I opened the book, then started thumbing through the pages, randomly stopping in the middle of the novel where a text exchange between the characters caught my eye.
Then I remembered that Sarah had warned me not to skim, so I was just about to flick back to the beginning when I sensed someone standing at the desk.
When I looked up, it wasn’t someone, it was three women.
‘You readromance?’ a brunette with excited eyes asked.
‘I love that book! I read it in one day!’ said the other, who had a blonde bob.
‘I was kicking my feet at the ending. So gorgeous!’ a woman with long braids added.
‘Glad you enjoyed it.’ I smiled, still clutching the book. ‘But no spoilers, please, ladies, I like to be surprised!’
I didn’t have to read the book to know that the couple would get together at the end and live happily ever after,blah, blah,blah, so they couldn’t exactly give me any spoilers, but clearly they were all passionate about this book, so it’d be rude to piss all over their excitement.
‘We won’t!’ they said in unison.
‘But maybe when you’ve finished, we could get together and talk about it?’ The brunette cocked her head before plucking a pen off the desk, scribbling down her number on a serviette, then sliding it in front of me.
‘That sounds like?—’
‘Ahem.’ The sound of someone clearing their throat made me stop mid-sentence. When I turned to my right, I saw Sarah standing there with her arms crossed, giving me a death stare. ‘Sorry, ladies,’ she whispered. ‘Is it possible to keep the volume down, please, so we don’t disturb other members?’ She flashed them a sweet smile that was worlds apart from the dirty look she’d just given me.
‘Sorry!’ the blonde whispered. ‘We were justsoexcited to see a real-life book hero in the flesh, we had to come over and say hi.’
‘Where’s the book hero?’ Sarah frowned.
‘Him!’ The lady with the braids pointed at me and a small smile tugged at my lips.
‘Yeah!’ the brunette added. ‘He looks like he walked straight out of a romance novel! Y’know, chiselled jaw, hot, muscular body, gorgeous faceandhe reads romance books. He’s the total package!’
‘Thanks.’ I grinned, then turned to see Sarah narrowing her eyes at me.
‘He’s… I’ll leave you ladies to it.’ Sarah turned on her heel and walked off.
‘So…’ The brunette smiled. ‘About meeting up. Are you free this Friday?’
9
SARAH
Iclosed my laptop and smiled.
I’d done it. It was Saturday night, which meant I’d completed my first week of working at the library and overall, it’d gone well. It’d been intense, but I’d got through it.
I knew I’d enjoy being surrounded by books all day and recommending them to readers when I got the chance to interact with our members, but in many ways, it’d been even better than I’d imagined.
One of my favourite moments happened about an hour ago when I bumped into a lady who’d come back to the library to tell me that she’d devoured the entire Chestnut Springs series by Elsie Silver. I’d recommended it to her on Wednesday when I was covering for Celeste in the bookshop and the customer had finished the final book last night.
I’d quickly recommended that she read the Rose Hill series next and she’d bought all the books on the spot.
It was such a good feeling to know that those novels were going to bring her so much joy and that the sales would help the library financially too.
Yep. Those parts of the job were so satisfying.
The only fly in the ointment so far had been working with Ben. But I didn’t want my blood to start boiling, so I wasn’t going to think about him.
Right now, I planned to swipe on a fresh coat of lipstick and get ready for my first official girls’ night out as a Romance Library employee with Jess, Jane and Celeste. Hopefully Maddie and a few other locals would come too. I couldn’t wait.
