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Carlotta is a 19 year old student who’s trying to pay her degree in Art History. At the start of the year she finally received a call from her local public library to help as an assistant. Her task was simple, she had to register each book lending and reorganise the shelves at the end of the day, the pay was pretty good and the job seemed peaceful so she accepted. Her days were pretty standard, she would finish an assignment or study for an exam before someone came to her asking about a book or borrowing one.
For the past weeks she had been seeing a specific guy come pretty often to the library, he was pretty tall (at least for her) and had short turquoise hair with some fuchsia streaks which complemented his eyes. It wasn’t like Carlotta had been checking him out, but it was unavoidable to look at him each time he came into the library as Carlotta’s desk was near that same entrance. Carlotta remembers hearing a lively voice coming out of the boy who asked her coworker about a book she couldn’t quite remember the title of.
One thing Carlotta had noticed was a curious pattern he seemed to follow. Customers are allowed to take up to 3 books in one go, after that they would have to return at least one of them in order to pick up another. Brant, which is the name of the boy, picked just one book each time he went to the library.
Carlotta once asked him about this.
“Hey, I noticed you come quite often but only pick one book. Just so you know, you can take a maximum of three books”
Brant looked at her with his big and shiny violet eyes and smiled “I know, thanks, I just prefer to read them one at a time, if I see myself with too many on my hands I may feel a bit overwhelmed”
He looked at the little name plate the librarian wore on the top left of her shirt “...Carlotta” her name came softly through his lips, as if it was natural for him to say it.
Carlotta was a bit shocked for a second when she finally answered “Oh, well, then so be it, enjoy the book”
Without Carlotta noticing it, her and Brant had started sharing little short conversations from time to time. Maybe Brant asked for a recommendation, or the location of a specific genre of books and Carlotta complied. Every two days Brant would come and chat for a bit with her before returning one book and picking up another.
One day she was so focused on an assignment from colour theory that she didn’t hear Brant approaching the table
“Hey, are you busy?” he said, Carlotta’s head sprung up
“Oh, no, no sorry I hadn’t heard you coming”
Brant gave her a soft look “No worries, out of curiosity, what are you doing if I can ask?”
“Studying, Colour Theory, nothing too interesting for you I’d guess”
Brant leaned on the table “Well, you’re a bit off, I’m actually interested” Carlotta looked at him not believing it
“Really?” She questioned him
“Now, why would I lie?” Brant smirked, Carlotta still found it hard to believe
“I have a mid-term tomorrow”
“I’m sure you won’t need it but good luck with that”
Carlotta picked up the book he had left on the table “Theatre?”
“Yeah, what can I say? I’m a man of arts, I like creative things”
Carlotta felt her body’s temperature rising slowly but she didn’t really know why. She scanned the book’s barcode and handed him the book “Well, there it is, enjoy it Brant”
“Thanks and good luck again Carlotta” Carlotta didn’t want to make much of thought out of their little interaction but somehow feeling that a routine had settled between them made her feel “safe” in a sense, she knew that every two days Brant would come and they would chat for a bit and she couldn’t lie to herself she kinda liked it, just a little bit.
“Hey, how did the test go?” He asked her.
Carlotta smiled “Pretty well I’d say, thanks for asking” She didn’t say it but she was quite surprised by Brant remembering her exam, she thought he’d simply forget about it in the next few hours, after all it was a pretty trivial conversation that they had.
This little dynamic of theirs went on for a few months, it had already become routine and Carlotta always looked forward to talking with the turquoise-haired boy. She had come to learn that he liked fishing and was part of an amateur theatre group.
Now his most habitual choice of books was pretty understandable. However, something escaped from her knowledge because aside from the Theatre-related books Brant would pick up books on physics, Mathematics, cosmology and other topics which drifted far away from what Carlotta assumed was his main interest.
One day she decided to ask “Hey, out of curiosity, I’ve seen you take books from quite different topics lately, why’s that?”
Brant just shrugged his shoulders “Well, I like learning about a wide range of subjects, one’s never too wise right?
Carlotta looked at him wanting to dig further in the conversation but decided to leave it there “Well, I guess so”
The answer to Carlotta’s doubts would come one quiet Thursday where Brant had entered the library quite late about 1 hour before Carlotta finished her shift and the library closed its doors. “Hey, I know it’s late but I had to return a book”
Carlotta looked at him and laughed a bit “You could’ve just returned it other day Brant, one or two days late wouldn’t affect you much, you have a perfect record in terms of returning them on time”
Brant stilled himself “Yeah I know but if I did then I wouldn’t get to see you for a bit, wouldn’t you miss me?”
Carlotta blushed noticeably “W-well, one day won’t hurt any of us” As she said this her mind said otherwise I’d surely miss you.
Brant put the book on the table and talked again “And now that we’re alone and you’ll surely be busy after closing the library, I have to tell you something”
Carlotta was taken aback by this sudden confession. What did he need to tell her? Brant looked straight into her eyes
“I have no interest in physics, or mathematics, or how to grow crops at home, not in the slightest, I just use it as an excuse”
Carlotta blinked “An excuse?” she said almost whispering with their eyes still locked together.
“Absolute excuse, I just do it so I can talk for a bit with you, I- didn’t really know how to do it at first so I thought that would be a good idea” He smiled at her, brightly
“And hey, it worked, here we are and have been for the past months” he followed.
Had this guy really done all that just to talk to her? She smiled back at him somehow touched by the sincere confession
“It definitely worked Brant”
Brant broke their intense eye contact and his tone got shier “I was wondering if you…would want to hang out some day, have a coffee or something together”
Carlotta took a piece of paper and wrote on it then she gave it to the boy “Here, have my number, that way we can schedule the coffee”
Brant took the piece of paper and put it inside his pocket. “Thanks! I’ll send you a message with the details and you tell me if you’re ok with that ok?” Brant felt like a teenager asking out his highschool crush but that didn’t even matter, he had gotten what he wanted
“Sure Brant, text me any time”