A Library Romance

Chapter 5: Thrifting

While it thrilled my parents to hear that I have a job and will pay off my speeding ticket, and stay employed (for now), they decide Lily is not a good enough reason to skip out on our weekly shopping trip.

My parents, as strange as they are, have concluded that Thursday mornings are the best time to go grocery shopping, as most people are at work or simply don't need to go grocery shopping in the middle of the week because they'll put it off for the weekend. Like myself, my parents aren't a huge fan of crowds, nor are they fans of having to deal with the crabby workers and patrons of our local grocery store, so we go early to avoid as much stress as humanly possible.

Because of this, I cannot get to the library early enough to find Lily in the library and eat lunch with her, but I can make it to work early enough to buy us smoothies from the cafe, which she had raved about last night when she called to assure me she wasn't dead or kidnapped, which I found quite amusing. I didn't think she would call me.

We talked for at least a half hour, longer than I've heard her speak so far, before I finally admitted how tired I was, so she let me go. The funny part was that she didn't sound tired at all. For only wanting to speak to me, she sure does always seem so full of energy.

I sit at the cafe with the smoothies, wondering if I'd see her walk by, if she wasn't hiding somewhere already. But I don't, so I make my way to the elevator, carefully holding on to the drinks. When I approach the workstation, Lily is there, prepping for our shift. She sees the smoothies and her eyes light up. I set the drink next to her and copy her setup once again. It seemed to work well for me, so until I discover something that works better, I'll continue to copy her.

"For you." I say. "I couldn't stop thinking about them after listening to you rave for five minutes about the perfect ratio of strawberries and bananas." She lets out a quiet laugh.

"Thanks. I'm glad I've convinced you, you'll be hooked with one sip," she says. I take the wrapper off my straw and take a sip. She's right, I have tasted nothing so good. To think that I've been to the cafe several times before this and never tried the smoothies is surprising. I guess I've just always been a typical guy wanting his coffee.

"I'm going to grab my cart," I tell her, noticing she already has hers. I run over to grab it. Jace isn't here at the moment, and is replaced by a stout Indian woman with hair down to her lower back.

"Ah, hello Milo, I've heard good things about you. Thank you for being such an excellent influence on Lily. It brings me joy to see her doing so well," the woman says. I smile and nod.

"It's nice to meet you. Jace is the only other employee I've seen up here, besides the secretaries," I say. The woman laughs a little.

"Oh, pardon me. I guess I should tell you my name. It's Binita, but you can call me Bina," she says.

"Glad to see that someone else besides Jace works here," I say. Bina laughs and I return to my workstation with my cart. She has significantly fewer books to do than me, but as she said yesterday, I'm still new at this and I can get faster with more practice. "So, we're still on for today, right?" I ask. Lily nods, watching me as I stamp my first book.

"You forgot something," she says. I stare down at the book blankly. What could I have forgotten to do already? "Today isn't the twenty-third anymore." I stare down at my date stamp. She's right. I'd forgotten to change the date, but I'd already stamped it.

"Did I ruin the book?" I ask. She shakes her head.

"No, nobody will notice, but we still need to be as accurate as we can," she says. I nod and change the date before continuing. Between the two of us, she finishes her books and then helps me with the rest of mine, but groans as she picks up a particular book.