5. Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Ryan
C hecking the time again, it was well after nine in the morning, and Emily hadn’t shown up yet. Did she find somewhere else to work? What if something happened to her? Should I have stayed at the bar to keep an eye on her? What if she went home with someone else?
My knee jumped under the desk, as I kept checking the door out of the corner of my eye. She should have been here by now, but she wasn’t, and I was ready to send out a search-and-rescue team.
Unfortunately, the study rooms filled up quickly today. One person came in about five minutes ago, and I had to tell them the private rooms were filled. They informed me the internet was out on the south side of town, so anyone who worked from home would need a place to work today. It seemed like they were all coming here. We were busier than normal for a weekday.
I hoped Emily wouldn’t turn around and try to work somewhere else. I promised myself today was going to be the day I struck up a conversation with her. I was still kicking myself for not being brave enough to approach her last night.
Betsy huffed a laugh as she walked past me, but a flash of auburn hair caught my attention as Emily rushed in the doors.
“Good morning,” I said.
“Morning,” Emily replied with a small smile, slowing her initially hurried stride into the library.
She paused and scanned the already full study rooms before she examined the rest of the library. When she marched off toward the reference section, I breathed out a sigh of relief. She was still planning on working here today. The reference section was quiet, and hadn’t been disturbed in quite a long time. In fact, I couldn’t recall if anyone had used it since I started here.
That section could probably use some dusting too. Maybe I’d make a list of the references we could weed out to make room for something else, or to expand a more popular section of the library.
“Betsy, you have the desk. I’m going to dust the reference section.”
“Mhm, have fun dusting the section I dusted yesterday because Miss Emily is sitting there today.”
I narrowed my eyes at the back of her head where her silver hair was pulled up into a twist. Turning, I grabbed the special dusting cloth and a metal cart. I liked Betsy a lot, but she was worse than my mom when it came to getting involved in my life. On some level, it feels like she adopted me when I arrived at the library years ago.
Steering the cart toward the reference section, I started dusting a couple aisles away from Emily. I’d work my way to her so I didn’t disturb her right away. She seemed a bit frantic this morning. I’d give her time to relax before I made my approach.
Pulling books from the shelves, I held them tight in my hands to dust them, keeping the dust from falling between the pages, before setting them in the cart. My eyes moved to Emily periodically as she typed away on her laptop.
Her eyes almost glazed over as she worked, and every now and then her mouth would move like she was whispering to herself. Finishing up one aisle, I moved to the next hoping to hear whatever she was saying to herself. At the end of the aisle, nearest to her, she appeared to be deep into whatever she was working on, and entirely focused on her laptop.
She had a slightly exasperated expression, while she muttered under her breath, and I started to question approaching her while she worked. It would be rude of me, and my intrusion could irritate her further. I didn’t want her to hate me for disturbing her flow.
As I considered the pros and cons of striking up a conversation with her, she whispered, “I’m not making your cock larger. It won’t fit in Tabitha.”
Saliva caught in my throat, and I started coughing loudly. Did she just say what I think she said? I must have misheard her.
“Are you okay?” Emily asked, staring at me as I continued to clear my throat.
“Yes,” I coughed again and cleared my throat and gestured to the shelves before saying, “I’m fine. Dust.”
“Okay.” She gave me an unsure look, but turned back to the open laptop.
I turned back to the shelves while keeping her in the corner of my eye. She began typing on the computer again, frowning at the screen. Why the hell would she talk about making someone’s cock larger?
Was penis enlargement a thing? Reaching for my phone to check Google, I stopped short of pulling it out of my pocket afraid of the types of advertisements that would show up on every website, social media platform, and streaming service I used. There were some questions I didn’t need to know the answer to. I was perfectly happy with my size, but it never occurred to me that someone could make their penis larger. Why was I stuck on this train of thought, and how did I get off?
Looking at Emily, this was likely my only chance to finally talk to her. I’d already disturbed her with my coughing. Fuck it. It was time to strike up a conversation. Except, what came out of my mouth was not the type of opening to a conversation I actually wanted to have.
“Excuse me, is penis enlargement a real thing?”
As soon as the words came out of my mouth, my blood drained out of my body and she stared at me with wide horrified eyes. What the actual fuck, Ryan?
“No! That’s not. Um. Shit.” I stumbled over the words.
I pleaded with the universe to open a sinkhole under me so I’d disappear forever. Maybe there was a whole village of awkward as fuck people living down there - hidden away from society where we wouldn’t blurt out penis enlargement questions to beautiful women who came to the library to work in peace.
“Did you say penis enlargement?” She croaked the question with a horrified stare.
Not that I could blame her. At best, I was a weirdo and she’d ignore me forever. At worst, I was a pervert and she would need to alert the town. As my cheeks heated with embarrassment, my mouth opened and shut several times, before finally my brain and voice made some sort of connection, and I could form an explanation.
“I heard you say something about making a cock larger, and it not fitting in a ‘Tabitha?’”
Her expression morphed as the blood drained from her face and her eyes went wide before she whispered, “Oh no. I didn’t say that out loud, did I?”
“Yeah, you did. I thought maybe you worked for a doctor’s office. But someone said you write for websites or something.”
“I wish I worked for a doctor’s office right about now, because that would be a much better explanation than what the reality is.” She covered her reddening face with her hands.
“What’s the reality?” I asked standing up straighter and giving her what I hoped came off as a curious expression.
However, based on the grimace she gave me, she seemed mortified. Which she really shouldn’t be. I was the one who somehow thought penis enlargement questions were a great conversation starter.
“I’m… I write… ro-- romance books.”
My eyebrows lifted, and I smiled as I said, “Well that’s a perfectly good explanation.”
“Uh huh,” She nodded with a slightly awkward smile, but there was tension in her shoulders like she was waiting for something.
My eyes narrowed a bit as what she meant by writing romance books sank in and questions formed in my brain as I said, “But…”
Her shoulders dropped and I paused. She closed her eyes with a sigh before she leaned forward, setting her forearms on the table. She stared at me with a slightly worried expression.
“Okay, I can see all the questions running through your mind so I’ll get the embarrassment of it all done with. I write alien romance, which is exactly what it sounds like - with explicit sex scenes and all. As you can imagine it takes a bit of creativity to come up with a whole new species with every single detail being explained, including the size of the characters … ahem. To rub in my shame a bit more, the characters sort of talk to each other like they are in a movie in my head, and sometimes they talk to me as the director or, well … writer. And every now and then I argue with them … out loud.”
She gave me a straight lipped smile and a dimple popped on her cheek. It was the most adorable expression. The urge to kiss that dimple came over me, but when her smile faltered a little, I realized I’d been staring at her like a love sick pup.
“Well you are a lot more creative than I am,” I complimented and she exhaled a small laugh.
“I won’t be offended if you walk away quickly. I’ll, uh, try to find another quiet place to go to every day or possibly move to avoid the awkwardness that will follow all of this.”
“No!” I shouted, much louder than I should have in the library.
My eyes darted around the space after committing the cardinal sin. Thankfully, no one was located nearby, and I breathed out a sigh of relief.
“No?” She questioned.
“I mean, please don’t feel like you need to go somewhere else to work. I wouldn’t dream of walking away quickly. I’m actually intrigued by your, uh, profession.”
Her eyes brightened slightly as she studied me from her seated position, likely looking for the lie and not finding it. Not wanting to be intimidating, I pulled out the chair next to her and sat down.
“You’re interested in alien romance?” She asked in disbelief.
“Yes. So, tell me about it.”