‘Good lord, Lois. That’s quick work, especially for you.’
‘Ah, Andrew. I’ve missed your put-downs disguised as compliments.’
‘You know I’m just joshing with you. Really, that’s great. Alex was not good enough for you.’
‘Why is it that people think it’s great to point that out afterwards? You should have told me. Even Steph thought that and didn’t say.’
‘We said it to each other if that helps.’
‘Oh, yes. That helps, thank you.’
Lois forgot how much she’d enjoyed the banter with Andrew. It was completely different with Linda and Rosemary but she liked working with them in a different way. She could talk about work with them and they were more enthusiastic about it than her colleagues at the Hive but she shuddered at the thought of them sharing anything more personal than what they ate for dinner or watched on television.
‘Night out soon then? We could have a six-some with Steph and her new chap.’
‘Sounds great. I’ll see what Steph says.’
Lois had the rest of the day off. She texted Oliver as she left to see if he wanted to meet once he’d closed the coffee house. They arranged to meet in the city centre.
‘What did your boss think of what you’ve done then?’ Oliver asked as soon as he’d kissed her, keen to hear how her day had gone. It was such a contrast to Alex who had been completely disinterested most of the time.
‘He thinks it’s a good start but we’ve got to ramp up the borrowing rates over the next few weeks if we’re going to have a chance of saving the library.’
‘Surely that’s doable? I’ve spoken to so many people who have started coming in there. And the date-with-a-book club must be making a difference.’ He was so optimistic, it made Lois smile.
‘It’s all making a difference, it’s just not happening quite as quickly as it needs to.’
‘Maybe we need to do some more publicity for the book club. The more people we can get on board with that, well it has to help.’
‘It will but we need something else. I’ll talk to Linda and Rosemary about it. We haven’t tapped into the children’s library yet. I mean, when I was a kid I used to get six books every Saturday without fail. We’re missing a trick there. We get lots of little kids in but we need the kind of teenagers who just inhale books. And there are so many amazing YA books out there. That’s what we need.’
‘You’ve lost me with your library jargon now,’ said Oliver, jolting her out of her thought process.
‘Sorry. Young Adult books. Now that it’s occurred to me, I really want to get going on it.’
‘I know what you mean. I sometimes get that feeling when I come up with some new marketing angle for the coffee house. I love how you just have the idea and go for it, Lois. It must feel good to have the freedom to make changes like that.’ He looked as excited as she was.
‘It does, but we’re restricted to doing things which cost us nothing and because the library’s meant to be closing no-one’s taking much notice of what we’re doing as long as we don’t cause any trouble. I can get the books we need transferred from other libraries but we need some other things too. I’d love to buy a few of those massive beanbag cushions to make a reading corner for older children. It needs to be cool and separate from the rest of the children’s library.’
‘Why don’t we do some fundraising? Are you allowed to do that? And it would raise the profile of the library at the same time. If it helps to save the library, I bet we could get some of the local businesses involved. A thriving library would help all of us.’
‘It’s a really good idea, I probably just need to check with Robert to make sure. We wouldn’t need very much to buy a few beanbags anyway.’
‘I’m happy to help you get something set up and get the Croftwood Traders’ Association on board.’
Lois marvelled at how great it was to be with someone who was behind her and more than that, he believed in what she was trying to do. Although she’d felt daunted by the task ahead of her, now that she had thought of her next plan, she was relishing the challenge even more. And having Oliver cheering her on every step of the way was going to make all the difference.
18
‘Seventy per cent?’ said Linda when Lois explained about the meeting. ‘And we’ve only done thirty?’
‘Thirty-one. It’s not as impossible as it seems. I’ve got an idea. We’ll get a load of YA books in and make a separate bit of the library for them. The teenagers will go for that, I’m sure. Unfortunately, it’s probably not massively appealing to boys but we’ll see what we can come up with to encourage them.’
‘I don’t know much about books for teenagers, Lois,’ Linda admitted, ‘and I doubt Rosemary will be much use with it either.’
‘Leave it to me. I can speak to my colleagues at the Hive and see what they suggest. As long as you can help us get it out there on Twitter, that’s the main thing. And we might need to start Instagram too if we’re targeting teenagers.’
Linda retreated into the fiction section with a worried look on her face. She didn’t need to worry, Lois knew she’d get to grips with Instagram just as quickly as she’d taken to Twitter and that would help them reach a younger audience.
