The cat's meow, part 4
"I really thought you were going to search
bicycle porn
or whatever."
Alex grins. "I'm sure it exists. There is porn on pretty much anything. You wanna give it a go?"
Mimi shakes her head quickly. "No man, or you're never going to fix that bike!"
Alex surfs for a while. It takes some time, but he does find out that there is a difference between a
wheel
and a
tyre
. When a wheel isn't perfectly round, you can adjust it by screwing the
spokes
further in or out
the rim.
This will however not work when the wheel is bent at a ninety degree angle, as is the case with Mimi's bike. He needs a new wheel. That sucks because they're... what? The same price as a new bicycle? Jeez...
Since almost every part of the bike is busted, Alex goes through the same process again and again. Finding out what the parts are called, how you can fix or replace them and what that costs. Damn, bike research is tedious work. And speaking of research...
"Hey, so Mimi?"
"Mweow?"
"Are you okay to be on your own for a while? I need to do some more, em, looking bike stuff up. In the library."
Mimi looks surprised. "Em, sure? Is the internet not good enough?"
"Yeah, no. I mean great with the instruction videos and all, but I need like... in depth information. That is in books."
She shrugs. "Alright. I'll be here on the couch, doing absolutely nothing. Zip. Jack all."
She looks a little hesitant.
Alex tries to sound reassuring. "Nobody will get in while I'm gone..."
"Oh, I know." She taps her hind paw.
"Mimi, what is it?"
"How long will you be gone?"
It almost feels like she's going to admit to missing him. "Maybe, two to three hours? Research takes time, you know."
"And, em... Will you be okay not jerking off for so long?"
Alex hadn't thought about that. Going to the library for a few hours is a thing normal people do. He's never heard of people not making it through a library visit because of masturbation remission syndrome. But then again...
Mimi takes charge. "You're hesitating. You wanna do...left hand, right hand?"
"I can't believe we're still calling it that, but, yeah that would be great?"
_______________________
The librarian can't seem to hold it in any longer. After three consecutive days of throwing him curious looks she takes a seat next to Alex, right in his personal space. "I have two questions. One: are you doing this for love, and two, why are you in your pajamas?"
Alex looks down at his sweat pants. What is wrong with his look?
He has been telling Mimi that fixing her bike is dope complex and requires a lot of research in actual books, rather than online. She seemed to accept this explanation for his going to the library for three days in a row. To make himself feel a little better about the white lie he did start each of the days at the library looking up stuff about fixing bikes, not online but in actual books. Most of his time however is spent on an old fashioned machine. It's like, modern and techy looking, but in the way that doors in Star Wars disappear in the ceiling. Like, look this is modern and techy but serves no actual function. It has a sort of binocular thing, and you can see
every
newspaper, also the ones that only ever came out in paper form, of the last decades. It's a sort of microfilm. You move the newspapers around with a joystick. It's... vintage. It has no search options. The librarian is the one who helped him learn to operate the contraption.
She seems nice enough. She takes being a librarian seriously because she has these glasses that you can look through, but also over if you're going for that piercing effect. Also, there is knitting stuff on her desk and she has her hair in a bun. It seems to bother her that he didn't tell her what it is he is looking for. Apparently there is a natural end to
I just want to look around a bit
. Three days is what it takes for people to stop accepting this explanation. In normal time. This reminds Alex that he has been letting the Project slide somewhat.
"Owkay... so you're telling me that you have spent the last three days on my machine, which holds invaluable data for research, looking for information on
a thing
, with
a girl
and, wooo, here it comes, this is the one data selection point nobody thought of before,
a cat?"
The librarian really goes for the stern librarian clichΓ©. Alex doesn't buy it though. This is a lady who would catch spiders live to put them outside instead of smashing them with a shoe.
He opens his mouth to say something, but she cuts in: "No, wait up, it can also be
a thing
, with
a girl,
but without