Chapter 37
“Have a nice day.” Jahla gave her best retail smile to the woman she just checked out.
Her smile dropping as soon as the lady turned her back, she slumped over her desk with a heavy sigh when she was sure she wouldn’t be heard. “Stupid fucking dream…”
Unfortunately, Jahla had not managed to get back to sleep. Which meant she was running on about five hours, and that meant dealing with the public was going to be even more tedious than normal.
But, FUCK!? What was that dream even supposed to mean?
! Okay…the others had not necessarily been clear, or even were clear now, though the Noble one had been easy to guess.
The repeat one was obviously about Ollie in some way, and then she sort of predicted running from that fake zombie, but shit—no!
They meant nothing! They were not real! It was just a coincidence—multiple coincidences—that was all…
Though…if she were to attempt to understand last night’s dream, then obviously they were counting down to something, and it was possibly telling her that time would be up soon, for whatever the loudest clock represented in relation to Ollie.
Jahla sighed again, but straightened up in her chair when she spotted the witch himself coming up the front stairs of the library, with Noble behind him.
It was just after 10:30am, and knowing Red had opened the library, she couldn’t help but wonder how much extra sleep the man had gotten, as he looked like he could use a few more.
He was also wearing the same black raccoon-patterned overalls, beige long-sleeved blouse, and black scarf tied into a bow, from yesterday.
“I’d ask how last night went, but based on the local news that popped up on my feed this morning, I already know,” Jahla drawled as Ollie neared her desk.
Her friend’s nose wrinkled. “How much was shared?”
“The short summary of the story being shared was that as a kid, Georgie Babs, witnessed his cancer-stricken mother, Darline, murder his father’s business partner, Irene, and his father covered it up.
And that Marlow Babs then proceeded to keep the secret of where the body was hidden until just before he died. ”
Noble snorted. “So, everything?”
Ollie tsked. “Someone from the Police Department must have leaked the news.”
“Possibly the same person who leaked it to Irene’s family,” the apparent witch hunter mused.
“Right, so I’m guessing the ghost is…?” Jahla trailed off with a brow raised.
The witch sighed. “She’s moved on.”
“Good, good, any plans for today?”
“Well, right now, I’m going to go take a quick shower, change, and then, hopefully, catch the second storytime. Followed by work, and checking on the progress of the repaired room reassembly. Though, I may try to track down those two missing boxes again. They didn’t happen to show up, did they?”
“Nope!” she chimed sweetly.
“Of course, they didn’t,” Ollie groaned. “Come on, Noble, let’s go get ready.”
Grinning as they started walking to the elevators, she called out, “Ollie, I have a suggestion for, if you want to actually make it to storytime.”
Ollie paused, looking back with a brow raised.
Her grin widened. “Shower without your shadow there.”
Her friend’s face turned bright red as he sputtered, “J-Jahla!”
Giggling, she waved him away. “Hurry, hurry. You don’t want to force poor Winnie to have to read to children for a second time today, do you?”
Ollie just huffed in response, and prodded a far too smug-looking Noble into the elevator when it opened.
With a smile on his face, Ollie power-walked to Noble’s side, after navigating through the children rushing towards Red to give him his pets.
The man’s arm sliding around his waist as he reached him, Noble asked, “What were you thinking about for lunch? I was thinking Italian. There is this really good place I know of that does carry out.”
His smile dropped a little at the suggestion. “Normally…I would say yes…but…” Ollie winced.
“But?” Noble asked with a slight brow raised.
He hesitated for a moment before blurting, “Texture for me is really bad today. And when I think about swallowing certain things, it kind of makes me want to gag and just not eat. While I can force it, it doesn’t always work out that well.
And believe me when I say I know this sounds kind of insane, but on days like this, it just sort of…
works better if I give my body what my brain wants? ”
Thankfully, the breakfast Noble had made them that morning had been simple enough that his brain hadn’t cared.
“Would this happen to be why you changed your outfit five times earlier?”
Ollie smiled sheepishly. “Maybe?”
“Okay then, maybe another day for the Italian. But you do need to eat, so what does your brain want, Baby?”
“Nuggets.”
“Nuggets?”
“And fries.”
Noble chuckled. “Nuggets and fries it is.” The man started guiding him forward, down the aisle towards the entrance of the Young Readers section.
He stayed quiet for a moment, eyeing the man for any sort of irritation, and while he didn't find anything, Ollie couldn’t help but ask, “You’re not mad?”
Noble blinked, his smile dropping a bit. “Why would I be?”
Ollie thought it was pretty obvious, but answered anyway. “For me being difficult? For not agreeing? For being particular and picky?”
The man was downright frowning now. “Ollie, why would I get mad at you for wanting to eat something you know won’t make you throw up?”
“Because—” He cut himself off, biting his bottom lip. He didn't want to finish as the truth was that so many others had. Bad texture days didn’t happen often, but they were common enough for past partners to have used it in their list of reasons to break up with him.
“Baby, why would you think I’d get mad about this?” Noble’s jaw seemed to set into a firm line, telling Ollie he’d likely not get out of answering.
Taking a careful breath, he wound his hands together tightly before admitting, “Because everyone else has?”
“And everyone is?”
“Past partners, ex-friends…my godfather… Just numerous people?”
Noble clucked his tongue. “Well, I’m not going to comment on your godfather, as I don’t think you’d like what I have to say about him, but as for the rest…
does what they think really matter? They aren’t in your life anymore.
And based on what you’ve said, it’s for very good reasons.
But I am. And I like you just the way you are, even when your brain is being difficult. ”
“You do?” He blinked before giggling. “I mean, I-I like you too.”
The man chuckled and kissed his cheek. “Come on, let’s get you to where you need to be, so I can run out and grab our food.”
Ollie beamed, and just leaned against the man as they walked, only stopping when they reached Winnie’s desk and she asked, “Did you see the news about the owner of Bab’s Diner?”
He went to answer, but paused when Noble kissed him on the forehead and said, “You stay and chat, I’m gonna head out.”
Ollie gave him a peck on the lips with a giggle. “Okay, meet me in my living quarters when you get back.”
“Will do.” The man nodded politely towards Winnie before walking away.
“Got him well-trained, I see,” Winnie drawled with a chuckle when he was gone.
Ollie huffed. “He’s not a dog.”
“Mm, men, dogs…not much difference, if you think about it.”
He rolled his eyes. “Gee, thanks.”
She laughed. “Welcome! So, about the diner?”
“Yes, yes, I saw the news.”
“Shocking, isn’t it?! Wonder what will happen to Bab’s Diner now? Or Mr. Babs, for that matter. Though I imagine, with the extenuating circumstances, he’ll likely get off with a slap on the wrist at most.”
Ollie frowned at that. He hadn’t actually considered what would happen to the diner now.
With such a huge scandal, he imagined it would be hard to keep it going, if it remained under Georgie’s ownership.
Not that the diner mattered as much as Irene and her family finally getting closure.
It was just…well…he’d been going there since he was a child, and losing it would suck.
Ollie sighed on realizing that Winnie was still waiting for him to respond. “I’m not sure what will happen now in either case. But I’m sure we’ll find out in the coming months. Anyway, I’m heading up to check on the progress in the newly restored room.”
“Fine, fine, I see how it is. Too good to gossip with Winnie,” she huffed dramatically.
Ollie smirked. “Bring me new gossip and I’ll talk to you for as long as you want.”
Winnie giggled evilly. “Oh, I’ve got something juicy!”
He winced when he spotted the spark in her brown eyes that usually meant trouble, so he started rushing away as he said, “If it’s about staff personal lives, I don’t want to know.”
“Oh, come on! It’s really juicy! It’s about Elias and Percy!”
Yeah, he definitely didn’t want to know. Elias was super prickly when it came to his personal life, and he did NOT want to deal with that lecture again. “Nope!” he cried without looking back.
“No, but Elias asked—”
“NOPE!” Ollie yelled louder this time, as he practically sprinted away. He kept running right past the circulation desk, Jahla giving him an amused look as he passed, but he didn’t stop, he just headed up the stairs.
While he did slow down, he kept going until he reached the third floor, going straight to the newly repaired room and slipped inside, eyeing the progress.
There were boxes everywhere, some open, some not, some empty, others already broken down, folded and set aside, along with somewhat haphazardly growing piles of discarded shipping supplies.
It was a mess, but the floor of the room had now been fully repaired, and looked good as new. Good as new, as in it looked original.
The repairs were finished two days ago, but had been left to settle. Next week, they should be getting the tables back that had been sent for repair, along with finally bringing in a few replacement tables and lamps from one of the library’s off-site storage units.
Today was the first day the library assistants were tasked with opening and re-shelving books.
At the moment, the shelves in the room were not even a quarter full, and there were scattered groupings of books with a lot of space around them.
The assistants were still working, and aside from the two boxes that they knew for sure were missing in action, they were also still waiting for Brecker’s Restorative Cleaners to finish and ship back, by his guess, a good quarter of the books.
At least, boxes seemed to be arriving daily now…
Not the two boxes that were still missing, though.
Smiling as the person he’d put in charge of the job, Archer Price, a library assistant who usually worked on the first floor, noticed him and approached. “Hey, Boss, we are about a quarter into the boxes, but I’m sure we’ll get them all opened today.”
Ollie eyed the growing stack of empty boxes and discarded packing materials for a moment, before deciding something.
“I want you to save as much of the materials and boxes as you can. No point throwing away perfectly good shipping supplies. Most of the protective packaging can be folded down smaller and packed away in a few of the empty boxes. For unused boxes, cut the tape and fold them back down so they can be reused. Though, best to grab some cord and tie them up in bundles to make them easier to store.”
“Where should we store them?” the man asked.
He pursed his lips, thinking about the space they had left. “We should be able to fit most of it in the largest storage room on floor two.”
The man hesitated for some reason, before smirking and asking, “Not worried that Elias will accuse you of hoarding again?”
“How is it hoarding to save boxes and shipping materials that are specifically used for books?!” Ollie huffed. “If anything, Elias should praise me for the money saving venture, since we will eventually use it all!”
“Well then, that is what I’ll tell him if I happen to run into the man while trying to squirrel away your supplies.”
Squirrel?! The audacity!
“I-I do not squirrel things away! Have you forgotten I’m your boss?!” Ollie sputtered, as the others in the room laughed, before huffing, “You know what, I’m going to lunch. Keep working!” He turned and walked away with a hmph as the assistants continued to laugh.