“Possibly the same person who leaked it to Irene’s family,” the apparent witch hunter mused.
“Right, so I’m guessing the ghost is…?” Jahla trailed off with a brow raised.
The witch sighed. “She’s moved on.”
“Good, good, any plans for today?”
“Well, right now, I’m going to go take a quick shower, change, and then, hopefully, catch the second storytime. Followed by work, and checking on the progress of the repaired room reassembly. Though, I may try to track down those two missing boxes again. They didn’t happen to show up, did they?”
“Nope!” she chimed sweetly.
“Of course, they didn’t,” Ollie groaned. “Come on, Noble, let’s go get ready.”
Grinning as they started walking to the elevators, she called out, “Ollie, I have a suggestion for, if you want to actually make it to storytime.”
Ollie paused, looking back with a brow raised.
Her grin widened. “Shower without your shadow there.”
Her friend’s face turned bright red as he sputtered, “J-Jahla!”
Giggling, she waved him away. “Hurry, hurry. You don’t want to force poor Winnie to have to read to children for a second time today, do you?”
Ollie just huffed in response, and prodded a far too smug-looking Noble into the elevator when it opened.
With a smile on his face,Ollie power-walked to Noble’s side, after navigating through the children rushing towards Red to give him his pets.
The man’s arm sliding around his waist as he reached him, Noble asked, “What were you thinking about for lunch? I was thinking Italian. There is this really good place I know of that does carry out.”
His smile dropped a little at the suggestion. “Normally…I would say yes…but…” Ollie winced.
“But?” Noble asked with a slight brow raised.
He hesitated for a moment before blurting, “Texture for me is really bad today. And when I think about swallowing certain things, it kind of makes me want to gag and just not eat. While I can force it, it doesn’t always work out that well. And believe me when I say I know this sounds kind of insane, but on days like this, it just sort of…works better if I give my body what my brain wants?”
Thankfully, the breakfast Noble had made them that morning had been simple enough that his brain hadn’t cared.
“Would this happen to be why you changed your outfit five times earlier?”
Ollie smiled sheepishly. “Maybe?”
“Okay then, maybe another day for the Italian. But you do need to eat, so what does your brain want, Baby?”
“Nuggets.”
“Nuggets?”
“And fries.”
Noble chuckled. “Nuggets and fries it is.” The man started guiding him forward, down the aisle towards the entrance of the Young Readers section.
He stayed quiet for a moment, eyeing the man for any sort of irritation, and while he didn't find anything, Ollie couldn’t help but ask, “You’re not mad?”
Noble blinked, his smile dropping a bit. “Why would I be?”
Ollie thought it was pretty obvious, but answered anyway. “For me being difficult? For not agreeing? For being particular and picky?”
The man was downright frowning now. “Ollie, why would I get mad at you for wanting to eat something you know won’t make you throw up?”
