One Last Time

Chapter 6 | Leap

Reed suggested we close the library today so we can clean a bit and make the library more decorative. As of now, it's been three weeks since he started working here. I was able to convince him that he should get paid for all the hard work he's been doing regardless of originally doing it voluntarily. Also, Ronnie stops by from work whenever she's free to checkup on me.

I promised her we would get together soon. She wants to know more about Reed since he'll be a colleague of mine for now. I'll make sure to schedule that for another time when we're all free so she can hear everything from Reed himself. Speaking of Reed, he's done majority of arranging the desks and chairs on my behalf. He was too stubborn for me to convince I could do it myself. Instead, he bought different vases filled with flowers for me to put on a few of the tables.

It's been hard returning some of the books since the ladder has been broken from one of the kids that fooled around. I jumped to put the book I'm holding back in place, but started to grow tired. I almost gave up till Reed offered to help. He attempted to return the book himself, but he was few inches too short. I groaned at our situation. "If it's alright with you, I can lift you up so you'll be able to reach it," he suggested.

Although I didn't want to, I went along with it so we can get this over with. I tensed a bit when I felt Reed wrap his arms around my hips. He noticed it, "Are you okay? We can wait until the ladder is fixed if you want." I told him to continue and so he did. The book was successfully returned, then I rushed back to the rest of the piled books. When I was done, I grabbed a broom and dust bin only for Reed to take it away from me. He insisted he'd sweep the floors and that I should take a break. I surrendered, so I left him to do what he wanted.

Now that I think about it, Reed and I haven't had any conversation that involves learning about the other person. Huh, I guess we just settled for names and left each other to our own devices throughout work. A knock on my desk interrupts my train of thoughts. I raise my brows at Reed mentally asking what he wants.

"After a month working here, I realized we don't know much about each other. And, if I'm going to be working here until the end of the summer I would prefer to know who I'm working with."

"Wow, you've read my mind because I just thought of the exact same thing!"

I'm glad that he was the first to break the ice. It would've gotten me into overthinking about bringing it up to him. Like, what if he was comfortable with the state we're in? What if he wanted to keep things strictly business? Our whole work routine has been fine so far, so maybe he wouldn't mind staying it that way. Oh god, am I overthinking about it right now?

I let out a yelp as Reed stopped shaking my shoulders. He said, "You've been staring into space for almost a minute." I unintentionally make a face then stopped once I noticed what I did. Reed snickered, which calms me down. He'll be working only for the summer and I'll never see him again. Is it even worth it? I replied, "I was just overthinking, sorry. We should get to know each other since you're gonna be working here for a while." I guess I'll just have to take a leap of faith here.

"Great! Let's talk it over dinner tomorrow. Are you fine with me picking you up at your place?"

"Sure, I'll text you my address," I paused, "We didn't exchange numbers, did we?"

Reed grabs my phone from the desk, simultaneously giving me his. He types his phone number and email, and I do the same in his before returning each other's phones. "Now we know something about each other aside from our names! Progress, right?" he replied. I nodded with a smile. As I was parting from him, he called my name, "By the way, thanks for trusting me back there. Even if you didn't, I wouldn't have let you fall and get hurt either way." I chuckled embarrassingly, "Thanks for helping." He scan his face for any other thing he plans to say but nothing. Reed looks at me one more time before walking away.

I sigh at his weird behavior then saunter to the filing cabinet behind the reception desk to return log books. After organizing them, I typed in the data for this month's information into the reception desk computer's files while backing up the old ones into a hard drive. When I was almost finished putting the last folders in the cabinet, there's a familiar tune playing in the background.

Some boys take a beautiful girl

And hide her away from the rest of the world

I ignored it for a while thinking it's my imagination until loud squeaking sounds resonated through the halls. I closed my eyes tightly, afraid of what's to come once I turn around. After much contemplation, I turn to Reed dancing all sorts of weird moves. I laughed at the sight, covering my eyes then opening them again to check if what I'm seeing is actually real. Reed lip-syncs to the lyrics as he points at me, strutting to my direction with a flip of his invisible long hair.

Oh girls, they wanna have fun

Oh girls just want to have fun (girls, they wanna, wanna have fun, girls wanna have)

Reed grabs my hand and pulls me along with him to the center of the library. He continues to dance with the song while I stiffly stand beside him as he tries to have me join in. At first, I rejected his attempts but eventually followed along. The library's empty and fortunately closed so no one could enter. Did Reed plan this?

When the working day is done (they just wanna, they just wanna)

He first waits for my consent to hold my arms then brings them up, waving them around. I did the shimmy with him as we lean back and forth to each other.

Oh when the working day is done, oh girl (girls just wanna have fun)

We did a few spins, a bit of The Sprinkler, and hip bumps to the beat laughing throughout our dance.

Girls just wanna have fun (they just wanna, they just wanna)

When the music stopped, Reed and I collapsed on the floor. Just when we completely caught our breath, Reed shifts to face me.

He grinned, "I told you I'm a good dancer."