“It remains to be seen if I’ve nailed that last one.”
“So let’s see, then.”
She stood on the last word.
But was surprised to find she didn’t even have to pretend. She walked around a little, no problems at all. “Seems great to me. And that means you lose, and I win, and so you have to wait there while I grab you a few things. Starting with, I think,Learning to Love Your Inner Self. Because, honestly, you know I don’t think you need to be super different. I think you just need to connect with your own good qualities,” she said, as she breezed over to the shelves.
One hand was already reaching for what she’d thought of when he sighed heavily from somewhere behind her. “Kid, I don’thaveany. And honestly, even if I did, self-help is just… it just doesn’t seem geared toward my specific issues. And I can’t exactly ask them any follow-up questions when doing what they suggest fails.”
“So maybe what you need is some kind of forum.”
“I don’t think they’ve been a thing since Roman times.”
She laughed at that. Turned to show him how much she appreciated the joke.
But to her bemusement, he seemed weirdly serious.
“No, I mean, like, online,” she prompted him.
And only then did he chuckle and bat a hand at her.
“Of course you did. Yeah, I knew that,” he said, leaving her wondering what exactly he’d meant. Had he been joking, too? She couldn’t tell, and so took the easiest possible route out of this conversational conundrum.
“But you don’t like the idea, I’m guessing.”
He shrugged. “Me and computers tend to not agree. In fact, the more modern the technology, the worse problems I have. Things tend to go haywire around me. Stuff blows up real easy, for perfectly ordinary if ridiculous reasons.”
“So that’s why you have the VHS tapes.”
Oops, she thought when she saw his expression.
A little taken aback, followed by a half wince.
“You noticed them, then. You saw, like, titles,” he said. Because of course it was the titles that worried him.
“If you’re waiting for me to mock you for them, you’re gonna be here a long time. As in super long. As in so long that I’ll be able to read whatever I pick out for you, aloud, while you stand there, dumbfounded.”
“I don’t mean to be dumbfounded. It’s just usually people do mock me.”
“Well, I won’t. Not if you really enjoy them.”
“Honestly, I don’t just really enjoy them. They’re… helpful. They have been helpful to me,” he said, a little haltingly. The way anyone would if they’d never been able to talk about tender things they liked. Or confess that they needed whatever those tender things gave. Which of course just made her want to give him more.
“So then maybe you just need more stuff like that.”
“More stuff like what, exactly?”
“More romantic stuff.”
“You mean like the kind of thing you read.”
She flushed at that. Thought for a second that she’d gotten carried away, that she’d projected too much of herself onto someoneelse, that she’d imagined connection where there was none or at least exaggerated what she thought she’d seen in him. He liked romantic movies, but he didn’t wantthatmuch romance. Not like the romance in her favorite books, no way, no how.
But the second she went to correct herself, he seemed to realize what she had meant. It hit him that the answer was yes, and when it did his eyes seemed to go wide, and he stepped forward all in a rush. He jumped in. And he did it fast, and hard, and almost breathlessly. “Yes, please, yes, I want them. I want your favorites, all of your favorites. Where are they?”
There was nothing she could do after that but grab them for him.
She gathered up a few old-school historicals, a modern contemporary, and a paranormal, while trying not to think about it too hard. Then she shoved them into his hands before she could change her mind.
