The first book Brent sold when he went into the bookshop that week was a large hard-cover on Australian waterways and irrigation. In hindsight he wished he'd bet Rona that they'd sell such a book, though Rona had been working in the shop long enough now to have noticed the shopping trends of their customers and how they related to current events. The customer who bought the book seemed very happy with his purchase, he opened it to read it even as he was walking out of the shop. Made Brent wonder why he'd insisted on getting a bag for the book, for the amount of time the book spent in the bag.

Rona had come in early for her shift, as she often did, so that they could have lunch together in the shop. Brent was still rostered on so he took the chair behind the counter - there was only one - and Rona perched herself on the end of the counter, moving a stack of books that Guy had put there without explanation, expecting as usual that Brent would somehow divine what he wanted done with them. One time Brent had spent a good half an hour putting such a stack of books into the shelves, they belonged in all corners of the shop, in all categories, and when Guy had next come into the shop the first thing he'd asked was where the books had gone: he'd compiled them for a special order, so he'd claimed, put them together for a customer or a relative or a friend.

Rona took a bite out of an apple she had in her bag and said "So it turns out it takes massive flooding just to get Eric to own up to being gay. Well, just about, anyway."

"What?" Brent said, coming back from his daydreaming.

"I mean he didn't actually say it -"

"Hang on" Brent said, suddenly registering Rona's words, "what do you mean, 'own up'?"

"Huh?" Rona took another bite, a big one so that she had to chew it and thus had time to think.

"You said he 'owned up' to being gay."

"No, I said he didn't" Rona said, swallowing her mouthful of apple hastily so that she could get a word in.

"Well whether he did or he didn't, you used the phrase 'own up'."

Rona looked around the shop. "Is this, like, a bookshop thing? Are you getting all keyed into words and shit all of a sudden 'cause you're surrounded by books?"

"I just thought you should be aware of it" Brent said. "It's a worrying turn of phrase."

"Well - it's a secret" Rona said. "That he has. And you own up to a secret."

"You own up to a crime" Brent said. "Or to something that you should be ashamed of. So I'm worried about what you're implying."

"No," Rona insisted, "you confess to those things. Trust me, I was raised Catholic, I know about confessions."

"You were never raised Catholic."

"Well, Catholic-adjacent" Rona said. "Sorta."

"Anyway I just thought it was something you should be aware of" Brent said.