Borrowed Happiness

Borrowed Happiness is arranged as a book-style page within the same elegant reading template used for the poetry section. This placeholder page is ready for an excerpt, chapter opening, synopsis, or publication note.

Maya entered the bookstore like a racing car going off track. She tossed her tote bag and the lunch her mother had packed onto a table in the reading section, rushed to the staff area at the back, and burst into tears—crying, yelling, cursing. The usual drama unfolded.

Elin glanced at Maya, then quietly returned to her work, letting her be. Alina was on the phone with the bookstore owner, and another day began at the city’s largest bookstore, owned and operated by a powerful family conglomerate in the commercial capital of the Cinnamon Islands.

Maya worked fulltime at the bookstore as a sales associate. She lived with her mother, her only family since her father had passed away a few years earlier. Her boyfriend, Aman, worked next door at a mobile phone booth. Maya’s mother disliked Aman and did everything possible to keep him away from her daughter.

Once a spoiled child, Maya became the family’s breadwinner after her father’s death, forced to keep the home fires burning. The strain showed. She had earned a reputation as a drama queen—every minor inconvenience became a catastrophe. She tried to twist Aman around her little finger, assigning him every task she could: fixing the car, buying groceries, finding handymen for repairs. Since Aman was unwelcome at her home due to her mother’s disapproval, he remained useful only from a distance.

When neighborhood gossip began to circulate, Maya’s mother’s anxieties inevitably found their way into the bookstore. She dreamed of a prince arriving to claim the hand of her beautiful only child. But there was no royalty on the island, and the affluent families had no interest in a highmaintenance crybaby. Slowly, she was forced to accept that her options were dwindling, and one day she might have no choice but to marry her daughter off to a local man.

Alina, the bookstore manager, was a close friend of the bookstore owner’s son’s girlfriend. She was an opportunistic and indiscreet woman, well known for favoritism. The owner, Mrs. Perera, was in the process of arranging her son’s marriage to a wealthy family from a neighboring country, wary that local elites might uncover his questionable past. She refused to accept his middleclass girlfriend as a future daughterinlaw.

A prim, wellapproved girl already waited in the wings for her son, Sam. He had not yet agreed to the arrangement, but he attempted to placate his girlfriend with expensive gifts. Following the family tradition, and with possible political ambitions ahead, Sam was careful to keep his records clean—no loose ends, no indiscreet conversations that could reach the media. To avoid local gossip, he limited his visits and sent gifts through Alina, who inevitably received stern reprimands whenever Mrs. Perera discovered these transactions through the grapevine.

“Elin, could you please check on Maya? We open in fifteen minutes,” Alina said, still on hold with Mrs. Perera.

Elin, calm and reserved, worked parttime at the bookstore while training at City Bank. She kept her life private and avoided drama. She walked to the staff room to check on Maya.

“My mother is right—he’s worthless,” Maya sobbed. “He gave me a table fan for my birthday, and now he’s sending some cheap mechanic to fix my brakes. Bastard. Always in a clean suit with an empty pocket.” These were her familiar lines. Her face had turned the color of a watermelon; makeup and tears blended into a new foundation, red lipstick smeared across her teeth, her nose glowing like Rudolph’s. She would have made the perfect test subject for any company developing tragedyproof cosmetics.

“I’ve had enough. I’m done with this loser,” Maya declared, though her breakups with Aman never lasted more than a few days.

Elin, unwilling to engage, said quietly, “You can do all that after work. Pull yourself together—we’re opening in a few minutes. Mr. Samuel’s car is parked outside. He’ll be your first customer.”

Mr. Samuel, a wealthy businessman known publicly for his philanthropy, was a frequent visitor. He bought books from Maya, though they served little purpose beyond appearances. When cameras rolled, he donated them to charities. Past his prime yet convinced of his own charm, his behavior only worsened his appearance, further marred by a limp in his left leg.

Recently abandoned by his former mistress—despite lavish gifts, foreign shopping trips, and funding her “Successful Living” brand—he had returned to the shadows, searching for someone younger and more vulnerable. He had tested Elin, but her composure discouraged him. Maya, however, remained on his radar. Mrs. Samuel stayed comfortably in the background, emerging only for charity galas, smiling for cameras and projecting marital unity.

At nine o’clock sharp, the bookstore sign flipped to OPEN. Maya returned to the sales floor. Alina received yet another “final” warning from Mrs. Perera—one of many she had learned to survive.

Elin watched as Maya and Alina, two sides of the same coin, slipped on their artificial happiness masks. Smiling sweetly, they greeted the world with practiced warmth.

“How can I help you today?”