Page 9 of Twilight at Croftwood Library
‘That’s an understatement,’ he said with a grin.
Lois had forgotten how it could be in a small town. She had grown up in a place like Croftwood and remembered the downside of living in a small community where everyone knew everything about everybody.
‘I’m working on winning her over,’ she said, feeling the need to explain herself.
‘Good for you. Let’s see how that goes.’ He smiled and handed her the coffee. ‘This one’s on the house. Welcome to Croftwood.’
‘Thanks, that’s really nice of you.’
‘Us outsiders have to stick together.’ He winked at her and feeling herself blush, she gave a tight smile and turned away, heading over to the same place she had sat on Monday.
She saw Oliver glance at her as he listened to the next customer’s order and felt a shiver of excitement. What was going on?
She headed back to the library with a spring in her step. Things were going really well, she concluded. It had been a good first week.
Oliver was struggling to concentrate on the customer he was serving. He glanced across at Lois. Since she’d come in to get her book with all her bike gear on, he’d known she was almost definitely the girl he’d seen ride past a couple of weeks ago. Funny how that had stuck in his mind. And funny that she was working at the library. He’d heard quite a lot about the new manager of the library from Rosemary who unsurprisingly didn’t have a good word to say about her. But looking at her now, he was finding it hard to imagine that this Lois, who seemed particularly shy and unsure of herself, had managed to stand up to Rosemary so effectively.
He’d hoped to have more of a conversation with her when he’d dealt with the queue and could have gone over with the excuse of clearing the table, but it was busy and he was still serving when she’d left. But there was no rush. She’d probably be in all the time now that she was working in the town.
That evening, once he’d locked up and retreated to his flat upstairs, he ate a bowl of pasta then sat down to consider his reply to Amy’s latest email. The first email from her, on the day he’d seen Lois, had taken him by surprise. They’d ended their relationship that summer while he was renovating the cinema. His purchase of the cinema, without telling her, had been the beginning of the end. Looking back, Oliver could see that they’d grown apart way before that and it had made sense to move on. He hadn’t actually started seeing other people properly, but he’d dipped his toe in the water and he wasn’t blind to the fact that the amount of time he’d spent thinking about Lois today was another sign that he was ready.
Amy’s email had been an apology, but he wasn’t sure what else. She didn’t explicitly say she wanted to see him or anything but if she wasn’t thinking along those lines what was the point of contacting him in the first place? He’d replied saying simply that it was nice to hear from her and he was glad she seemed to be doing well. It was friendly but brief. In return, she’d sent a very chatty, newsy email that seemed to require the same kind of thing in return. The problem was, it felt like he was opening the door to somewhere he didn’t really want to go.
In the end, he decided on another brief reply. He wasn’t one for wordy emails to anyone, she should know that and besides, he didn’t know what to say. What was the point of telling her anything about his day-to-day life? He understood that maybe she was testing the waters with him. Being together for so long meant that it wasn’t the cleanest break and with no third parties involved, some time apart inevitably led to wondering if they’d done the right thing. He’d be lying if that hadn’t crossed his mind more than once.
He pressed send on his email to Amy, put his phone down and lay out on the sofa ready to watchThe Walking Dead. His phone pinged.
Can we meet? A x
Meeting was something he wasn’t sure about without knowing what the agenda was first.
Really busy with the coffee house. What do you want to meet for?
Okay, it was blunt, verging on rude but he needed to know.
Just to catch up. Talk? A x
If he said no, that wouldn’t be the end of it. It was probably simpler to just arrange to meet for a drink somewhere.
OK. Bolero 7.30 Friday?
Perfect. Thanks A x
He sighed. The kisses weren’t a good sign.
6
By 7pm on Friday, Lois and Steph were sat in a super trendy bar in Worcester sipping extortionately priced cocktails. Steph had insisted that they go out rather than stay in.
‘When was the last time we went out together? Not counting Monday morning coffee after we’ve loaded the mobile library,’ she added, guessing what Lois was going to say. ‘Because that’s not going out, it’s work.’
Lois couldn’t actually remember so it was decided, it had definitely been too long. It felt quite nice to be going out knowing that there was no chance of seeing Alex. Back when they were together and he still lived in Worcester, if Lois was out in town it was inevitable that Alex and his friends would be too and would end up tagging onto her so it ended up feeling like a night out in a big gang rather than a night out with whoever she had started out with. It was usually Steph and she had complained loudly whenever it had happened.
‘So, how’s the first week been out in the sticks?’ Steph asked.
‘It’s hardly the sticks.’ Lois had already developed a bit of a soft spot for Croftwood.
‘In the comparative sticks,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘Pedantic,’ she added under her breath.
