Rodney heard the far-off ding of the elevator and muffled footsteps approaching his office. From his seat at his desk the door was to his left and he didn't have a clear line of sight out to the corridor. He turned his attention from the email he was writing to a daily calendar next to the computer monitor, which informed him that today was National Gin and Tonic Day, and also a Wednesday. That meant it was Jasmine headed in his direction along the carpeted floor of the stacks outside his open door. Probably just to say a quick hello before beginning her afternoon shift in the Special Collections library of the University of Kentucky.
Wednesday already? Rod thought to himself. Time flies when you're having fun. Or at least, when you're comfortable and content in your work--having fun would be a bit of a stretch. Keeping track of time or even the day of the week was not made any easier by a troglobitic existence for eight hours a day down here in the windowless basement of the campus library. The Special Collections floor housed exclusively rare, valuable, or out of print books and academic journals on every subject from raptor physiology to Russian fairytales. That's what made it so special. Rod was the head (and sole) librarian for the department and had been since moving to Lexington seven years ago.
The footsteps stopped as Jasmine's head leaned into the room to check that Rod was at his desk in the corner. Then the rest of her followed and she stood in the doorway, tall and lithe, befitting an intramural soccer player, backpack slung casually over one shoulder. She wore a light, lavender sweater over a blue tee and a white tennis skirt. These skirts seemed to Rod to be all the rage on campus for the past couple of years. When he took his brown-bagged lunch outside to the quad to get some much-needed sunlight afternoons he had to be careful not to let his gaze wander. He fought to keep his attention on her face now. She wore above the cardigan a bemused half smirk that made him worry, momentarily, that she knew what he was thinking about.
"Hi," she greeted, simply and cheerfully.
"Hey Jasmine," he replied, "how's your week been?"
Jasmine was nineteen, in her junior year and was one of three undergraduate students, along with Todd and Amber, paid by the university's work-study program to assist Rod for ten hours each week. Unlike the rest of the library on the first and second floors above, which were open to all students, the Special Collections were restricted access. A key was needed to ride the elevator down from the lobby or to open the basement door in the adjacent stairwell. Rod didn't receive many visitors: a couple-three graduate students or visiting scholars writing theses on obscure topics was about all the company he could expect each semester, other than his student workers. Because hosting visitors occupied so little of their time, the librarian and his trainees busied themselves processing inter-library loans and digitizing the material in the collection to make it available online.
It was an endless task, and the work was lonesome. The grant that funded the digitization effort provided for only two of the large, high-resolution Xerox scanners they needed. With one almost always in use by Rod, and the students' busy class schedules, their working hours were intentionally staggered and they didn't see much of one another. It wasn't for everyone. Fortunately, the current cohort of helpers was solitary in nature and experienced in its work: Todd, now a senior, had been assisting Rod for three years; Jasmine and Amber were hired together a year and half ago.
"It's OK. Classes have been kicking my ass," Jasmine sighed, and her shoulders slumped away from her dark auburn bob cut. Behind her cheerfulness, she seemed tired. "It's just that time of the semester. Sorry I wasn't in Monday."
"Don't worry about it," consoled Rod. "How did that history test go?"
"It went fine, I'm sure I got at least a B." One thing Rod respected about Jasmine and all his current assistants was that while they were good students who took their studies seriously, none was obsessed with maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
"I'll bet you did better than you expect, knowing you."
Jasmine lingered in the entranceway. This was typically about the extent of their catch-ups. Rod enjoyed Jasmine's company and felt their rapport was mutual, but neither was much of a chatterbox. Now in his early forties, he felt the difference in age between himself and the undergraduate populace at UK keenly. He was cautious in his friendliness, especially with the girls, lest it be mistaken for lechery. But something was clearly on Jasmine's mind today.
"Sure you're OK?" he prompted. "Anything I can do?"
Another long sigh. Jasmine leaned back against the doorframe and lowered her backpack to the floor at her feet. Rod's eyes followed its descent involuntarily, down past the firm cup of one breast, past an exposed sliver of pale midriff between Wildcat-blue t-shirt and skirt, and finally parallel to one long, smooth leg. As it came to rest on the carpet next to a white Keds sneaker, his eyes snapped back to Jasmine's face. The whole motion had lasted only a second and he hoped she hadn't noticed, but he thought the slight smirk in one corner of her mouth had grown and that he detected a faint glint and a playful squint in her eyes that hadn't been there a moment ago, before his attention was drawn away.
Oh well, he was only human, and if she caught him looking it wasn't the first time. A few months ago, he had come around the corner of one of the aisles to find her kneeling in the opposite direction, almost prone on the ground, reaching for a book she had kicked under the shelves. "Jasmine, have you seen the gray..." he had trailed off, treated to a perfect view of her round, bubble butt, clad tightly in a pair of faded jeans. In the endless stretch of time it took him to regain his train of thought she had time to collect the lost book and straighten her posture as she turned to look at him and raise an eyebrow inquisitively. Realizing exactly what had distracted him, she had smiled smugly as he, red-faced, muttered that he had suddenly remembered the location of the book cart and hurried away. It was the ghost of that smile she wore now in his office.
"Well, actually..." she stopped. Started over, whining, "It's just so hard to find a moment to really relax with finals coming up. It feels like there's a knot in my chest 24-7, no matter how much I study."
"I still have dreams sometimes about oversleeping for an exam," said Rod, truthfully. "Finals really are traumatic." He smiled, trying to lighten the mood. He was relieved she seemed to have let his momentary indiscretion slide but he empathized with her situation. He often had difficulty shutting off from work at the end of the day.
"Hey, Amber told me yesterday she was going to this lake this weekend, why don't you go with her? Take your mind off tests."
"She's bringing her boyfriend. Nothing against Derrick but I don't want to be a third wheel. Anyway, that's exactly what I'm talking about," Jasmine closed her eyes and leaned her head back. "They have each other when they want to," she paused for a split second, "unwind."
Rod blinked. If he understood Jasmine correctly, this was uncharted territory. The image of her ass straining against denim flashed unbidden to his mind and he pushed it away. He needed to wrap this conversation up; he needed to play dumb, pretend he didn't know what she was getting at.
Instead, he said, "well, there must be someone--I mean, don't you guys all use Apps to meet each other nowadays?" Boy, he felt old saying that.
Jasmine's dark brown eyes opened and held his for a beat before she answered, deliberately.
"I haven't found boys my age to be very effective at helping me
unwind
."