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Jude

Jude had worked hundreds of Tuesday afternoon shifts at The Next Chapter.

It was a slow time—so slow today that there weren’t any customers.

Normally, she would be reading a book at the register or staring at her phone, waiting for the hours to tick by until closing.

But today, she kept looking around the store.

Her eyes lingered on the mural of famous children’s book characters her mom had painted by hand.

On Talia, who was supposed to be checking for misshelved books but had gotten distracted by a P.

G. Wodehouse novel and was leaning against the humor section, reading.

On Rhys and L.J., who were dusting down the shelves. This was her family. Her home.

She hadn’t told her friends about the job offer yet. Why bother, when she probably wasn’t going to take it?

As she watched, Rhys leaned over and whispered a joke to L.J.

, who gave a tense smile and then moved away to another part of the store, leaving Rhys to stare miserably after them.

Guilt twisted around Jude’s stomach. She gave Rhys an encouraging nod, urging him to go after L.J.

and try again, but he turned away and started dusting the memoir section instead.

The bell over the door chimed and Stephen walked in, followed by a man in a Carhartt jacket.

“Good morning,” Jude said loudly, hoping the others would take the cue to look like they were busy working. Talia hurriedly tucked her book back onto the shelf.

“Morning,” Stephen grunted. Then he turned to the man with him and said, “These shelves here.”

The man took a tape measure out of his pocket and started measuring the distance between the shelves on the queer-books display. Jude and Rhys exchanged a worried glance.

“What are you doing?” Jude said.

Stephen ignored her. “I’m thinking one fewer shelf, but each one will be a little taller. Give the books more space from each other, so customers can see them clearly.”

The guy nodded and started writing measurements down in his phone. Jude strode out from behind the register. “What are you doing?” she repeated.

Stephen gave her an annoyed look, but he couldn’t exactly chastise her for not being behind the register when there wasn’t a single customer in the store. “We’re renovating. Nothing big, it will only take a few days.”

“Renovating what?”

Stephen rolled his chin side to side, stretching out his neck.

“This whole wall here, right when you walk into the store. It’s jam-packed with books, which is bad for title discovery.

I want to make the shelves a little bigger so we can display fewer books, with their front covers out instead of their spines.

That way, our bestsellers catch people’s eyes as soon as they come in. ”

“But this is our queer book display. We have the biggest one in New York state.”

“And now we don’t.” Stephen turned back to the measuring guy. “How soon can you get me an estimate?”

“Should be an easy job. I’ll email it over tonight.”

Jude stepped forward, back into Stephen’s line of sight.

“You can’t get rid of the queer book display,” she said.

“That is a huge part of why people come to the store. We have a strong queer brand that makes us stand out from other, bigger stores. That’s where our Instagram following came from.

Eighty percent of our online sales are queer books ordered by people out of state. ”

“We’ll still have a queer shelf,” Stephen said, holding up his hands placatingly. “But it doesn’t make financial sense to dedicate this much real estate to a niche audience.”

The guy with the measuring tape looked between the two of them uncomfortably, then glued his eyes to his phone.

“The whole point of the shelf is to show queer people that they’re not a niche audience. The point is for them to come into the store and realize they’re not alone.”

“Touching. But this is a business.” Stephen turned back to the measuring-tape guy. “Send over that estimate tonight and then we’ll schedule a date, okay?”

“Gotcha.” The guy hurried out, looking eager to get away.

“You can’t do this.” Jude tried to stand as tall as possible.

“This is my bookstore. I can do whatever I want.” Stephen stepped around her to head to the back room, but Jude followed him.

“If you get rid of it, I’ll quit.”

Stephen snorted. “Sure. Okay.”

“I mean it.” Jude expected her voice to shake, but it came out strong and certain.

Because she did mean it, she realized as she said the words.

She loved this store. But it wouldn’t be the store she loved for much longer.

If she stayed here, she would become more and more miserable, more and more stuck.

Didn’t she owe herself more than that?

“Look, we’ll make half of those shelves bestsellers and keep half as queer books, okay? We’ll just curate the selection a little better and make them easier to find. That’s a good thing, right?”

Jude breathed out through her nose, considering. Today it was half the shelves. But what about next week? What about the week after?

She walked around Stephen toward the back of the store. Behind her, she heard Stephen let out a relieved breath.

“Okay, great. I’m glad you see my side. It really will help with discov—”

He cut off as Jude reached up and lifted the framed photo of her and her mother on opening day off the wall.

“I quit.”

All three of her friends gasped. Stephen made a face like he’d just had a lemon shoved up his ass.

She tucked the photo under her arm. She didn’t bother listening to Stephen’s angry protests. Instead, she took her time looking around the place she had poured so much of her energy into, memorizing it as it was now, so her mental image wouldn’t be tainted by what it would become without her.

She turned to face her friends, who were all gathered by the checkout counter. Talia had her hands over her mouth, but Rhys was beaming at her.

“I love you guys,” Jude said.

“We love you, too,” Rhys said. Talia nodded. L.J. saluted like Jude was going off to war.

Jude turned and pushed open the door. For so long, the cheery bell on top had reminded her of Becca, walking out of the store and away from Jude’s life. It had reminded her that this store was no longer hers. It had reminded her of everything she had lost and everything she could still lose.

But today the bell didn’t sound like a door closing. It sounded like a door opening, clearing the way for Jude to figure out what came next.