The chain store opened on a Saturday in September with balloons, a string quartet and a line of people out the door. Mae Doucette watched from the window of Second Story Books, above the bakery, with a cinnamon twist in one hand and a grudge in the other.
Her shop had nine thousand used books, three armchairs that did not match and a cash register that printed receipts only when it felt like it. Across Church Street, the new place had a coffee bar, a children’s corner shaped like a castle and a manager in a navy cardigan who waved at her, once, from his doorway. She did not wave back. She pulled down the blind.
This is as far as the free sample goes — the rest of The Bookshop on Church Street is waiting for you.
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