Chapter 14 #2
“I didn’t take anything.” She didn’t. It was the truth. The book found its own magical way into her bag that day.
“I don’t think you did,” Anne assured before biting her lip. “But, with the way Mitchel keeps bringing you up, pointing out things about you, he might believe you did. I just needed to let you know.”
“Thank you for telling me, Anne.” She squeezed the woman’s hand and saw her shoulders slump. “You’re not to blame for this, you know that, right?”
“I’m the one who isn’t even sure the blasted book was there. Mitchel also only vaguely remembers something. It’s all ridiculous really, but he’s zeroed in on you for some reason. I can see it in his beady little eyes.”
“He has been odd with me lately,” E muttered then shook out her thoughts. “I didn’t take your missing book, or any others for that matter. Hell, there’s plenty of security cameras around to prove the fact. I’m not going to borrow worry. Neither should you.”
Anne gave a fake smile and said, “Sure. Good call, E,” before pulling herself free and patting E’s shoulder firmly. It was a comforting gesture that might have been awkward, but E appreciated the sentiment behind it. Bookish people were often awkward even when they didn’t want to be.
“Thanks again, Anne. Knowing helps. I’ll keep my head down and hopefully all this will blow over soon.”
Anne’s round cheeks scrunched up in a grin and she gave E two thumbs up before rising. “Whelp, best get back to it.”
“Yep,” E called, but her mind wasn’t on undoing pamphlet bindings. It was firmly on what Mitchel might have planned for her, despite knowing he had no proof she had The Book of Desires.
“Want to grab lunch together?” Plutus purred over the phone. Somehow, he knew exactly when she’d packed up her work for lunch and slipped from the preservation area because her phone chimed right as she stepped past the glass, card-entry-required doors.
“Can’t” she said, and he gave a little hmph of noise on his end.
He sounded as she felt: disappointed. She wanted to have lunch with the god.
Not only because the eye candy was nice, but also because she wanted to talk to him.
Laugh with him. Get her mind off the worry loop she told Anne she wouldn’t ride.
She’d tried. She really had. But part of being an academic was being good at looking at a problem over and over and over again, trying to find a solution. The Mitchel situation was a problem, and she’d find a solution. Somehow.
Because of this, though, her work had been slower, so she needed to get back to it.
No reason to give Mitchel something else to not like her over, such as missing a project deadline she herself had given him.
“I’m grabbing a quick hot dog down the street, and then right back here to finish up some things before the end of the day. ”
“Um-hm,” he said in her ear just as she stepped out of the front of the building and saw him leaned against the car.
She dropped the phone from her ear, hitting the end button as he did the same.
Sliding it in her fancy-pants bag, she watched his human-looking hands slide his in his pockets as he sauntered over toward her, meeting her halfway.
“Hi there,” he said, the smirk on his face matching his voice.
“I really don’t have time–” she started, but he took her arm and turned them toward the closest hot dog cart.
“I know. I’ll just walk with you. Maybe have a hot dog myself.”
The way his Adam’s apple bobbed at the words made her laugh out loud. “You ever even had a hot dog?”
He looked offended. “As a matter of fact, I have. A few times. At baseball games.”
“How long ago?”
“A few decades,” he admitted.
She looked him up and down, not worrying about the street in front of them because he led her along. “I take it you’ve never had a hot dog from a cart?”
“No, I’ve never had the pleasure.”
“Oh, it is a pleasure, Plutus.”
He looked down at her and growled while also managing to lead them both around a couple who’d stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to take a selfie. “I’ll show you pleasure.”
“I know you will,” she chirped, feeling lighter with the few minutes of banter he gave her.
“But so will I.” She stepped up to the cart and ordered two dogs and two sodas from the kind, older man who asked about her books like he always did.
What she didn’t do is let Plutus have a say in what they got, and she for sure didn’t let him pay, but his narrowed eyes on her told her she’d pay for the move later. E didn’t mind that at all.
“Sit,” she said, directing him to a small, knee-high wall in front of a building by the cart. “Let’s eat.”
He stared down at the hot dog, packed with relish and mustard, gave a shrug, then took a giant bite.
Chewing, his head cocked in consideration, he gave it a moment.
Then he declared, “Not bad,” before taking another big old bite.
He scarfed down the thing in about four bites, much quicker than E’d eaten half of hers.
“Looks like it’s better than ‘not bad.’”
He shrugged and leaned into her. “When something’s good, it’s good.
Doesn’t matter where you found it.” Inching closer, he swiped a firm thumb at the corner of her mouth before sticking it in his own and sucking it.
She froze before he whispered “mustard,” and she never knew a condiment could sound so sexy.
She couldn’t do sexy right then, so pushed past it by taking another bite and chewing with care. Plutus moved away a few inches then started asking her about work. When she scoffed, he pressed. “What’s wrong?”
“My coworker, Anne—a lovely woman by the way—thinks Mitchel suspects me of stealing The Book of Desires.”
A sneer marred his gorgeous face. “Mitchel,” he spat out, as if the name was a cuss word.
“Tell me about it,” she muttered after a big swallow. “I didn’t steal it, but you and I know it is at my apartment, so I’m worried what tapes might show.”
“If the book came to you, it did so in a way it would not be detected.”
“Are you sure?”