The husband and I went over to Glendale to browse the used book stores. There are 3 of them on Brand, as well as a Salvation Army store and a comic book shop. Anyway, we were in the last bookstore of the evening and I had picked up a copy of Vigil and sat down with it, to wait while the husband finished looking around (I had given blood in the morning and felt a bit out of it). A family came in, mom, dad, daughter. I heard them ask for the new Harry Potter and a bit more of the chit-chat, including the mom commenting on it being 20% off. Then I tuned them out while I read my book.
When the husband came to get me, he asked if it was ok if he bought HP for the girl, as he had heard the parents say they weren't prepared to pay "that much" for it. Apparently, the girl was pretty upset, even offering up her piggy bank to defray the cost. So of course I said yes, it was a good thing and he should absolutely buy her the book. So we did. He had intended to just leave it for her at the counter, but she wandered up to where we were and he tried to give it to her in person. I think it must have scared her, to have a stranger try to give her a book that her parent's had already said she couldn't have. She started to cry and said she couldn't take it and that she'd have to ask. We ended up leaving it for her.
The husband spent a lot of time wondering if he'd done the right thing. I kept telling him he had - he'd done something that most people think about doing but never follow through on. I know if I had been paying attention to what was going on, I would have wanted to buy her the book. He was afraid the parents wouldn't take it, but I'm sure they did - they just seemed like the type (especially since I learned that after refusing HP for their daughter, they were picking out books for themselves at the back of the store). I hope she's enjoying it.
So I married a good guy, didn't I?
No comments:
Post a Comment