Page 35 of Wicked Me
Nicole was the last one out, and I hung back by her to make sure she kept up. The rest of the morning was taken up with the tour and meeting several more staff members whose names I would never remember. Much of the librarians’ tour information I already knew or had seen before like the world’s smallest book, which was the size of a period, and the Gutenberg Bible, but I’d never gone through the passageways to the other two buildings. When I’d visited as a child, Mom preferred walking through the front doors instead of sneaking inside for whatever reason. I’d never walked through the stacks, either, because they were closed to the public. The rows of shelving seemed like they went on for miles.
“I feel like someone’s going to kick me out,” Charlotte whispered.
I closed my eyes as I inhaled deeply. “Me, too.”
Nicole lovingly rubbed a finger down a book’s spine. “I hope not.”
“It’s almost lunch time,” Janice finally announced. “There’s the Madison Cafeteria on the sixth floor of the Madison Building, if you’re so inclined. Let’s meet back in the Rare Books room in the Jefferson Building at one o’clock sharp.” She turned on her heel with Doug following after her like a hyper puppy.
Nicole’s shoulders slumped. “I forgot about lunch.”
“I sort of did, too.” I hadn’t even thought about it in the first place. By the time I made it to the cloakroom for my purse, then back to the Madison Cafeteria, lunch would likely be half over.
“Here, take this,” Charlotte said, reaching into her cleavage. She handed us a twenty. “It will save you a trip to the cloakroom so you can beat the lunchtime rush. You can pay me back later. I’ll go get my lunch from my locker, and maybe we can all eat outside together.”
“Are your boobs an ATM machine?” I asked with a smile as I took the money.
The diamond stud in her nose appeared dull next to the sparkle in her dark eyes. She leaned in close, a conspiratorial grin tilting her mouth. “Well, I did put some money into them.”
Nicole gasped.
“A wannabe librarian with a boob job,” I whispered in mock outrage. “How un-stereotypical of you!”
Charlotte laughed and skipped down the stairs. “Let’s meet by the naked fountain out front.”
While waiting in the lunch line on the sixth floor, a smile drifted across my mouth when I spied a bacon bookmark in a display next to the cash register. I could get it for Sam so he didn’t have to use a phone bill, but would that send a wrong message? No, because it was just a bookmark. Nothing else. He didn’t seem to have a real bookmark, so I would be doing him and the book a favor as the good, innocent librarian I so badly wanted to be. I slapped one on the checkout counter with every intent to pay Charlotte back.
When Nicole and I were armed with lunch, we had to check ourselves through security again to leave the front of the building, but Nicole had no issues about it that time. Whether it was because she didn’t have her bag or because we went out a door not guarded by William, I had no idea.
The air sizzled with damp heat, but in the shade of the fountains in front of the Jefferson building, it wasn’t too bad. I sat on the corner ledge to the side of the statues so as not to look them in the eye, as taught by Dr. Who. Nicole and Charlotte sat on either side of me, chomping and chatting away.
“Thanks again for lunch, Charlotte. I’ll pay you back,” Nicole said.
Charlotte finished chewing her apple and nodded. “For the fiftieth time, you’re welcome.”
“So,” I said and blotted my hands on a napkin. “What made both of you apply for an internship here?”
“Feeling out the competition, are we?” Charlotte said, sliding me a grin.
“No.” Not really. Maybe. “I’m just genuinely interested.”
“Honestly?” Charlotte said while she picked at the apple’s stem. “I’ve had a change of heart since I applied for this internship. I’m going to open my own bookstore and call it Midnight Library. I’ll serve coffee and have quirky furniture, and it will be open all night.”
Nicole froze her drink’s progress to her mouth. “For vampires.”
Charlotte ticked her gaze to Nicole, and for one awful second I thought she might laugh at her for saying such a thing. Fictional worlds and reality collided in my head all the time, too, but I seldom admitted that out loud. But to my delight, Charlotte grinned.
“Damn right, for vampires. Humans, werewolves, and unicorns, too,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing cooler than a library. The smell, the feel, the wealth of knowledge in these books, the way people automatically drop their voices. It’s almost like church. Like a holy place.”
Nicole nodded. “Books don’t judge, either.”
“No, they don’t,” I agreed. “I would totally go to Midnight Library. It sounds like fun.”
“It will be if I can figure how to get capital first. It turns out banks don’t just give you money based on a good idea,” Charlotte said. “So, how about you, Paige? Why are you here?”
“When I was seven, my parents brought me, and right when I walked in the door, I announced I wanted to live here. I pretty much lived at the public library anyway, but this...” I waved my hand around. “Thisis a library.”
“It is kind of spectacular, isn’t it?” Nicole stared up at the naked statue of Neptune, whose arms seemed just as broad and muscular as William’s. The rosy tint to her cheeks made me wonder if she was thinking the same thing.
