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She halts in her tracks, turns around slowly, and looks up at Ms. Albu, who beckons her with the crook of her finger. “Now, you weren’t about to walk out after turning over my display of Penguin Classics, were you?”
Looking at Crina’s slumped shoulders as she walks back toward Ms. Albu, I stifle a laugh. Ms. Albu gently rebukes her for a moment, and they return together and fix the fallen display until the librarian is satisfied. Then Ms. Albu gives Crina a hug. She catches me waiting just inside the door, and asks, “What is it, Marku?”
At the sound of my name, Crina stiffens in her arms and Ms. Albu glances at her in concern. “Is anything wrong?”
“No, no,” replies Crina, giving me a vicious side-eye glare.
I grin over at her. “I’m just here to make sure she gets home okay.”
“Oh, that’s nice of you,” Ms. Albu replies, releasing Crina with a pat on the back.
Crina shuffles quickly toward the exit, passing me without a word. As the library door shuts, she grumbles, “Why does she have to be so nice? Seriously, if it was any other teacher, I would’ve run out that door. But with her, she…shekillspeople with niceness.”
I let out a laugh. “Chuckie…”
“What? It’s true! That’s why they have detention in the library because they know we can’t hate someone like her. It’s so annoying.”
Crina pounds the elevator button a few times, and that snaps me back into reality.
I take her elbow. “Hey, wait a minute …”
She takes one look at my face and starts shaking her head. “No, no, we finished whatever we had to say this morning.”
“We sure as hell didn’t.”
“I don’t want to rehash any of that.”
“Ha, funny. You damn well know we didn’t get to the bottom of it.”
The elevator dings. The door opens. I tighten my hold on her elbow and drag her away.
“My mother needs me home,” she whines.
“I’ll get you home as soon as we’re done,” I promise, pulling her back into the library through the side door. We enter near the back of the spacious room. Ms. Albu is busy at her desk in the front. Placing my finger to my mouth in warning, I prod her to the farthest stacks of books.
At first, I was going to take her into one of the study rooms, but Ms. Albu will likely check them before she leaves and I don’t want to be interrupted, so I urge her past the row of soundproof rooms toward the very back of the library.
She hisses in a low tone, “You can’t keep manhandling me like this, ya know.”
“And you can’t keep getting away with shit.”
She stops hard, making me bump into her. Letting out a huff, I check our surroundings. We’re deep in the stacks, safe from detection by Ms. Albu. I hang back and let Crina take her little stand.
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“It means you got yourself in trouble and you’re trying to get away with it, as usual. But I’m not your mama. She’s no dummy, but I’m a helluva lot smarter.” I pause. “And I know all your tricks.”
Crina releases a little growl.
Cute.
“I don’t recall making you my keeper.”
I lean in close so she can see how dead serious I am. “You don’t have any say in that. I’ve had the job my entire life, these past four years included. It’s been authorized by our clans and, oh, there’s that little matter of a marriage certificate between us.”
“Earlier, you said we were done.”
I pull back, incredulous. “You think that’s going to stop me from finding out what happened?”
