So I finished four exams this morning and realized that it was my sister’s fiance’s birthday today. I hadn’t gotten him anything and was going to visit the two of them at their home next weekend. I’d better make use of this opportunity to shop for a gift.

Wait. I’m coming out of UBC Robson. I could just get him a jacket with UBC logos on it and hope he doesn’t notice it was a last minute gift. Oh, too bad. He got one of those last year. (Sorry, Mom, but he probably already knew.)

Across the street from school is a Chapters and I recently got an iRewards card, so it was a logical choice. Who doesn’t read these days?

After about five seconds of browsing, I thought of a book by someone Isb-something about something to do with Canada. He’d probably like that. So I decided to seek it out. I didn’t find it immediately (or ever), but I *did* find a cute salesgirl who I decided was making eye contact with me because she thought I was something special to look at too. But I was on a mission and could not be bothered.

About another five seconds later, I asked her for a recommendation. And she was awesome. We spent somewhere between 5 – 10 minutes going between a few sections, talking about the books that she likes (some selections involving zombies, some graphic novels), the kind of guy that my sister’s fiance is so that we could continue to (obstensibly) look for a great gift, and something about how her dad is a big fan of Conan the Barbarian comics. She was awesome.

Near the end of that, VERY near the end of that, she was talking about a book, a book that I was holding in my very hands, when she said something along the lines of, “… my husband really liked that book too”.

“Y’Goddamnit!” was what went through my head as I noticed that she was (subtly) wearing a ring.

And that, ladies, is how you get some guy to buy four books from you at Chapters.