Solangelo Oneshots

Books

Nico sighs as he once again brushes his hair out of his face. He walks over to the cart that holds the books he's supposed to be stocking and grabs another stack. He's been at this for hours. Putting up a pile of books, walking to the cart, drinking more coffee, and starting over again. At least no customers had come in since he'd started. 'Nico, work at a book shop' they had said. 'You love books. How hard could it be?' They said. Nico's friends didn't realize that when you work at a bookstore, you aren't reading books. You're stocking shelves and telling kids to get that toy train out of their mouths, it's someone else's turn to play with it. You're staying up past 3 a.m., because all your coworkers somehow got tonight off. Why was a bookstore even open at 3 a.m.? It's exhausting.

All of this is running through Nico's head as he guzzles more coffee. At least no one's there to bother him. With almost comical timing, Nico hears a bell ring, indicating that someone had just walked in. "Hello? Wow, it's dark in here."
Nico walks over to the counter and puts on a fake smile.
"Hello, sir. Welcome to Athena Books. How can I help you?" He asks with forced cheeriness.
"I need the next book. I'm dying." The man says. Nico sighs again. He finds himself doing that quite often. "Are you really dying, sir?"
"Well," The man considers, "Technically, yes. Everyone is slowly dying. Actually, one only starts dying when they're about 25. So no, not really. But anyway, I just finished this book!" He plops down a large, paperback book. "And I need the next one. Please." Nico looks up into the man's pale blue eyes and starts to notice how gorgeous he is. His yellow hair (not quite blond, just... yellow) shines in the fluorescent light of the book shop. "Okay." Nico says, leading the man back to where the next book would be.
"Here you go." Nico says. "Mr..."
"Oh. Um, I'm named Will." The man responds.
"Okay. Will, here's your book." Nico says.

"That will be $11.99." Nico says, taking Will's money and giving him his change.
Will looks nervously from side to side, as if expecting something to jump out at him. "Um, so, sorry if this is weird," He starts. Nico raises an eyebrow at him, confused. "But, um, you're really cute. So, er, would you like to go out sometime?" Nico just stood there, staring at him. Will smiles awkwardly and puts down a scrap of paper on which he had written his phone number. "Think about it?" Then he picks up his book and runs back home to read it.

So Nico thinks about it. He thinks about it for a long time. Not trying to decide whether or not to call, but just kind of imagining what he would say. Eventually he picks up his phone and dials the number scribbled on the paper. He rehearses in his head what he's going to say. Then he starts panicking. What if Will says no? He can't do that, he's the one that hit on Nico. But what if he found a boyfriend in those few days in between the initial meeting and the call? What if Will had been pranking him? Maybe he saw the gay pin on Nico's bag in the corner and decided to mock him for it. Oh, god. Why is he even calling? There's no way Will was serious. He should hang up. He should burn the paper and quit his job at the bookstore. Move back to Italy. He lived there when he was younger, it couldn't be that hard to go back. Yes. That's what he's going to do. Hang up and run. He's about to start this impulsive plan when the other side of the phone speaks.
"Hello, this is Dr. Will Solace. How can I help you?" Will says.
"Hi." Croaks Nico. "This is Nico. From the bookstore. You asked me out? And gave me your number. So I'm calling you. Hey."
"Oh, hey!" Will's voice becomes much happier. "Yeah. I'm glad you called! Um," Nico hears Will flipping through paper. "Are you free on Sunday?"
"Yeah, I am." Nico says.
"So Sunday, then? At the pizza place near the bookstore where you work?"
Nico smiles. "Sounds great."