TAKE IT EASY • TC ✔️

41. Limescale

It was an odd feeling for Lucia, walking into the library for the last time. Almost like deja vu, only the last time it had happened, it wasn't the last.

This was different. This was finite; there was no chance of her coming back for a third month of the internship. Besides, it was supposed to be just that. An internship, a trial, a taste of what she could have, a look into the way of life that she coveted.

So she took her time on that Friday morning. She even got there early. Soaked in the rich interior, the sinking of her feet into the carpet, the clicking of her boots on the stone steps. Let her gaze linger on the portraits on the wall, let her eyes wander to the ceiling as her feet weaved her in-between the tables in the main reading room.

There were only a few people there at such a time in the morning - bleary-eyed college students with their laptops propped open, some typing furiously, others staring at their screens as if willing them to fill with words. A few were hardly trying to feign concentration, just staring up at the gilt on the ceiling, the books lining the walls, the scratches on the highly polished tables.

Lu wondered momentarily what it would have been like to study in a place like this, instead of her bedroom, the kitchen table, the garden. Wondered what it would have been like to come here of all places. Sit down. She'd definitely have gotten distracted. Would have spent her time searching for familiar faces in the paintings, searching for a distraction, searching for something in those rows upon rows of books.

She made her way to one of the long tables, and sat down on the chair closest to the end. Ran her fingers over the intricate carving on the arm. Leaned forwards, chin in her hands. Wondered if she'd ever do this again in a few weeks, months, years. In another life.

There was someone watching her from the other end of the table. A boy with sunken eyes, hair cropped close to his head. He gave Lu a small, distracted smile. Turned back to his work. She stared at him for a few seconds. Smiled to herself, and got up again, tucking her chair in gently so it wouldn't squeak on the polished floor and disturb him.

Then, Lucia made her way through the rest of the reading room, heeled boots clunking softly in her wake. She got to her desk, the little space that had been hers for the past two months, and dropped her purse under it. Sat back in the spinny chair. Spun a couple of times, not all the way round but from side to side. There was no one there yet, not Nadia, nor Ms. Dagerath. There was a steaming cup of coffee on Kemi's desk, but the woman herself was nowhere to be seen.

Lu checked in both of the little drawers of her desk, looking for anything she'd missed.

"What are you up to?" Kemi asked, striding into the room. She picked up her coffee, elegant fingers making the huge, bucket-like cup seem fragile. Lu didn't quite know what to say.

"I'm...packing up my stuff," she said with a pained sort of smile, and Kemi hummed. Lu was a little disappointed that she didn't make any other comment, didn't even seem to be mildly upset by her departure.

Kemi took a sip of her coffee. "Ah, forgot sugar," she grimaced. "Excuse me a minute, I'll be back," she smiled. Strode out again.

Lu looked down at the drawer she'd been emptying. Glanced at the souvenirs of her life during the past two months, spread out on the desk. There weren't enough of them to warrant any more space, and Lu pressed her lips together.

There were small things. Her lanyard, the receipt from the lunch she'd bought on her first day. Bigger things. First drafts for her essay. Two books she'd checked out, which she'd have to return by the end of the day. The items which usually sat on top of her desk would have to be packed too.