The whole day, Val hovered in the back of her mind, how they were only separated by a single door, how easy that door would be to lock, and then how they could continue that kiss that they had shared the night before.
Finally, noon came, and she could put a closed sign on the archive door for an hour. She'd utterly forgotten to bring a lunch from home, and after a moment, she walked to the back, poking her head through the door.
"Hey, I was thinking we could call for some – Oh. Oh, are you okay?"
She would give Val one thing – he was as careful with the papers as she had asked him to be. He'd cleared a neat space at the center of the table, and it was free of delicate documents before he laid his head down in what looked like utter despair.
"Fine," he said without looking up, and she approached him cautiously.
"You don't look fine. What's the matter?"
She laid a gentle inquisitive hand on his shoulder, ready to pull away if he looked as if he didn't like it, but he shifted so he was pressing his head against her hand, so much like a big dog looking for comfort that she had to stifle a smile.
"There's just so much," he said, sounding more than slightly horrified. "There's so much, and people talk so much, and they write so small, and there's this woman who wrote in to The Millbrook every single time she thought she saw them favoring one member of Parliament over another. I mean, every single time, who has the time for that?"
"Well, people don't stop being people, no matter how far back in time you go," she said, petting his dark hair. She maybe got a little too involved with petting him because before she knew it, Val had tilted over, and she was stroking the side of his head, running her fingertips over his cheek and the line of his jaw.
"Are you going to be all right?" she asked, reluctant to stop touching him.
"I will be if you keep doing that," Val muttered in a tone that was just short of rapturous. "That feels so good. You feel so good."
He raised his hand and set it over hers, and Norah made a soft sound at how very warm he was. There was a tingle of electricity where they touched, and it traveled from that one spot until it had spread to her whole body.
Then Val turned his head to kiss her palm, as chivalrous as a knight with his lady, and all right, they couldn't do this at the library.
Why not? asked a sly little voice. The door locks. You're not even on the clock, come onnnnnn.
"No,” she said firmly, pulling away, and Val sat up guiltily.
"I'm sorry, too much?"
"No, it's just. I just came in here to ask if you wanted sandwiches."
The last line came out with a slight wail, because seriously, what was this?
"I'm a sensible human," she argued, as if he had said she wasn't. "And I'm smart. And all right, I've not been with someone for a while, and you're basically just sex even if you are a sad lump in the back room."
"Thank you?"
"And I don't know why I'm feeling like this, and it's fast and I don't do fast and –"
She stopped when Val's hands settled gently on her shoulders. She thought he might be upset or put off by her sudden burst of confusion, but instead there was something utterly understanding in his eyes. It was as if he had looked at her and decided that despite everything, she made total sense.
"It's all right," he said gently. "We'll do whatever you want to do. Fast, slow, not at all, not for a long while, it's fine."
"And ... you're okay with that."
He grinned.
"More than okay. I promise. I'm here for the long haul."
She was momentarily confused before she glanced back at the pile of papers. He had apparently made it through part of a single box in the time he had been back there.
"I guess you are," she said. "Sorry to dump that all on you. I just wanted to come back and to ask you about subs. There's a place that does good subs down the street, and they deliver. My treat."
Val looked slightly insulted.
"No, I can –"
"And you can buy us dinner tonight," she said with a grin. "There, does that soothe your male hunter-gatherer instinct to provide?"
Val seemed to give the matter some serious thought before he nodded.
"It will do," he pronounced. "And you must let me take you to a very expensive place for dinner."
"That sounds like an amazing deal for me getting you a five dollar sub. They do a really good Philly cheesesteak."
"Oh, yes, one of those, please," he said brightly, and she laughed because she realized that even without the ridiculous sexual tension, she would have liked Val one way or another if he had showed up with that bright smile.
She bought subs for them, and they enjoyed them in the cafe area of the library. They got a few curious looks, because it wasn't every day that a small plump reference librarian had lunch with a tall handsome treasure hunter (“Actually, that really is my job description.”), but the place was buzzing with the new security protocols that had been passed down, so it was less awful than it might have been.
After lunch, Val stepped out to make a few calls, and Norah was in the back setting some books aside for a professor when she she happened to glance down into one of the open boxes in the stack. Right there on top, there was a packet of letters that had been banded together, and something made her pick them up curiously, breaking the band to open the first envelope
Like so
