Page 59 of I Met Him At The Library

I groaned and turned away from the door, going back to the couch and collapsing onto it.

“I fucked up,” I said as my friends moved into the house and took their places.

“How the hell did you fuck it up that quickly?” Levi asked.

Trey grabbed plates from the kitchen and they began serving up pizza, Preston passed out beers, and I explained everything from this morning - how I stupidly let the caveman part of me show up to claim Emily as mine in front of half the town and without her acceptance or knowledge of it.

“I don’t see where you were totally in the wrong. You’ve been wanting to go public basically from the moment you two started dating. I didn’t get why you two were continuing to hide everything when you obviously work,” Trey said.

“She’s afraid that if I can’t save the library, I’ll have to leave town to find work,” I explained.

“Okay? But you aren’t planning on doing that,” Levi stated.

“I was, but not anymore. I want to stay for her. Hell if it comes down to it, I’ll take Trey up on his offer and start working with him.”

“Have you told her that?” Preston asked.

“No, I meant to this morning, but then Nick happened and all my good intentions for a conversation went flying out the window. All I could think of to do was kiss her in front of half the town in order to get him to back off without me punching him in the face for simply existing in her presence.”

“Damn man. You’ve got it bad,” Preston murmured.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“So have you tried talking to her since this morning?” Trey asked.

“I texted her with my lame excuse about past issues of mine rearing their ugly head and asking to talk about it. She responded, saying she wanted to wait until after the festival to see me.”

“Ouch.”

“Can one of you explain to me why she is this way about public attention?” I asked.

“Nope,” Levi said, and Trey shook his head. “What we know is there were a lot of nasty rumors about her around senior year of high school. We don’t even know the truth of it, but we can guess it was a bunch of lies. The only thing we can say is half the town believed the lies, and over time it died down. But every time she and a guy started or stopped dating, the town brought those lies back up along with a few other shitty statements.”

“And you won’t even tell me what the town says?”

This time Trey answered, “While harmless gossip helps to break up the mundane life of small town living, we will not spread lies, even in an explanation. She should be the one to tell you what happened, because only she knows the full truth. Though, I’m pretty sure Meghan knows the truth too, since they were somewhat close back then, too.”

“Great,” I muttered, already knowing the chances of Meghan sharing her knowledge was slim to none.

After a few minutes of silence where I mentally beat myself up for fucking this up, Trey asked, “So how likely is it you’ll end up working for me?”

“Right now it looks like we will bring in enough to keep the doors open for six months.”

“But staying open for at least six more months may give you enough time to find a solution,” Preston encouraged.

“Yes, but it’s been hell on my stress levels. At some point, I’m going to have to consider when it’s time to stop fighting.”

And that was the truth. I didn’t want to let anyone down, but if it wasn’t meant to happen, it wouldn’t, and fighting it wasn’t going to actually help anyone at all. All I needed to do was figure out when enough was enough.

Chapter 34

Emily

“Okay, so he acted like a caveman, but isn’t that what we want? Someone who wants us so much they throw us over their shoulder and show the whole world they are proud to be with you?” Poppy asked, and I hated how it made sense.

I had finished telling Poppy about everything that happened. How I was upset Ryan walked in and kissed me in front of half the town. Thinking about it now, I wasn’t embarrassed by it. It made me happy to have someone who wanted me so much he didn’t care who was watching - at least until I had started hearing the whispers.

Hiding in my apartment, I was refusing to leave. I didn’t want to hear the whispers of people who passed me in the street. I also didn’t want to deal with those who would be bold enough to straight up ask me if Ryan and I were dating. I didn’t have an answer to the question anymore. I didn’t know what I wanted.

---