Page 18 of In This Moment

And it hit her… “Comic boxes.”

“Huh?” He set the chair down, moving the box to a desk.

“I had a boyfriend in college who collected comic books. He put them in plastic sleeves to protect them, then into comic boxes. They’re like filing boxes, sort of, and you can put dividers in them. What if we arranged the desks, two on each side, and put the prints in sleeves in comic boxes on the desks?”

He straightened, hands on his hips. “That’ll work. We can label the outside of the boxes with specific years, and put dividers in for easy access to find prints. It leaves the center of the room pretty open, however.”

“True.” They’d need something short that they could showcase prints, yet not be imposing to the space. Perhaps put a few copies in frames already. “The library used to have a couple of those magazine rack stands. About five feet high. I wonder if they’re still there. We could put them back to back, right in the middle of the room.”

He mumbled something to the tune of “good idea” as she pulled her phone from her pocket. She thumbed a text in her group chat with Scarlett and Dorothy.

Do we still have those magazine rack stands in library storage? If so, can I steal them? BTW, I got a job at The Vallantine Gazette!!!

Scarlett: OMG! Grats! Yes. There are 2 shelves. IDC if you steal them. Thief.

Dorothy’s text came a second later. Congratulations. They’re lucky to have you. Go ahead and take the shelves. Don’t think we were gonna use them. We can always buy more if we want later. No biggie.

Rebecca shot them a thank-you, then looked at Graham. “Yep, two shelves. They won’t fit in my car, though.”

“Lemme try Forest. They probably won’t fit in my car, either. He has a truck.”

While waiting for a reply, they moved the remaining four desks to the outer walls, two on each side. They’d need tablecloths to look nice, but that was simple and inexpensive to fix.

His phone chimed, and while he texted back, she eyed the vacant brick walls. There were a lot of poster-size black frames upstairs. Gears started turning in her mind.

“Forest said he can meet you at the library at 5:15.” He glanced at his watch. “Which is in an hour.”

“Okay, I’ll go run errands for stuff here and meet up with him. Can you do a couple things to save time while I’m gone?”

“I gotta run home to feed the dog, but that won’t take long. Sure. Whatcha got?”

He had two industrial copy printers in his office. “Do your printers go larger than standard page? And is there paper that size?”

“Yes and yes.”

She rolled through the contents of upstairs in her mind. “Maybe bring down the frames and a few of the oldest archive boxes? Find a few papers that have good front pages and print them to poster size to fit the frames. We can hang them on the walls. Would that be all right?”

He reared, then turned to glance behind him. “You’re just full of great ideas. I’ll start on it as soon as I get back.”

“Thanks.” She headed toward his office to grab her things when something dawned on her. “We can pick this up tomorrow if you prefer? I hate to keep you from plans.” Just because she didn’t have anything going on didn’t mean he didn’t. Not to mention, they’d be staying way past business hours.

“I’m good. Do you like dogs and pizza?”

Confusion had her freezing in place. “At the same time?”

Rubbing his eyes, he laughed. “I can pick up a pizza for dinner, and do you mind if I bring my dog with me?”

“Oh.” She laughed, suddenly nervous. Which was stupid. They’d spent the afternoon working in harmony. “Both are fine.”

He removed a wallet from his back pocket and held out a credit card. “For expenses on your errands. If it’s for work, charge it. What do you like on your pizza?”

“Anything but dead fish.”

Another laugh. Rich and from the gut. She was beginning to like the sound. Warm, hearty.

“No anchovies. Got it.”

She walked back to the library to fetch her car, then drove to Scarlett’s to grab the library key from her.

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