One Last Time

Chapter 2 | Punctual

It's Sunday afternoon, and I've been arranging books for the past three hours. My arms are starting to ache by the constant lifts of these books. The air conditioning should come in after two more weeks, so I'll just have to endure the heat until then. Favorably, it's a bit windy today. I opened the windows to have enough air get in the library cooling down as much of the room's temperature as it can. I sat down for a bit letting the cool breeze help relax my muscles. Realizing I started to doze off, I took off into another section of the library with the book cart in hand.

I finished reorganizing the History and Children's Books section and now moved to the Fiction section. I climb onto the sliding ladder returning some books on the top shelves. The ladder shook for a second making me pause to balance myself. I sighed in relief then reached to the far right of the shelf. Not noticing my weight moving the ladder away from me as I leaned further away, it rolls to the left. The sudden action causes me to fall on my back.

"And she almost stuck the landing!"

That voice

Great, just in time to witness one of my humiliating moments. I didn't notice I face-palmed myself until Reed's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "You know, you shouldn't be hard on yourself. I think you just need more practice," he said smugly looking down at me. I looked at him obviously annoyed by his remark. He lends his hand for me to take. I rolled my eyes the  grabbed it as he helps me get up.

"Thanks, I'll make sure to fall gracefully next time," I scoffed. I pat my jeans to make sure there isn't any dust stuck on it. I take a glance at the sliding ladder behind him, which hasn't gone that far from me. The sarcasm doesn't end here.

"Nice to see you've caught the ladder."

"Yeah, I didn't want it to get hurt or anything."

I ignored Reed and go back to arranging the books. This time, at the lower shelves. It took a moment for me to notice there's someone standing behind me. I look up to see Reed push the book I tried returning earlier properly into the shelf. I cursed under my breath of how easy it was for him to do that without the ladder. I continued my work laying my head low so he doesn't hear the other things Im cursing at him for. Suddenly, I feel a warm breath behind my ear. "I didn't know you were clumsy," he whispered to me chuckling. I turn around to face him, bumping into his chest in the process. I rubbed my nose from the impact, squinting my eyes him.

"What do you want?"

He scans around the library for a minute. I followed him trying to see what he's looking for. I gave up and tilted my head at him waiting for his explanation. Then he faces me, becoming serious all of a sudden.

"Are you hiring?"

. . .

"Sure, consider janitor duty."

He caught my sarcastic tone, good. I'm not taking any more of his strange behavior like last time. He said, "If not a job then is there anything I can do to help around here?" Reed surveys the area a bit more. There's really not much for him to do. Im curious though. "Why are you interested?"

He shrugs his shoulders then walks closer towards me. I raised a brow at him in question. Towering over me may be a confidence boost for him. "Well, I'll be here all summer, and I thought I should occupy myself with something." I find it weird he chose to work at a library out of all places. I mean, I have my own legitimate reasons. Not too long ago he was arguing about buying a book in a library. Reed continued, "I'm actually having a writer's block so maybe surrounding myself in a place that inspires me would fix that." That caught me off guard.

"You're a novelist? What books did you write?" I questioned.

"Yup, my first book may be familiar to you. It's called The Lost Key. Does it ring a bell?"

I furrowed my eyebrows trying to recall where I heard that title before. I searched through my mind the familiarity of that title. Ah! It's the book he tried to "buy" last time. However, what I do remember is that it's written by someone that goes with a name other than Reed Alaster. He snickered at my bewildered reaction. "I feel more comfortable using an alias, so I can keep my private life and work life separately. Anyway, I sincerely want to help around since you're the only one I know here in Thornridge. Besides, the library's my second home."

I think about all the pros and cons of him working here and honestly there are barely any negatives to it. Despite that, I'm not sure if I can trust him, especially when this is only our second encounter. "You don't even have to pay me," he added.

"Deal!"

~ • A few days later • ~

I arrived at the library seven in the morning to drop off the newly bought record and catalog books. Before I do anything else, I head back out to get breakfast. When I finished, I took time to walk in the park to digest my meal properly while enjoying the fresh morning air. I decided to go to work a bit earlier than usual today in order to prepare tasks for Reed to do.  It's the first time someone other than myself to work here, and I'd prefer he'd do it right. Which is my way of course. It took five seconds for me to notice the said person wiping the windows of the library with the curtains pulled back neatly.

I checked the time again and it's only 8:10am, fifty minutes before opening time. What is he doing here so early? Earlier than I am to be precise. Giving him a keys to the library I expected him to be either coming in later or reading a book while waiting. Not cleaning. Reed finally pays attention to my unmoving figure, probably feeling the questionable glare on his back. "Oh, you're here. I wanted to surprise you by getting a head start on everything. I didn't really know what you would've have me do so I did some research on what tasks librarians usual have and followed them."

"And what exactly did you do?"

He replied, "I cleaned parts of both first and second floors that have been left unattended thoroughly, arranged the desks and chairs, returned the borrowed books in their respective sections while making sure they're alphabetized, and organized the carts and boxes in the storage room. I didn't touch the catalogs because maybe you organize them in a certain way. By the way, I was able to update the softwares of all the computers. Expect some new ones coming in and don't worry about the money I paid for them myself. Consider them a donation." He was able to say all this as if we was talking about his hobbies on a daily basis.

I reluctantly walked up to the second floor and observed how Reed even finished up cleaning the portion of the floor that I wasn't able to do myself yesterday. "Did you also change the light bulbs on this lamp?" I asked him. I was planning to do it later in the afternoon after buying a new one. "Yeah, there were other bulbs that needed changing so I replaced them," he nonchalantly replied. I continued examining the second floor then went back to the first. I'm left speechless. The windows didn't have any stains whatsoever, and the surface of the floors were practically shining. Reed even organized the record books and catalogs on the main desks that I left an hour ago. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't find anything I could criticize him about.

"Why?"

He placed his hands in his pockets, "I gave you a bad first impression, and our second meeting wasn't so great either. Not only do I want to make up for it also I want to prove to you how I meant what I said about being serious about this. Most importantly, I want you to trust me."

Trust.

Huh, big word. But actions speak louder than words. It's gonna take a lot more than what he did today to earn his place. I just hate how he already knows what I'm thinking by the look he's giving me.