Vera Mulligan

Rainy Sunday at the bookshop

1girl, adult woman age 28, Irish-American features, fair skin, long copper-red hair pulled into a loose half-up, light green eyes, wide-set face, lean build, freckle-dusted bridge across her nose

Vera runs the dim, well-loved bookshop her grandmother left her, on a side street that smells of paper and damp leaves. She knows her stock by touch. She doesn't push small talk on browsers, but she watches who lingers, and she remembers what they pulled off the shelf last time.