Fifteen Roses for an Apology {Bookshop Episode 6}

Previously on Tales From The Bookshop 

(Because it's been over a year. I'm sorry. If you're new, here's all the previous installments.)
Corey, a freshly unemployed young adult and photography enthusiast, happens to wander into a small bookstore. She meets the owners' son, Rose, who says her life is worthless because she doesn't read. She immediately dislikes him. He invites her to a writer's club and gives her a book written by his mother.
Corey comes to the writer's club to return the book and clashes even more with Rose. After yet another job rejection, though, she decides that Rose's fascination with her is probably enough to get her a job, and she is right. Katelyn and Michael, the owners of the bookshop, reveal that they are secretly time travelers. They adopted Rose from the past.
Rose tries to convince Corey to help him with a writing project. She only agrees for the sake of her job. Katelyn explains how a girl from the future gave her the blueprints for her time machine.

*Intro theme*

   Corey was hanging out behind the counter in the bookshop, watching the three customers and Rose wander between the shelves. The shop hadn't been empty for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time today. Rose had kept himself busy writing in one of the armchairs, taking intermittent breaks to recommend books to anyone who seemed uncertain. Corey noted that he had picked up a surprising number of books that weren't by Katelyn.
   So she was surprised when he suddenly appeared in front of her, leaning his elbows on the counter. He set down the book he was carrying and slid it toward Corey.
   “If they think you read, you'll seem more approachable,” he whispered. “Do you think you can give recommendations?”
   “No, I don't think so,” Corey replied. “What do you want?”
   He shrugged. “You looked bored; that's all.” He motioned to the book. “This is on the bestseller lists, by the way. You might like it.”
   The bell above the shop door tinkled. Corey shoved Rose out of the way as the customer, a tall woman with bobbed brown hair, approached the counter.
   “Good afternoon!” Corey greeted, her voice cheerfully relieved. “What can I do for you?”
   The woman smiled back, then glanced at Rose, who was still leaning on the counter, just a bit further down.
   “I called earlier about a book.”
   “Oh! Caroline?” she asked the woman, who nodded. “I've got that right here.”
   Corey ducked under the counter, grabbing the copy of Eragon from a stack of several books labelled with names on sticky notes.
   “Here you are.” She passed the book across the counter and punched it into the register.
   As soon as Caroline left, Rose leaned over the counter to talk to her again.
   “How are you today?” he asked.
   Corey sighed, and in her best cashier voice, replied, “I'm doing well. What about you?”
   “I wish you didn't hate me so much.”
   She didn't know how to reply to that. Sure, she hadn't exactly been subtle about her dislike, but she hadn't expected to be confronted like this. Rose watched her, staring expectantly from underneath the curls falling in his face.
   “I'm sorry.”
   “But I'm serious!” Rose insisted. “Is there something I can do? It's really uncomfortable to be stuck in a job with someone who can't stand you, but I'm not mean enough to fire you, even though I probably could.”
   “I appreciate it,” Corey replied. “I'll try to stay out of your way. I just want to pay my bills.”
   “Could we be acquaintances instead of enemies? What do girls talk about? Boys? Girls? I'm pan, so I'm fine with either.” He shrugged playfully.
   She stared at Rose for a minute, keeping the surprise off her face. She hadn't expected that he could be anything other than straight and obnoxious.
   “Uh, boys, in my case,” she replied, realizing she had been silent for an awkwardly long time. This conversation could be going a lot better. “But that's for people that I know well, and if I was making a list of them, I wouldn't include you.”
   Rose looked down for a moment, and Corey felt a wash of relief, because he'd been staring at her forehead for almost five minutes, and it was starting to make her uncomfortable.
   “I'm sorry,” Rose said. Corey said nothing.
   “I might have been a bit intense,” he continued. “I was going to offer to show you around the place where I was born, but is there somewhere else you'd want to go?”
   “I don't think I want to go anywhere,” she replied, not because the idea of exploring the past was uninteresting, but because she didn't want Rose to be her tour guide. Rose nodded. He looked disappointed, but seemed to understand.
   “Excuse me,” said a man behind him. He moved out of the way while Corey rang up and bagged the man's book, the same title that Rose had brought Corey earlier.
   “Come on, isn't there anywhere?” Rose asked. Corey held back a sigh.
   “I'll try to stay out of your way!”
   “We both have jobs to do,” Corey said. “I'll keep manning the register so you can write your book.”
Rose nodded like he was going to resign to his armchair, but then he stopped suddenly. “Where do you like to take pictures?” he asked. “I'll take you somewhere like that! You can't convince me you don't want to wander somewhere like that.”
   He was right, and Corey was cornered.
   “Alright,” she admitted. “I want to go to a city.”
   Rose broke into a grin. “I knew it! Which city? And how old?”
   She frowned. “I guess that's up to you,” she said. She had no idea where she might end up, but the idea of old cities before they'd become worn down like they were now. “I'm no historian, right?”

♡ ♡ ♡

I already apologized, but I'm going to do it again. I'm sorry for pausing this series for so long. Now that I'm wandering aimlessly between writing projects until I decide it's time to edit Scouts, I intend to finish it. I've accepted that this story isn't and won't be my best work, but I feel like I owe it to one person specifically. They know who they are.
I hope you enjoyed the return of Corey and Rose. I looked up flower symbolism for the title. I don't think there's romantic connotation to it, but if there is it's coincidental.
That's all my commentary for this episode. The next one should be out soon.