Author's Note: Ever since a friend started working as a librarian, I've had a fantasy about accosting him in the library after hours. I decided to share it for the holiday as my first submission - enjoy!
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Ryan shuffled through papers at the reference desk, trying to finish as quickly as possible so he could lock up and go home.
He liked his job, sometimes even loved it, but there were days when it was more frustration than it was worth, and today had been one of those days -- coworkers not showing up as scheduled, coworkers who did show up complaining to him about the other coworkers, conflicts over the recently revised schedule -- and on top of all that, it was Valentine's Day.
He was a bit relieved not to be seeing anyone this year, which meant he didn't have to tiptoe around all the crazy feminine expectations that the holiday brought and that seemed to vary from woman to woman.
If they would all just have a meeting and decide what the hell they wanted it might not be so bad -- at least he'd have an idea what to do. Sadly that meeting had still not come to pass, at least as far as he knew.
A noise from the rear of the library broke his concentration and made him drop the stack of papers he had been sifting, and he swore under his breath. He thought for a moment but assured himself he had locked all the doors as he ushered the last patrons out before closing, and even if not, he always double-checked the locks on his way out, which hopefully would be soon. As he stooped to scoop up the papers, he heard another noise, closer this time, and picked up his head to peer over the desk.
"Alyssa?"
From his squat behind the counter he saw his friend Alyssa walking toward him in a long black coat detailed with red thread. "Sorry 'Lys, I'm just getting ready to close here -- wait, how did you get in?" he queried.
"The back door was unlocked," she motioned as she approached the counter, "but don't worry, I locked it behind me."
He stacked the papers together and set them on a desk behind the counter. "Well thanks, but I've got a good half hour of work left to do, so why don't I catch up with you tomorrow?"
"Oh, but I'm here on official library business Ryan."
Trying very hard not to be annoyed, Ryan turned around and saw Alyssa leaning on the counter. There was something different going on -- the tilt of her shoulders, the arch of her back, the mischievous look in her eye... this was a different Alyssa than the one he had known for going on ten years. He wasn't sure what she was up to, but maybe because he had had a rough day, or maybe just because he was curious to see where she was going with this, he decided to play along.
"Official library business, huh?"
"Yes," she sighed, straightening slightly, "I'm afraid I have an overdue material."
Ryan scoffed. "'Lyssa, you don't even live here. How do you have an 'overdue material'?" His patience was waning again, and his mind started drifting back to the paperwork he needed to file before he could leave.
He was distracted, however, by the DVD sliding slowly towards him across the counter -- an old Metalocalypse DVD he suddenly remembered telling her had been missing for years. However, since he had looked for it repeatedly, he remembered the name of the patron had checked it out before it mysteriously disappeared, and she was not, he knew, Jeffrey Schultz of East Elm. Was she trying to be clever and give him a present or something? Whatever it was, he didn't have the patience for it.
"This didn't come from the library 'Lys," he said as he tossed it aside and walked back over to the desk, "and please, I really have a lot of work to finish up."
"Well, I was embarrassed so I peeled the library stickers off it. But it's horribly late, and I'd like to apologize. In fact, was hoping maybe we could make alternate arrangements for the fines?"
Frustrated with her riddles, Ryan whipped around to ask her to leave but was stopped in his tracks. Alyssa was now sitting on the counter facing him, her fingers curled around the edges, leaning forward over her bare legs crossed at the knee. She was still wearing her coat, the one he had never seen before, but something else struck him -- from her left foot she dangled a black spiked heel, still wearing the other on her right foot.
Almost every day she wore sneakers, and on the rare occasion she had to dress up she usually wore those rounded flat shoes girls called ballet something-or-others, or occasionally boots or a low heel, but never anything like this. He was almost hypnotized by the shoe hanging half off her foot as she made it dance in circles with her swaying ankle.