March 20th, 1891 - Whizzhard Books

Saturdays were normally busy, even more so when the students were in town from Hogwarts, but today had been pretty mellow, Gale spending the majority of his morning thus far holed up in his small office going through the orders for the week to be fulfilled. He had a couple pick ups for today ready to go waiting for someone to come collect them and he'd moved onto ordering new stock for the shop bye the time his back was starting to protest from sitting for so long.

Unfolding himself from the leather chair behind his desk, Gale stretched out toward the ceiling. He ran a hand over his stubbly chin and up through his ginger hair, checking his shabby pocket watch before  he realized she should probably give the girl in the shop her lunch break now.

After he shooed her out the door, Gale moved around the shop to help tidy up. She was not quite as detail-oriented as he was, and Gale liked the shop neat. Climbing one of the rolling ladders, he reorganized a couple things out of order, coming down without looking and nearly sitting on someone walking by.

"Merlin, my apologies, I should have looked." He grimaced, flushing a little; red was not a good color on him.

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it's Bree's fault he's here, so at least she made him sexy

When she had to come to High Street, Beth tried to use her cane, rather than the wheelchair — most of High Street was fairly inaccessible, and because of that, it was just easier to use the cane. But because of this, her trips to High Street were relatively rare, and she was only out today because she really needed some new books, and was feeling particularly mobile after work, and, frankly, because if Nigel heard that she was a shut-in who lived alone he would certainly be worried about her. The running out of books was particularly dire, though; as a consequence of her quiet personal life and shyness, Beth had a deep interior life that was best fed with a steady stream of novels.

She'd acquired an adventure novel and was wandering over to the romance section when the man with red hair nearly stuck his bottom in her face. Beth leaned backwards; the bottom of her cane slid on the ground and made an awkward squeaking sound. Her face flushed red like his. "Oh, you're alright," she said, her voice high-pitched.

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Gale barely had enough room to squeeze all of the way down the ladder, but he thought it much more appropriate to invade her space for a moment than to continue to put his rear end in her face. He had a short stack of books in his hand, but what else was new. If Gale didn't have a book in his hand, something was off.

"My apologies, I didn't get you with anything did I?" He noted her cane but dismissed it just as quickly. Gale was more worried he'd caused her discomfort or made her drop anything. "Was there anything I could help you find?" He noticed she already had a book in hand, but one often led to two, and so on.

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it's Bree's fault he's here, so at least she made him sexy

"No, not at all," Beth said earnestly; his rear end had been right in front of her nose but he had not hit her with anything. And then he asked her a question about books! She couldn't admit that she was going to the romance section, because he was a man and because he was handsome, and if she admitted that she was reading romance books then he would know she was reading romance books, and that felt horrendously embarrassing.

"I was looking for a — mystery," Beth said, pulling the genre out of nowhere. She read mysteries. Not as often as she read other genres, but she did. "But I have had trouble deciding."

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Gale brightened a little bit when the lady said she was looking for a mystery. He was also a fan of a good mystery, but then again he was pretty much a fan of all books. "I have a couple recommendations if you'd like help deciding?" He generally was pretty good with that, though often needed a little bit more about the person to make a solid suggestion. There were such a wide variety of mysteries, after all. Then again deciding on a book to read was a very personal choice, in his opinion, and he certainly wouldn't be insulted if she preferred to peruse for herself.

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   Beth Vane

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it's Bree's fault he's here, so at least she made him sexy

"Oh!" Beth chirped. She should have expected this; he worked at the bookstore and therefor knew a lot about books, and therefor presumably a not-insignificant portion of his job involved guiding people to books. Before she could think better of it, she said, "I would certainly be interested in your recommendations." At least this way she would not accidentally leave with a mediocre book and incur judgment!

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Gale smiled slowly at her agreement. "Right this way," He gestured for her to follow along a he turned back toward the aisle behind him, having the shop memorized came in handy. Gale could walk around it with his eyes closed or in his sleep and would still land right where he wanted to. "I've been enjoying a newer author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he's a muggle author, but his characters are quite creative." A Study in Scarlet had caught his attention, but The Sign of the Four was the newest publication.

"Ah here," He said as he pulled the book from the shelf. "I think we'll be seeing more from him as well." Gale had a hunch. "It was a wild ride from start to finish, but never dull, in my opinion." He'd pretty much devoured it in a day. "But if that does not suit your needs, I have others." The list could go in infinitely if he was given the time and the attention.

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   Beth Vane

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it's Bree's fault he's here, so at least she made him sexy

Beth was uncomfortable around muggles, although it was less because of any blood purist ideals and more because muggles with disabilities had fewer freedoms than she did, so — she always felt like they were judging her. But that wasn't going to happen in a book, the thing with books was she could read them without feeling like anyone was looking at her, and she smiled softly at the man's suggestion.

"I think I'd like that," she said, taking the book, "Creative characters sound — really enjoyable."

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Pleased that she seemed eager to take his recommendation in stride, Gale enjoyed nothing more than connecting people to a book he thought they might like. Though he'd only met the pretty miss a few moments ago, he did sincerely hope she enjoyed the book. "I hope you tell me what you think when you finish," He said earnestly forgetting that was a pretty big ask of someone you had just met. "My apologies, I do work here, and I like knowing what to keep in stock." He was rambling now a little bit and made a concentrated effort to stop.

"Was there anything else I can help with? I can take these to the front for you if you'd like to continue browsing?" As much as he could go on, he didn't to be a pest either if she would rather browse without his interference. He'd already gotten up close and personal once, by accident of course, so he could completely understand if she wanted to be shot of him at the moment.

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it's Bree's fault he's here, so at least she made him sexy

"I'll let you know what I think," Beth said with a soft smile. If she was anywhere else, it probably would have been untrue — but this was the bookstore, she was here all the time, and so it was very likely that she would end up telling the bookstore manager what she thought. (This was — also terrifying, because she was never particularly sure how to talk to attractive people, but she would have to power through.)

"I think I'll just take these two today," Beth added with a smile. She didn't have anything else she wanted to browse for — and she wouldn't be able to browse if she was thinking about how she'd have to remember to ask him for her books at the front!

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"Delightful," Two was a good number, Gale usually had two books going at once, if he could manage. They had to be drastically different in genre, but normally he could handle it.

Gale started toward the front at a gentle pace, straightening things as he went, as was second nature to him by now. Once they reached the till, he set the books down and took out the ledger to write everything down. "Alright, all set." He said after he wrote everything down. "And the name?" He asked after giving her the total.

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it's Bree's fault he's here, so at least she made him sexy

It seemed likely that she would survive this; Beth knew how to buy books. She leaned on her cane while she waited for him to finish with the ledger and the total. "Miss Beth Vane," she said; she used Nigel's name for accounts, but she could buy books on her Ministry salary easily enough.

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"Miss Vane," He wrote it down in the ledger and then slid the books toward her. "I look forward to hearing your reviews." Not that he ever truly expected anyone to take the time, but he was pleased when they did. Gale wasn't so much of an extrovert to go asking either. Mostly he bullied his friends that did actually bother to read into telling him what they thought of anything they happened to finish.

"Hopefully I'll see you soon." He added for good measure with a small smile.

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it's Bree's fault he's here, so at least she made him sexy