Daniel's family bookshop is both Daniel's homeward destination and a practical base for his growing partnership with Fermín. In its window, Bea studies her reflection before Daniel finds her waiting there; inside, Fermín later turns routine work on used books into cover for his knowing scrutiny of Daniel. The shop's ordinary rhythms—coming home, closing up, cleaning stock—make it the setting in which private desire and comic companionship repeatedly surface.

Setting and Encounters

After a journey with Fermín, Daniel starts for home intending to find a book and withdraw from the world. At the corner of Puerta del Angel and Calle Santa Ana, he turns and sees Bea in front of the bookshop, studying her reflection in the window. Her close-fitting grey wool suit, new shoes, and silk stockings make the encounter vivid against the leaden sky and the day’s stolen light. She explains that her father believes she has gone to noon Mass; Daniel answers by pointing out the continuous service at the nearby Church of Santa Ana. The shop thus becomes the chance meeting place where their exchange begins, with Bea’s reflected image literally occupying its window.

A Base for Shared Schemes

The bookshop also provides the point from which Daniel and Fermín set out on their clandestine errands. One afternoon they leave precisely at closing time, earning a suspicious, steely look from Daniel’s father, who has begun to notice their comings and goings. Fermín offers only an incoherent explanation about errands, and the two quickly disappear. Daniel recognizes that he will eventually have to tell his father at least part of what is happening, though he cannot yet decide which part. The familiar workday boundary of closing time marks their transition from the shop’s public routine into a more private course of action.

Books, Work, and Companionship

On another morning, Fermín makes the counter his station, dressing in blue overalls and equipping himself with a rag and a bottle of alcohol to clean the covers and spines of fifteen secondhand books that have just arrived. All fifteen are copies of The Three-Cornered Hat: A History of the Civil Guard in Alexandrine Verse, a much-sought-after title by the young graduate Fulgencio Capon, celebrated by critics as a prodigy. Fermín applies himself to the books while stealing glances at Daniel and winking like a scheming devil. When he remarks that Daniel’s ears are as red as peppers, Daniel blames the color on Fermín’s endless nonsense. The exchange turns the counter and its book-cleaning task into a small stage for their familiar teasing, and shows how the shop’s literary stock and everyday labor coexist with their private understanding.