The library was everything that Adrian was not: peaceful, quiet, a place to rest. In contrast, Adrian was loud, excitable, restless. In was a wonder that a man like him hadn’t been banned from such a quiet, sacred place yet. Adrian had his reasons to behave.

One, the library had a seemingly endless amount of animal fact books. He could situate himself in the children’s section for hours, pulling book after book about sea life and insects and other critters.

Two, one of the librarians was pretty. Really pretty.

Adrian was never the type to gush over someone’s looks like he did with her. But she was so sweet, with her pretty hair and her rosy cheeks and her sweet smile.

And she was kind to him. Not in the way Chris or Harcourt or Economos were. No, she was patient with him, listening to him ramble about his newly found animal facts with that pretty smile on her face.

Today was the day he’d finally muster the balls to do something. Chris and Ads had egged him on that morning when he had mentioned the pretty librarian in passing, and with their words and advice ringing in his head, he felt ready.

As he walked in, he immediately spotted the librarian sitting behind the counter and made a beeline for her.

“Hi!” His voice was a little too loud for a library, something even Adrian noticed. Clearing his throat, his next words were quieter. “I need help finding something.”