’s always been easier for her to remain detached. If she doesn’t care then she won’t get hurt, right? Narcissa runs. She cuts people out before they can do it to her. It’s better that way, so she runs. Simple as that.
In the past she never ran back. It was always forward, away , to something new. Today is the first time she’s returning to London, the only time she’s ever run backward. Honestly she has no idea if this is smart, or if anything good will come from it. It could quite literally be a disaster that goes up in flames.
But she will just take it one thing at a time. First, now that she’s here, Narcissa needs to find her flat and meet her new flatmate. She found them online and is mostly just hoping they aren’t a murderer. When she left for France, she had even less of a plan, so this is a step up. In her phone she finds the text chain with the girl and copies the address to put into the map for directions.
It doesn’t take long for Narcissa to reorient herself to the London underground system and she easily finds her way across the city. The flat is in South Kensington, a safe enough distance away from where she grew up. Not that she hated the area, there’s just too many memories that haunt her there. Better if she just avoids it for the time being.
When she gets off the tube, she sends a quick text to let her flatmate know that she’ll be there soon. It only takes a few minutes to walk there and now, standing in front of the door, she hesitates to bring her hand up to knock. Once she goes in, she will officially be living in London again and it feels weird. Not that the city itself means anything, but it’s everything that comes along with that. Her entire past that she buried so deep in her mind, yet haunts her every thought and dream, is all tied to this place. Maybe being here, meeting new people, starting a new life, can all bury her past even further.
It’s a possibility, however unlikely.
Narcissa didn’t realize how long she had been standing there at the door, until someone shouts from above. “Are you Narcissa?”
“Er- yes! Emmeline?”
“That would be me! Come on in, door should be unlocked. How long have you been standing in the cold?”
She laughs lightly. Okay, so Emmeline doesn’t seem like a murderer. This should be fine. “Not long. Just making sure I was at the right place.”
Once inside, she feels instantly warmer, not even realizing how chilly the air is that morning. The flat is one flight up, and luckily she doesn’t have much stuff at all, so it’s an easy trek. Emmeline stands resting against the open door frame and seems to be contemplating, likely the same thing as Narcissa; that they’re about to live with a total stranger that they are meeting face to face, right this second. Not the most conventional thing, but it will do.
“I’m not going to move into your flat and then kill you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” She smirks.
“Good, but it’s now also your flat, so if you come into our flat and kill me, you would still be telling me the truth right now.” The glint in her eye tells Narcissa that she made a good decision and that they are going to get along perfectly well.
“You have a point.” She steps fully inside and gets a good look around the flat. It looks exactly like the pictures she saw, yet another good sign.
Emmeline leads her down a short hallway to one of the bedrooms which is pretty much empty. “This will be yours, but make yourself at home. You seem like you would just keep to yourself but I’m telling you it’s okay, the whole flat is yours.”
It bothers Narcissa a bit how easily she is being read. She’s so used to keeping her cards close to her chest, not letting anyone in, and overall just fading into the background. Yet, here is this girl she just met, peeling back her layers and seeming to anticipate her every thought before it fully even crosses her own mind.
She doesn’t like it, to say the least. Even so, she finds herself wanting to listen, to actually open up this time. That maybe London was calling her name to pull her back here and get her to break her usual pattern. Maybe it’s all a sign that she needs to change, or at least let loose a little bit.
Her bag falls from her shoulder to the ground. “If you say so.” She decides to take a chance on making a friend. “I’m starved, would you want to go grab a bite?”
“Oh absolutely. I know a great spot down the road.”
So they go and talk the entire way there and the entire time they drink their coffee and eat their food. Before today the two had exchanged the briefest of texts about the flat and well, that was it. Emmeline needed someone who would be able to pay rent to move in, and Narcissa needed - more so wanted, as the move to London was spontaneous - somewhere to live. She has enough saved that it will be no problem while she looks for a job, which is yet another thing she has no plan for. In France she had kept up the dancing she had done all throughout her childhood and toured the country with a company. It’s pretty much all she has ever done, so options for a job are… scarce. She’ll figure it out eventually. She always does.
Over food, she learns that Emmeline is an artist, but formally does graphic design. Not much further from the flat is a studio she rents on the weekends and occasional other days when she has time between work. She has a few different companies she designs for, none of which Narcissa has heard of, and gets a fair amount of income from commissioned pieces, both digital and painted. Just hearing her talk about her work with such passion keeps her attention.
All her life Narcissa has been more soft spoken, which evidently continues now. As soon as she got Emmeline telling stories about herself, the pressure was off. She didn’t have to paint a picture of who she is or tell stories about her past. In fact she is doing everything she can to avoid that. The past hurts, so why dredge it up. Meeting someone new means a clean slate. Narcissa can be a new version of herself and her new friend doesn’t need to know about everything that weighs heavy on her.
Now she is just Narcissa. That’s all. No family attached, no parents watching her every move, no siblings or cousins to lean on. It’s better this way, and for once, things are looking up for her.
“So, what about you? What’s your plan now that you’re here?” Emmeline prods.
She was expecting this, especially as Emmeline reached the end of the story she was telling about her art studio. “Honestly I don’t have much of a plan. I’ll try to find a job of sorts, and I guess just live. I feel like I haven’t gotten to do much of that yet in my life, now might be the best time.”
Narcissa is met with a smile. “I think that’s great. You totally don’t have to do this, but I know a coffee shop that is hiring right now, if that peaks your interest. The people there are lovely, they have excellent customers. Really, they’re so great. Especially this one regular that goes nearly every day, her name is Emmeline.”
This is easy, and yeah, Narcissa is extremely grateful. Things could have been tense or awkward or just about anything, but instead they’re comfortable. In fact, she already feels like she could consider Emmeline a friend. It may be risky and go against everything she has told herself to avoid for eight years, probably longer, but part of her doesn’t care. She should be allowed to be happy, to make friends, to live without fear. It just might be time for her to let go and let her walls down.
“Oh is that so? I know an Emmeline who doesn’t seem like she’s a good tipper.” She risks pushing it further and they both laugh. “I’ll check it out tomorrow maybe. Never worked in a cafe before, but how hard could it be? I could even meet some more people through that.”
“Exactly. There ya go!”
Sitting and talking to Emmeline is the first time she’s felt so much herself and so free in a long time. Even when she first went to France, she wasn’t free. Narcissa was on the run then. Everything she did, everywhere she went, was to get away. She was always looking over her shoulder. Coming back to London is for herself. The only reason is because she wants to, not to run to or from anything or anyone. It’s freeing, it feels good . Which is hard for her to admit, even just in her head, because then it’s real, and then she could be disappointed. Something tells her that isn’t going to happen, something tells her that this is good, and will continue to be good.
So she smiles and laughs and makes a new friend, just because it feels good to do something for herself. For the first time Narcissa doesn’t feel her past weighing her down.
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“Come on, Bella, you have to come.” Her friend pleads. Actually, ‘friend’ is pushing it. They work together. They have worked together for years now. The thing is, Bellatrix doesn’t consider them friends. Rita thinks they are. Out of all of the people in the office, they work the closest with each other and apparently that makes them friends, though Bellatrix wouldn’t consider anyone she works with to be her friend.
She doesn’t hate work, but it's just a job. It isn’t something she thinks about after leaving the office. Except for when there is something to complain about, or when there are events. Most of the time, Bellatrix is able to get out of going to events because half of the people in the office just forget to invite her, or because she comes up with excuses for all of them and most people don’t question it.
Her manager makes her go to at least three each year, and well, she tolerates it. Some are better than others, but it all depends on who is running them. Every publisher at the company has to run at least two events a year. Bellatrix finds ways to barely have to put in any work for hers. Typically various authors that she has worked with before will come and run a panel or two, or she can make it as interactive for the other agents and the least amount of presenting on her part.
The event in question now, is tomorrow night, and is with various editors and publishers, all talking about their successes and struggles. It seems entirely pointless, and she would much rather not go, and hope for something better later on. She’s pretty sure there’s one on the books for later in the year that’s basically a book fair. Why she didn’t think of that is beyond her, but it’s barely any real work, and just all of them looking at upcoming books from each other. That’s for sure an event she can stomach, and possibly even enjoy.
For now, she just has to get out of this. “I can’t! I’m busy. You know I would normally love to go to your event, Rita. Honestly. I just can’t this time!” She lies right through her teeth, a talent she picked up and mastered long ago.
“You couldn’t make it last time either, I think you’re avoiding me.”
“I couldn’t even if I tried.” Now that’s the truth or at least closer to it. She’s been pretty good at avoiding Rita, though it’s never entirely successful.
“Let’s get drinks tonight then! We can invite some of the others in the office. I’m sure Emma and Dorcas would come too.” Those two are more tolerable for Bellatrix. They don’t put up a front like Rita does, and well they’re significantly less annoying. Even still, they are not worth a night of annoying comments and pointless small talk.
Keeping her face mostly neutral and dropping the corners of her eyes and lips she responds. “Sorry, another time! You know I’d love to, but I have to meet some friends already. They aren’t much for company, otherwise I would invite you to join!”
As quick as she can, she exits the conversation. Her mask falls the second she’s out of sight and she has to hold back the groan of annoyance clawing at her throat. Pretending to care for the sake of other people is one of her least favourite things to do. When she started at the publishing company, she had been told that she had an “attitude problem” and “needed to get it in check” if she “wanted to continue to have a job”.
All utter ridiculousness if you ask her, but alas, she tries. Sometimes that means going out in the hall and screaming for a minute after talking to particularly annoying coworkers. Regardless, she makes it work simply because it would be too much effort to find something else.
The work day ends uneventfully and Bellatrix skates by without having to endure any more unnecessary conversations. It only takes ten minutes to get from her office to the pub they agreed on for drinks tonight. She did this on purpose because having to go across the city would be out of her way, and well her friends will go along with what she wants. They are already sitting at a high top table over to one side when she arrives.
“Bella, looking lovely as ever.” Rodolphus smiles at her and pushes a glass of wine her way as she sits.
“Flattery will get you absolutely nowhere, you know this.” She takes a long sip and relaxes as it drips down her throat and warms her from the inside out. “Bas, good to see you. Been a while hasn’t it?”
“Just got back in the city.” The younger brother nods and looks pointedly at Rodolphus. “ He didn’t think my aimless traveling should last any longer. I, personally, was having a great time.”
“Just taking care of you, brother.”
“Oh come on, just say you missed me. We both know it’s true.” He laughs as he finishes off his beer. “I’ll go get another round.”
The brothers are both Bellatrix’s favourite people and also the reason she has a constant headache. Truly she does love them. When she left behind her family and her childhood, she didn’t leave them behind. They stuck by her through every hard time and she has no idea why. Maybe it’s because they understand the complexities of siblings, maybe it’s a sense of familiarity they only get with each other, or maybe they’ve just been through too much together that leaving it behind would do more harm than good. Perhaps they just love each other. Nothing more to it. Truthfully, she has no idea what she would do without them.
“Where was he last?”
Rodolphus’ face twists and he puts his glass on the table. Right, so she won’t like this. “He just got in from France.”
“And…” She presses, despite knowing exactly what he’ll say.
“No luck.”
There is still no sign of her little sister. More than seven years, and still nothing . Another seven years could go by, and Bellatrix wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t dream of it. The thought of giving up is one that has never crossed her mind since that day. All those years ago, she didn’t do enough, she blames herself, she should have done more, and yet she didn’t. In the moment, she couldn’t, she froze, she - well, that’s the thing… At the time, she did give up. Never again though. It’s been years and not a day has gone by that she hasn’t thought of and tried to find her sister.
Rodolphus and Rabastan have helped as much as they can. She knows it’s a lot to put up with and honestly they are doing more than she expects from anyone. Bellatrix has put so much of her past firmly behind her, never completely looking back for anything. But not this, not her little sister. No matter what, she’s her little sister.
Even if she has never looked for Bellatrix in return, even if she doesn’t care that Bellatrix will always be her big sister, even if they never see each other again. They’re sisters. It’s as simple as that. All Bellatrix can do is hope that one day she realizes that too. She has to, right?
Things between them never recovered when their trio became a duo. Youngest and eldest without the bridge between them. Her little sister, longing for guidance and support. Practically screaming for help to keep her from drowning. Things that Bellatrix was never ready or prepared to give or do. Things that could have saved their bond. If only she had been enough.
Bellatrix failed then, and it's exactly why she refuses to give up now.
“It’ll happen eventually Bella, we’ll find her.” He tries to reassure her. It doesn’t do much. As determined as she is, the hope has long since faded away.
When Rabastan returns to the table with three full glasses, she goes quiet. The brothers bicker about something that she doesn't care to tune in to. No, she’s far too in her head to listen. Her first glass of wine is empty and she is now swirling the wine around in the second glass. She stares at it until that’s all she can see, until it’s the only thing she focuses on. Simpler thoughts, she thinks. As the amount of wine in her glass gets lower, and the warmth in her stomach grows, she starts to feel better. She starts to feel more present.
“- that would be good for you.” She hears the end of Rodolphus’ sentence.
“What?”
“A cat.” He repeats, rolling his eyes. “You should get a cat. It would be good for you. Give you something to focus on.”
“As if I could successfully take care of something.” She scoffs.
Rabastan finds this funny, and oh so unhelpfully adds, “Not to mention you barely take care of yourself…”
He gets whacked, hard enough to nearly fall off his chair, by his older brother, who then scolds him under his breath for saying that. It is an entirely true statement, Bellatrix focuses so much of her mental energy on finding her younger sister that she is sometimes too exhausted to do what’s best for her. Physically she is fine and maybe the exhaustion is just from having no progress in finding her, but it’s all okay. One day she’ll be okay again.
“It’s fine, Bas is right.” She laughs with them. At least with them she doesn’t feel empty.
She was always meant to be one of three.
“Think about it though, a cat could give you something to focus on. It would-”
“I have something to focus on.” She cuts him off and glares at him.
The message is received. “Something to comfort you then.”
Rodolphus is the same age as her. Fine, he’s six months older, but currently they are the same age. Yet, he has always acted as if she is significantly younger. He - albeit only sometimes - talks to her the same way he talks to Rabastan. Older sibling to younger sibling. There are times where it’s nice, welcomed even. She never had that, never had someone to be the one to guide her. It takes the pressure off.
She was never made to be the oldest, and yet she was. She didn’t have a choice in that. There was a time when things were easy, at least she thinks they were easy, when she didn’t have any expectations placed on her. When Bellatrix could just be a sister and nothing more. Oh how she misses that.
In any case, Rodolphus is acting like he’s oh so much older, and oh so much wiser… About a stupid cat that she doesn’t even have. “Why do you want me to get a cat so badly?”
As she narrows her eyes at him, he looks to Rabastan for saving. “Bas won’t let me get one. So if you have one… Come on Bella, it's a win-win scenario for us.”
“You’re the only one here who wins. I simply do not care to have a cat.” She wouldn’t mind it honestly. But the sheer possibility that she would let the cat down… Yeah, no. Not happening. “I’m not getting a cat.”
The rest of the night Rodolphus pouts in her direction about this. She’s nearly ready to cave simply to appease him, but she won’t tell him that. The mood lightens and they are able to carry on laughing and joking about anything that doesn’t have to do with siblings. Or cats. They avoid that topic too.
“Are you back for good, or are you heading on another trip soon?” She asks Rabastan.
He’s never been one for staying in one place for too long. For years he has been on the run, figuratively that is. Not running from anything, but not staying still for too long. He lives out of a suitcase most of the time and stays in the spare room at his brother’s whenever he’s in London. When he’s able to, he helps Bellatrix look for her littlest sister. For the most part though, he just keeps on moving wherever calls to him.
Part of Bellatrix is jealous of this. She wants to be able to move, to run, to be free, but she can’t. She cemented herself here; she won’t move on until she has her back. There is barely any chance of getting Andromeda back, but maybe she could get Narcissa back. She’s holding out hope for it.
That’s just how it is, and how it always will be.
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Life is mundane. A decade ago, Andromeda uprooted herself and abandoned everything she knew, and now she’s bored. Each day is the same and it’s hard to make life as a teacher interesting, she knows this. And it’s not that she doesn’t love teaching, or the school, or the people she works with. Honestly, all of it is wonderful. Some days she’s just bored and well that’s okay. Luckily she has Ted who will do anything he can to make things a little more exciting… Even if it is just in the form of a day out on a Sunday when they would normally laze around the flat.
This is how she finds herself putting on a real outfit rather than staying in pajamas. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
“Mmm no. You’ll figure it out on the way I’m sure.” Ted laughs. “We have a few stops planned for today anyway.”
This is how Ted is, and no matter how long they’ve been together, she never gets tired of it. He’s sweet and caring and sentimental and just all around lovely. Everything she wasn’t used to - well, wasn’t used to when they met. Now it’s all she knows. He makes her coffee before she gets out of bed, he brings flowers home to her for no reason, he bakes cookies when he knows she’s had a long day. Ted knows her better than she thinks anyone ever has.
Which was a hard pill to swallow, knowing that the people she thought would be that, likely wouldn’t even recognize her anymore.
By the direction they head in, it seems like they’re heading towards one of Andromeda’s favourite markets. She hasn’t had time to come and wander in a while, even her weekends were taken over by work for a few weeks. A few teachers were moving classes and she was left on her own until the new teacher could transition over. The workload of two teachers fell solely on her, which was fine, she was experienced enough to handle it and the children are well behaved for the most part, but it cut into her free time more than she liked.
Now that the other teacher, Lily, has joined her officially, things are better and she can relax more. A good amount of planning does still fall on her because Lily is only in her early 20s and hasn’t been teaching long, but it’s already so much better.
“The market? Is that the whole plan?” She eyes her boyfriend, looking for more information behind his eyes.
She really isn’t one for surprises or secrets, though she has plenty of her own. “Well, that’s the main part. You haven’t been in a while and I wanted to go. Anything you want to do, we’ll do. Okay, love?”
Andromeda leans in and lightly presses a kiss on his lips. “Thank you, honey. You’re so good to me.”
“It’s what you deserve.” He looks at her like she is the only person to ever exist, like she is the entire universe. What she did to find someone that loves her so much, she’ll never know. All she can do is return that love as best she can.
They continue walking hand in hand the rest of the way. Comfortable silence falls around them, mixed with the noise of others in the street laughing with their own loved ones and the breeze passing through nearby trees. Maybe life is mundane, but that doesn’t mean it's sad or lonely or bad.
Sometimes mundane can be good, especially when it’s a million times better than what came before, even with the missing pieces, the mundane is still better. Andromeda can’t help the smile that creeps its way onto her face, and it only grows when she looks beside her and sees Ted with a similar smile, walking perfectly in time with her.
“First stop,” Ted starts to say as they approach one of her favourite stores. “That is if you fancy buying a few new records.”
Without another word, Andromeda drops his hand and practically runs into the shop. The owner, who has come to know her, shouts a hello from behind the counter and luckily doesn’t seem to be offended when they don’t get a reply. The first thing she does is look through the bins with new arrivals, just to see if anything that’s been released recently catches her eye. It’s unlikely because she always preorders the vinyl of her favourite artists the second it goes on sale, but it never hurts to check.
When she doesn’t find anything there, she starts the, sometimes incredibly time consuming, task of looking through every single vinyl available in alphabetical order. It has been awhile since she was last here, or last bought anything, so it’s very likely that there will be something new, or at least something she has yet to add to her collection. She started buying vinyl not long after running away.
Long enough that she had somewhere to live and was making enough money to have some to spare, but truly not long after. Music filled a void in her and still does. Not that she couldn’t just listen to music on her phone like a normal person, but there was something special about listening on a record player. Something nostalgic.
It’s one of the few things from her childhood that was never ruined.
“Finding anything good?” Ted comes up behind her.
So far, she hasn’t, but she’s barely made it through any of the store yet. “Mmm nope. Did you have a look around?”
With a smile and pulls a record from behind his back. Here’s the thing, Andromeda is not easily excitable. To be quite honest, she’s a fairly calm person and keeps that mask up most of the time. It’s how she has always been and maybe it started as a way to keep her emotions to herself, but it stuck. Even when she’s over the moon excited about something, she typically smiles and that’s that. Very few things break through that surface level happiness, at least not in public.
Today however, her eyes light up so bright and the excitement is evident. To most people it wouldn’t make sense, but Ted isn’t most people. He knows that this is an album she loved as a kid, one that she would listen to for hours on end with her sisters and cousins. It’s not that special of an album, it’s not even a rare vinyl, she just has not been able to find a copy in all these years.
He hands her the only copy in the store of Fleetwood Mac Live, and she feels like she’s flying. It was one of the few records she owned before leaving and she didn’t take it with her, wanting to leave it behind for them. Now having a copy again, her heart feels a little more full. The part of her missing all those pieces is just a little bit less empty. Something to keep her more connected to the good parts of everything she left behind, even if just by a small fraction.
“Just the one record today?” The shop owner asks as they pay.
She had stopped looking as soon as she had this one in her hands. “Yeah, but I’ll be back again soon. Don’t worry, you know I can’t stay away.”
They all share small talk, but Andromeda doesn’t pay any attention. Her mind is flooded with memories of the five of them sitting on the floor of her room and just thinking about how they were at least happy when they were together. Right? There were good times, she has to remind herself of that. Otherwise the guilt will eat her up. Not everything was awful, she didn’t leave them behind in ruins. They had and probably still have each other, and that she can live with.
“Where to next?”
Ted takes the bag in one hand and Andromeda’s hand in the other. “I was thinking that cute little bookshop.” She nods and they walk through the market in that direction.
The cobblestone streets are lined with small vendor stands with jewelry and crafts and honestly anything you could think of. There are also stores and restaurants in the buildings that are open even when it isn’t nice out. They pass a cozy little pub, a tattoo shop, a few clothing shops, a coffee shop, and finally arrive at the book shop.
It looks like it would be the smallest store on the street. The entrance is a tiny door that someone tall would likely have to duck into, but once inside it’s massive. There’s two floors, the first mostly taken up by a few comfy chairs and a small coffee bar. The second is up a spiral staircase and has more shelves than seems possible.
They say hello to the owner, who they’ve spoken to before, but don’t know as well as the owner of the record shop. “Let me know if you need any help! If you can’t find me, just shout.”
Once they get upstairs, they split off and each look around. There aren't any specific books that Andromeda is looking for, though she is always happy to see what she can find. Much of her free time is spent reading to be honest. Plus, all of the teachers at the school share recommendations and talk about what they’re currently reading, so it becomes a social activity too.
The sections are divided into the usual genres; romance, fantasy, non-fiction, fiction, mystery, thriller, and so on. Since she isn’t on the hunt for anything in particular, she decides to go for the general fiction section. When reading, Andromeda normally gravitates toward fiction, but only the occasional romance. A lot of literary fiction, some thrillers, a fair amount of fantasy.
Honestly, there aren’t many genres she won’t read. It’s a saying to not judge a book by its cover, but how else are you meant to? Half the time, she picks up a book with an interesting title and a pretty cover, doesn’t read the description, and just hopes for the best. This isn’t always the case, but it works well enough.
With plenty of time to browse today, she actually reads the descriptions and takes her time trying to pick out books to buy. Ted appears to be doing the same, somewhere across the shop in another section. They both are perfectly content doing this and later on will happily rave about their selections. Or rant about, if they turn out bad. It’s not often that either picks out anything bad, but it has happened.
Much to her dismay, next to nothing is catching her eye. She sees a lot of books that she has read before or has sitting on her shelf at home. It’s a bad habit, but whenever she’s in a book shop, the only books that pull her focus on the shelves are books she recognizes. This isn’t by choice, because quite honestly she wants to find new ones. She would much prefer to only see books she doesn’t already know. Not her fault they aren’t interesting enough. See, this is why covers are important. Some people judge books by covers even more than Andromeda does.
Finally, a book draws her attention, and she doesn’t think she has ever seen it before. The cover is littered with stars. It’s gorgeous. From her earlier purchase, her mind has already been stuck on the past, and well, stars are a huge part of that. The memories are strong and all she can think of now are the many, many nights spent laying out looking up at the stars altogether.
Taking turns pointing out the ones each of them were named after, and learning everything they could about the night sky. It was always, and remains to this day, a huge comfort for her. Being able to look up at the sky and see each of them, except for the one that she instead finds in flowers.
Anyway, Andromeda gets lost looking at the cover. It’s stunning. Yeah this is the book she wants. Without reading the back, she knows this is the one. For the first time now, she looks at the title and author, just to see if she perhaps recognizes it. And that’s when she’s disappointed. It’s part of a series and it isn’t the first one. To make it worse, the first one is nowhere in sight.
“Need help, dear?” The shop owner appears magically behind her.
“Actually, yes! I just found this book and I’d love to read it, but it looks like it’s not the first in a series. Would you happen to have any copies of the first? I’m not sure what it’s called, this one just says it's the third.” She passes the book to her.
“Ah, the Stargazing series. Quite a popular one. I can go check in the back, though we do also have a list of people looking for various ones in the series whenever we get new stock in. I’d be happy to add you there. What was your name again, I don’t think I caught it?”
“That would be lovely! Andromeda is my name.” She smiles at the lovely woman and follows her back down the stairs.
As the owner goes behind the counter she pulls out her phone first and a notebook next. After typing a few quick things, she flips open the notebook and scribbles, presumably her name down. “Alright Andromeda, marked you down. The next time we have the first book in stock, I will keep one aside for you.” She looks up and smiles, which Andromeda reciprocates.
Not much after, Ted makes his way downstairs with three books in his hands and a smile on his face. He, quite like Andromeda, loves reading, and finding new books is always fun. At least he was successful today, and hopefully the shop will get that book in soon, so that she has the same excitement. When they get home, she plans to look it up and see if it’s in stock to order it from anywhere. Hopefully it will be, it genuinely looked fantastic.
She’s always been a sucker for anything star themed. Some things never change.