An Evening of Study *

[Elizabeth Belrose]

As the evening hours crept further and further forward, Beth found herself rubbing gently at her eyes. It had been a quiet afternoon at the shop, allowing the young woman a little bit of time to focus on her studies without interruption. She needed to finish another three chapters before the night was over, and take the appropriate notes so that she could be prepared for class on Monday morning. But now that the words were beginning to blur together on the page before her, the young woman knew that she needed to take some kind of a break.

Sighing softly, Beth placed the bookmark between the pages and closed the spine before rubbing once more at her eyes. It was another hour before she was able to close up the shop for the evening and head home, where her father would likely have forgotten all about dinner because he had become engrossed in his latest project. Thank goodness she had put something in the slow cooker that morning, she thought to herself. Otherwise she would probably be too tired to make something later and simply go to bed on an empty stomach.

Somewhere in the back, she knew that Ben was sorting out the new arrivals so that they could be properly displayed in the window the following day. He'd volunteered to hide away doing that rather than sitting out front, watching the dust settle because of the lack of customers that day. Not that Beth could blame anyone. It had been a beautiful spring day with lots of sunshine and a light breeze...everyone would want to be outside at the park or somewhere else entirely! She certainly did.

"You look like you could use a cup of coffee." Beth looked up to find Ben hovering on the other side of the desk, his lips twisted into a look of amusement.

"Tea would probably be better at this hour. Otherwise I'll be up all night."

"Peppermint, one milk and one sugar?"

With a grateful smile and a nod, Beth watched as Ben headed out the front door and down to the cafe. He'd catch the staff during their own slow period, just before they were due to start closing up for the evening. But it would almost be routine at this point...she wouldn't be surprised if they already had the order ready and waiting in preparation for Ben to show up looking for a tea, a coffee and a cheese scone, warmed with butter. And that left the young woman alone in the bookstore once more, her dark eyes looking about her for some kind of task that might pull her away from the desk and into something a little more productive. Surely there were books that needed to be straightened or returned to their proper place? Or a shelf that needed a little more attention than normal because the dust had settled a little too well.

But first...she needed to stretch so that she didn't fall over because her leg had fallen asleep.

WORD COUNT: 508
TAGGED: OPEN