16. Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Winnie
The last kid waves me goodbye with her newly borrowed book in hand. I smile and wave at her in return.
Now, I can lock the door of the library and work on refilling the shelf. What’s left can be sorted tomorrow, so there’s no pressure to finish up within the day.
I stretch and sip on my cup of tea. It is a long day, but a nice day filled with smiles and laughter from the kids. They make me happy. Sometimes, it feels like I’m transported to another world when I’m with the kids.
Sometimes, they run around in the library, playing hide and seek between the shelves, but more than often, they give insight to stories that I would never come up with. It’s all good. Maybe this is the job I’m meant to have.
The library is so quiet now, giving such a stark difference from mere minutes ago.
If I turn off the lights, maybe this will be like a haunted place. I take in the scent of fresh books. This is going to be my happy place.
I get out of the chair and get started with the books on the trolley. I’ll have to put the books together according to sorting number before I go to the shelves, it will help with efficiency.
I run my fingers over the spines of the books. Some of the books are in languages I don’t understand. Most of those are aimed at younger ones in the school.
There are translation devices students can borrow from the counter, which will give everyone almost the same access to the books, but for now, reading the books as they are is way more popular.
I’ve always wanted to own a lot of books, but they take up so much space. At least I can pretend I own all the books on the trolley and the library.
I pull out a few, putting them into order, following the stickers on the sleeves of the books. It’s nice and tidy when the series is intact and...
Oh, well... One of the books in the middle is borrowed, leaving a gap between the numbers. But at least the series is loved.
I turn around to take another book when a pair of arms holds my shoulders from behind. I’m about to scream when two hands cover my eyes and mouth...
“Fancy a guess?”
I roll my eyes. It’s obvious who that is. And that someone is so dumb that he doesn’t seem to remember that I can’t talk when he covers my mouth.
He lets go of me. “Ta-da.”
“Telke... I thought I locked the door of the library. It’s closed.”
He chuckles. “I know. But you didn’t. I pushed and it opened.”
I peek out of the shelves at the door. It looks to be intact. When he said he pushed, he could have destroyed the door with those muscles.
I ask, “What are you doing here?”
“Just checking you out.”
“But I don’t need to be checked out. You’re the one who got me worried.”
“Worried about what?” He flexes his arms. “Look at these arms. Do they look worrying?”
“You with those arms sure look worrying.” I roll my eyes. “I’m glad you’re doing fine, though.”
He grins and fixes his cap. “Yes. Thank you for helping the floatball team when I wasn’t around.”
“I hope I didn’t mess things up. You know I’m pretty clueless.”
“You’re pretty for sure. Clueless though...”
Is he... hitting on me?
He blinks while we fall into silence. I don’t mind. He makes my cheeks burn hot, which is a bit too annoying.
He clears his throat. “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“I’m not uncomfortable.”
“Oh... Good...”
The silence returns and... I should come up with something appropriate, but I’m not sure what that’ll be.
He picks up the books on the trolley, every hand taking one. “I’m perfectly fine and healthy. Are you putting the books away? I can help you. We can finish this twice as fast, or three times as fast, or... Um... faster.”
I laugh at how silly he looks with all the books. “Except they have to be on the right shelves to count.”
“Oh...” He checks the books, seemingly finally catching on. “Right, of course. Now, let’s see where this should go...”
“Yeah, do that. Check the tags on the shelves and the spines.”
“No problem, I can do that for sure. This one goes here, and this one...”
I laugh at how confused he is. “You may need four pairs of eyes to work with those arms. You aren’t going to be faster than me at this rate.”
I roll my eyes. “We’ll see how that goes.” I put a divider at the center of the trolley. “Here, let’s see who will get it done the quickest.”
“Winner will get a prize.” He winks.
I shiver at the intense gaze. There’s a buzz between my legs. He can’t be thinking about that, right?
He picks up the books. “Here we go!”
“Hey! You can’t cheat!” I pick up the books on my side and start putting those on the shelf. “Look, you still lose if you can’t put the books on the right shelves.”
“I’m going to do perfectly. It can’t be that hard.”
I hurry to put the books up. He is always there to annoy me; I know it for sure.
He loves to drive me crazy and...
He holds one of my hands. “Here.”
“Hey! That’s cheating! You can’t slow me with that.”
He winks again. “I have backup plans!”
It’s cheating to have all the arms when I only have two, let alone his attempt to annoy me.
I roll my eyes but free my hand from him. “Cheater’s going to lose.” I head to the other side, where my books go. His books are seemingly elsewhere, so he can’t be following me around and still win.
I finish a stack and hurry back to the trolley for another stack. He isn’t there, probably off to another shelf.
Now... He cheated, but I’m fair. We didn’t say we must keep the trolley right there in the spot it started off, so...
I push the trolley all the way to my side of the shelves. Looking at the remaining books, I’m ahead. It won’t take long before I’d be ahead even more.
I put more books on the shelves. Telke makes it impossible to enjoy the process of admiring books, but he makes shelving somewhat exciting.
“Hey! Where’s the... Ah...”
Telke comes over with a naughty smirk. “Looks like someone cheated.”
“No, we didn’t say the trolley has to stay on that side of the shelves.”
“Oh, yeah?” He takes the handle of the trolley. “One would think that’ll help you, huh?”
“Hey!” I take the other side of the trolley. “Leave it here.”
“Why won’t I move it too? You’ve taken it with you for a bit now.”
“A bit isn’t long enough. You already have four arms. Come on.”
He chuckles and gives me the trolley, picking up a big stack of books with his top two hands. “Fine, fine. I’m waiting to claim my prize soon.”
“Wait! What’s that going to be?”
He winks. “Winner’s choice.”
Somehow, I think he’ll get to hug me as his prize. I don’t know what I want, but everything can wait until I win.
I put more books on the shelves. I’m pretty good at it, but at the same time, I’ve never raced anyone on putting books up, let alone racing against a guy with a double number of hands.
It is going to be...
“I’m done!” He grins as he lifts two arms in the air.
I roll my eyes. I’m one book away from finishing. “Did you put everything in their spots?”
“Obviously, I’m pretty good at numbering things.”
“Fine. Now I’m done with all the work for the day.”
Technically, there are still new books to be documented, but that can wait until tomorrow. Telke is going to be too much of a distraction for that to work efficiently.
I head to the counter. “Let’s pack up and leave.”
He put an arm in front of me, stopping me at my track.
I ask, pretending not to know what he’s doing. “Huh?”
“I win, so I can get a prize.”
I pat his chest. “What prize do you want?”
He licks his lips. “Something tasty.”
I lift my brows at him with heat inside my stomach. “What do you mean...?”
“Can I get two things?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “A prize.”
“A prize package.”
“That’s different.”
Will he... want me? To hug me and...
Fuck... What am I doing? I’m thinking about how I told him about tasting a kot’oll again. I don’t need that memory at all.
But... What if he can handle me well and... with those muscles, it is tempting to see what he can do with them.
Yet...
I hiss at him and myself. “What prize? Something tasty, huh?”
“I know of a taco place. Do you want to go there? We can have dinner together.”
Ah... I’m not sure whether I’m upset or not. It feels like he is hitting on me at times and... I don’t hate that, even though...
And... I’m already behind on bills... Buying tacos won’t help at all even though tacos aren’t that expensive.
He blinks, waiting for my answer.
Before he can add something else, I nod. “And I suppose you’d want me to buy you the tasty tacos.”
He grins. “Can I get that? Or do you want to offer me something else as my prize?”
“What? A hug?”
He stares at me. I flinch when I say that out loud. Why did I even say that when...
I stare at him in return, my eyes drifting from his arms to his other arms. “Um... I mean...”
He chuckles. “You can always want a hug from me.”
I snort a laugh. “Except you’re the one who wants to hug me.”
“Oh, I do.”
What?
He rubs his hands together. “But I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I have great arms that will give amazing hugs, but you know what I mean.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Well, show don’t tell, huh?”
I hug him before he can move. “Trust me, your jokes and your flirts are so cringy.”
“Oh... Well, I can’t say I’ve set out to flirt with you, but at the same time, I...”
He wraps his arms around me, all four of them. His strong arms probably covered my whole upper body. His strong muscles wrap around me, which is... a bit too much warmth for the day.
I lean into his chest. “Not bad.”
He chuckles. “Look, there is a lot more we can be doing.” He strokes my back and my body melts. Fuck...
“You have me...”
He takes a step before I’m done with my sentence. “Oops... Do you think all the kids are gone?”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, all of them are back at home now. The library is supposed to be closed, except—“
“Someone forgot to lock the door, so I invited myself here.”
“Yeah, that.” I shrug. “Let’s get going before...”
My cheeks burn again. He fixes his cap with a smirk, seemingly knowing I still want more.