Illusions That May (Court High 2)

“Goodbye? December, wait—”

I clicked off before I could get more emotional, rising from my bottom. I went to the mirror, and a little flushed, I washed the tears away from a face filled with color. I’d gotten a good shower this morning, so at least my hair looked decent, up and out of my face. Ramses also didn’t seem to mind the nose piercing

, so that stayed too. After getting in a few breaths, I threw the paper towel away I used to dry my face, then clicked off the light in the bathroom, closing the door. Ramses was at the front when I came out, dark eyes flicking up from the computer.

“Everything go all right in there?” he asked, a little less chilly now that he knew I had no intent to rob the library blind. I never saw, but I was sure he took inventory of each and every one of the articles here after my first couple shifts.

I smirked a little. “Did you seriously just ask me if it went okay in the bathroom?”

Overly bushy eyebrows shot up like he just became aware of what he’d both asked and said. I mean, his eyebrows weren’t overgrown but they were definitely thick like his curly hair. He scrubbed in the curls. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”

Happy to laugh, I did let it go, Ramses not a foreign thing to me anymore. Something told me he never planned to actually talk to anyone around this place, let alone work with someone else. We rarely got people coming through here, and when we did, he completely filled their ear with nerd speak. He quite literally knew everything about all the stuff on the shelves here, even out-talking the librarian, Myron, who I met my first official day as staff. The older man kept to himself for the most part, staying upstairs unless needed, and with someone like Ramses managing the library a hell of a lot of the time, that wasn’t much.

All that awkwardness with us out of the way, Ramses logged off the front computer, then reached back to the coat rack behind the desk. He grabbed a jacket there, suede and nice.

“You just about ready to lock up?” he asked, slipping it on. “I can walk you home if need be since it’s getting late.”

He’d picked up on the fact that I didn’t have a car the first day when he caught me walking down the street, so it was easy for him to assume I either lived nearby or took public transport. Either way, I wasn’t off the hook when it came to explanation. He did have a car, so even if I claimed I didn’t live close and attempted to take public transpiration he’d probably try to drive me someplace to be nice.

Fucking chivalry.

It was seriously biting me in the ass right now. I’d given him a fake address I’d Googled on the library computers, and he obviously hadn’t looked into it. If he did, he’d know I gave him a pretty crappy residence in what looked like an abandoned neighborhood on Google Street View.

“Actually, I was wondering if I could stay and lock up,” I asked, not about to tell this guy I was homeless. He might judge me like he initially had, my new job already gone. I shrugged. “I have some cataloging I wanted to finish, and I don’t mind staying. You don’t even have to pay me for the extra time.”

This might have been laying it on a little thick, but I was desperate here, Ramses’ look curious when he turned with his keys.

Thick eyebrows drew inward. “I don’t know. I mean, that’s not a big deal, but it kinda is. You’ve never done that before, and it’s only been a week since you started here.”

He had no reason to trust me really. I hadn’t given him any reason at all except the week I had spent here working with him.

He came forward with his keys. “If you think you can handle it?”

If the alternative was him trying to get me home… yeah, I could handle it. I didn’t want to lose my job if he didn’t like that I had no place to go. “Yeah. Totally can. Give me a chance?”

I put my lip out for emphasis, and rolling his eyes, he eventually gave me keys. They felt heavy in my hands, but good. I wanted him to trust me. I could do this.

“I’m letting Myron know you’re down here, though,” he said, eyeing me. “I’m gonna text him after I leave, and make sure you follow the checklist he has for close up. He hates when you, well, anyone veers off it.”

I saluted. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

He smirked, his chuckle light as he zipped up his coat. I intended to make him laugh, so I guess mission accomplished. He pointed at me. “I’m putting faith in you. My rep’s on the line here.”

Him saying that made my smile fade for some reason. It reminded me of someone else, someone in another life and time who’d also put their neck out for me. According to him, it’d been repeatedly.

According to me it’d been repeatedly too.

It didn’t make up for how things ended, though, and swallowing, I nodded at Ramses. He grabbed his bag, sliding it over his chest. “Night, December.”

“Night.”

Backing away, he turned over the “Open” sign, the door chiming when he went out. He waited for me to lock it before he left, and I peeked through the blinds to watch him head over to a more than nice ride. Parked across the street, the sleek Mercedes could turn anyone’s head and definitely wasn’t the typical college student’s car. If anything, someone in Maywood Heights would be driving something like that at his age.

He must be loaded too. Everyone else in that town was.

Flicking the blinds, I put my hands on my hips. I actually had no cataloging to do, just wanted to kill some time and get Ramses off me for a second. He could be terribly nosy, but things with us had gotten better in the last week, easier. Still figuring I had to prove myself, I decided to clean up around the library for as long as I could before doing Myron’s checklist. This didn’t take a whole lot of time, as Ramses was meticulous about cleaning too, and after shaking my head at him for that, I called it an evening. I found my bag in the store room, the place I usually kept it during a shift. I tried to keep it out of eyesight for the most part, since it was cumbersome and not the typical-sized bag a girl would carry. Ramses had seen it before, but I made sure not beyond that day I asked about the library needing help.

Taking it, I ventured over to the children’s section. They had a lot of pillows in there for the kids, and I used them, tossing my bag down. I pushed it all together and made a little lying area for myself, setting my phone timer before folding my arms over my chest and closing my eyes. I’d only sleep for a couple hours, max. Myron would most likely be down here to check on things eventually, check that I’d made it out okay and locked up, and anyway, I wasn’t trying to take advantage of the situation or the fact Ramses put trust in me to close. I’d leave here tonight, make sure everything was good, and then, I’d head back to where I was supposed to be, under the bridge my sleeping place tonight. I was grateful for the job I’d gotten and those who’d given it to me, truly…