Work Text:
In all honesty, Roman hated his job at the public library. He had only applied to work the stupid part-time desk job because he needed money while he auditioned for new roles at the local theatres.
So, for about five hours a day, Roman sat at a circulation desk or stocked the shelves with returned books, staring at his phone every chance that he got and lamenting the library’s awful rule against playing music aloud.
Seriously, who wouldn’t want to enhance their reading experience with Roman’s perfectly ordered playlist of showtunes?
But the library was often filled with the most boring of people, so really, Roman shouldn’t be so surprised by the equally boring rules that his boss had.
The most frequent visitors were, of course, students from the nearby high schools and university. While their little public library didn’t have the grandest of selections, it was all that they had, so it wasn’t unusual for Roman to see the same few students from day to day working on the computers or sitting at the tables with textbooks spread before their coffee crazed eyes as they studied for their next exam. There were also a few teachers that would stop by every now and then to reserve certain books for their students.
Other than that, the list of library visitors was relatively short. There were a few regulars, but as Roman noticed through the three months that he had been working there, there weren’t many newcomers.
Which meant that he could spend as much time on Instagram, watching bootlegs, or writing (fan)fiction as he wanted during work hours, because everyone there knew and loved him. No one had told his boss about it yet, so Roman saw no harm in spending the quiet hours in this infernally boring building doing something useful. Or at least entertaining.
Usually, when Roman was really deep into something, anyone who needed his attention would just have to call his name. He was never so rude as to turn someone away when they actually needed his help with something. That was common knowledge among the usual patrons.
Which was exactly why Roman was so gosh darn startled when, in the middle of his third rewatch of Newsies that week, someone from the other side of the desk cleared their throat rather loudly, speaking down at him almost impatiently.
“Excuse me.”
Roman looked up quickly, pulling out the single earbud that he had in. Roman’s eyes widened, whatever retort he had dying on his tongue as he saw what had to be the most attractive man that he had ever seen in his entire life.
He was tall. And not just because Roman was still sitting down, either. Roman’s eyes had to travel up from his chest--was this man wearing a polo and tie on a Saturday?--to his face, where he froze, staring dumbfounded at this man’s perfectly smooth complexion and high cheekbones, a pair of what simply had to be designer glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose, the glare of the fluorescent lights on that glass almost but not quite keeping Roman from meeting deep brown eyes.
Roman must have spent too long just staring at the other, because soon the man spoke again, his voice still a bit curt.
“Would you mind checking me out?”
It was almost too good of an opening. Placing his phone face down on the desk and smirking up at the man, Roman felt a bit of his usual confidence come back. “I wouldn’t mind at all, gorgeous.”
Roman watched with glee as color immediately flooded the man’s cheeks. He couldn’t help but grin as the man looked down at the two books in his arms that he had obviously been talking about before looking back up at Roman again, that particular shade of pink looking especially dashing in contrast with his dark shirt.
“I- I don’t-”
Roman felt his grin widening. He pushed himself out of his chair to stand across from the man who suddenly seemed very interested in the spines of his books again. This one was deliciously easy to fluster, and it only spurred Roman further.
Leaning over the counter and resting his chin on his hand, Roman used his lack of height advantage to look up at the bespectacled man through his eyelashes. “You know, if you were one of these books, I would definitely need glasses, because you’d be fine print.”
The words had an instantaneous effect. The man’s blush only grew stronger as he fumbled with the books in his arms. The man was so obviously out of his element that Roman decided to take pity on him, not letting his fingers linger on the other man’s arms for more than a few seconds as he gently took the books to scan them.
As soon as Roman broke eye contact to scan the barcodes, still chuckling lightly at the look on the man’s face, the other seemed to regain his voice. “Don’t you think that it is a bit… well, unprofessional to be so… flirtatious with your patrons?”
Roman shrugged, keeping his eyes down and on the books as he responded. Of course a smart looking guy like this would check out books on theoretical astronomy. “Only if you don’t like it, handsome. Do you have a card?”
The man shifted, obviously still a bit uncomfortable. Roman would have felt bad if the man weren’t still blushing to the tips of his ears and distinctly not saying that he disliked the attention. “It should be under Crofter. Logan Crofter.”
Roman nodded, looking up Logan’s information on the computer system and putting the two books on his card. He easily printed off a receipt, all too aware of the beautiful man standing silently on the other side of the desk. He quickly scribbled down the return information on the receipt and stuck it in the front cover of one of the books.
“There you go, Mr. Crofter.” Roman bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from breaking out into a huge smile at the look on Logan’s face when he said that.
He slid the books across the counter with a wink. “Due in a month. Make sure to ask for Roman when you come back.”
Roman watched in amusement as Logan adjusted his tie, almost nervously before plucking his books off of the counter and nodding. “I will. That is- Thank you.”
“No problem, sweetheart.”
Roman hummed softly to himself as Logan nodded once again and turned, leaving the library in an almost comically quick pace. He couldn’t wait until that unfairly hot and adorable nerd found his number written on the back of that receipt.