Page 12 of Love in the Stacks
“Austin, Texas. The rest of my family are still there, except my older sister. She lives in New Orleans. Where does your mom live, or any siblings?”
“My mom’s in Naples, and I’m an only child.”
“Are you heading home for Thanksgiving? How far is that?”
The library closes after noon on Wednesday until Monday morning. I’m not looking forward to it.
“I am. It’s about five hours to drive from here, so not too bad. How about you? Going to Texas for Thanksgiving?”
I make a face. “No. I decided to save money and just buy the flight home for Christmas and not Thanksgiving. My sister Molly—the one who lives in New Orleans—isn’t going either. I’m bummed, butsince we get so much time off around Christmas, I’ll be able to have a nice long visit then.”
Adam has a strange look on his face. He starts to say something and then stops. He clears his throat. Finally, he says, “Well, Christmas will be fun. I’m sorry you don’t have plans for Thanksgiving though.”
I shrug. “I can catch up on my reading.”
Chapter seven
Nicole
The campus closes early on Wednesday afternoon, so I spend the morning shoring up my courage to hit send on the email to Herb, copying Adam, that contains the graphic novel pilot proposal. I am confident that this is a good project, that it makes sense for our students and will help them. But Herb’s concerns, and Adam’s diligence, have me questioning the whole thing. Finally, I hold my breath and send the email.
Within seconds, I get Adam’s out of office reply in response: “I’m away from the office for the Thanksgiving holiday…”, blah, blah, blah. I haven’t even thought about setting up an out of office message. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Won’t everyone just assume I’m not in the office? And why wouldtheybe? This is an academic library, for crying out loud, not some sort of high-pressure corporate office. Adam, though, is fastidious. I think back on thecollection of information I’ve gathered about him since we started working closely a few weeks ago. He reads history nonfiction. He’s punctual and quiet, unless he has something to say. He’s polite and eats healthily. He can tend toward oversharing—he told me about his dad’s death, and he barely knows me. He’s not married but wants to be someday. Well. Not sure why that matters, but anyway. Also, I think somewhat begrudgingly, he’s smart and has good ideas. He’s curious and a good listener. And he’s closet funny. Like, you wouldn’t think he’s funny since he looks so serious all the time, but based on the memes he sends me, he definitely has a sense of humor.
I text my sisters on my walk home.
Nicole:
I wish I were seeing you guys tomorrow!
Molly:
[sad emoji]
Olivia:
yep just me and the parents. thanks a lot.
Nicole:
Any plans?
Molly:
Nope I’ll probably go to the lab
Olivia:
i’m doing that turkey trot thing by ladybird lake
Nicole:
Eww. I’m not sorry to be missing that
Olivia:
haha
Olivia:
