“Hey, George.”
“Did I ever tell you about the time I once stayed in a library overnight?”
“You sure did.” About seventy-two times.
“So there I was with my girlfriend, we were, oh… eighteen and both still living at home with the most?—”
“I just love this story, but I need to find Ms. Percy,” I interrupt as Kit is giving me a very good view of Ms. Percy running her hand down Torin’s muscular arm. I really feel like it’s the last thing I need to see when I could be seeing mycomputer.
“We thought we were so cool. We snuck into that closet right there and waited until the place closed for the night! That closet! Right there!”
“Yep, and then you guys supposedly just ‘read books’ all night,” I say, hoping to end this story before it even begins because it sure doesn’t end here. This is just like an appetizer forwhat’s to come. “I like to ‘read books’ in closets with handsome men.”
George laughs heartily and claps me on the back hard enough he sends me staggering. I think he forgets that he’s a werewolf and I’m a measly human who is blindly trying to find my familiar.
“Whoops. Sorry, kiddo. Always forget how fragile you are.”
“Nope, just regular human sturdiness.”
“Ha!”
I stop what I’m doing to glare in his general direction. “George, can you find my familiar and bring her back to me? Use your doggy senses or something?”
“I could… but it smells like she went downstairs.”
“So you can smack me into oblivion, call me weak, and then tell me you can’t do stairs?”
“Yes. Did I tell you about the time my wife and I read books on the stairs?”
“Yes, yes you did. I’ve also ‘read books’ on the stairs. Not the best place to do it. I’d really recommend somewhere with fewer chances to fall.”
“You’re hilarious. So much funnier than that other librarian. She doesn’t like married men because she can’t read books with them…if you get what I mean.”
“Oh… she’s read a lot of books with a lot of married people.”
I’m now awkwardly standing here, since I don’t know where exactly to go forward and should just retreat to my desk, but George is fixated on me and there’s nowhere I’m going anytime soon that doesn’t involve him.
I hear the clicking of heels, indicating that Ms. Percy is heading back this way. Is she already done? Did the god of love “read” to her that quickly? For all his talk, I assumed it’d be like an epic… not a novella. But if Ms. Percy is back, then where is Kit?
I focus on what Kit is seeing and realize that what I’m seeing now is a very determined genet trying to cram herself into a vending machine. She’s got her upper body under the flap where one would reach in to retrieve their candy bar or chips, but the rest is struggling… oh nope… there she goes, fully inside.
She grabs a bag of chips and then discovers that the flap pushes in but it sure doesn’t push out.
I stand here in disbelief that I have now become absolutely stranded because my familiar is stuck in a vending machine. And I don’t even knowwhichvending machine! The last place I saw her go was downstairs, so I feel like it’s my best bet in finding her.
“Walk me to the stairs, George. Pretend like you’re taking me off to read books with me,” I say, holding out my hand. “I want to know what it feels like to be wanted.”
He laughs and takes my hand as I realize that I’ve just invited him to tell me another story about his wife, but I know the last place my precious and “very concerned about me” familiar went was down the stairs.
With the power to turn into a werewolf—if I so choose—rushing through my body, I reach the stairs. The thing about werewolves is that they’reverygood at using their nose and other senses. So when he lets go of me near the stairs, I can kind ofsensewhere they are. I can tell the scent trails start to dip down, so when I inch my way over to the steps, surely looking like a person preparing to dive off a cliff, I don’t feel as close to falling down the stairs as I probably am.
“I need to go down the stairs and since you can’t do stairs, I feel like here is where I’ll leave you, George.”
“I’ll just take the elevator.”
And then he lets me go and heads off while I question why I didn’t just take the elevator. Or better yet, why he couldn’thave taken the elevator and retrieved my familiar when I asked earlier.
Grumbling, I feel my way to the handrail and carefully travel down the steps as I reach the lower level and use my newfound werewolf senses to follow Kit’s trail. Whenever I check in on what she’s seeing, I just get a front-row view of all the snacks she’s decided to eat while stuck in the vending machine.
