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“Alyssa,” I said. “Don’t shorten it.”
“Alyssa,” he repeated the name as though tasting it, and the sound made my lips tingle.
Someone poked their head through the library door and I tensed, sitting up straighter. But it wasn’t the person I was waiting to confront. Lomao waved to Beverly, then chuckled and left.
I turned back to Elliot. “Do you know if the other librarian is coming in today? The guy, not the young woman.”
“Oh,” he said, his voice dropping in disappointment. He reached across his desk for a pad of sticky notes and a plastic pen. “I don’t know, but if you need something from him, I can leave a message.” He held the pen above the yellow pad and watched me as though focusing extra hard so as not to miss anything I’d say.
“No, I’d rather surprise him,” I said with a curl of my lips that was almost a smile.
“Oh… I can help you find something to read?” His voice was deep and soft like sinking into a soft bed at night. “We received a new box of donations, and some of the puzzle books haven’t been filled in yet.”
I glanced at the window behind him. The portal spat out a chicken with a rocket spewing fire as the bird shot out of view. I had enough puzzles already.
Elliot cleared his throat. “If you don’t like puzzles, we have a few fantasy series.”
I glanced at the massive tome on his desk. It looked like an omnibus of something with too much worldbuilding. I could use the escape. “What are you reading?”
He thumbed the page as though unsure he wanted to answer. “The Big Book of Wondrous Wordplay.” He met my gaze and smiled a little, soft and warm. “For example, this page has a blue hoodie.”
The fuck? I stared at him. He stared back, and as the silence stretched on, his smile started to melt like cum hitting the pavement.
His cum could hit our pavement,my brain said, but I ignored her.
His meaning slowly dawned on me.
“You mean Paige like the person.”
Elliot’s smile widened and looked down at the book. “That wasn’t a very good joke, was it?”
I chuckled. “Is the book printed on parchment? Because that pun was baaaaa…d,” I said, imitating a sheep, and then cringed at my joke. If I wasn’t already in prison, I should be locked up for that.
Elliot laughed, a light sound despite his deep voice, like birds fluttering around. “I should write that one on my notepaaad.”
“Why? So you can look at it and be saaaad?”
He tapped the pen on the sticky notes. “No, because I think it’s raaaad.”
Why in fuck were we trading rhyming sheep noises? How had I been talked into this? What horror had I unleashed upon us?
“That’s enough of that,” I said.
“Oh.” Elliot stared at his book, then lifted it to show me the cover. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.
Of course it was. One of Juniper’s men was convinced he was Shakespeare. “So, you’re reading puns and dick jokes.”
“Among other things,” Elliot said. “I regret not paying more attention in school, so I’m learning now, fifteen years too late.” He shrugged. “What else am I going to do?”
I glanced at the door. Plot revenge like I am? “What are you in for?”
Elliot met my gaze with his dark eyes. “Theft,” he said flatly.
It was the first time he stared directly at me and the first time he spoke in a dull tone.
He was trying too hard, trying to appear normal and calm when he never did before. He was lying.
“You might want to look up a book about tells because you lie like a beaver flies,” I said.
