“Not maybe, definitely.”
“It doesn’t matter though. We decided that it went a little too far.”
“Wait, it wasn’t just a kiss.”
“It was . . .kissing,” she says, “with maybe a little bit of dry-humping.”
“Bianca!”
“A very little bit.”
“You two are ridiculous.”
“It’s . . . it wasn’t that big of a deal and it’s not going to happen again, at least not like that, so it doesn’t matter.”
“You really think that you two can live together for the whole summer andnotlet it happen again. You’ve only got a few shifts left here and last I checked, his only plans were learning how to surf for the next couple of months before he heads off to Greece. That’s a lot of downtime for the both of you.”
“We’ll . . . figure it out,” Bianca insists, but there’s a gnawing discomfort building in her chest. She hadn’t thought about it quite like that before. In fact, she hadn’t really thought about it at all. Which is unlike her. Usually she plans for every contingency, up to and including near-apocalyptic scenarios.
Not that any of this has beenlike herat all, really, so what’s one more thing?
“Well, that’s a euphemism I haven’t heard before. You’re going tofigure it out. It’s better thantalking, anyway. What doesthat even mean? Every single one of my advisees istalkingto someone.”
“Yeah,” she admits, with a rueful grin, “even we don’t really know.”
Miranda snorts in playful derision. “I figured.”
“I should really finish up . . . uh . . .” she glances at her screen, “applying for this job.”
“Yes, you should,” Miranda agrees, standing up. “And Bianca?”
“Yeah?”
“I told you so.”
“What?”
“Just saying it preemptively for the next timekissinghappens.”
“Ugh, go away.”
Miranda leaves with a soft chuckle, and squaring her shoulders, Bianca faces her computer screen.
Okay, time to get this done.
She’s rounding out the last few questions on a job application for a director of libraries position at a school district in San Bernardino when he strolls into the library, tie loosened, jacket slung over his shoulder, wearing the easy smile of someone who absolutely crushed his defense. He’s practically bouncing with every step, and when his eyes find her from across the room, his smile grows even wider.
Bianca can’t help it; she lets out a sharp shriek from the back of her throat and races out from behind the desk to throw her arms around him. He bends into her hug, laughing into the curve of her neck.
“I knew it. I knew you’d pass!”
Somehow she’s happier for him than she was for herself.
“Shh!”
She rolls her eyes at the irony of a librarian being shh’d by a bunch of undergrads, but yeah, finals are coming up, so maybe they should take this somewhere a little more private so he can tell her everything.
“Follow me,” she says, grabbing his hand and leading him toward the reference section. She leads him deep into the shelves, back toward the microfiche periodicals section, far beyond the reaches of where students tend to wander, even when they’re desperate for a quiet place to study. They won’t be disturbed back here.
