“I wasn’t gonna mention that,” Henrietta said. “But yes. A lot has happened in recent years, and we’ve grown used to the news.”
“I’m not really that interesting,” I warned. “Pretty quiet, actually. I mostly read.”
“Well, we love readers here. What’s your genre of choice?”
Oh, boy. This was where it could all go wrong. Some people had things to say about me reading and writing romance. They thought the genre meant that I was stupid or shallow, even though love was something most people craved in some form.
“Romance,” I said.
“Then do we have good news for you,” Marjorie replied. “We have amassiveromance section, courtesy of all the old ladies here who are big fans.”
“Really?” I asked. “It’s not all mixed into the fiction section?”
“Hell no! We have class here!”
“Class?” Henrietta asked. “You just burped the alphabet to me!”
“Hey, you were impressed.” Marjorie rolled her eyes. I was a little sad I’d missed that. Their dynamic was not what I expected, but I liked it. “Come on, kid. I’ll show you to it.”
Marjorie walked ahead of me, and I made sure to keep my distance in case she suddenly stopped. My body was still tensefrom being out of the house, but the library was massive and there weren’t a lot of people roaming the aisles. I had just enough brain space to marvel at all that they had.
“Here we are. The romance section.” Marjorie gestured to multiple rows of bookshelves, all with different covers I recognized.
“Holy shit. This is all romance?”
“Yep. We have contemporary, historical, romantasy, and then sci-fi. But be warned, their dicks areweird.”
“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
“Enjoy the ribbed penises. Welcome to Strawberry Springs!” Marjorie laughed as she walked away. I would’ve joined if it weren’t for me still staring at all the books in front of me. “We’ll sign you up when you find some books!”
Theo wassoright to send me here. If I could, I’d kiss him.
I started from the top, going through each shelf with a detailed eye. I’d read a lot of romance, so it was rare to find things I didn’t recognize, but I found multiple in only a few minutes. I even saw my own books.
After I stacked six books in my arms, I knew I needed to check out.
“She looks like Tammy!” Marjorie said with a laugh.
“I don’t know who Tammy is, but I bet she reads like me.” I was out of breath. “I hope there’s not a limit on how many I can get for my first time checking out books.”
“We’ll let it slide,” Marjorie said. “Let me get you signed up and then you’ll be good to go.”
Marjorie was surprisingly professional as she took my information. She let me go with my stack and said that she hoped I would come back.
When I left, I knew that I would.
The walk back to my apartment was exhausting, but worth it. When I was in my own space, I couldn’t help but feel like Ifinallywas making progress. I couldn’t wait to dig into the new books.
That was, of course, when my phone rang.
I fished it out, hoping it wasn’t Joey. I felt terrible for having the thought the second I had it, but I couldn’t handle explaining my every move to him.
Instead, it was Mitch. Usually my calls with him went far better than with his fiancé.
But only when I didn’t have a novel due.
“Hey,” I said into the phone. “If you’re calling to ask how writing is going, I’m contractually obligated to say it’s going very well.”
