Page 7 of I Met Him At The Library

At a round table with four chairs surrounding it, I pulled the laptop from my bag and set it down before pulling out the charging cord and wireless mouse. I plugged the laptop in and turned it on before reaching into my bag to pull out notebooks filled with scenes, world building, and character development notes.

Opening the document containing my book, I paused for a second to breathe in the distinct smell of paper and ink from the books surrounding me. As I refreshed my memory of the last words I wrote, I sipped my coffee and my characters came to life in my brain. They talked to me as though I was a biographer telling their story from their point of view. I was merely a vessel for the characters in my head.

It was like having imaginary friends. Imaginary tall men with skin shining like gold, tails, and horns as well as the human women they fell in love with. I was used to it, but explaining it to others often left them looking at me like something was wrong with me. Only authors knew what it felt like to have whole worlds and different scenarios playing out in your brain on the regular.

This was why I liked using the study rooms, sometimes I would have full on conversations with my characters trying to work out parts of their story. Sometimes those conversations weren’t only in my head, and it would be embarrassing to have to explain the way my creative process worked to anyone.

Except, I didn’t have that luxury today, and I had a book to finish. So embarrassment be damned, I was going to get five-thousand words down.

Chapter 5

Ryan

Checking the time again, it was well after nine in the morning, and Emily hadn’t shown up yet. Did she find somewhere else to work? What if something happened to her? Should I have stayed at the bar to keep an eye on her? What if she went home with someone else?

My knee jumped under the desk, as I kept checking the door out of the corner of my eye. She should have been here by now, but she wasn’t, and I was ready to send out a search-and-rescue team.

Unfortunately, the study rooms filled up quickly today. One person came in about five minutes ago, and I had to tell them the private rooms were filled. They informed me the internet was out on the south side of town, so anyone who worked from home would need a place to work today. It seemed like they were all coming here. We were busier than normal for a weekday.

I hoped Emily wouldn’t turn around and try to work somewhere else. I promised myself today was going to be the day I struck up a conversation with her. I was still kicking myself for not being brave enough to approach her last night.

Betsy huffed a laugh as she walked past me, but a flash of auburn hair caught my attention as Emily rushed in the doors.

“Good morning,” I said.

“Morning,” Emily replied with a small smile, slowing her initially hurried stride into the library.

She paused and scanned the already full study rooms before she examined the rest of the library. When she marched off toward the reference section, I breathed out a sigh of relief. She was still planning on working here today. The reference section was quiet, and hadn’t been disturbed in quite a long time. In fact, I couldn’t recall if anyone had used it since I started here.

That section could probably use some dusting too. Maybe I’d make a list of the references we could weed out to make room for something else, or to expand a more popular section of the library.

“Betsy, you have the desk. I’m going to dust the reference section.”

“Mhm, have fun dusting the section I dusted yesterday because Miss Emily is sitting there today.”

I narrowed my eyes at the back of her head where her silver hair was pulled up into a twist. Turning, I grabbed the special dusting cloth and a metal cart. I liked Betsy a lot, but she was worse than my mom when it came to getting involved in my life. On some level, it feels like she adopted me when I arrived at the library years ago.

Steering the cart toward the reference section, I started dusting a couple aisles away from Emily. I’d work my way to her so I didn’t disturb her right away. She seemed a bit frantic this morning. I’d give her time to relax before I made my approach.

Pulling books from the shelves, I held them tight in my hands to dust them, keeping the dust from falling between the pages, before setting them in the cart. My eyes moved to Emily periodically as she typed away on her laptop.

Her eyes almost glazed over as she worked, and every now and then her mouth would move like she was whispering to herself. Finishing up one aisle, I moved to the next hoping to hear whatever she was saying to herself. At the end of the aisle, nearest to her, she appeared to be deep into whatever she was working on, and entirely focused on her laptop.

She had a slightly exasperated expression, while she muttered under her breath, and I started to question approaching her while she worked. It would be rude of me, and my intrusion could irritate her further. I didn’t want her to hate me for disturbing her flow.

As I considered the pros and cons of striking up a conversation with her, she whispered, “I’m not making your cock larger. It won’t fit in Tabitha.”

Saliva caught in my throat, and I started coughing loudly. Did she just say what I think she said? I must have misheard her.

“Are you okay?” Emily asked, staring at me as I continued to clear my throat.

“Yes,” I coughed again and cleared my throat and gestured to the shelves before saying, “I’m fine. Dust.”

“Okay.” She gave me an unsure look, but turned back to the open laptop.

I turned back to the shelves while keeping her in the corner of my eye. She began typing on the computer again, frowning at the screen. Why the hell would she talk about making someone’s cock larger?

Was penis enlargement a thing? Reaching for my phone to check Google, I stopped short of pulling it out of my pocket afraid of the types of advertisements that would show up on every website, social media platform, and streaming service I used. There were some questions I didn’t need to know the answer to. I was perfectly happy with my size, but it never occurred to me that someone could make their penis larger. Why was I stuck on this train of thought, and how did I get off?

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