Yep, nothing to worry about. Aside from her seeming to slide further into Ollie’s domain of self-gaslighting, cause apparently, no tips needed…fuck…
Noble sighedas he drove away from the library. He hated being away from Ollie, but he really needed to continue breaking down and destroying things in his home.
Also, he needed to do a total scrub down of his house, and that would take...all day. He hadn’t done one in a long while, and who knew how much evidence had been left behind…
Probably not as much as he thought, but more than one would want. Not that he’d likely be caught by any human authority at this point. But there was always a chance he hadn’t been as thorough as he needed to be.
Noble really just needed to make sure there was nothing left that Ollie could find that would alert him to what he was. The realization would come eventually, but he would do whatever he could to put it off.
Ollie quickly slipped awayas the kids got distracted by Red, heading past the rows of shorter freestanding bookshelves painted in rainbow order, to the taller rows near Winnie’s desk by the entrance of the Young Readers section.
It was finally time for him to see what was behind the secret door in his private library. He sort of wished Noble could be there to check it out with him, but the man had things to do, so…
Ollie wasn’t sure if he was excited or terrified, but either way, his heart was racing and his nerves were on edge. There was, of course, still other stuff he should and could be doing, but…it could wait. Besides, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else until he found out what was hidden. Though, he would do pretty much anything to put off discussing the destroyed wax figure with Elias.
Bricker Brightly, the owner of Fantastical Decorations, hadn’t sounded too happy with him over the phone earlier, Ollie having purchased insurance or not, and he wasn’t looking forward to having what would likely be a similar conversation with Elias anytime soon.
Smiling when Winnie looked up, just as he reached her desk. Instead of smiling back, she eyed him suspiciously. “Need something, Boss?”
“Yes, I do. I’ll be out for the rest of the day doing paperwork, so I’ll need you to take over storytime.”
“Will do,” Winnie said, to her credit, with little hesitation, even if her attitude lingered in her tone, followed by an unhappy sigh.
He glared at her. “You could at least try not to sound so put out doing what is technically part of your job.”
“I mean, you do it eighty percent of the time, so I have to get my complaining in somehow.”
Ollie rolled his eyes. “Why did I hire you again?”
“Because I’m amazing, that’s why.”
He snorted, shaking his head as he walked right past her desk, towards the center of the first floor. Spotting that Jahla was free, aside from whatever paperwork she was working on, he hurried over.
“I’m heading up to check out the new door in my house. If anything goes wrong, that’s where I’ll be.”
“Well, if I hear an explosion, or someone freaking out, at least I will know exactly where it came from.” She winked.
“Rude, bestie, rude.” He hmphed as he quickly rushed to the antique bronze elevators and pressed the up button. As one opened, he nodded politely to the person stepping off and got on, selecting the button for floor three.
Exiting the elevator once it stopped, a ding sounding as the doors opened, he powerwalked out, trying his best to appear busy, nodding and waving as he went. On reaching the door up to his home, he swiftly unlocked it, before relocking it once he was inside.
Taking a calming breath, he jogged up the stairs. After unlocking his front door, he entered and closed it behind him, but left it unlocked. Ollie headed straight to his private library and found that the glowing, cracked-open door was right where it had been last night and this morning. He supposed, he’d be worried if it wasn’t. Or maybe he wouldn’t be, since there were apparently more hidden doors, so he wasn’t sure he’d be that surprised that a previously hidden door had disappeared once again.
Approaching slowly, he walked around the spiral staircase, his eyes glued to the glowing outline. Six shelves of the stupidly tall bookcase built into the walls of the room were inset and clearly showed a slight gap between them and the surrounding shelves, making up what he assumed was the hidden door.
If I could just figure out how the glow worked, and explain it in a scientific way, I bet I could make a fortune.
Ollie rolled his eyes at the silly thought. Standing directly in front of the door, he hesitated, wringing his hands together as he stared. But then something cold brushed against his leg, causing him to flinch.
Meow.
Smiling at the soft sound, he looked down and, without hesitation, scooped up the ghost kitten. To the touch, the ghost was almost ice-cold. Yet, thankfully it wasn’t exactly like holding an ice cube, making it so that Ollie could just barely stand holding the ghost for any period of time. Aside from the cold, it felt just like any other kitten, with an overly soft fur texture and all.
He didn’t know exactly how he’d known he could touch, let alone pick—he frowned and quickly checked underneath—herup last night, but he hadn’t really thought about it at the time. Ollie had just been tired, and well…he grabbed. The cold was easy enough to get past in favor of holding the kitten cuteness.
“Planning to go in anytime soon?” Red asked dryly from behind him, causing him to jump.
“I’m getting to it!” Ollie huffed before setting the kitten back down and running his hands over his corduroy pants to warm them up, before eyeing the door and sighing again.
