Page 16 of Twilight at Croftwood Library
‘I am open but I’m not working. Day off. Patsy’s in today.’
Patsy must be the friendly barista she’d met on her first day.
‘What can I do for you?’ She tried not to be disappointed that he hadn’t bought her any lunch.
‘Rosemary suggested I call in to choose a book. She said you have some new displays and she was keen for me to be a guinea pig.’
‘Oh, right. What kind of books do you enjoy?’
‘Like I said before, I don’t have that much time to read.’
It always annoyed Lois when people said that. How could anyone not find ten minutes to pick up a book? It wasn’t as if you had to devote days at a time to it unless you wanted to. She came out from behind the desk and headed towards the display of crime and thriller books.
‘Maybe something along the lines of the book of yours I started?’
She shrugged off a pang of guilt as she remembered she’d promised to lend it to him after she’d finished it. She hadn’t forgotten but she’d got distracted by another book and not picked it up again yet.
‘You could try this one.’ She handed him a copy ofSleepby CL Taylor. He turned it around in his hands and nodded.
‘Have you read it?’
‘Yes, I enjoyed it. It’s quite pacey, keeps you interested.’
‘Okay, I’ll take it. Maybe we can have a coffee and talk about it after I’ve read it,’ he grinned.
‘That’d be good.’ She was momentarily distracted as she pondered what a good idea that was, not just because she couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do but it sparked something that she thought could work for the library too.
Oliver looked surprised. ‘I mean, we don’t have to do that.’
‘Sorry. It’d be great to do that. I was just having an epiphany.’
‘That sounds like it ought to be good?’ His brow furrowed.
‘It is good. You’ve just given me an idea.’ She laughed, feeling on a high like she did on the rare times she knew she’d hit on something special.
‘Right,’ said Oliver, looking amused with a hint of frightened. ‘Anyway, shall I check out my book?’ He flipped his wallet open and handed her one of Rosemary’s old-fashioned paper library cards. ‘It’s been so long since I came in, does that still work here?’
Suddenly, even though the same thing had been happening on a daily basis since she’d started working at Croftwood Library, it seemed hilarious that Oliver was quite seriously offering her this scrappy piece of paper and she burst out laughing.
‘Sorry, I’m not laughing at you,’ she said, trying to pull herself together. ’It’s just so funny that you…’ she bent over, holding her stomach as the laughter gripped her and she could hear Oliver begin laughing along with her which made it even worse. ‘1970s…’ she managed to blurt out. Then a wave of embarrassment flooded over her as she remembered that she was at work, she was the manager for god’s sake. She managed to sober her mood by imagining Rosemary’s expression if she was stood there instead of Oliver and she stood up, wiping the tears from her cheeks trying to ignore the fact that now she thought she may burst into tears right in front of Oliver and for no reason at all.
‘Gosh, I’m so sorry. No, we’re not taking those anymore as they’re a relic from the 1970s.’ She risked a smile, hoping that it wouldn’t lead to full-blown hysterics again. ‘But I can sort that out for you.’
She sat down at the desk and asked him the few questions necessary to set him up with a digital account. His whole name was Oliver Jones. Somehow finding that out made her feel closer to him. She handed him his new card along with his book. ‘Enjoy it.’
‘Thanks, Lois.’ He turned to leave, then paused and turned around to look at her, his expression telling her that he was weighing up whether or not to say something. ‘Anytime you want a coffee…you know.’ He looked like he was going to say something else then shook his head slightly and smiled. ‘Take care.’
‘Bye, Oliver,’ she called to his back as he walked out.
How mortifying. She didn’t know what had come over her. And how long had it taken for her resolve over Oliver to crumble? A matter of minutes in his presence and she was willing to open herself up to goodness knows what and she didn’t seem able to stop herself from feeling like… like she was falling for him. Was that what it was? And had he come here today to see her or to do Rosemary a favour? Either way, the germ of an idea he’d given her was well worth another go on the emotional rollercoaster she seemed to be on at the moment. She was going to start a book club. Not any book club, this one was going to be different, and she already had a feeling that it was going to change everything.
11
‘I think the displays are working out really well,’ said Lois at the Thursday meeting with Linda and Rosemary. ‘It’s been great to be able to point people in their direction for them to browse through.’
‘It’s a huge time-saver if someone doesn’t know what they want and are after us to help them choose. It used to take ages when everything was shelved away.’ Linda blushed as she realised Rosemary might take that as a criticism but actually Rosemary looked much happier than she had even the week before. She seemed to be enjoying her new role at the library and was managing to be very positive about most of the things that were improvements on the way she’d run things before.
‘The next thing I’d like to concentrate on is building our social media presence. We need to have a Twitter account so that we can network with other libraries and it’s an easy way for customers to get in touch with us. And an easy way for us to publicise the library. I know we’re faced with closure, but I really would like us to go down in a blaze of glory.’
