Page 12 of The Arrangement
Downstairs!
I could watch from a distance and find the perfect moment to strike.
No, wait. What if he was a librarian for the children’s section? He might not return to the first floor until the end of his shift, and I didn’t want to hang out here that long. Someone might wonder if I was a creepy stalker.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
Hanging out upstairs wasn’t any better if I didn’t have a kid. Then I definitely looked like a creepy stalker.
The first floor was the best option. I would have to grab a book and find a good place to sit where I could watch for him while not being noticed by anyone else. If I couldn’t make this work today, I’d at least have confirmed that he did, in fact, work at the library.
What the fuck…
Still, the very notion of it boggled my mind. I could imagine Rome doing a hundred other things, and most of them ridiculous, but working as a librarian…that was useful. It was a noble profession. Every day, these people helped their community in finding information, education, and entertainment. More than that, they helped people to get jobs and access services they might not be able to in the privacy of their own homes.
How could this asshole have changed?
I peeked around the column to find kids and parents still surrounding Rome. While he was distracted, I hurried out of the children’s library and down the stairs. I darted into a row of fiction novels and looked for something that might be interesting. A thriller or a mystery of some sort.
With the thick hardback covered in a protective plastic wrapper in hand, I hurried to the tables that would give me a view of the main reception desk and the staircase. I dropped into a chair and slumped so he’d have no way of gauging my height. I pulled the bill of my hat low and propped up my book, further obscuring my face. There. Now he had no way of being able to tell that it was me.
As I waited for him, I tried to turn over what I knew about Rome as a kid and what little I knew about him now. It was hard to admit that after twenty years, maybe there was nothing left of the boy I’d once known. But how well had I known him back then? To this day, I still didn’t understand why he’d kissed me. Did I want to know?
No. It was better to leave all that buried in the past. If I was lucky, we’d at least be polite strangers.
Maybe he cared about this community and would be happy to help the museum with a donation, even if it was me who was asking him. Afterward, we would go our separate ways and resume our lives. Plus, I’d be sure to hand Rome to Dr. Case, andit would becomeherjob to milk him for additional donations, allowing me to return to my work in the lab and in the field.
Yes, this was an excellent plan.
“What do you think?” Rome’s low voice traveled across the open space. I peeked over the top edge of the book to see him strut from the stairs to the reception desk, where one librarian was quietly applauding while the older woman was shaking her head at him, but there was a smile on her thin lips.
When he reached the desk, he leaned one forearm on the counter and crossed his left leg in front of his right, balancing that foot on his toe. They continued to talk—probably about his performance—but their voices were now closer to a whisper, making it impossible for me to hear what they were saying.
However, this brought up a fresh problem. I couldn’t stand up from the table with a book in my hand. It would look like I was stalking him. No, I needed this to appear more casual. Maybe like I’d come in and run into him. But first, I needed to put this book away and find a way to circle behind him.
As I hurried to the stacks, I kept glancing over my shoulder at Rome to make sure he didn’t look my way. But sneaking and watching Rome meant I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going all that well. Along my escape route, I tripped on the leg of a chair where someone was sitting. I mumbled an apology, spun to regain my balance, only to bump into a librarian as she passed by. I panicked and jumped away from her, but I overcompensated and fell into the cart of books she was pushing. The cart, the books, and I all crashed to the floor loudly and messily.
The noise was horrendous in the open, silent library. I tumbled feet over head onto the ground, books spilling in every direction. The book in my hand was now missing in the chaos. When I got righted so that I was sitting on my ass in the middleof the mess, my glasses were askew, and my face felt as if it were on fire.
“Liam?”
My head snapped up, and my heart stopped. Rome was standing above me with his mouth hanging open. I reached up to fix my glasses to find that I’d also lost my hat in the chaos, making my unmistakable red hair very visible.
“Ummm…” It was all I could manage. Once again, Rome Ashbridge had shocked me into stupidity. This was not how we were supposed to run into each other. He wasn’t supposed to surprise me. I was going to surprise him and have the upper hand. Instead, I was sitting on the floor as Rome and two librarians stood by me, a mix of amusement and anger crossing their faces.
“Sorry. About this. I-I’ll clean this up.” Jerking my gaze free from Rome, I shifted to my knees and began picking up the books scattered across the beige carpet. I set them on the cart someone had picked up.
“Stop. Stop,” Rome hissed, smacking at my hands. “You’re making a bigger mess. The books on the return cart are arranged in a very specific order to make putting them away faster and easier. You’re creating twice the work by haphazardly slapping them on the cart.”
“I’m not trying to. I only want to help,” I snapped at him, matching his volume. Even though I knew I was in the wrong, everything about Rome set my teeth on edge, and I couldn’t control my temper.
“Pain in my ass,” he muttered and turned his attention to the librarians, who were watching the entire exchange as if it were their favorite soap opera. “Megan, Lily, I’ll clean this up and handle putting them away. Don’t worry about it.”
“Are…are you sure?” the brunet with purple glasses inquired.
The other one grinned. “I saw the whole thing. It was an accident. Are you sure you don’t want us to help?”
“Nooooo!” Rome groaned and made a shooing motion that caused both women to giggle as they hurried to the reception desk, where the third gray-haired librarian was waiting for an update on what was happening.
