“Thank you so much,” said Rinn, blushing. But she got back on target quickly enough. “Guys. This bookstore is this weird, magical place that nobody knows is here because nobody is allowed to talk about it, like, ever. And people love to talk about the places they love and share them. And if we just got the ball rolling, I bet this place would snowball. I bet everyone would want to grab a coffee from the coffee shop with the not-free-free ice and come hang out for hours and hours and hours, don’t you see?”

Daniella shook her head. “You don’t get a snowball effect in like two hours. You don’t get it in even twelve hours. You can’t make the store go viral. Do you really think people will buy fake Jordans just because it’s for a bookstore? People aren’t that stupid.”

Rinn eyed Daniella back with the same expression. “I never said people were stupid. I said they’d want to buy the Jordans.”

“Why?” asked Daniella. “They’re fake. Nobody wants a fake thing when they can get the real thing. And people don’t just help out a bookstore. This isn’t a fairy tale, Rinn. This is real life. In real life, things don’t go according to plan just because you’ve decided they will.”

“Hey,” said Imogen. “Let’s hear her out.”

Daniella folded her arms across her chest and said nothing. She stood stony and silent, waiting. But she wasn’t arguing anymore.

“Thank you.” Rinn nodded to Imogen, then went on, while she still had her captive audience. “We can sell the Jordans as a bonus. Like we can sign them. Or we can ask for donations and then give them away as a wacky bonus that goes with donating to the bookstore. So the donations cover the merch. We’ll at least pay for storage that way. And maybe even get some start-up capital for another space.”

Jo looked up, half-forlorn, half-hopeful. “We don’t have any way to take the donations. They’d have to be cash only. We can’t charge them from the store and then not account where the merchandise was coming from.”

Daniella, here, did the unexpected. “But Rinn’s right. The shoes were never logged as inventory. And the store’s finances are all on literal paper. Hunty Junior uses the world’s oldest finance system. There’s no way he could track a swipe attachment to a phone hooked back up to the original account that Eli took the money from. I mean, we could take cash, too. But I think digital is better. The digital payments won’t look normal—but at least they won’t look like theft? I can make sure it’s all squared away for tax purposes.”

Imogen looked at Daniella. “You know the tax code?”