***
She took me to this herbs and natural medicine shop in Anaheim that apparently had a very interesting book section.
As soon as we entered, Paris immediately grabbed seven big books off one of the center shelves. It had to have been $150 worth of books.
“I can’t pay for all those books,” I said.
“I would never dream of asking you to do that. My treat,” Paris said.
When we got up to the counter, Paris gave the lady a credit card and a signature. That was all it took for me to be the new owner to seven of the most bizarre looking books I had ever seen. Five different books of spells, The History of Wicca, and a book on inspirations, with pages filled with optimistic quotes and incantations.
I had work the next day. I told Paris I need to get home. She told me she was going to stick around the shop and eventually ask her guy friend, the seasoned USDA Spartan, to pick her up.
I gave Paris a hug, and exchanged phone numbers.
“Give me a call, alright?” Paris said, with a pair of smiling eyes. “And get some reading done.”
“I certainly will,” I said.
It felt awkward leaving someone behind that I’d rapidly developed a connection with. The fear that one of us was going to feel as if a relationship that developed this fast, wasn’t worth pursuing further entered my mind. Why would someone pursue something so unnatural, so ordinary, and so jarring?
I drove away from the bookstore alone with all the heavy books that Paris had just purchased for me at the herbs and natural medicine shop stacked on the passenger seat.
As soon as I got home, I dusted off an old corner bookshelf I had in my garage and decided to drag it to one of the empty corners in my living room.
Ever since I got my Kindle, one of the rooms became filled with boxes of books I hadn’t decided where to put. Someday I hoped I’d put together a library in there.
I loved books. I always had. I read everything from fantasy to Harlequin novels, and J.R.R. Tolkien was my favorite. But I also loved a lot of the modern indie stuff that had become available on Kindle and Nook in recent years.
I laid out the seven giant books on my coffee table, before setting up the old bookshelf in the corner of the room, and decided to look through them that same evening.
I stared at them as they gave off this creepy vibe. I just sat there, listless, realizing how bizarre and surreal the past 24 hours had been. A witch had spent the night with me after taking me on the trip of my life, promised to transform me into someone like herself, and handed me a set of books from an herbal shop that I had always passed on the way to work; all while proclaiming ourselves best friends.
What the hell was I doing? What had I gotten myself into?
At least I didn’t feel so alone anymore. But at what cost? Obviously it was an answer that needed further exploring.
Chapter Twelve