In The Library

Goaded by a Line in a Book

It had been three days since I saw that stranger with her and that day she had gotten there before me. I sat down in my usual seat, just a few tables away from her, with an identical copy of the cream coloured paperback that I was nearing the end of whereas she had yet to finish. It was a small book with an unusual title and a silhouette of a woman looking over the ocean.

When I looked over towards her direction she was oblivious to her surroundings. But this time she wasn’t caught up in the story in the story she was reading like she usually was. She had the same book in her hands as I did but she didn’t seem to be immersed in the words before her. Instead she seemed to be consumed in her own thoughts.

I went on reading just the same but just as I reached the last portion of the story I couldn’t help but shift my gaze to her again. Still the same, I noticed. Unmoving and lost in her thoughts.

I thought about how I’d missed seeing her gorgeous smile. The last time I had seen it was——. I felt my face turn sour as I remembered the last time I had seen that smile, it was for him. I had mustered up the courage to approach her that day but he had to butt in that day.

I dropped my gaze back to the book. Trying to forget all about that stranger’s mere existence, I read the next line from where I left off in the book.

“‘Seize the Day,’” she said. “That’s an inspiring thought isn’t it?”

It may have been a foolish thought but it was like the unseen forces of the world were sending me a sign. So, I decided. Screw the college guy with his just-got-out-of-bed hair and his toothy grin. He wasn’t even here right now but the girl with the gorgeous smile was. She might not be anything at all like I imagined. Or she might even be better than anything I could imagine. I didn’t know and I wouldn’t know if I continued to watch her from afar. But I knew for certain that I would regret not talking to the girl who cried when a character in a book died, who laughed so hard that the librarian had to shush her. Whose gorgeous smile lit up her face in the best way.

Seize the day, the phrase rang again through my head.

Without hesitation, I rose from my seat and walked towards her.

I walked with seeming purpose and false confidence from my table to hers as I gripped the small novel tightly in my head. I think she was aware of my movements because I could have sworn that she twitched the moment I rose from my seat and scraped my chair against the blue carpeted floor, a noise that could definitely be heard in the practically empty library. Even f she noticed me moving towards her, I just hoped that she wouldn’t realize the extent of my nervousness. 

With each step that brought me closer to her, I never took my eyes off of her. That’s why I noticed that she seemed even more tense than she was earlier. The fact that she seemed even more tense had me worried. Maybe she wouldn’t welcome my approach? Maybe she wanted nothing to do with me? No! I shook the doubts from my head and strode on. There was no turning back. I would take whatever came my way.

Her head was looking down at the open book in front of her and her body, completely still. I thought about what I would say to her with each step I took. Hello? Hey?  Sup? And just when I was about to reach her table to utter my first words to her, I tripped.

My right foot got caught on a bit of the carpet and I fell face forward landing on my knees first then my elbows. I felt a burning sensation as my elbows scraped the carpet. In that moment I just wanted a hole to swallow me up whole right then and there. This was so embarrassing and this is what she’d keep with her as my first impression. Just great.

“Oh my god, are you alright?” I suddenly heard from a worried voice break through my self-berating monologue. 

I slowly inched my head up to see that the girl had quickly left her seat to kneel right in front of me. Her brown eyes peered down at me with her eyebrows furrowed in concern. She was cute with that little crease right in between her eyebrows too, I thought.

Realizing I had failed to even utter a reply, I scrambled up to sit back on my heels as I quickly sputtered out, “I’m fine, I’m fine.” I quickly straightened out my rumpled shirt trying to make myself even remotely presentable after that humiliating fall. 

A snort followed by a tinkling laughter interrupted my efforts. I lifted my gaze from my shirt to see the girl with her dainty fingers lifted to her mouth as she laughed. Her eyes were closed and her shoulders shook with a laughter as a lock of her long, dark brown hair fell from its place behind her ear. I watched her in her fit of laughter, mesmerized. And I smiled. 

An unexpected shushing brought her laughter to an abrupt halt. I looked over to see the elderly librarian glaring at us through her cat-eye glasses. When I looked back at the girl her expression mirrored my own wide-eyed look which started another round of snickers and giggles from the both of us. Quieter ones, of course, so we wouldn’t incur the librarian’s wrath.

As our quiet laughter slowly died out, the girl picked up the cream coloured book that fell out my hand when I tripped. “At least you know gravity’s working,” she said to me with an amused smirk as she held the book out to me.

“Well, you never know,” I joked. I took the book back from her but soon we found ourselves in an awkward silence, not knowing what to say next. I looked down at the book in my lap that I held with both my hands while she looked away. I peeked up to steal a glance of her to see her cheeks tinging with pink. I clenched the book even more. I tried to think of a way to get us out of this uncomfortable silence as my eyes dropped down to the book in my hands.

“So, how far are you?” she said, taking me from my thoughts. My eyes scrunched in confusion, wondering what she was talking about. She just smiled timidly, her cheeks still coloured pink, and gestured to the book in my hands and repeated, “How far are you? It’s the same book I’m reading right now.”

“I’m almost done actually,” I replied. “I’m almost finished with the detection notes.”

“Oh! Don’t tell me what happens,” she told me quickly. “I’m still in the middle of that part.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the adorable picture I saw before me. She had both of her hands raised, palms facing me, as if to stop me. Her face held a slightly worried expression, afraid that I would spoil the book for her.

“Don’t worry. My lips are sealed,” I assured her. “So how do you like the book so far?”

“I love it! It’s such a lovely book and so warmhearted and so genuine,” she told happily. She went on  about the book so animatedly I didn’t mind sitting there, listening to her go on. “And the characters, they’re all so different but they’re all so delightful and charming. The characters seem so vivid, they have so much life in them that I wish I could meet them in real life. Honestly the whole bo——“

An irritated shushing rang out in the library from the librarian again cutting off the girl’s sentence abruptly. The girl winced at the librarian’s utterance like a kid being scolded for taking a candy. She then looked up at my face with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry, I get carried away when I start talking about books.”

“No, I enjoyed it,” I told her honestly. 

“Really? My cousin tells me it’s an annoying habit of mine.”

“Really,” I told her smoothly. “If you want, there’s this coffee shop I know just around the corner. We could go there and continue this conversation so we won’t get the librarian’s panties in a twist,” I suggested jokingly and nodded towards the librarian who was still glaring at us as if we were about to go on a shouting spree. As the words I let out sunk into my head, I brought a hand to rub my neck nervously and added, “That’s if you want of course.”

“Sure.”

“Really?” I asked in disbelief, wondering if I really did hear her right.

“Really,” she smirked, repeating my response from just now.

I stood up from the carpet and holding the book in my left hand I held out my right hand for her to take. “My name’s Philip,” I introduced.

She looked at the hand I held out to her and then up to me. She tucked the lock of hair that had fallen out of place earlier behind her ear and then took my hand. I helped her up from the ground. She stood there just a couple of inches shorter than me with her hand in mine. Then her eyes, they crinkled as she smiled that gorgeous smile I was truly beginning to love that lit her face in the best way. 

“Millie.”