Chapter 6
Chapter Six
The rest of the week passed in a blur, and before Sierra knew it, Saturday arrived, along with her full day shift at the library, which started at eight in the morning.
It was a struggle to leave her warm and cozy bed to tug on a green turtleneck sweater and jeans, but she knew there would be no mercy from Tyler if she called in sick simply for not wanting to get out of bed.
Sierra brushed her dark hair, which was naturally a bit curly and often unruly, into a low ponytail, before deciding it looked stupid and braiding it instead.
Sierra inspected her face in the mirror next.
While she normally didn’t wear much makeup, she definitely looked tired today, so she applied a small amount of under-eye concealer and some mascara in hopes it would help. It didn’t.
As much as it pained her to shrug on her messenger bag and head outside for the cold walk to the library, she reminded herself of her desire to be here; abroad, miles away from her family and the job she had to work at to make it possible.
“At least it's not waiting tables,” she said under her breath, as she arrived at the campus and entered the library.
Sierra had waited tables all through her undergrad, and she still had nightmares about the fast-casual restaurant she had worked at in Dallas.
A shudder went through her at the thought alone, as she crossed through the library and headed toward the employee area.
She tucked her stuff in the employee room and grabbed a cart to go pick up returned books until she noticed something odd.
Aodhan was standing in the staff room and looking like he was lost. He was wearing his typical black woolen beanie, fitted jeans, and a green polo shirt, which made his eyes look extra green as they bore into hers.
With his arms crossed, she could see his biceps bulging from beneath the short sleeves.
She felt her heart drop to her stomach and let go of her cart to confront him.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped as she marched up to him, stopping when her feet were just a few inches from his. “Library visitors can’t be back here.”
Aodhan glared down at her stoically, his facial features unchanging. “I work here now.”
“You—What?” Sierra sputtered as his words sank in, and something in her chest tightened.
Aodhan shrugged. “I was hired yesterday. So, pardon me.” He pushed past her and headed for the cart she had just abandoned. Sierra looked around to see if the manager, Mona, was around, but, of course, she wasn’t.
Seething, Sierra marched up to Aodhan once again. “If you were hired yesterday, you’re going to need training. You can’t just start putting books on shelves.”
“I know that,” he snapped, his green eyes focused on her. “Mona said you would train me. Lead the way.” He motioned to the cart.
Sierra narrowed her eyes. She was inclined to believe he was just messing with her.
In fact, she was so sure there was no way Aodhan could have been hired to work at the library that she started laughing.
“Ha, ha, you got me, Tyler!” She called out, looking around the staff area for him.
“Very funny!” Another employee, Sheila, looked up from her cubby in the staff room, glancing around confused.
Aodhan simply crossed his arms over his chest. Apparently this was his signature pose, and Sierra did agree that it suited his brooding personality. “I don’t know what you think is funny.”
“There is no possible way you got a job here just to follow me around!” Sierra nearly screeched. She couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy.
Aodhan arched one of his eyebrows, his jaw clenched. “I didn’t. My job here is purely a coincidence.”
“Like I believe that,” Sierra snapped. It felt like something was crawling beneath her skin, and she felt the sudden urge to scratch her arm.
The room quieted as Shelia passed their little stare down and made her way out into the library. Sierra bit her lip, waiting and praying to a God she no longer believed in that this was some sort of joke.
Aodhan just looked around expectantly, his lips pressed in a firm line. “Well, if this is what you do all day, then this is the easiest job I’ve ever had.” He brushed imaginary dust off his shoulder in a move that was reminiscent of the boys who used to bully Sierra in high school.
Shocked at the sudden flashback, Sierra continued to stare at him for another moment before realizing that it probably wasn’t a joke, and since that was the case, she really did have to help train him.
“Ugh, fine,” she grumbled, grabbing the cart, and choking down the words she wished she could say to him.
“Follow me.” She pushed the cart out to the main library and began gathering books that were left on tables or near the checkout at the front.
“First thing you should do when you get here is collect any books lying around. Most of them are for library use only, but people don’t know how to put them away in the right spot, so we do it. ”
Aodhan nodded, his jaw still clenched, and began collecting the books and stacking them on the cart.
“Exam weeks are worse, but usually, there aren’t too many left out. If there aren’t any, or just a few, you can go grab a cart from the returns section and start reshelving those.”
“And how do we know where they go?”
Sierra nearly dropped the books she was collecting. “Are you serious?”
His expressionless face gave her the answer.
“I can’t believe they hired you, and you don’t even know about library shelving systems.” Sierra turned her attention back to the books she was stacking.
The irony of the fact that she also hadn’t known the shelving system was not lost on Sierra, but she didn’t voice that small fact, resolving to hold on to her anger at Aodhan instead.
“Where I’m from, libraries are organized based on preference.”
“Preference?” Sierra picked up her stack and placed it on the cart. “Who organizes a library based on preference, and how do you know whose preference to follow?”
Aodhan shrugged. “All libraries are privately owned. The owner picks, but if it changes hands, I guess the new owner can change where books are shelved if he wants.”
Sierra’s brows furrowed as she tried to think of his Tinder profile and whether it said where he was from. When she couldn’t find the answer, she asked, “Where are you from again?”
Aodhan placed his books on the cart and, seeing the table empty, went to get ready to push it. “Somewhere up north, you don’t know it.”
Sierra was trying to be nice, she really was, but this man infuriated her. She took a deep breath before she answered to control her volume. “Up north, where? This is Ireland, Aodhan, there isn’t much else north besides more Ireland.”
Aodhan began pushing the cart with one of his arms, waving her off with the other. “Never mind. Like I said, you wouldn’t know it.”
Sierra rolled her eyes at his insinuation, as she followed him to another desk area and began collecting more books.
Aodhan must really think she was an idiot.
Maybe, in the past, Sierra would have kept this opinion to herself, but her mouth had a mind of its own as it opened. “You must think I’m dumb.”
As if it couldn’t get any worse, Aodhan shrugged, as if he agreed.
Sierra was about to explode. She took a few more calming breaths, reminding herself that she needed this job if she wanted to continue to live in Dublin.
Without any explanation, she snatched the cheat sheet for the Universal Classification System from where it hung on the side of a shelf and slammed it on the desk in front of Aodhan.
“Here’s how you organize the books. Figure it out.” Then she spun on her heel and went to collect another cart from the employee area before she could say something she would really regret.
She told herself not to look back, but her neck didn’t listen to her mental commands, spinning around to see Aodhan squinting at the chart in his hand as if her outburst didn’t have any effect. Either way, it only made her feel worse.
Forcing herself to turn away, she grabbed another cart and began working in a different area of the library.
Sierra managed to avoid Aodhan the rest of the morning. But of course, when she walked into the employee area for lunch, Aodhan was sitting there, staring at the table, a weird expression occupying his face as he frowned at the sandwich in front of him.
Not wanting to deal with his rude comments again, Sierra snatched her wallet and headed for the cafe. She usually ate in the employee room alone during her full-day shifts when it rained, but she was going to get her sandwich and eat outside today, even if her hands froze.
By the time she purchased her lunch and exited the building, it was pouring even harder than when she had entered the café.
Even if she had an umbrella, the wind was blowing the rain every which way, ensuring there was no way she could possibly stay dry.
Dismayed, but still not willing to sit in the same room as Aodhan, she leaned against the wall and unwrapped her caprese sandwich in the same place she had eaten earlier that week, trying to shield herself from the rain as much as possible and failing miserably.
The sound of the rain calmed her a bit as she savored each bite of her lunch. Aodhan was a jerk; it was simple. She dealt with jerks all the time in Texas. She could handle him. She would just limit their conversations to work only and avoid him the rest of the time. She could do this.
Finishing her lunch and throwing away the wrapper, Sierra made her way back inside, stopping by the women’s room to pat a paper towel on her sopping hair and arms before grabbing one of the carts filled with returns and heading for the stacks.
Sierra loved the peace that came with reshelving books. It was like her own little form of active meditation. It was also a mental challenge to find the right spot for all the books in the cart.
Everything was going smoothly until she pulled out a book that she couldn’t read the title of. Not only that but the label on the side, which would usually tell her where to shelve it, was rubbed off, so she couldn’t see the number.
While she spoke little to no Gaelic, she was usually able to figure out enough to put the book away. But this book didn’t even look like it was written in Gaelic.
Tucking the book under her arm, she went to look for one of the other employees as she normally did when she couldn’t find where to shelve a particular book.
Mona, her manager, was behind the main counter, typing something on the computer as she peered down through the glasses perched atop her narrow nose, when Sierra approached.
“Hey, Mona, can you help me with this book?” She set the title on the desk.
Mona had been working at the library for decades, and it showed.
While she was still fit and relatively healthy for a woman in her 60s, she definitely looked like a librarian, and it seemed like her blonde hair was constantly coated in a light layer of dust from digging out old, relatively unknown books for research students.
Mona turned to Sierra, pushing her glasses back toward her eyes, only for them to sink down to the tip of her nose a second later. “Let’s see here…ah, yes.”
Sierra waited patiently, expecting a translation, but instead, Mona turned her head to the side. “Where did Aodhan go?”
“Aodhan? I’m not sure. Reshelving somewhere. Why?” Sierra didn’t understand why Mona would be bringing this up now.
“Because he can read old Gaelic. That’s why I hired him.”
Sierra felt her jaw drop. “He reads old Gaelic?”
“Yeah, I hired him to help organize some of the older texts that even I can’t read. We don’t have many in Old Gaelic, but they’ve just been collecting dust for the past few years. It’s rare we find someone who reads it and has the time to devote to working in the library.”
Sierra huffed, trying and failing to keep the distaste off her face.
Mona didn’t seem to notice. “I’m giving him your Thursday shift by the way.”
She felt her heart drop. “But why?” Her mind immediately began running over all the problems that would cause her financially. “I really need the hours.”
“All student contracts are for 25 hours a week. We’ve had extra shifts, so I didn’t mind that you were working more, but I had to offer Aodhan the same contract. You’ll still get your 25 hours, just not more unless another employee requests vacation.”
Sierra knew better than to argue, as she reached out and took the book back from Mona’s outstretched hand, feeling as if she were in a daze.
Without another word, she started walking toward the other side of the library, peeking down each aisle, looking for Aodhan.
She hadn’t liked him before, and now she downright hated him.
Following her was one thing, but getting a job at her work, which cut into her income, was another thing.
It didn’t take long for her to find his large frame staring at a bookshelf with a book in one hand and rubbing his angled chin with the other. It was clear he was having some trouble.
Aodhan must’ve heard her approach, as he turned toward her even before she was standing next to him. She held out the book, ensuring she was a full arm’s length away, keeping her eyes on the book so she didn’t have to look at his face. “Can you let me know what subject this book is?”
Aodhan didn’t even blink. “It’s a religious book,” he replied, turning back to the book in his hands.
Sierra didn’t know what to think. First, she found out he knew how to read a language that had been dead for over 1400 years, and he didn’t even take time to study the title. It was like he just inherently knew it.
Not willing to talk to him more than necessary, Sierra turned to head back to her cart.
“Wait, can you tell me where this book goes?” He held out the book in his hands, his face as impossible to read as always.
Sierra plucked it from his outstretched hand, careful to avoid her skin touching his, noticing the cover label had worn off, just like the religious book she had brought to him. She flipped the book open to the first page.
“It’s an astrology book. I’ll take it to get relabeled, and I’ll reshelve it.”
Sierra figured that was the end of their conversation. But before she exited the aisle, she heard Aodhan say, “What’s astrology?”
Sierra spun back around, checking to ensure her mouth was hanging open. “You seriously can’t tell me that you can read old Gaelic but haven’t ever heard of astrology?”
In typical Aodhan fashion, he shrugged, turning back to the shelves, his face completely passive. Sierra didn’t bother to explain, choosing instead to go back to the front desk to have Mona relabel both books. Aodhan could figure out what astrology was on his own.