Anna shook her head, no.“Absolutely not. I haven’t even heard of some of these,” Anna said, her voice filled with wonder.
“You’re welcome to borrow any of them.”
“Wait, really?” Anna asked, clearly not wanting to overstep.
Brooke chuckled.“Yeah, when you see my to read shelf, you’ll see why I’m not really allowed to re-read anything until I’ve made a dent in the other.”
Anna squeaked, crossed the room quickly, and threw her arms around Brooke in a hug. She practically hopped back over to the shelf and scanned the titles. She pulled a few titles forward, but none of them all the way out, clearly debating which one she wanted to start with. Brooke let her curiosity get the best of her and she stepped into the room to see which ones Anna was looking at.
“I’ll push them back,”Anna said, quickly.
Brooke shrugged.“I don’t mind them like this.” She always thought she would mind someone in her space, someone touching her things, but she found that she didn’t at all. Maybe it was Anna, but likely it was just Brooke realizing that her apartment didn’t have to be perfect. Her books didn’t have to be categorized by genre and then arranged in alphabetical order by author, they could just be books on a shelf. Or maybe she didn’t need her categories to be so rigid, maybe she should have a shelf of all queer books, regardless of what other categories they fell into. Or maybe, now, seeing how many books Anna had pulled forward, Brooke should have a shelf of all the books she owns that Anna wants to read. Yes, that felt right.
Anna made her final choice,The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,and moved to push the others back in.
“Darling, leave them,” Brooke said, surprised at how easy it had become, referring to Anna as darling just fit.
Anna blushed, but turned her attention to Brooke.“They’re not going to bother you?”
Brooke shook her head. She wasn’t going to tell Anna that she intended to just make a shelf of the books that seemed to interest the other woman in case she talked herself out of it, or in case she ran it by Christine and Chris told her that was a horrible idea.“They won’t bother me. You can borrow more than one at once you know. Though the book you’ve selected was surprisingly good. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.”
“One at a time is perfect. I’ve already started the one you bought me last night, so it’ll be nice to have something to dive into after I’ve devoured that one.” Anna flipped through the book in her hands, smiling so big Brooke thought it had to hurt.
“What? Why are you so excited?” Brooke asked.
“You annotated it,” Anna said simply.“I was sad when I made it past your underlines and comments in‘Delilah.’I like knowing which sentences you like and why.”
Brooke held her tongue. Anna made her feel warm, too warm, too comfortable, too accepted. Accepted in that kind of way that made her almost happy to be as peculiar as she knew that she was. It was like all of her little quirks and habits and things that her friends had always teased her for and her parents had always hated her for were the things that made Anna seem so genuinely interested in her.
“Shall we continue?” she asked after they had stood in silence for far too long.
“Sure,” Anna said, following Brooke out of the office.
“Lavatory,” Brooke said, gesturing through the second door.“Washer/dryer closet,” she said continuing,“and my room.”
“Can I?” Anna asked, studying Brooke’s face before crossing the threshold.
Her bedroom wasn’t anything particularly exciting. She had a simple, metal framed, queen sized bed. Most of her furniture was black and plain. She had artwork of all types and genres on her walls throughout her apartment, but she had a clear favorite of paintings, specifically expressionism. Her bedroom bookshelf was by far the most interesting thing in her room and Anna practically floated towards it. She pulled more books forward, physically indicating which ones she’d one day like to borrow. Brooke consciously moved those books up her list. She’d read them first so that Anna could borrow them as soon as she was ready.
“I like your apartment,” Anna said as she finished with the last shelf.
“Yeah?”
She nodded.“Yeah, I like the little pockets that feel like you.”
“And which pockets are those?” Brooke couldn’t help but ask. Learning how Anna viewed her was fascinating in a way she couldn’t explain. She had spent so long crushing on this stunning woman in front of her, it felt impossible that Anna had noticed her at all, and yet.
“Your bookshelves, for sure,” Anna shot her a wink.
Brooke laughed.“Well, when my mother asks what on Earth there is to like about me, you’ve found your honest answer.” The sentence was too real, too harsh, too bitter. It ripped them both out of their playful moment and thrust them headfirst into the reason they were even spending time together in the first place.
Anna reached out and let her hand rest on Brooke’s forearm.“If your mother so much asdaresto ask me a question like that, I’ll tell herexactlywhat I think.”
Brooke’s jaw flexed as she mentally added Anna’s response to her growing list of things that Anna said that confused the ever living shit out of her.
Chapter Six:
“Well, and then what happened?” Christine asked.
