‘Anybody here?’
Lois bolted out of the office to see Oliver standing at the desk with a coffee in his hand.
‘For you,’ he said, placing it in her hand. ‘And a gingerbread muffin.’ He presented her with a brown bag, the top folded over neatly.
‘Thanks, you’re a mind reader.’
‘Pats said you came in this morning. I usually have a lie-in on my day off.’
‘She said. I don’t blame you.’
There was no-one else in the library, so Lois led him over to the reading table nearest the desk.
He opened his black wool coat, reached inside, and pulled out the CL Taylor book he’d read, placing it on the table between them.
‘I’m returning this for the next one. But it has to be something you’ve read. I’m only doing book dates with you.’
‘I’m flattered,’ said Lois. ‘The pressure’s on then.’
‘I’m open to anything,’ he said, shrugging with his palms upwards. ‘How hard can it be?’
‘Okay. I’ll have to think about it while I eat this delicious muffin.’ Lois pulled the muffin top off and ate that first, savouring the first taste of Christmas that had passed her lips that year.
‘I was thinking that we should arrange to go out for that drink.’
Lois looked at him. Did he mean it in the way she hoped he did? She was pretty sure that was the only way he could mean and the look in his eyes told her so.
‘I’ve been thinking too.’ It felt like now or never. She was going to lay her cards on the table, tell him what she wanted and he would have to decide if he wanted it too. It came out as, ‘I like you and I think we should make it an actual date,’ which was a little more high school than she’d intended but she was a novice with things like this.
‘Oh really,’ he said with amusement in his eyes. ‘An actual date?’ He got up from his seat opposite her and moved to the one next to her.
Lois’s heart began to thud and she willed herself not to blush. She’d never been as close to him as this. Before now there had always been a table or a counter between them.
His eyes flicked briefly over to the door, then he laid his hand on her thigh. The warmth of his palm radiated through the denim of her jeans into her skin and concentrated all the feelings she was having into a rush of energy so that when he leaned towards her and kissed her briefly but tenderly on the lips, she felt like fireworks were going off inside her.
It was so long since she’d had a kiss like that. Maybe she’d never had a kiss like that. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the moment, making the seconds of perfection imprint on her memory. She’d definitely made the right decision.
‘Good grief, what is going on here?’
Oliver pulled away and shot out of his seat as if he’d been scalded by Lois’s lips.
‘Rosemary!’
‘Oliver, this is hardly appropriate.’
‘No, of course not. Apologies Rosemary.’ Oliver didn’t seem to be humouring Rosemary, he seemed genuinely remorseful.
‘There’s no need to apologise, Oliver. It was just a kiss, Rosemary, and there’s no-one else here,’ said Lois. She knew Rosemary was uptight but this was a bit of an over-reaction given that the library was empty.
‘I’m here, Lois.’
Oliver buttoned his coat and left, flustered, not even saying goodbye to Lois.
She was stunned. How could the most perfect kiss that ended less than a minute ago have now led to him leaving in such a bizarre fashion? Almost equally bizarre was how thrown Rosemary seemed to be after witnessing an extremely brief kiss. It was a chaste kiss, thought Lois, indignantly. And despite what had just happened, she felt amazing.
‘Rosemary…’
‘I do not wish to discuss it, Lois.’ She held her hand up.
