The in-house coffee shop had a similar colour scheme as the rest of the library, with pink-and-white-painted wooden tables and light grey chairs which were surprisingly comfortable.
A selection of romance books lined the shelves, and the walls were decorated with framed quotes about love and romance.
The coffee was top-notch, and I admit, I was rather fond of the sweet treats here too.
Maddie, the owner, was very creative. She made cupcakes with mini open books on top with different messages like ‘Romance Rocks’, which obviously were created for the members and not people like me.
I also gave the biscuits with slogans like ‘Book Boyfriends Are the Best’ a wide berth (there were plenty of good men in the real world, so I resented the suggestion that only fictional men were decent). So I generally opted for the red heart-shaped cookies instead.
‘Definitely,’ Sarah said. ‘I’m feeling better today. As soon as I’ve had my coffee and breakfast, I’ll be good to go.’
‘Hi!’ Maddie came over clutching two coffees and a plate of biscuits. ‘Great to see you both. I’m on my own this morning, so I’ll come and chat later once it’s calmer.’ She dashed off back behind the counter.
I looked down at the plate of biscuits on the table and laughed.
Well, these were new.
‘Interesting…’ I said.
‘What is?’ Sarah frowned.
‘I had no idea that you liked to eat cock for breakfast.’ I grinned. I knew I was supposed to be professional, but the joke opportunity was too good to miss and I was confident that Sarah would be fine with it.
She frowned, looked down at the penis-shaped cookies Maddie had arranged on the plate, then burst out laughing.
‘Oh God.’ She winced, burying her face in her hands.
‘First you ruin my innocence by playing me an audiobook clip of a man being sucked off, and now you order a plate of cock cookies for breakfast. Is there a hint I should be picking up on here? I’m getting mixed messages.’ My lips twitched mischievously.
‘Just an unfortunate coincidence.’ She stifled a smile. ‘I’d forgotten Maddie had asked me to try these. She’s just started making them.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I said sarcastically. ‘If you want me, Jeffries, all you have to do is ask,’ I teased.
Her gaze dropped to her coffee mug, then she took a large gulp.
‘We should… we should go over the script. Jane said she can film us doing more videos too if it’s quiet in the library later.’
Interesting…
Normally if I’d made a comment about Sarahwantingme, she would’ve had some kind of scathing comeback, like ‘in your dreams, Benjamin Buttface’ or ‘jog on, wanker’, but today, there was nothing.
And she’d swiftly changed the subject.
Hmmm.
Then again, given the hundreds of times she’d said thank you for helping her yesterday, maybe she thought it’d be rude to give me any shit today. I was sure she’d be back to being scowly Sarah by tomorrow, though.
I was just glad to see that she was much better.
After that hilarious audiobook moment, I’d left Sarah in the bath for half an hour, then came back to pass her phone through the door.
I’d tried to slide it across the floor as forcefully as I could, but she said it was still too far from the bath to reach, so had given me permission to come in to hand it to her.
Once she told me she was covered under the bubbles, I’d gone into the bathroom, swearing blind I would look at the phone and nothing else, but then she’d asked me a question and instinctively my head had turned to reply.
And when I saw her, my breath caught in my throat.
Yes, her body was covered by the bubbles and water, but peeking above it were the tops of her shoulders, her neck, and of course her beautiful face. As insane as it sounded, it was one of the sexiest sights I’d ever seen.
