AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Just…looking for books,” I said, glancing at the shelves.
“Right,” she said. Silence fell between us. We’d literally been texting each other for days with no weirdness but being together in the same space suddenly made us unable to communicate normally.
“What are you reading?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet. Was going to see what struck my fancy.”
“I finished that series you recommended. You were right, I did love them.”
Books. Books were a safe topic to talk about. I could talk about books with pretty much anyone.
“If you liked that one, I can tell you what to read next,” I said, leading her down the rows of shelves, looking for the right author.
“Here,” I said, handing her the first book in the series. “This is a little bit more on the fantasy side, but still, so good.”
I loaded Alivia’s arms with the first three books in the series.
“That should hold you for a little bit. What about the other books?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, I tried. I just couldn’t get into them.” I made a note of that.
“Okay, try this one,” I said, handing her another book after I found it. “It’s really weird, but just go with it.”
“I trust you,” she said, looking down at the cover.
We stood there together in the cramped space between the shelves, and I leaned a little bit against one for support.
Being so close to her again was doing all kinds of things to me. My skin felt like it was on fire. I hoped she couldn’t tell.
I needed to get away from her, but I couldn’t move.
“Is everything okay?” she asked me.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice squeaking. Great. “I’m fine.” That was a little bit better.
“Okay,” she said, but I wasn’t sure if she was convinced.
“How are you?” I asked, trying to deflect.
“Good,” she said. “Busy. We have another reception this weekend, and the brides are a bit of a handful.” She leaned against the opposite shelf, readjusting the books in her arms.
“Bridezillas?” I asked.
“Just a little bit. I’m doing a lot of deep breathing exercises in my office,” she said. “It’s not my fault that I wasn’t able to get live peacocks. I tried!”
I snorted. “Peacocks? That sounds like mayhem.”
“It would have been. I called a bunch of wildlife places that do educational events with kids and asked them if they could do one for a wedding and they acted like no one has asked to have peacocks at their wedding reception before. We had to settle for swans wandering around the garden, and even that was a whole big drama. I’m absolutely terrified that the reception will be ruined by a rogue swan attack.”
I tried to stifle my laugh and couldn’t.
“Um, I may need to come and see this,” I said. “What time is the reception?”
“Cocktail hour starts at four. You should absolutely come and watch. Steal me a drink and I’ll come and hide with you if anything goes wrong.”
“I’ll do you one better; I’ll drive the getaway car.”
We both laughed as quietly as we could. Being with her made me so giddy. I just wanted to twirl around the library with joy.
