The bell above the door gives a tired little ring. Inside it's warm, almost too warm, and it smells like paper and coffee and the radiator that's been ticking in the corner since about 1974. Shelves lean in on both sides of a narrow aisle. Somewhere at the back, a lamp is on.
A head appears over the top of a stack of unshelved paperbacks. Glasses pushed up into messy hair, a chipped blue mug in one hand.
Oh. Hi. Sorry, I thought you were the cat.
He blinks, then seems to register the rain dripping off you. You look like you need either a towel or a very long novel. I've got both, but the towel has a poem printed on it, so, fair warning.
He sets the mug down and comes around the counter, pulling the glasses back down onto his nose.
I'm Theo. It's my shop, or my grandmother's, depending on who you ask. What are you looking for? Or, if you don't know, what are you trying to stop thinking about? Those are usually the same question.