Turning Pages

Chapter Thirteen

THIRTEEN 

Amazingly enough, it had been a decent morning. My car started on the first try, despite the blizzard, I got a good grade on my test-Mr. Jensen was pleased-and I made it to work on time. Blake looked pleased, but one never really could tell with him. 

I couldn't just place the library's copy of Austenland on the Staff Picks shelf without reading my favorite scene to Melanie. No one was in the library when I started, but as patrons trickled in, they gathered around to listen. When I reached the sentence about Mr. Darcy looking at Elizabeth over the piano, we all collapsed into giggles. I looked up to see Blake watching me. 

"What is the matter with you people?" he asked as the women began to filter through the stacks, pretending they had not just been caught in a real-life swoon festival. "It's a book. A book, Addie." 

"I'm shocked that you work in a library. You don't deserve it. And you are late for staff meeting." I lifted my nose in the air and walked over to the wall, placing Austenland on my designated shelf and flicking off an imaginary speck of dust, making a big show of it. I knew it would annoy him. It did. 

"Women. You'd think a Chippendale dancer had just walked in, the way you were all carrying on." 

"You've just got to see the Colin Firth movie, and then read the book, in order to get it," I told him. "It also helps if you're a girl." 

"I have no prospects of ever being a girl," Blake said. "Thank goodness." He strode off toward the back, and I turned to study my wall. Our picks had dwindled quite a bit. That's bound to happen when there are only three remaining staff members, but we held our books high. My Austenland, right next to Melanie's The Kite Runner, and last but not least, the next volume of Dune. Yes, Dune.

??

I stood halfway up the stepladder, handing books down to Blake. Melanie sat cross-legged on the floor near us, a laptop balanced on her knees. She had two tabs open-one for her completely awesome spreadsheet, and the other for the library's card catalog. 

"The Blind Assassin, two copies on the shelf," I said, handing them down to Blake. 

He looked them over. "One is in good condition, and one should be discarded." 

Melanie checked the library's catalog. "We own four copies, and two are checked out." Her fingers flew over the keyboard. Blake handed one copy to me and put the other in the discard box after showing Melanie the barcode so she could chart it. Meanwhile, I dusted the space where the books had been. 

"And that takes care of that shelf." I climbed down the stepladder and plopped onto the floor beside Melanie. My back was stiff, and I was sure Blake and Melanie were also pretty beat. We'd been working on the inventory for two hours, interrupted only by the occasional patron who braved the blizzard outside to come in search of books. We'd fallen into an efficient pattern, but my brain still felt like pudding. 

"Only eight thousand shelves to go." Melanie hit a few keys and then shut the laptop, setting it to the side. 

"Sure feels like it." 

Blake sat down next to us, stretching his long legs across the aisle. "So, what's next, fearless leader?" 

"The next shelf, of course. But in a minute." I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the cool metal of the bookcase behind me. I could so easily have fallen asleep right there, but Blake's phone startled me. 

He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it, an expression of concern crossing his face. "Um, sorry, but I really do need to take this." He disappeared farther into the stacks.