Page 48 of November

He stopped walking and asked, “You haven’t even gotten this okayed byheryet?”

“Not yet. But even if she says no to the door, I’m sure she’d want the café open to customers. She could tell them to go next door for their coffee. Right now, she has nothing to offer people who are used to having coffee and pastries with their books.”

“Then, what’s the benefit to the door?”

“If they leave the shop, they’re less likely to return. If it’s just a door that joins the buildings together, it’ll feel like it’s the same place. They’ll walk back over. In fact, we don’t even need a door. It can just be an opening in both buildings, and we cover the gap between so that it feels like the same place.”

“Before you go crazy with this, run the numbers and get her permission. If that all looks good, I’ll approve the idea. Not that you really needmyapproval, but you’d have it.”

“Great. Thanks,” she said, feeling excited about a workidea for the first time in a while.

“And don’t forget about the more important plan: the parking garage with the gym and–”

“Yes, I know. I’m working onthat, too,” she said.

India walked into her office and sat down at her desk, feeling like maybe this could be something that would help Maisie. She opened their online messaging system and started a group chat with Juliet and Finley.

CHAPTER 13

“So, what can I help you find?” Maisie asked again when the front door closed after India.

“Oh, I don’t think it’s somethingyoucan helpmefind. More like the other way around.”

“Sorry?” she asked, confused.

“When one door closes, another door opens.”

The old woman nodded toward the front door before she glanced at the gap between the shelves on the side wall that had been there since the shop was built. Back then, there had been a door that led to a side yard between the shop and the house. Later, after the house had been demolished, the door had remained because it had made it faster for them to get to the back parking lot and the dumpster, but then, they had added the back office and a door just to the right of that and a small nook that could operate as a break room for the few staff they’d hired. When the shop had first opened and for well over a century and a half, only family had worked there. Later, they had hired a trusted family friend, and now, Maisie ran it with Sarah, a high school student, and Lainey, her best friend and former girlfriend, who worked part-time, but she wasn’t even sure she would need Sarah beyond the campaign if she lost.

They’d gotten rid of the side door by sealing it up once the new back door had been put in place, but Grams hadn’t ever added more shelves because by then, they hadn’t really needed them. They had more than enough books and not enough people to buy them, and the rest, they could special order. Nowadays, special orders were mostly a thing of the past, with only a few of her older customers, like Mr. Barnard, still requesting them instead of ordering things on Amazon or directly from a seller, and Maisie had even thought aboutkeeping fewer books in the store. Outside of the bookmarks and pens, she didn’t carry any other items that tourists would want to buy if they stopped in. There were no magnets, keychains, or even candy or bottled water that they might need after walking around all day. The tours used to all stop here, but over the years, only NOLA Guides and one other company still made stops on certain tours, and those didn’t run every day.

“Another door, dear,” the old woman repeated.

“Sorry?” Maisie asked again.

“I was just saying that sometimes, one door closes, but another door opens.”

“Oh, okay,” Maisie said, wondering if this woman had been in the shop when that door had still existed. She was probably old enough. “Well, thank you.”

“That woman you were talking to; she’s a customer?”

“Um… Yeah, she’s a customer, but a friend, too.”

The old woman smiled and said, “I see.”

“You do?” Maisie asked because she wasn’t certainshesaw or understood anything right now.

“I do. And you will, too.”

“I will see? What exactly will I see?”

“She’s important.”

“India?” Maisie asked.

The woman tilted her head to the side and said, “That’s a pretty name.”

Maisie smiled and said, “Yes, it is.”