A Chance Meeting | Chris Evans

Chapter 75

Becca thought for a moment that they were going back into the games room, but Robert led her through a different door and walked off down a hallway.
'Erm...where are we going?' She asked.
'It's a surprise.' He called back.
I don't like surprises. At all.
'Give me a clue.'
'Then it wouldn't be a surprise.' He said.
'I don't like surprises.' Becca said firmly, stopping.
And I don't trust you enough to just go along for the ride.
He stopped and turned towards her, raising his eyebrows.
God, that's such a Tony Stark expression.
'Not very trusting, huh?' He said.
Becca shrugged.
'If you must know, I'm showing you something in my library.'
Oh, is that all?
This happened occasionally - a certain sort of person would find out that she was a librarian and feel compelled to show off their library, even if it consisted of nothing more than a couple of dusty bookshelves filled with dog eared paperbacks.
'Oh...okay.' She said, and started to follow him again.
'So, he we are.' He said after a minute, gesturing to a set of double doors in front of him. 'This is my library.'
He opened the doors with a flourish and Becca followed him in.
Oh my God!
Becca couldn't quite believe her eyes - it was a book-lover's dream. The room was enormous, with dark wood everywhere, a spiral staircase going to a second level, floor to ceiling bookshelves and thousands upon thousands of books.
This is amazing!
'You like it then?' Came Robert's voice from beside her, and she wrenched her attention away from the library to see him grinning at her.
'It's just...' She trailed off, unable to think of a superlative good enough.
'Speechless again, eh?'
She just nodded and took a few steps in.
'It's amazing. I've never seen anything like it.' She said, walking up to the book shelves, unable to stop herself running her fingers over the books.
'Can I take a picture of...?' She trailed off, patting her pockets and frowning. 'Oh, I must have left my phone outside...'
'Susan had this whole room renovated a few years ago as a birthday gift.' Robert said. 'Before that most of the books were in storage.'
That's a hell of a gift!
'It's modelled after the library from the set of Sherlock Holmes.' He continued. 'One of my movies.' He added when she didn't reply.
'Are all these yours?' She asked, gesturing to the books.
'Mine and Susan's.' Roberts answered.
'Wow. If this was mine, I don't think I'd ever leave the room.' Becca joked.
'Glad you like it.' Robert said. 'But I actually brought you in to show you these.'
Becca followed him over to a bookshelf on the other side of the room where a small number of hardback books sat separately from the rest.
'I thought that as someone who loves books, and a Brit, you'd get a kick out of these.' He gestured to the books.
'They were gifted to me when we finished filming. It's a complete set of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books - first editions.' Robert said.
First editions?
The book nerd in her had a small heart attack.
'Oh my God.' Becca breathed, pulling her hand back when she realised that she had unconsciously reached out.
'Sorry, I shouldn't touch.' She said.
'It's okay.' Robert said, pulling one off the shelf and handing it to her.
She hesitated, before taking it reverentially. She turned it over in her hands before carefully opening the cover and reading the title page. 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892. Wow. I've never even seen a first edition Sherlock Holmes book before.' Becca said. 'And they just gave them to you? For nothing?'
'Not for nothing - six months of blood, sweat and tears - twelve hours a day, seven days a week.' Robert said.
'Sounds like hard work.' Becca said distractedly as she looked at the book.
'It was. But it turned out well - you should watch it, it's really very good if I do say so myself. It's on Netflix - just type in Sherlock Holmes.'
'I've already seen it.' She murmured.
'Really?' Robert said. 'I thought you were the girl who hadn't seen any of our films.'
'No, just none of Chris's or Scarlett's.' She said. 'Or Hemsworth's.' She added as an afterthought.
'And was it not the best Sherlock Holmes you ever saw?'
Shit! How do I get out of this one without offending him?
'It was good - very good. I liked that it was so different to other Sherlock Holmes that I'd seen. I thought your portrayal of Holmes was good too, better than good - very different.' She blurted out, but even to her own ears it didn't sound believable.
Smooth Becca.
Robert looked at her closely. 'You didn't like it.'
'No, no, I did.' She said. 'I did genuinely think it was very good...'
'But?'
'I'm British, so I'm always going to prefer the BBC version just a tiny bit.' She admitted.
'You're talking about Ben's one, aren't you?'
He calls Benedict Cumberbatch 'Ben'! What kind of Twilight Zone am I in?
'Err...yes.'
He looked at her seriously for a second, and she was worried that she had offended him, but then he smiled and she realised he'd been teasing again.
'Yeah, that was great. Such smart writing. I had serious screen envy.'
Becca let out a sigh of relief. 'I thought you were going to be offended.'
'No. I like that you're honest, though - tell it like it is.' He said. 'Oh hang on.' He said as his phone rang.
'Hello.' He answered and listened for a moment to whoever had called him. Becca tried not to eavesdrop.
'Hey. Hey!' He raised his voice, obviously trying to speak over his caller. 'Dorito, she's here. With me. Chill.'
Dorito? Chris?
'In the library.' He said, then paused again. 'No need, we'll be back in five minutes.'
'Was that Chris?' Becca asked as soon as he'd finished the call. 'Is everything okay?'
'Yeah. He was wondering where you were.' Robert said.
Hmm, sounded a bit more than that.
It'd sounded like Chris had been freaking out.
'Right.' She put the book back on the shelf. 'Thanks for showing me these and your library. I don't think I've ever been so jealous of anything in my entire life.'
Robert laughed. 'No problem.'
He led the way out of the library.
'Did Chris freak out?' Becca asked quietly.
After a pause, Robert said 'Yeah, yeah, he did.'
'Okay.'
She wanted to make a joke or something to lighten the suddenly serious atmosphere.
'Maybe he was worried that you were chopping me into small pieces to put in the freezer.' She joked.
Robert stopped and blinked at her. 'I'm sorry?'
Oh God, Becca!
'It was a joke. I was joking.' Becca said. 'Because you obviously don't do that.'
Don't go back to thinking I'm crazy. Please.
But luckily Robert just shook his head slightly. 'You Brits have the oddest sense of humour sometimes.' He said, and carried on walking.
'I know.'

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A/N: If anyone's interested, this is the kind of thing I had in mind for Robert's library. It's my dream library.