the front counter

Here's the bookstore chap surrounded as always by stacks of books he's sorting. He's just the guy you'd expect to find in a secondhand bookstore: calm, learned, friendly. In truth I have a bit of crush on his son (if indeed he IS his son, that's just my impression by the way they interact) - one of those quiet, intelligent types - who works there sometimes. We often want to invite him out to lunch just to have the chance to talk to him without customers waiting to be served, but somehow we never quite do. Rank cowardice, I know.