Just Another Day

There are people queuing up throughout the bookstore, spiralling in a single perfectly formed line, something the British public is actually rather good at. He can’t help but feel exhausted, but tries to keep the smile on and hide the grimace that’s starting to form. They’re grateful, of course they are, that this whole queue is here for him! Their life couldn’t be like it is now without even a quarter of these people and there’s something truly gratifying seeing how many people enjoy his books – but that doesn’t stop these from being intense and exhausting for him.
He's given a slight breather as a bottle’s passed back to him, the person now at the front gently held back to let him drink. He spins his wrist it’s beginning to play up so it seems no writing when he gets home after this, not that he’s even sure what time that could end up being at this point. First world problems and all that, he knows, so he smiles again as the persons allowed to bustle forward. It is at least pleasant to hear their ramblings, even though they all end up blurring together by the end of the day. 

He can’t help the soft sigh of relief that escapes as their ever-dutiful assistant comes over,
“Alright, Mr Abernathy, these last five in the line are it for the day and then you’re free to go. We had one hell of a show out both with their own books but also purchasing.” She smiles, her eyes constantly flicking back down to her phone, a bad habit of hers.
“Thank you, Claire.”
She goes off with a smile, bouncing on the balls of her feet slightly. He likes having her around, even though she doesn’t really do anything special, he could quite easily tell all of that information, but maybe then it’s also nice to have someone else stuck in all day even if she’s not doing the same work load. His wrist firmly aches and part of Laurence just wants to wave these last five through quickly, but they’ve been queueing for ages so he owes it to them for that.
The first three of the last five pass by just like all of the others, they’ve had nice things to say about the stories, and have had them specifically signed to themselves or a close family member. He always prefers when it’s dedicated like that, they know there’s nothing he can do about resellers and those who get his books signed just for them to sell it – but it does firmly give him the ick, it’s not like he doesn’t offer as many ways as possible to get something that’s signed. The last two however, seem to have just too much of the chaotic energy that he’s noticed some of his fan’s garner.
“You know have you thought about putting sex in your books?”
Laurence tries not to stare at them as they come forward, clearly, they came together and are leaning against each other, staring down at where he’s sat as if they’ve just asked the best question in the world. The silence, hopefully speaks for Laurence but clearly it doesn’t get the right message across to her as her friend then speaks up.
“You do know what sex is?” “Dressed like that.” Muttered just above her breath, it’s something he knows should affect him, but after so many years of presenting how he wants, he’s become rather desensitised by their strange comments. He pauses for a second, trying to evaluate his next words carefully,
“I do not believe sex is something I need to include in my part of the horror / crime genre, I can see it having its place and I have read many others that include it well. Not to mention I have only just started to explicitly include romantic relationships between key characters within the books, so you can see where I’m coming from.” He explains, though each word feels odd off of his tongue. It’s not like it’s a new discussion, he’s been asked many times why he seems to avoid the romantic or sexual paths a story can take; however, they have all been online where he can think things through further before answering. She just narrows her eyes at him a bit before grabbing the book out of her friend’s hand and almost slamming two copies of the newest novel on the table, shoving them towards Laurence.
“Yeah, well I think it would cause you to sell way more,” Selling way more is not something he needs to do, “Anyway, I like your books, just make ‘em more interesting. Can you make one out to Alex – that’s me – and the other Emily.” She adds on and Laurence nods with a soft, slightly exhausted smile. He could have done without her slamming them into the table, the loud different noise was rather jarring after today’s length. So, he carefully slides the books closer to himself, making sure they’re both his books, that’s nearly happened before, and opens them up and begins signing them. The other girl, Emily is talking to Alex about something but as it’s not directed to them, he chooses to zone it out.
It doesn’t take long to get them signed, he pauses for a second to see if either of them want anything specific in his dedications or mainly just their names, and with no further words from them he slides the books back to them, open just to reassure them he’s actually done it.
Both girls snap back to attention and smile, picking the books up and walking off without even a thank you. If he wasn’t so exhausted, he’d care more about that, they’re also not the first to have done that today.

Laurence lets their pen drop gently onto the table before leaning back on the chair, letting it flex slightly as he leans until the point it feels like it’s going to become unstable. He reaches up and stifles a yawn with the back of his hand before running that same hand through his hair, it gets caught on his curls as he goes. This causes a slightly angry huff to escape as he then begins to tug to get his fingers to run through smoothly, the whole effort causes him to tilt a little more precariously and it’s at this point which Claire comes back into the room and of course it’s the time she’s looking up from her phone and her little chuckle alerts them to her arrival.
“Been that kind of day, hu? Feel free to get going, I can clear this up myself.” She states but Laurence shakes her off and swiftly untangles their hand and leaps to their feet. Slightly less elegantly than they hoped as it turns out sitting for that long has caused his leg to go slightly numb so he nearly stumbles back forwards into the desk, earning a slightly lounder sound of amusement from Claire this time.
“Nonsense, it’s not like it will take that long with the two of us working together, so I might as well delay myself those few minutes so you can get home those few minutes earlier.” A slightly more genuine smile appears on their face this time, “I would also have to pay you less” He mutters just above his breath, before then letting out a slightly hysterical laugh, today has been a far too long day for his brain. Hopefully no one will organise a meeting for tomorrow, they’ve left it clear for a reason because no matter how much they try, he will be exhausted from this. Claire gently swats at his arm, brushing against his sleeve, but accepts the help anyway, it’s not like she overly looks forward to putting this stuff away, at least Laurence pays her for doing it, some of the others don’t. 

Putting everything away feels rather cathartic for him, he didn’t have to put it up, which he always feels bad for, not to mention he ends up rearranging it half the time anyway because they just use a default layout rather than even thinking about referencing how his are normally laid out. It is visible on all of his social medias, but they’re sure they’re not getting paid enough to really care that much.
Just as they thought, with both of them putting it all away, it doesn’t take as long as it would have for just Claire or even Laurence to have put it all away alone, though they definitely got a little distracted along the way.
As Laurence walks out of the store, having already bid Claire farewell a few minutes before, he can’t quite believe it when he reaches up, because he felt something in his hair, and manages to pull out a whole pen that was otherwise nestled in rather comfortably. It makes him laugh and he’ll defiantly have to counter Claire as to how she managed to do that later – what’s on his mind now however, is some strong coffee and probably something sweeter than he should normally eat. While they go, his tail wags slightly, okay yeah so, he may have been exhausted and a little fed up by the time they were only half way through, but it is nice to see that he is successful. Numbers are one thing but then actually seeing and being able to visualise them is a whole other and for a big part of it, he loves it, but yeah, coffee is defiantly needed afterwards.