A new hole had appeared in Kathy’s sweater, right where the sleeve met the cuff. It was a small tear, large enough she could fit her thumb through it but no bigger than that. It had been bugging her all weekend, but she was just now sitting to fix it hours before work. 

She opened up her sewing kit, taking out a needle and red thread and carefully slipping it through the eye before tying the knot to keep it in place. She flipped the sleeve inside out, starting a neat little ladder stitch to keep the damage mostly invisible. The fabric pulled together nicely, concealing the brightly colored thread she’d used, leaving her as the only one who knew it was there. 

As dawn settled into midmorning, Kathy observed the small moment of peace and quiet she had before her commute to work. The drip of her coffee slowed to a still, and she enjoyed it with her toast and eggs. After finishing up her own breakfast, she cracked open a can of wet food and set it down for her cat, Moon. Now all that was left was to shower, dress herself, and make it to the bus stop without ruining the effort put into steps one and two. 

The warm water, floral scented shampoo, and soft conditioner through her curly hair, all cascading down from the top of her head to her heels. The sensation was simultaneously soothing and awakening. It washed away the aches and pains of sleep as she prepared for a new day. 

It was almost enough to make her forget about how tired she would be after her shift. She squeezed the water out of her hair into her towel before drying the rest of herself off. Everything felt so cold after leaving the shower, she almost considered crawling back into the cozy warmth of her bed and forgetting about leaving for work.

Unfortunately the bills need to be paid, and that won’t get done without a paycheck. Besides, Kathy likes her job. There’s no joy comparable to getting to talk a customer’s ear off about their new purchase. It was the little joys she got out of being a bookseller. She got dressed, pulling her coat tight around her as she left while the wind tried to snatch it away.

She trudged her way to the bus stop, taking a seat on the cold metal bench. The double layers of her shorts and tights kept her bottom warmer than it would be otherwise, but the harsh wind almost made it feel like she wasn’t wearing anything at all. She breathed into her cupped hands in an attempt to keep warm until the bus rolled up.

The door was unlocked and the lights were on, so she wasn’t the first person here. She rushed to the back to clock in before the minute rolled over, before making her way over to the front of the store again. The display she was in charge of had slimmer pickings than the day before, so it was off to the back to find more copies to add to the table. She took note of the books that needed restocking in the nearby shelves so she could gather everything she needed in one go. This was assuming there was still stock of the display books left in storage, and she wouldn’t need to put in an order for more… and even then she’d still have to put the order in because the current stock certainly wouldn’t last until the end of the week.

Romance novels had become incredibly popular as of late, and it wasn’t hard to see why. The fantasy of meeting a handsome guy who likes you for you, no matter your looks was alluring to many people, Kathy included. While she didn’t fit the typical heroine archetype, a master of her trade, exceedingly beautiful in the eyes of all the men around her, saviour of the world, it was nice to see herself in them. She could only hope to find her own prince charming one day.

Shaking her head out of the clouds, she stacked more of the novels she needed onto the dolly cart before going out to renew the display stock. As she shuffled out with her cart she noticed that there were large new additions to the central help and checkout counter. Those of the bulky, touch screen variety. This could only spell bad news. It was bad enough that book trends came and went as quickly as they did, now she had a new enemy on her hands.

She began to poke haphazardly at the new device in front of her, trying to figure out exactly what it was supposed to do. Searches by title, searches by author, searches by keyword, it seemed to have the most basic types of book searches ready to go, almost like a computer at a public library. A bright color at the bottom of the screen caught her eye, a small number one hovering over the settings icon. She tapped it, revealing that the system needed an update. Might as well start that before the store opens.

“Kathrine!” Crap. She immediately straightened up, hands at her sides. The boss caught her fooling around. She hadn’t even noticed her walk over, too invested in the new piece of junk she’d be forced to work with. 

“I was just about to look for you,” Kathy spun around to face the woman behind her. “Nobody told me we got new machines in.”


Her boss leaned to the side to get a better look at the screen Kathy was blocking. She motioned Kathy out of the way so that she could fiddle with the settings. The update Kathy had started was put on pause.

“That’s going to take too long, and I need to set up the important stuff.”

“The important stuff?”

“They want us to install an AI customer service bot.” She’d finished messing around with the display and had locked the window to a blank looking screen with a keyboard and text box at the bottom, as if the user was going to be sending a text message.

“You can’t be serious.” Kathy protested, but she knew her words meant nothing in the face of corporate overlords.

“Afraid so.”

“But they take up so much space! And electricity! And-” she gestured to the offending machine, “they look so ugly!”

“It’s basically a fancy self-checkout machine, looks like they’re looking to downsize the staff.” At least the boss didn’t look happy about it either. 

“Look, if it were up to me, we wouldn’t have these things in here.” This did nothing to reassure Kathy, but there was truly nothing anyone here could do about it. “I’m gonna leave this one off for now, I can’t figure out how to get it to work while the update is paused. I’ll fix it at the end of the day.”

The whole work day blurred together. Time felt like molasses as she stood at the checkout counter with no one coming up, and when she was on her feet restocking her heart just wasn’t in it. Nothing she did throughout the day felt like it mattered, and in the end she was still tired despite doing so little.

After an exhausting day of scanning and bagging books at the register, restocking shelves, and having to help customers with the kiosks, Kathy was ready to go home. The cold air stung as she left the book shop. Feeling like she woke up for a second time, it was almost reinvigorating, even if she was shivering outside waiting for the next bus. She sat on the bench, hunched in on herself to conserve heat. Once the bus rolled up, the only thing on her mind was home.

Home to her own stack of books, and her cozy couch, and her sweet kitty cat Moon. She could already picture how her evening would go, getting back to the middle of the book she started, Moon beside her, as she jots down her thoughts on post-it notes to keep tabs on what to write for her latest blog update.

Her blog was her little pet project, it started with writing reviews on all sorts of different websites, online storefronts, bookstores, forums, and the like. Eventually she wanted to keep all her thoughts in one place, so she ended up collecting those reviews and putting them on her blog. She continued to update it with her new reviews, and a couple of them got traction. The one that came to mind was her post on a popular contemporary romance she read. She’d trashed the unlikable characters, particularly the male lead, the nothingburger plot, and the treatment of the main character, who was being sexually harassed by this guy but it was being framed as a romance. The post garnered mixed reception and brought some new eyes to her blog. She felt that it was more fulfilling to post for an audience, as much as she enjoyed keeping track of her reviews for herself. 

Feeling too lazy to cook tonight, Kathy digs though the fridge to find leftover anything to heat up. All she had that was made was plain rice, which was disappointing but unsurprising given how much she’d been putting off cooking. She scooped herself a bowl and popped it in the microwave, letting that heat up while she started frying a couple eggs. Nothing beat egg over rice in terms of ease to make, as well as being a good source of protein and carbs. Taking the bowl out of the microwave, she scooped her fried eggs out of the pan onto the rice, sprinkling soy sauce over the whole dish. She popped the yolks with her fork and stirred, taking a bite once it was satisfyingly mixed. 

Now that dinner was taken care of, she could get back to her reading. Is what she thought until Moon started yelling and headbutting her shins. She sighed in mock annoyance as she scooped out half a can of his wet food, all while he screamed and cried out to be fed. Once that was taken care of, she plucked her in-progress book off the shelf and flipped to the page held aloft by her bookmark. Picking up where she left off, the heroine had met the mysterious wizard for a second time, and she was hooked. She read the pages once, and then once more to think and write down notes on them. Repeat until her eyelids felt heavy and she could barely focus on the pages anymore. She slid her bookmark back into place before brushing her teeth and flopping into bed, snuggling up in the covers as sleep took over.