Librarian Blues❄Troy Barnes

what i like about you - chapter 10

"So, are you two dating? Or just friends with benefits?" Jess asked, not looking up from her book.

"I don't know. We've really only been on one date. Two if you count your party. I don't think I'd count the other night as a date," I sighed, moving the food on my plate around with my fork.

"You should probably figure that out. Especially if he's going to be your date to our wedding," she set her book down, marking her place with her finger.

"I don't even know if he can go. Also, you guys are moving things pretty quick. I still think you should wait a bit longer than a couple of weeks for the wedding. You just got engaged," I said.

"Yeah, yeah. You and my mom both. We don't want a long engagement. We were dating forever, and it just makes sense to get the wedding over with," she explained.

"Whatever works, I guess. But with how quick you've planned it, I haven't been able to ask him to go with me. I should probably ask him since it's next week," I pulled my phone out to send him a text.

"Don't you dare text him that. Just ask him next time you see him," she shook her head, reaching over and plucking my phone from my hand.

"Why can't I just text him?" I reached for my phone, Jess continuing to move it farther away from me.

"Because I said so. Ask him in person. Pull up your big girl pants," she handed my phone back with a sigh.

"I took a few days off this week. I won't see him until Wednesday. Do you think that's enough time for him to decide?" I asked.

"What is he, twelve? It should only take him, like, twenty seconds. Yes, it's enough time," she explained.

I nodded and kept shuffling my food around my plate, thinking to myself. I didn't know how to ask a guy to a wedding. Would he think it was weird?

"You're overthinking. Just ask him if he'd want to tag along as your plus one. Tell him there's free food," she stated.

"Fine. But what if he says no?" I asked.

"Then he says no? What's so complicated about this?" she dropped her book onto the table, not bothering to mark where she left off.

"I'm just nervous, I don't know," I sighed. She reached over the table and grabbed my hand.

"Stop acting like you're twelve. Ask him to the wedding," she squeezed my hand before pulling away and picking her book back up. I nodded and focused on finishing my food before we left.

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"Why do they have to play paintball every damn year?" I muttered to myself, scraping off some paint that was plastered to the underside of my desk.

Luckily a cleaning company had worked over the weekend to get most of it cleaned up. They weren't always able to get everything, though. It was nice that the students had the courtesy to cover most of the books to protect them, but that didn't protect everything. My desk and a few books were the casualties of their war. Connor definitely had his work cut out for him with cleaning the books up. He made significant progress with them in the few days I was gone this week. But, he didn't bother trying to clean up the main desk while I was gone, so it made scraping it off a bit harder.

"Hi, could you give me an idea of where any romance books might be?" a girl asked, forcing me to take a break from my disgruntled scraping.

"Yeah, they'll be just around that corner. You won't find anything good, though. There's really only a few good books and they're checked out," I explained.