Over the next hour, we fill Indira’s journal with ideas—several of them good, a few of them great. By the end of the night, I feel almost optimistic. Josie may not have the additional overhead of a staff, but she also doesn’t have a team. A team that feels like family. A family that’s going to do whatever it takes to win.

This battle is on.

BOOKFRIENDS

May 29, 10:11 PM

BookshopGirl: To celebrate making it through an exceptionally shitty day, would you like to play a game?

RJ.Reads: Always.

BookshopGirl: Badly describe one of your favorite childhood books. Go!

RJ.Reads: Let’s see. A bear with a binge-eating disorder, a pig with generalized anxiety, and a donkey with clinical depression have adventures in a forest.

BookshopGirl: Winnie the Pooh?

RJ.Reads: Yep! My mom read it to me when I was little.

BookshopGirl: Lucky. I have no memories of my mother reading to me. But she only read bodice rippers, so that’s probably a good thing. Anyway, my turn! Let me think…

BookshopGirl: OK, got it. Misanthropic chocolatier lures children to factory powered by forced indigenous labor, resulting in the death and/or injury of nearly all the children while said indigenous laborers sing cautionary songs.

RJ.Reads: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

BookshopGirl: Ding ding ding! Too easy?

RJ.Reads: My 4th grade teacher read it aloud to us. Thinking about it brings back memories of prepubescent body odor.

BookshopGirl: Yuck?

RJ.Reads: It’s funny, because at the time I thought Willy Wonka was this magical whimsical guy…but now I think maybe he was the villain.

BookshopGirl: Wonka wasn’t the villain. The real villain is Grandpa Joe.

RJ.Reads: What?!?

BookshopGirl: The man lies in bed for twenty years, allowing his poor daughter-in-law to break her back caring for him! Until Charlie gets that golden ticket. Then Grandpa Joe jumps right out of bed and dances a fucking jig.

RJ.Reads: Damn. I never thought about it that way.

BookshopGirl: He’s a lazy, malingering freeloader who tagged along with Charlie and nearly ruined everything. Tell me I’m wrong.

RJ.Reads: You’re not wrong.

BookshopGirl: I knew I liked you.

5

Josie

I’ve spent the past two weeks feverishly pulling together thoughtful, inspiring programming to bring more people into my store. Tonight, I’m hosting the first strike in my crusade: Pages and Pairings, featuring three new releases, each paired with a wine to capture the essence of the book. I’ve never hosted an event like this before—I’ve always felt too socially awkward to even try—but now, with my job on the line, I have to push myself.