Page 2 of Marginally Yours
"Hey, Devon," he starts, and my disappointment must have been clear on my face, because he gives me a questioning look. "Dude, why do you look like someone kicked your puppy?" Eloquent as ever.
"Oh," I huff out a laugh, schooling my face back to indifference. "I'm good. I was just trying to talk to that new girl and I think I interrupted her." His lips turn up, and I guess that I'm not the first person to try talking to her. I go on defense, adding, "I wanted to see if she'd read this yet." I set the book on the counter, and Eddie's smirk becomes a full-blown laugh.
Now I'm annoyed. I know he can see it on my face because he scrambles to recover.
"Sorry, man. I don't mean to laugh at your pain," he says, still laughing and clearly not that sorry about it.Asshole."Was she looking at you when you were talking to her?"
My brows furrow, and I think for a second. "No," I reply, even more confused. "She was looking at her clipboard. Why?"
"Dude," he says with a chuckle. "She didn't ignore you. She's deaf."
My mouth hangs open for a moment while I process theinformation. I'm an actual idiot. Obviously, I don't know anything about this girl yet, but her smile and wave would imply that she's at least polite enough to have acknowledged me talking to her.
"Well, not completely deaf, but mostly," he continues. "I think she said she’s got like twenty percent hearing or something? Her name is Callie. She just moved here a few days ago. Today's her first day. She does talk and she can read lips pretty well so it's not a big deal if you don't know any sign language or anything. She said she'd teach me some while she's working here, too. She's really nice." He continues rambling about her while he rings up my book and takes my card. “She likes to read anything from romance to fantasy as long as it's fiction. She's a year younger than us. She walks to work and she's…”
I hold up a hand, stopping him from spouting off any more facts. We end most of our conversations this way, so he's not offended. Usually, I do this because I've reached my quota of Eddie infodumps for the day, but honestly, I'd just rather learn all of this straight from the source.
"Thanks, man," I say with a laugh, grabbing my bag from the counter and heading for the door. "I'll see you in a few days."
I reach for the doorknob, but a tingling sensation stops me. It feels like static electricity shooting down my spine. I spin around, but it’s gone just as fast as it came. My gaze lands on Callie again, still deep in concentration in the stacks. I’m considering going back to talk to her now that I know she wasn’t ignoring me when she catches me staringagain, and I lose my nerve. She gives me another cheery wave, and I give her an awkward one in return before scurrying through the door like a coward.
Chapter Two
Imake it to work in record time, and I'm barely in my seat before my phone is in my hand, desperately searching for any nugget of information on this girl. Social media is a menace to society, honestly. I feel like a stalker, but I need some kind of opening to talk to her, and I'll take any help I can get.
As long as it's not coming from Eddie, anyway. I like the guy, but he's a little overwhelming sometimes.
All I have is a town and a first name to go off of, but at least it's not a super common name.Callie. I check Eddie's friend list first and find nothing. Maybe she knows someone here and that’s why she chose such a dreary, unappealing place to move to. I type her name into the search bar alone, hoping maybe there's a mutual friend that makes her pop up. No such luck. I add our town to the filter, and it shows similar name matches only, so maybe she didn't update her location yet. I add the bookstore to the workplace filter and get nothing at all.
Ok, so she might just not be on social media. Nota bad thing, just inconvenient. Guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way.
I spend the next hour trying to focus on my book, but I only make it about five pages in before I give up and flip between doomscrolling and mobile games for the rest of the night. The next day, I consider stopping in again but decide against it. The book I got yesterday was huge, and there's no way I could have finished it in one shift. I got a head start on it this morning, and I'm planning on finishing it tonight.
My grand plan is to stick with the original idea and ask if she's read it yet. Eddie said she was into fantasy books, so I'm guessing there’s at least a 50/50 shot that she has. If she hasn't, I can recommend it to her, and if she has, I can ask her what she thought of it and ask her for a recommendation for my next book. It's not much, but it's a start, and it's an easy conversation for her to escape quickly if she's not interested in talking to me.
I spend my entire shift reading and finish the last page about 10 minutes before it's time to go. Leaving work at four in the morning is annoying, but driving through the empty, peaceful town is relaxing. The drive is short, and I pass out as soon as I'm out of my uniform.
—
I usually don't remember my dreams for long after I wake up, but I'm still thinking about last night's dream on my way to the bookstore.
I was walking on a mountain path somewhere I'd never been, low-hanging clouds covering the peaks in the distance. I could see the little town at the base of the mountain that the path was leading me to, but I couldn't make out much detail. There were wooden cabins and old-fashioned stalls with cloth awnings, and I could hear the chatter from the people milling about. I could hear people talking just behind me, but as soon as I turned to look at them, I woke up.
It's been a few hours, but I can still see everything clearly. I considered going back to sleep, wondering if the dream would pick up where it left off, but I'ddefinitelybe late for work. I’m already cutting it close, and I need enough time to chat with Callie.
I head to the café first, waving at Eddie on my way in. I zero in on her immediately, and I remind myself that I'm supposed to be at least pretending that I'm cool, so I focus on chatting with Hannah while she makes my coffee.
Callie's wearing a black t-shirt with what might be a metal band logo hidden by the front of a pair of worn denim overalls. She wheels a cart full of books through the used section, sliding them into their places on the shelves. The top of her hair is pulled back into a little bun like mine, and the rest hangs free. She plucks a pen from the front pocket of her overalls and a clipboard from her cart.
I make a show of picking up a book from the display table and reading the synopsis while she checks things off on her clipboard. I've already read this book. Twice, actually, but she doesn't need to know that. I position myself so that I'm facing her but keep my eyes down, watching her only from my peripheral vision.
As soon as I catch her looking my way, I set the book back on the table and "accidentally" catch her eye.How serendipitous. She gives me that wide smile again, and I grin back.
Now's my chance.
She sees me walking towards her and she doesn't freeze or look around for an escape, so that's a good sign. I'm at least a foot taller than her, and a security uniform isn't much of a reassurance of character these days.
"Hey, welcome back," she says, and her voice is lower than I expected, and maybe a little too chipper. She's probably just giving me her customer service voice because I'm accosting her in her workplace, but damn it if it didn't send a thrill throughme that she remembered me. She sets her clipboard on the pile of old hardcovers. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
