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“What is wrong with you?”
“What the hell?” Lottie yelled.
Janie materialized, sitting with her legs dangling from the circulation desk.
“You know you’re not supposed to do that yet,” Lottie sneered at her friend. “If you get caught, you’ll be kicked out of the program and then what?”
“Blah, blah, blah. Don’t be snippy with me because you’ve stuck your foot in your mouth with that Lucid. Have you never met one before?”
Lottie fell back into her office chair. “Of course, I have but I always knew up front. I never tried to befriend or date one. It’s like some kind of crazy cult. No one around here abides by the Lucid lifestyle.”
Eyes wide, Janie jumped down from the desk, landing on the floor with a sound. “That’s harsh. If you haven’t befriended any of them, how do you really know anything about it?”
Sighing, Lottie hung her head. When she looked up at Janie a minute later her cheeks were red, eyes wet.
“Come on now. Don’t go all soft on me. I’m merely stating facts. She has her judgments because she’s never learned any better, same as you.”
“Hhmm.” Lottie folded her arms across her chest. She hated being chastised, even though she knew her friend was right. “What now? Do I apologize or just leave it alone?”
“Apologize!”
“I’ll have to find her later. I have another tour.” New students had started to make their way into the library. Usually, the tours met at the Student Center but on Sunday’s Lottie liked to mix it up. Janie was gone before Lottie could say anything else. She just shook her head.
###
After spending two days going back and forth on her decision to apologize to Nova, Lottie finally decided she needed the woman in her life. She had waited around at the student center after her shift was over to see if Nova would come in to register with her boyfriend, but she hadn’t seen her. Lottie knew she shouldn’t use her authority at the student center for her personal use, but she realized she had never had the chance to ask Nova for her number. Knowing she didn’t have any type of social media; the only way Lottie could think of to try and find Nova was through her class schedule.
Lottie waited until the following day, after her shift at the library. There were fewer people around and she knew Ms. Ethel would leave before her, unlike Dr. Almes in the student center. Once Ms. Ethel said her goodbyes, Lottie signed into Carmilla’s system and quickly pulled up class schedules. It took less than 30 seconds, and she didn’t go into any other student’s information, but the guilt consumed her. She hit print and snatched the paper off the printer, then cleared the history of her search and the print queue.
“Hi Lots.”
“For the love of all things Holy. Janie, you cannot keep doing that!”
She produced a small white card from thin air. “Peter approved it. Whatcha doin?”
“Nothing,” Lottie snapped.
Janie leaned over the circulation desk, pulling the paper from Lottie’s hands. Lottie grabbed for it, but Janie was faster. Folding her arms across her chest, Lottie paced the floor as Janie read over the paper.
“So, what’s your plan?” she asked, gesturing with the schedule.
“The plan for what?” Selena asked as she came through the front door of the library.
Lottie stopped pacing. “When did you all become so nosey?”
“When did you become so love struck?”
“I’m not love struck. I’m just…she’s just…I don’t know. Okay. I don’t know what’s going on with me.” Lottie sat on top of one of the tables with her feet planted in a chair.
Selena sat next to her. “I can tell you exactly what it is.”
“I also have a theory,” Janie said as she winked and smiled at her friends.
Looking around to make sure no one else was paying attention to them, Lottie shrugged. “Well, out with it then.”
“She’s hard to get and you have never, in all your years, been turned down so quickly and as fiercely as Nova turned you down.”
Janie nodded as Lottie scoffed. “Oh please. I’ve been turned down before.”
