Page 55 of I Met Him At The Library

Exiting after her, I turned and left the library. Seeing Neil on the bench, I walked over and gave his shoulder a slight shake.

With his eyes springing open, he stared up at me and sat up straighter. “Oh Ryan, good evening.”

“Hey Neil, you’re gonna miss out on roast beef at the diner if you keep sleeping here.”

“Ah yes. How’s the event you’re planning coming along? You know it’s going to mess up my schedule. I can't nap on this bench that day.”

“I’m sorry about that, Neil. We are trying our best, but I don’t know if it’ll save the library.”

“You mean I could lose my napping bench?” Neil asked, his eyes widening in terror.

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“Bullshit,” Neil said while he stood. “Well, anything I can do to help?”

“Not really, keep spreading the word.”

“Ok.” He nodded before turning and slowly walking away, “It’s time for supper. You save my favorite napping bench.”

I nodded, and as he walked away I huffed a laugh. The poor guy didn’t have any family in the area, and the one thing he planned on were his naps. Neil having a pleasant place to nap was pretty low on my list of reasons to save the library, but I’d add it anyway.

Strolling through town, I headed toward the pub to meet up with the guys. Inside the bar, the lights seemed dimmer than normal, but probably because my eyes were heavy from the little sleep I got last night. My worry over either losing or needing to let go of Emily, and possibly losing the library made sleeping difficult as hell.

Sliding into the booth, the guys stared at me with concern. I hadn’t told them about running into Nick in Fairwood, but based on their expression, they knew something went down.

Before anyone asked any questions, I blurted it out, “So I met Nick this weekend. In Fairwood. And Emily didn’t tell him we were dating.”

“Wait, what?” Levi’s eyes widened.

Pushing my hand through my hair, I explained, “I took Emily out to Fairwood for dinner, and while we were walking the strip, Nick showed up. He’s evidently doing work up there. When he asked why she was in Fairwood, she introduced me and said we were in town to meet with the library director. Do I need to be freaked out by this?”

“She didn’t say you were her boyfriend?” Preston asked, with a confused expression.

“Nope.”

“Okay, well. We know Emily is a private person, maybe she didn’t feel like sharing because it isn’t any of her exes business,” Trey said.

“Why is she so private?” I asked.

Both Levi and Trey thinned their lips, and I narrowed my eyes on both of them. Something happened to Emily to make her so private.

“It’s not our place to tell. But you should push her on this if you want your relationship out in the open. You need to talk to her,” Levi said, and Trey nodded his agreement.

When I went to argue, Trey held up his hand and said, “We could tell you what we know, but it might not even be the whole truth of it. Emily is the only trustworthy source for this story. You need to talk to her.”

I wasn’t going to get any additional information out of them, but at least it was a starting point for me to dig. I had a direction to go in. All I had to do was find a private time to talk to Emily about it all.

Pulling out my phone, I texted her. I’d meet with her for breakfast and then we’d go back to her place. There we could have the conversation, and I could convince her to let us go public with our relationship. I was tired of hiding my feelings for her.

Chapter 32

Emily

After not seeing Ryan at all on Sunday or Monday, I grew concerned. However, last night he texted me asking if we could have breakfast together, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

We still didn’t know where we stood with the library funding. If Ryan was going to leave because the library would be shut down, I couldn’t deal with another round of the Poor Emilys. “She can’t get a man to stay.” “It’s because she doesn’t take care of her weight.” “She’s a recluse.” “After what she did in high school, who would ever want her.”

The kick of it was was none of those things were true, but they still fucking hurt. Most of them started after high school. Rumors surfaced about me that my high school ex and his friends invented. I should have known better than to date someone from the popular crowd, but back then I was only thinking about how happy I was that someone was interested in me.

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