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Karen pushes her cat eyeglasses up her nose, glancing between the almost completely empty reading room and me. “I don’t care if you go talk to him. It’s slow. He’s got good taste in books. I want to read this article without you interrupting me. He has a crush on you. Everyone wins.”
Having worked with Karen for close to six months, I’m getting used to her blunt way of speaking. At least, I thought I was.
“He does not have a crush on me. I wasn’t going to talk to him. And you shouldn’t even be reading on the job. No one wins!”
Wait, no, that’s not what I meant to say.
Karen flips the magazine’s cover up to reveal it’s the monthly publication put out by the American Library Association.
“Professional development. Go flirt.”
“I’m not flirting. I’m doing my job!” I whisper with only an edge of frantic in my voice.
“Look. Summer. Can I call you Summer?”
“It’s my name. So yes?”
“Summer. You’re a good librarian. Great, actually. Top-notch. Sometimes it’s intimidating to be around you. You’re a catalyst for imposter syndrome.”
“I don’t mean to—”
Karen waves me quiet. “My issues. Not yours. My point is, you want to be a flustered human for the last ten minutes of your shift on a Sunday night? I can deal with that. In fact, I welcome it. So please, go ‘shelve books.’” She uses finger quotes around the last two words, and I find myself smiling at her dry delivery of an extremely sweet sentiment. Briefly, Karen reminds me of Cole.
And once again, my focus is drawn toward the reading room.
“Okay. Alright. I will goshelve books.” I put emphasis on the last words, trying to imply that is exactly what I plan to do.
But from Karen’s snort, I can only imagine it sounded like some sort of dirty innuendo.
I can’t win.
On quiet feet, I stroll around the reading room, eyeing every surface for some item I could put away.
There’s nothing. Nothing other than that stray book not being used within the fortress. It’s not even close enough to the piles to be considered a draw bridge.
I must put it away.
Cole’s head is completely obscured. I could approach and retreat without alerting him to my presence. I will be sneaky. Use my quiet librarian superpowers to approach without disturbing him.
The old carpet helps in my task, muffling my footsteps. I hunch my shoulders, bending over slightly to make sure no bit of me pops above his towers. When I’m within reaching distance, I stretch my arm out as far as it will go. My fingers brush the plastic protective cover.
So close. Just another inch.
“Summer?”
I squeak. An actual squeak. I’ll have to go around to the other patrons and assure them that the library isn’t infested with mice, because the sound that just came out of my throat was not something a human should make.
In my single-minded approach to the table, all my attention had been focused on the stray book. Which means I didn’t realize my crush decided to stand up, and has potentially been watching me creep around.
Luckily, I have a quick recovery time in awkward situations.
“Cole Allemand! Happy Sunday night!”
And by quick recovery time, I mean, I continue to exist in the awkward because it is my natural habitat.
His cool-colored gaze sweeps over me, then settles on where I’m fingering the stray book.
Oof. Better not use that phrasing out loud.
