Page 59 of The Romance Library

19

Theo

‘Well, this is just great!’ Jessica hissed. ‘If you hadn’t followed me down here, we wouldn’t be in this mess.’

‘I didn’t follow you! Edwin invited me. Maybe if you hadn’t been trying to sneak around, this wouldn’t have happened either.’

‘Sneak around?’ She folded her arms over her chest, and I tried to keep my eyes on her face. ‘I was doing research. What I choose to do to win this presentation is up to me. I don’t answer to you.’

For once, I had no argument. She was right. If she chose to come and look at something to help her get ahead, that was up to her. But equally, as her competitor, if Edwin tells me that she’s in the basement doing some research, it’s my duty to go and see if she’s found out anything useful. I wanted to win this just as much as she did.

Jessica was still scowling, and ordinarily that wouldn’t bother me. But the fact was, we were going to be stuck down here for several hours, maybe even overnight. That was hard enough. The last thing I needed was a hostile atmosphere. I needed to do or say something to break the ice.

‘It was an accident. I didn’t know the handle was going to come off.’

Silence.

So that didn’t work. Time to try again.

‘Had any ideas for the talent show?’ No response. ‘Right now you’re doing a very good job of staying silent, so maybe you could mime?’

Jessica’s glare deepened and the silence stretched.

‘Bet you wished this basement was filled with books,’ I said, hoping this would be third time lucky. At least I’d picked a relevant topic.

I didn’t know much about Jessica, but I knew she must love reading. That was why she was so keen on this library. But instead of smiling, she continued scowling. ‘That way you could spend time reading and wouldn’t have to sit here glaring at me.’

‘I don’t read anymore,’ she snapped.

‘What?’ My brows shot up. ‘You want to open a library but you don’t read?’

‘Nope.’ Sadness filled her eyes and rather than grimacing, she avoided my gaze. ‘Not anymore.’

I should be happy to hear this. It was ammunition that could be used against her in the pitch. Edwin loved harping on about community, integrity, authenticity and all that bollocks. So imagine what he’d say if he heard that Jessica didn’t even care about the very thing that was central to her pitch.

Creating a library with zero interest in books was like a vegetarian opening a butcher’s.

But instead of feeling delighted that I’d found another weakness, I felt a strange need to find out what had happened to make her stop reading. I knew why I had. I wondered if she had a similar story.

‘I’m really sorry to hear that,’ I said softly. Jessica’s head snapped up in shock. ‘What happened?’

‘You really want to know?’ She frowned.

‘Yes.’

‘So you can use it against me?’

‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘It just seems like a shame, that’s all. I’m genuinely interested.’

She narrowed her eyes and stared at me like she was assessing whether or not she could trust me. I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t, but I meant what I said. I really wanted to know.

‘I used to love reading romance,’ she sighed. ‘I loved the warm fuzzy feelings they gave me, the meet-cute—y’know, the moment where the characters see each other for the first time. I loved the chemistry, the banter, the conflict, the will-they-won’t-they tension when they’re trying to fight their feelings, the excitement when they finally get together, their first kiss, the spicy scenes, when they have a temporary break-up which often leads to the hero grovelling to win the heroine back, and of course, the happy ending.’

‘All romances have that, right?’ I asked.

‘Yeah. A true romance will always have a guaranteed happily-ever-after, or at least a happy-for-now.’

‘Thought so.’

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