Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
The place was fascinating to me. There was something about the complex flow of it that suited my brain: seeing how all the staff, product lines and store layout worked together wasn’t too different from figuring out board games, or meal planning. I soaked up all the knowledge I could and after a few months I started making timid little suggestions, like maybe we could widen the baby food aisle, because then it would be easier for parents pushing prams. And when profits went up, my boss noticed. Over the next seven years, I rose slowly up the ranks. But when my dream job, a store manager post, opened up, my boss took me aside and gently explained that I wasn’t in the running. “You’re great,” he said with feeling. “You could run a store. But there’s no point even putting you forward. These days, they want a college degree.”
That night, I was one of the last ones in the store, checking around before we locked up. I shut off the lights…and then I just sank down in the darkened vegetable aisle. It hit me that this was it. I was going to be stuck at this level for the rest of my life unless I did something.
What if I opened my own damn store?
And as I sat there on the cold tiles, I suddenly knew exactly what I’d sell: books. Books had helped me through the death of my parents, my teens, they’d been an escape from the daily grind of work...I wanted to share that and help people to find books they’d love.
So I enrolled in a business course at the local community college. It was exhausting: I was working shifts at the store by day, then classes in the evening and then reading books on bookkeeping and finance until I fell asleep. But slowly, very slowly, I started to shape my crazy idea into a workable business plan. I saved as much of my paycheck as I could for the startup costs and Baba insisted on throwing in a chunk of her retirement savings to help.
And then Nathan walked into my class. Plaid shirt rolled up to show chiseled forearms dusted with golden hair. Ocean-blue eyes that twinkled when he smiled, and he smiled a lot. He flopped down in the seat next to me without asking if it was taken, then leaned over. “You look smart. Can I copy off you?”
I flushed and nodded. I’d been single for over a year: I hadn’t had time to meet anyone, and guys weren’t interested in the pale, curvy girl who lived with her grandmother. But at the end of the class, Nathan asked me out for coffee.
A few hours later I knew all about his plans. A wife, two children (a boy and a girl), a Jack Russell (his family had always owned Jack Russells) and, when his planned chain of organic smoothie stores was successful, a fancy apartment in a nice part of Chicago and holidays in Europe. I’d never met anyone so sure of what they wanted, before. Two more dates and we were having breathless, up-against-the-wall sex at his place. A month later, I met his parents. And eight months after that, as we walked through showers of pink cherry blossom in Jackson Park, he went down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
I stared down at him, open-mouthed. Ever since I was a kid, I’d had daydreams about someone riding in to rescue me. Some handsome prince who’d carry me off and marry me, complete with a big, fairytale wedding. This is it! I felt my throat closing up. “Yes!”
We booked a trip to New York for the following weekend to celebrate and I ran home to tell Baba. She’d always been a little hesitant about Nathan, but she hugged me tight and told me how happy she was for me.
I’d been getting twinges of pain in my joints, and I didn’t want it to spoil our trip to New York, especially because we’d be spending a lot of time walking. So I talked to my physician and he sent me for x-rays and tests. The day before we left for New York, Nathan and I sat down with a specialist.
I had early-onset rheumatoid arthritis. My body was attacking the lining of my joints, making them swollen and painful. It could be managed, but it couldn’t be stopped. And it was going to get a lot worse.
I grabbed for Nathan’s hand and he squeezed mine reassuringly. But when he turned to look at me, it was like he was seeing me for the first time. And when we stumbled, dazed, out of the specialist’s office, we looked around at the other patients in the waiting room, most of them with some form of arthritis. Some were as old as Baba, some as young as me. Some had to use sticks to walk, some couldn’t walk at all. I was staring at my future.