The blond man glanced up from his book at the sound of the front door clicking shut. “Can I help you?”

I shook my head. He returned to his reading, and I took a good, long look around me. The shop was no bigger around than my own living room. Yet, the ceiling seemed oddly high for how it had looked on the street. I realized that what I had taken for being a cramped little two-story building was in fact only one floor, with shelves jammed full of books stretching up all the way to the ceiling.

“Is there no living space above this floor?”

Again, he flicked his eyes up at me without making any attempt at movement. “An attic.”

“Oh. But, surely, it isn’t very big, is it? I mean, the advertisement said…” A massive crashing sound came from behind the door to the man’s right. I blinked and took a step back, bumping back into the front door. He sighed, set his book down, and rose from the chair.

“Excuse me.” He stepped into the back room, shutting the door behind him.