One mistake could change the course of the whole day. Or more.
Bibi was an assistant librarian at the largest library in the city. Five floors, six hundred thousand books, a well-equipped multimedia center, six conference rooms, one auditorium and many, many places to sit down and read, study or work. To be in this huge place often felt like being a mouse skittering around a house built for giants.
Bibi disliked comparisons to mice, as her style was often called 'mousy.' Thick-rimmed black glasses and chestnut hair swept back into a ponytail, dark knitted sweater, black skirt hemmed a few inches above the knee, thigh-high stockings and heels... she just wanted to keep the library in tidy order and assist anyone she could without drawing too much attention to herself.
But one mistake this morning was playing over and over again in her head.
Last night, Bibi had stayed up a little past her normal bedtime of 9:00PM. When her alarm tried to rouse her at 6AM, she did something she never did.
She actually hit the snooze button.
Bibi got nine minutes more sleep, but at the cost of completely upturning her morning routine. Without those crucial minutes, she didn't have time for her electric kettle to heat up the water she needed to make her morning oatmeal while she was in the shower. She bathed as fast as she could, but she was still behind her normal expected time where she could leave her house and avoid the traffic. Bibi dressed in a mad rush and grabbed a prepackaged breakfast bar to eat in the car on the drive in.
Visibly, everything was in place. She looked just how she did on any other day working at the library.
With one exception.
A library patron, a college student with a hoodie and backwards baseball cap, had asked Bibi if she could get a reference book from the top shelf of the stacks. The rolling ladder was right there, and Bibi could easily climb this device as she had many times before and come down with the requested volume.
But in Bibi's haste to get out the door, she had forgotten to put on panties.
She noticed it the moment she sat down in her car, the fuzzy upholstery of her car seat touching places normally protected by that sliver of silk. She should have ran back up to her apartment and grabbed a pair before leaving... but then she might get caught in traffic!
Bibi was never, ever late. She had never even been on time. She was always, always early. Even if it was just by one minute, she was always there before the bell, so to speak.
(In her youth, working in the relative chaos of retail, she was appalled how many of her co-workers would show up 'on time' and then disappear in the locker room to change into their uniform. Why not just wear the uniform to work? Was the battle against wage theft even covering dressing yourself in the appropriately colored polo? The only people you're stealing from are your coworkers who have to wait for your less-appropriately dressed rear end.)
Less-appropriately dressed rear end... Bibi didn't want to think about that right now. It made her heart race even harder. The man was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her answer. She couldn't leave him waiting long. The ladder was there, the book was there... she was there. All the necessary elements were in place. But if she were to climb this ladder all the way to the top, and if he were to glance up at her as she ascended...
She couldn't even think of it. It was too embarrassing to even contemplate. Her feet clung to the floor like heavy bags of cement. But what could she do?
Maybe she could ask HIM to climb the ladder and reach the book himself. Normally, she got very annoyed when people made use of the ladders by themselves, especially if it was just to climb around without purpose like a wooden jungle gym. But if a coworker caught her allowing a patron to do this, she would surely be in trouble for opening them up to such liability. What if he fell off and broke his neck? What good would that book of maps of the Iberian peninsula do him then, except to direct him to a passionate Spanish workplace injury attorney?
Summoning her courage, Bibi took a deep breath and accepted the task. She put one foot on the lowest rung, and her knee was already shaking. She wasn't afraid of heights, or at least not the meager heights that a ladder presented her with. But an experience like this might give her such a phobia. With even breaths, she slowly climbed the ladder one step at a time. Keep three points of contact on the ladder at all times. That's what they told her in training, but nobody in training ever seemed to know what to do once you had hold of a large heavy book at the top of the ladder.
Bibi didn't dare look down. She knew that her skirt hem was just above the top of his head. If he only had that darn ball cap turned around the proper way, maybe he wouldn't be able to see up her skirt after all. That's what the bill on the cap was for, right? Protecting the eyes from the sun? Maybe people started wearing it backwards to protect the backs of their necks from sunburn, thus trying to relieve them of that ever-disparaging nickname for unsophisticated southerners.
She got the book off the shelf and tucked it under her arm, descending as carefully as she could. She passed the book to the patron and quickly turned away from him. He barely looked up from his phone to accept the book from her before turning and walking away.