Battle of the Bookstores

Ryan views last night’s dinner with Josie as a date. Though she is clearly hesitant to pursue anything with him, he can’t help but hope. At work, Josie teaches Ryan how she logs her inventory and sales in order to project how many copies of each title should be ordered. Meanwhile, Ryan’s assistant manager, Cindy, notices the camaraderie between Ryan and Josie and tells Ryan that Josie looks at him like “she wants to peg [him]” (250).

That evening, Josie and Ryan go to an Irish pub where they have brought their suggestions for which books should be included in the joint book club they’re starting to bridge their customer bases. Ryan has added 11/22/63 to his suggestions, hinting to Josie that he is RJ while respecting her decision not to meet RJ in person. As they’re inspecting each other’s choices, Josie notices that Ryan reads out loud. Ryan admits that he has dyslexia. He braces himself for a derogatory comment, but Josie takes this in stride. Ryan notices when Josie becomes flustered while reading one of his choices. When he goads her into reading it aloud, it is the midst of a steamy romantic scene between two characters. As she reads aloud, her foot slides up and down Ryan’s ankle. Eventually, she stops reading, but both Josie and Ryan are aroused.

Josie decides they should pick 11/22/63 for their book club, stating that she read it a few weeks ago when a friend suggested it. Ryan tells Josie exactly what he told her as RJ when he recommended it—that he listened to the audiobook while on a road trip with his family. Though Josie’s eyes narrow, she doesn’t put the pieces together and remains clueless to Ryan’s alter ego. That night, Josie complains to RJ on BookFriends about the unnecessary descriptions of sex in romance novels.

As their plan progresses, Josie admits that working with Ryan feels natural. At night she relives their interactions throughout the day, finding it increasingly difficult to maintain her professionalism with him. One night, Josie and Ryan hold their first Bookstore Date Night, where they rent out the bookstore to a couple after closing for a romantic evening. Newlyweds Brigitte and Sam are their first Date Night customers. After arranging the table for the two, Ryan and Josie decide to go for a walk and get ice cream. Ryan asks Josie what Tabula Inscripta means. She explains that the phrase means “inscribed tablet” in Latin. While the Latin phrase tabula rasa (“blank tablet,” often rendered as the idiom “blank slate”) is more common, the store’s original owner believed that people are more akin to inscribed tablets in that “all our experiences shape who we become” (263), including the books we read.

When Josie asks about the original owner of Happy Endings, Ryan explains that she opened the store to prioritize romance fiction, which was always tucked into the back corner of other bookshops. Back then, she had mostly heteronormative romance because little else was published in the genre. However, Ryan has prioritized diversity in his store because of his friend JR, who was gay. JR’s religious parents made him feel that his sexuality was unacceptable and that he was unwanted. Ryan explains that JR passed away after overdosing on prescription medication their senior year of high school. Ryan has always suspected it was suicide, and since then, he’s wondered how JR’s life might have turned out differently if he could have seen examples of healthy, happy gay relationships—even in fiction. Ryan takes pride in helping people see themselves in love stories.

They return to the store an hour later and stay in the back as Brigitte and Sam continue their night. However, they soon hear the sounds of the couple having sex against the bookshelves. After the couple leaves, Ryan and Josie clean the store and lock up, then Ryan walks Josie home. She invites him in for tea, and once inside, she checks her phone for the first time all night. She finds missed calls from Georgia and her mom. Georgia’s texts reveal that Darrell left their mom alone in Puerto Vallarta, and Georgia is flying to be with her. Josie calls her mom, who explains that when she woke up that morning, she discovered Darrell had taken all his things and left. Josie accuses her mom of asking Georgia to come when she has classes and exams, but her mom insists that Georgia decided to fly out on her own. Josie’s mom is determined to find Darrell, whom she believes has just gotten freaked out about their upcoming wedding, but Josie doesn’t think her mom should forgive him.

Her mom asks her about Ryan, and Josie insists they’re not involved. When her mom hangs up, Ryan is there to ask if everything is alright. Josie, believing Ryan doesn’t want to hear about her complicated family, insists everything is fine. She immediately regrets not leaning on Ryan for support when he leaves shortly after. When she decides she doesn’t want to be alone, she messages RJ.

After leaving Josie’s, Ryan wonders what the phone call with her mom was about and worries he shouldn’t have left her alone. His phone buzzes with a message from BookshopGirl, and Ryan feels hurt that Josie would rather open up to an anonymous BookFriends man than himself in person. Josie explains the situation with her mom to RJ, beginning from her childhood spent with a lovesick mom who dated the wrong men and neglected her own daughters and ending with the current situation with Darrell. When Josie explains that she’s angry with her mom for pulling her sister away from school, Ryan slips up by calling her sister by her name. Josie doesn’t remember telling RJ Georgia’s name but doesn’t ask questions about it.

Josie mentions that a book about her mom would be unsatisfying because while literary characters usually grow or change, her mom keeps repeating the same mistakes. Ryan asks what lesson Josie would want her mother to learn if she was a character in a novel, and Josie replies “that real life isn’t like a romance novel, that you aren’t guaranteed a happy ending” (282).

The next morning at a Happy Endings staff meeting, Ryan and his team pick a prompt from the fishbowl to start the discussion. The prompt asks them what they’d want to experience if they got dropped into a romance novel. The answers are unsurprising until Nora answers that she’d want to experience the third-act breakup. She explains her controversial decision, stating that falling in love is a passive experience, but staying in love is a choice; the third-act breakup is a “decision point” where the lovers must face their fears in order to fight for each other. Ryan answers he’d want to experience the friends-to-lovers trope. After the icebreaker, Ryan explains that they’re teaming up with Josie to increase both their stores’ profits so that they may convince Xander he needs them both.

That day at work, Josie thanks Ryan for his company the night before but still remains vague about her phone call. Meanwhile, she messages RJ to tell him that all is well with her family. Josie further unloads, explaining that her mom broke her trust so many times that she worries she’ll never open up to anyone. Ryan, as RJ, points out that she’s opened up to him, but Josie replies that he’s anonymous and that if he were here in person, she never would have done so. When Josie admits that she’s terrified she’d be a disappointment to him if they met, RJ claims that’s impossible.

Josie and Ryan host an event where teenagers dress up as characters in their favorite dystopian fictional worlds and discuss the genre. Josie is impressed with the teens’ insight, and the event does well, making their bookstores thousands in profit. When cleaning up and closing the store together after the event, Ryan jokes that the boys were checking Josie out, and she jokes that the girls were fawning over his height. Ryan asks if she’d have made out with him if he were 5’7” instead of 6’7”, and Josie admits that she definitely still would have. They both admit that they think about that night on the beach often, and Ryan gains the courage to kiss Josie. Their kiss becomes heated, and they nearly have sex near the register, but Ryan suddenly pulls back, stating that they need to stop, and offers to walk her home. Josie feels rejected by Ryan, but he explains that it is the opposite. Ryan admits that he’s falling for Josie and that a fling or situationship isn’t enough for him.

Distraught after Ryan leaves, Josie calls Georgia to tell her everything. Georgia infers that Ryan must be in love with Josie. While Josie is attracted to him and likes him a lot, she hesitates to call her feelings love. Georgia recognizes Josie’s habit of never letting anyone get close after witnessing their mom’s terrible relationships, but she insists that Ryan is not like those guys. Instead of leaving, he’s asking Josie for more. When Georgia asks if there’s anyone else she’s been able to connect with deeply, Josie tells her about RJ. Her conversation with Georgia pushes Josie to finally take action with her love life. Josie messages RJ, stating that she’d like to meet him in person.

Ryan is conflicted about the message from BookshopGirl, as Josie now apparently wants to meet RJ after nearly having sex with Ryan. Ryan sleeps on it but is no closer to figuring out how to answer. He goes to lunch with his mom, who explains that he might have an unrealistic idea of “how fast and easy love is in the real world” (312). Ryan views her love story as perfect, but she explains that it hasn’t always been so: She rejected his father multiple times before they got together and eventually married. Feeling better after his conversation with his mom, Ryan messages BookshopGirl back and agrees to meet at the Independent Booksellers of New England (IBNE) conference.

In the week following, Ryan and Josie barely have time to interact. She also barely talks to RJ since confirming their plan to meet at IBNE. At IBNE, Ryan makes sure to attend Josie’s panel. The four older men on the panel talk over Josie until her idol, Penelope Adler-Wolf, explicitly asks for her input on Gen Z’s interest in literary fiction. Josie tells everyone about her and Ryan’s event for teens, noting that the teens were smart and interested in the kinds of complex issues addressed in literary fiction. After the event, Ryan hugs Josie to congratulate her on a good panel. When he suggests they celebrate, she tells him she has plans, but they plan for breakfast tomorrow. RJ and Josie later exchange messages, and RJ tells her to be on the lookout for a man in a dark blue suit with a rose in his lapel.