His classes that followed were almost torturous for him, which was unlike how he usually felt about his job. It had been his dream, after all, to teach children to appreciate the stories he loved dearly. He spent most of his teaching times telling the girls to read and take notes, while he anxiously thought about his mother. It was as though he felt something bad was going to happen while he was at work. Some of his students noticed his nervousness and asked if he was OK. He smiled and promised them that everything was alright, even though he felt a bit bad for lying.

When lunchtime came, he couldn't bear it any longer and he called his home, breathing out in relief when the neighbour, Doloris, answered. She reassured Damien that his mother was alright and the two had been chatting all day, stopping to watch the soap opera his mother enjoyed so much. Doloris also told him that she seemed normal today, even mentioning him as they gossiped about their grown up children. He sighed, feeling finally peaceful. So she hadn't forgotten about him entirely. He smiled as he went to his next class, looking forward to the end of the period so he could visit Reza's store again.

Rick wouldn't accept the price that was on the book, calling it far too little for such a well preserved masterpiece. Therefore he had written out a check for five thousand dollars and gave Reza a small, mysterious smile, tucking the carefully wrapped and packaged book under his arm lovingly and stepping away, pausing at the door to give a small wave, which Reza almost numbly returned. He usually sld the books under the glass for a thousand, little more than that, because it wasn't too often a person walked into a sweet little bookshop like his with the intention of picking up a hundred year old book worth several thousand dollars. But evidently, Rick had.

He was still smiling wistfully at the door when Gena came in, and gave him a strange look. He snapped out of it, stuffing the check Rick had written into his pocket. "Gena! How's it going, sweets?"

"Hah, pretty good, Cookie. You sure look happy." Gena leaned against the counter and looked at the books under glass. "Oooh, you sold one?"

"Yep. Pride and Prejudice. He gave me five thousand for it, Gena, five! I had it listed for one and a half."

"Too low." Gena tutted as if she dealt in books every day.

Reza rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure, sure. No what are you doing here? Got an itch to scratch with a book, or what?"

"No, I wanna buy one of those Kindles sometime. What do you think about 'em?" Gena crossed her arms and tilted her head curiously.

"Eh... I prefer paper, but that's 'cause the screens hurt my eyes after a while. But I guess they save a lot of space." Reza and Gene debated the e-books for a while, but his mind was only half in it. He was mentally watching the clock, waiting for Damien to come by. He didn't care about the money, he cared that he found someone that loved books as much as he did.

Damien happily hummed to himself as he got into his car after school had finished. He was feeling a lot better and couldn't wait to go see Reza in his book store. He made sure he had all his work with him before carefully backing out of his usual car park and driving out of the school grounds, up the street and into the city.

He had to sit in rush hour traffic, plus road works fixing one of the main streets. By the time he got to the store it was four-thirty. He wondered when Reza closed the place, hoping he wasn't too close to closing time. With a grin on his face, he locked his car and almost ran to the store. He blinked a bit to adjust to the dim light, grinning wider when he saw Reza behind the counter. His heart fluttered slightly to see the man and he wondered why. Was he in love? Damien hadn't thought he was gay, but he guessed it made sense. It would explain a lot of his behaviour, anyway.

As he stepped towards Reza, a teen girl noticed him and waved, coming from the shelf she had been looking over to say hello to him. "Mr Hannah! I'm just looking for some of the books you recommended to me yesterday," she said, showing him the covers of a few adult novels he had mentioned in one of his classes. "This one looks so interesting."

"Ah... Um... Well, that's nice to see Georgia," he smiled nervously, stepping backwards a bit as she happily walked to the counter to pay for the book.

After Gena had left a few more people came in. One actually did buy one of the Kindles, and he was somewhat younger of a man. Reza helped him authenticate it with his email address and then helped him load the five free books onto it. He seemed to love the lightweight feel and the fact that he didn't have to spare a whole room for his reading needs, and thanked Reza a few times before finally heading out the door. Luckily the sun had broken out halfway through the afternoon, and it was warm and dry. He smiled as he read as a teenager came in, casting him a bright smile and going around to look through the books, declining help when asked.

His feet were propped up on the counter, one eye on the shopper in case she needed help and one eye reading through the next chapter of his book. He was a bit of a speed-reader, finishing books that had upwards of two hundred pages in just a couple hours and longer novels within a day. A book as large as Stephen King's The Dome took at least three full, uninterrupted days and nights to finish.

When he heard a familiar voice, Reza jumped up and set his book aside. He was glad to see Damien, far more than almost anyone else. Why was that? He did enjoy the man's presence, even with the vague meeting they'd had just the day before. But he could tell he would love to spend days talking to this guy. If he were honest with himself there was definitely a vague attraction there too. He pushed the thought aside as he rung up the girl and smiled in a friendly manner. "Have a good day." He said kindly, and the girl---Georgia, by Damien's words---waved to both of them and hurried out. Reza smiled Damien's way. "Hey, you." He grinned. "So she's one of your students? I bet they all love you." He leaned forward, a joking gleam in his eye.

Damien blushed and looked at his hands. "They are fond of me, yes..." he muttered, feeling embarrassed. He waited until the girl had fully left the street before approaching Reza and glancing about nervously. "Um... I'm here to pay you some money for the book you gave me yesterday." He pulled out his wallet and found his eftpos card. He only had a few dollars to spare, but he wanted to give them to Reza. The man was so nice, Damien felt bad for getting a book for free.

"How was your day, Reza?" he asked, trying to avoid the man's eye, knowing that he might just melt if their eyes met.

Reza bit his lip, reluctantly taking the card and studying it. "You know you don't have to worry about it." He muttered, tapping the card on the wood. "I can wait as long as you need to get the money without struggling later. Hell, Damien, I can afford to give a whole shelf away and be fine. I just sold one of my most prized books for five thousand, I think I can afford to say goodbye to a twenty." He gave an understanding smile. "Call it an understanding, Damien. I know how hard it is to struggle to keep some money for... just about anything."

He didn't want to make Damien think Reza felt he wasn't good enough. That was the opposite of what he wanted. If anything Reza wanted to see Damien every day. "I think I have an idea... I mean, instead of money, if you want to hear." He glanced up, setting the card down on the countertop.

"Five..." Damien blinked. That was a lot of money, more than what he had ever seen in his bank account. He stared down at the card on the counter top, suddenly feeling as though he wasn't good enough for Reza. Why would the man want to date a useless, pathetic loser like him? He blinked again. Why was he thinking about dating Reza? He wasn't even sure if the man was gay, heck, he didn't even know if he was gay.

"An idea...?" he asked, looking confused. What could the man want from him? He would love to work in the shop, but he had other things to worry about, including an increasing sicker mother.

Reza smiled gently, nodding a little. He didn't want to take Damien away from any obligations he had throughout the day, after his work-week. "Well... I thought you might want to come by... whenever you can? Like, after work, or when you don't have anything to do or you have a litte time... Or on the weekends, when you don't have school." He shrugged, looking down to hide the growing redness that was trying to cross his face. Why did this feel like an offer for a date? To spend time with someone? He hadn't in years... Did he even remember how to? He absently reached up to run a finger over a small area on his shirt, which had nothing there visibly. But he did want Damien to come back, and without the feeling of pressure coming with having to pay for a book.

"Of course... I'll come around..." Damien noticed how awkward Reza seemed and he felt the same way. Was this man flirting with him? It didn't feel like when Miss Drencher hit on him, this actually felt nice and made him smile. "But I still want to pay for your book." He pushed the card back towards Reza. "It's OK. I have enough to pay $5."

He waited for Reza to pick the card back up and run it through his machine, smiling slightly as he watched the man. "I'm not that broke..." He felt insulted, as though his money wasn't good enough for Reza, now that he had been given a large amount of money. Who had that much money to spend on a book? Damien wished he did.

He was still reluctant, but took the card anyway and slid it through the reader. “I never said you were.” He muttered, furrowing his brow and sliding the card back. “I just don’t like having someone pay for something I gave them.” He shrugged a bit. It had been a bit of a friendly gesture, mostly. Nothing born of pity, of course. He did know how it was to have few funds, and it was dreadful. Of course there was that strange desire to make sure Damien was safe, and okay, and feeling... not bad. Was he in over his head here? This was already a strange relationship and Reza was struggling with his thoughts. Damien coming here every day wasn’t bad at all in Reza’s book, but why? There were a lot of questions he just didn’t know how to answer.