A lean, blond-haired woman doing arm curls with some free weights noticed that the local gym she was working out in remained relatively empty this morning. Another arm curl and she was able to catch a glimpse of her watch and noticed that it was only 8 am. She figured with the heat wave hitting her fair city of Toronto, people would be flocking to any building with air-conditioning and probably shun the gyms.

But, here she was with only five other fitness enthusiasts doing her exercises in peace before she had to be at her book signing for 11:00am. She didn’t much mind the fact that there weren’t very many people here. She much preferred it this way. ‘At least I don’t have to wait to use the equipment.’ She smiled to herself as she brought the lightweight up once again, finishing her third set of 15 repetitions.

With an audible sigh, she lowered the weights carefully and moved to start her next exercise on the weight bench. She adjusted the weights on the bar to suite her, and secured them. She called over to a tall muscled man, Mike, to spot for her. The gym owner smiled his lopsided grin and took up position behind the bench. The young woman positioned herself on her back directly beneath the bar to start her bench press. Her hands gripped the bar shoulder width apart and heaved the weights up once and brought them down to her chest and back up. She managed two reps before she heard the shrill beeping from the pager she wore at her waist.

“Aw. What now?” She murmured beneath her breath, slightly annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of a workout.

“I told you that should have been left in your gym bag.” Mike joked as he gestured to the small pager with his chin.

She looked down at her pager and noticed the number was that of her publicist James Riley. “Mike, do you think I could borrow your phone for a minute?” The cheery blond asked the brown-haired man behind her.

“It’s all yours Haley.”

“Thanks.”

She abandoned the weights and walked over to the front desk to use the phone there. She picked up the receiver and began dialing the number that appeared on her pager. The phone rang once before it was quickly picked up.

“Haley?”

“What’s up James.” She asked casually.

“You’re beautiful you know that right?” James said in his ‘suck-up’ voice.

“What, they finally threw you in jail for all those unpaid parking tickets and you need me to bail you out right.” She laughed jokingly into the phone.

“Oh, a novelist and a comedian. You could make a killing in the entertainment field!” He shot back with his own retort. “Actually, what I was calling about was to ask you for a small favor.”

“As long as it doesn’t involve having to eat your wife’s cooking again.” She chuckled, into the phone remembering the pre-dinner party incident almost two years earlier.

Both Haley and James laughed into the phone, each apparently remembering the incident quite vividly. Even to this day, Barbara never hears the end of it with the two of them around. It was a long-standing joke and probably will remain so for quite some time to come.

“Listen Haley,” James said changing to a more business like voice, “the bookstore called me a few minutes ago and told me they have a monstrous line-up for your book-signing and they were wondering if you’d be able to make it in for 10:00 instead.”

“Sure, no problem. Just give me time to get cleaned up and meet me outside the gym in 20 minutes.” She replied without hesitation. She loved her fans and knew that without them, her success as a novelist would be meaningless.

“Good, see you then.” Came James’ quick response before he hung up.

“Well, that’s it for today I guess.” Haley said to Mike as he came up behind her just as she replaced the phone back on its base.

“I expect to see you in here later on in the day. You can’t keep that body lean by skipping your exercises!” Mike said to her retreating back with a smile.

“I would never think of skipping my exercises!” she called back over her shoulder with a wink as she entered the changing rooms for her shower.

The drive to the ‘World’s Largest Bookstore’ just up from the Eaton Center downtown Toronto was mainly uneventful. James went on and on about how excited he was that Haley’s latest novel was such a smash hit. He kept saying to her how he knew she would hit number one and how the fans would love her. Haley smiled and listened to his praises all with a grain of salt.

James finally pulled his blue mustang up around the back of the store and they both entered the bookstore through its rear entrance. An eager dark-haired woman wearing a tag with ‘salesclerk’ on her blouse greeted the two guests personally.

“Haley Connors!” She started with an excited air of exuberance; “I am so glad to finally meet you. Thank you very much for agreeing to come in early.” She said still shaking the novelist’s hand. “My manager should be here any second, he asked me to greet you while he took care of some last minute security details.”

“It’s my pleasure…uh, Peggy.” Haley smiled as she read the short salesclerk’s nametag. “So, where is my cage going to be?” She joked.

Peggy smiled at the joke, but before the young salesclerk could respond, a tall, skinny man wearing slacks and a wool vest despite the heat, walked into the backroom where they all waited. With an air of superiority, he pushed his wire-rimmed glasses back up his nose. “Miss Connors,” he started with an extended hand and a serious tone, “my name is Jonathon Kowalchuk, the manager of this store. May I extend the gratitude of the store for your timely arrival and cooperation.”

The snobby, fake British accent he tried to imitate almost made Haley burst out with laughter. If it weren’t for the discrete jab in the ribs, compliments of James, she would have ended up doing a publicity ‘no-no’. Instead, she held her tongue and smirks in favor of returning the handshake Mr. Kowalchuk extended her.

“I’m just glad to be here, thank you.” She replied courteously.

“Yes, yes.” He said unimpressed ending the handshake. “Your ‘fans’ are waiting. Shall we?” He said in a hurried manner as he motioned with a sweeping arm towards the door leading out of the stockroom and into the main store. He left the room without waiting for his guests.

Haley glanced back to James with a surprised look as her eyebrows shot up into her bangs, but said nothing. The young salesclerk however had plenty to say.

“Don’t mind him. Ever since he was promoted to manager of this store, his British accent has gotten worse, his ego sky rocketed through the stratosphere and took up orbit around the planet turning him into a bigger assh….um, I mean, jerk than before.” Peggy blushed slightly as she realized to whom she was complaining to.

“Don’t worry, ol’ Haley here can handle anything. Right kiddo.” James chirped in on her behalf with a slap on the back.

“Um, ya, sure James. Whatever you say.” She said rolling her eyes with exaggeration and a lopsided grin.

Peggy smiled and was just so excited to be in Haley Connors’ presence and actually talking to her. Seeing the novelist so relaxed and friendly was really a bonus. This was one of the perks of her job here at the bookstore; meeting the various authors that came to do the book signings. But, she snapped out of her star struck daze because she knew she had a job to do. “Anyway, I should really show you out before he comes back here and tries to kick you out of ‘his’ store for loitering.” This earned the salesclerk a chuckle from both the novelist and her publicist as they were escorted out of the stockroom.

Stepping out into the large, neatly organized bookstore the amount of people waiting in a line-up caught Haley’s eye immediately. Seconds later, she caught sight of Jonathon behind the cash register serving a customer, eyeing his watch with annoyance and then back to her. She ignored his rude stares and took her time seating herself.

The gathered people were quiet and respectful as they remained in the line-up and didn’t crowd or mob her. However, Haley still noticed the plain clothed security guards hovering within a heartbeat just incase. As she walked past several people in the line-up on her way to the fair-sized wooden desk near the sidewall, she stopped and briefly chatted with some of her fans as she passed them by.

While talking to one of the young ladies in the line-up, who babbled on pleasantly about how she loved Haley’s books, Haley caught sight of people in-between the low row of bookshelves trying to cut into the line-up. Before she bent her head back down to personalize the hard cover copy of the book in front of her, she spotted the plain clothed security guards moving in. Despite the low murmurs of people in the line-up, she was still able to make out the guards politely tell those people to go and wait at the back of the line like everyone else or they will be asked to leave.

A quick, inconspicuous glance towards Jonathon showed him fidgeting with agitation as he kept glancing at his watch and back to her. This renewed the already pleasant smile on her face. As far as she was concerned, she didn’t give a rat’s ass what he thought after he acted like such a jerk only a few moments earlier. ‘It’s not like I told him to bow down and kiss my feet!’ She thought with a touch of annoyance. ‘Guess he’ll just have to suffer through me greeting my fans and for thanking them for all their support.’

By early afternoon, Haley lifted her long blond locks up from the desk and looked about the crowded bookstore hoping to catch a glimpse of a certain tall, imposing dark-haired woman. She secretly hoped she would see her, but no luck. With an inaudible sigh of disappointment, Haley continued her scan of the store and took in the amount of people that had gathered. Since this morning, the amount of people in the store seemed to have doubled in number. She still couldn’t believe that all these people were waiting in a long line-up for her signature and to meet her. Even despite the humid heat engulfing the area, the World’s Biggest Bookstore was almost filled to capacity with eager fans to meet the comely, long blond-haired novelist. The smiling novelist just couldn’t believe how good everything was going as she signed yet another copy of her best selling novel ‘Unsuspecting Target’, and was simply flattered by the response.

Suddenly a familiar face popped into view in front of her, one of the two people she was hoping to see here today. “Liz!” Haley exclaimed with joy as she stood up and hugged her sister. “I didn’t think you were back from Europe yet.”

“Just flew in around eleven.” Liz said as she returned the heart felt hug. “Did you really think I’d miss my kid sisters first book signing of the number one best seller in Canada and the US?!”

Their embrace ended and Liz gave her sister a sly smile. “Do you think I could get the famous Haley Connors to sign my copy of her book?” She asked as she pushed a copy of ‘Unsuspecting Target’ in front of her.

“Sure.” With a grin, she sat back down and autographed her sister’s book.

Over the last 6 years, Haley had written many novels, several of which have found their way onto the top 20 best sellers list. But this was the first time she had ever been the number one author on this prestigious list. Heck, it was the first time she has ever had a number one best selling novel period. And a couple months after the release of her novel, sales were still going strong. She was glad Liz was able to make it. Her sister was always there with encouraging words to keep her going.

Once Haley finished signing her sister’s copy of her book, they made a quick date to meet for brunch the next day. Watching her sister walking away, Haley watched as a new, eager fan approach the medium-sized table.

“Hi.” She greeted the young woman with a warm smile.

As the day was drawing to an end, she had autographed so many books, some with little personalized messages, that her fingers were cramped by the end of her session. But she wouldn’t have changed a thing. Talking with her fans, learning what they liked and disliked about her books was very informative.

She learned that many were fans of her earlier mystery/suspense novels and were surprised by the sudden change of genre. Many agreed whether they were new fans or old, that the sudden change wasn’t far from the type of novels she wrote before and that they were very pleased with the results. Many were even surprised by the in-depth descriptions of events that they could have sworn were real. These comments made Haley smile a secret smile. If only they knew the truth.