Page 184 of As They Are
Her hand slid into mine. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
We walked up the stairs, and I was greeted with more books than I thought possible. It was quiet up here in the new space. I took a moment to enjoy the reprieve from the noise. “You goteverything.”
“Oh yeah, it’ll take everyone a long time to make their way through these. Mollie said the original was endless. I tried to make it match.”
I perused the shelves, looking at each genre that was available, but came to the end of the room sooner than expected. There once had been an unsafe overhang here. Now it was a white wall with a wooden door.
“Did you wall this off?”
“Yeah, I did.” She pushed open a door to a meeting room. The lights were off, but when she flicked them on, I saw a couch, table, and chairs.
“A study room?” I asked. “I thought those were downstairs.”
“They are,” she replied. “These are quiet rooms.” One of her hands traced the wall. “They’re soundproof.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I knew this area was a littletoobig, but I got the idea while I was looking up things to help you. A lot of people struggle with things being too much. Now they have a safe space.”
My eyes grew wide as she talked, and my heart skipped a beat. “You’re incredible.”
“It’s what anyone would have done.”
“No,” I said, grabbing her hand. “Trust me, there aren’t a lot of people who would put this much thought into something like this. You were planning to be here temporarily, and you could have done this quickly to get out of here to work on other things. But you didn’t. It goes to show what kind of person you are.”
“Thank you,” she said. “It’s still a little hard for me to accept compliments, but I’ll get there.”
“You will.”
“Do you need some time to enjoy the quiet?” she asked. “I know the sea of people was a lot.”
It was tempting to take her up on her offer, but I wanted to see it all. Shaking my head, I brought her in for a kiss, sliding my hands in her hair.
“Don’t let this go too far,” she whispered. “The cameras might have followed us.”
“They didn’t,” I murmured into her mouth.
She pulled away, frowning. “Really? They didn’t?”
Looking out into the main room, there were a few people who had made it upstairs, but no cameras.
“They could be interviewing Jude.”
Wren’s lips pursed. “I’m gonna go check.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Are you sure? I’ll be fine on my own.”
“I’m sure you will be, but I’m celebrating you today. There’s no reason I can’t go downstairs with you.”
She eyed me, and while itwasa lot, I was so happy for her that I didn’t care. I grabbed her hand and tugged her out of the quiet room.
We headed downstairs into the fray again, but the cameras were gone. Wren checked all the corners while I looked out the open door.
I blinked when I saw an older version of Wren. She had flowing hair and was in a sundress and heavy makeup. Madison was with her, and she was getting a mic pack on.
All of the joy melted out of my body. There wasnoway they could have ...Whywould they have donethisof all things?
