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Fridays were Ed’s favorite day of the week.
The accounting firm he worked for, in a desperate effort to improve employee morale and retention rates, had recently declared that Fridays were now four-hour work days (except during tax season), which left Ed free after a brief stretch in the office to grab a leisurely lunch somewhere, wander around the cute little historic neighborhood where he worked, and run a few errands before heading home.
Fridays were also when Ed went to the library. He’d developed an enthusiastic love for indie comics a few months ago and had been tearing through them with a voracious appetite ever since. Now, with his Friday half days, he had plenty of time after lunch to wander up the hill to his local branch and swap out his recently read books for any new ones he’d requested or that caught his eye that week.
He greeted the familiar face at the circ desk, a young man with exceptionally lush sideburns called Lucius, and slid the little stack of books from his purple “Reading is Fundamental” tote bag into the slot of the returns bin.
“Busy week, Ed?” Lucius asked as he twirled a pencil in his fingers. Ed spotted a sketchbook laying open just to the right of the computer. Must be a slow day—it usually was this early on Friday afternoons.
“Eh, not too bad,” he replied. “Same old, mostly. Anything in for me today?”
“Not on the hold shelves, no,” Lucius replied. “But if you wanted to check the stacks, we’ve just shelved a couple of new things you might like.”
“Cheers, mate,” Ed said with a wink. “Maybe I will.”
The graphic novels and trade paperbacks were shelved along the back wall of the library near the offices, where the branch librarians presumably worked. Ed didn’t often see any of them during his visits, if he even lingered long enough to browse the stacks for new reading material, and the doors were nearly always closed.
Not today, however.
One of the office doors just to the right of the graphic novels section was slightly ajar, and a man’s high, shrill voice caught his attention as he scanned the shelves for new titles.
“You cannot possibly be serious, Mary!”
Ed froze. It wasn’t often one heard raised voices in a library, especially on an otherwise quiet Friday afternoon, and the exasperation in the man’s voice had piqued his curiosity.
Who’s this Mary, then?
Shit, he didn’t have anything else to do today—might as well eavesdrop.
Ed could hear the sound of fingertips drumming impatiently against the wood of a desk and the faintest tinny whine of another voice on the other end of a phone line.
“Yes, yes, I heard you the first time,” the man said peevishly. “And I’m telling you that that is absolutely ridiculous! And we’re not paying it, you, you—extortionists!”
Ed stifled a laugh and leaned in closer, no longer even pretending to browse the shelves as he shamelessly listened in.
“Yes it is ridiculous, Mary, we’re talking about a 30% price increase on the same bloody package!” the man cried. “We’re a small public library chain in an underserved market, we simply do not have the budget for this. Nobody has the budget for it these days and your bottom-feeder employer damn well knows it. Are we meant to lose access to the same databases we’ve subscribed to for years and that our patrons depend on because you’re a load of filthy price gougers? Unacceptable.”
This man was absolutely brimming with righteous fury—Ed couldn’t have torn himself away from the door if he’d tried.
“No, no, I don’t want to talk about options for ‘streamlining our subscriptions to accommodate our budget’, I want to talk to your manager,” the man gritted out. “Now.”
The office went quiet for a moment, save for the irritated rustle of papers on a desk and what sounded like the weak strains of the most annoying hold music known to man. Ed moved in even closer, trying to steal a peek through the crack in the door at the man on the phone, but he could see only book-lined shelves along the back wall.
“Hello, yes, and to whom am I speaking now?” the man said after a moment, polite but with an unmistakable edge of menace. “Nigel, hello. Quick question for you, Nigel: is the radical price increase for your database subscription package in response to a sudden skyrocket in costs on your end? Or are you all just greedy fucks looking to line your pockets at the expense of publicly-funded services?”
Holy shit, this man went in swinging. Ed barely restrained himself from letting out a low whistle.
“Oh, I’m well aware of what I just said, and my question still stands: does your company get off on fucking over public libraries?” the man enunciated in the most ruthlessly bitchy tone Ed had ever heard outside of a drag show. “I think it’s a perfectly reasonable question, given the circumstances.”
Ed heard the thin mumble of a voice on the other end of the line and then—
“Oh, calm down? Calm down?” the man demanded. He slammed a hand down on his desk and lowered his voice to a low growl that drew a delicious prickle of heat down Ed’s spine.
“Listen to me, you smug little desk jockey,” the man snarled. “I’ve been in this game awhile now and I know how this goes. I tell you your price increase is outrageous, you tell me your hands are tied, you’re at the mercy of your Dutch corporate overlords, blah blah. I threaten to walk, you say ‘oh wait, funny you should mention it, there actually is a loophole here for small public branches such as yourselves’. I say ‘thank you, we’ll take that one, please’, you send me an updated invoice, and we both end this call in a slightly better mood than when we started. So how about we just skip the horseshit and you quote me your actual price for this subscription package, hey? Save us both a bit of time and headache on a Friday.”
Well, hello sailor, Ed thought with a breathless grin. Who was this fucking maniac? Had he been at this library the whole time behind a door without Ed ever knowing it? Incredible.
He heard nothing but the squeak of an office chair spinning on its axis, the modulated rise and fall of a distant voice on the other end of the line, and the occasion irritated grunt of acknowledgement from the pissed-off librarian for a couple of minutes before—
“Thank you, we’ll take that one, please,” the man said acidly. “I’d say it’s been a pleasure doing business with you, but I think we’d both know that’s a lie. Have a marvelous weekend, Nigel. I hope for your sake you volunteer at a pet rescue or something in your free time to balance out the negative karma you undoubtedly accrue during your working hours. I somehow doubt it. Ta.”
Ed heard the phone slam down in its cradle, a softly muttered “asshole”, and a great, heaving sigh float through the door before the room fell silent once more.
Show’s over, Ed supposed.
And yet he didn’t move. Nor did he return his attention to the shelves. He simply kept staring at the door, willing the bitchy mystery librarian to show himself so he could—what, congratulate him? Shake his hand? Offer to buy him a drink?
And then the door swung open.
Oh yeah. Ed would definitely be offering to buy this man a drink.
A flustered looking blond man around his height in gold wire-framed glasses, sharply dressed in gray slacks, a smart button-down shirt with a small floral pattern, and a well-fitted navy blue cardigan, appeared in the doorway. His bright, hazel eyes widened when they landed on Ed, clearly surprised to see anyone there.
“Oh, hello,” said the man. “Is there anything I can help you find?”
“Nah, I was just…looking,” said Ed, unable to stop his eyes from flitting appreciatively down to the man’s surprisingly broad chest. “And, full disclosure, listening. Just a bit. Couldn’t help it.”
The man’s already pink cheeks reddened further, though whether it was from embarrassment or the way Ed was looking at him, he couldn’t say. “...how much of that did you hear?” he asked sheepishly. Ed chuckled.
“Enough to develop a whole new respect for librarians,” Ed replied with a cheeky grin. “Who was that?”
The man sighed, shaking his head with a tired grin. “A certain Dutch conglomerate who shall not be named that provides subscription packages for online research databases, among other things. It is apparently my job as the periodicals librarian to call them up and yell at them twice a year whenever they decide they’d like to line their shareholders' pockets more than they already do by gatekeeping publicly-funded research papers from publicly-funded institutions.”
“Pricks,” Ed said with feeling.
“Indeed,” the man said snippily. “It’s disgusting, frankly.”
“Clearly,” said Ed, extending his hand. “I’m Ed.”
The hand that closed around his was soft and warm and sent a pleasant little jolt up his arm. “Stede.”
“Nice to meet you, Stede,” said Ed, reluctantly letting go of his hand. “Hey, I hope I’m not being too forward but…that phone call was the most brutal evisceration of anyone or anything I’ve heard in ages. Maybe ever. And it’d be my honor and genuine pleasure to buy you a fuckin’ drink about it.”
Stede smiled at him then, a wide, sunny smile that lit up his entire handsome face with such warmth that Ed almost forgot that this was the same man he’d just overheard issuing a verbal beatdown the likes of which he’d never heard before to a faceless peon over the price of database subscription fees.
He had to get to know this guy better. He clearly contained multitudes.
“I think I’d like that,” he said breathlessly. “I’m actually almost done now—I get off at two on Fridays.”
Ed’s eyebrows shot up. “Every Friday?”
“Yes.”
“Perfect,” Ed said, his heart leaping in his chest. “It’s a date.”
“Is it?” Stede asked hopefully.
Fuckin’ adorable, Ed thought gleefully.
“It is now, handsome,” Ed said with a wink. “Meet you by the circ desk whenever you’re finished up?”
“I’ll just be a moment,” Stede said, disappearing back into his office with a positively muppet-y flail of his limbs.
Ed strolled over to the circ desk with a giddy spring in his step.
“Checking anything out today, Ed?” Lucius asked as he ambled near.
Ed grinned wide enough that the man looked taken aback. “Already did, mate.”
Stede careened breathlessly around the corner, a leather messenger bag slung over his shoulder. “Ready to go, Ed?”
Lucius’ jaw dropped, his eyes widening as his eyes darted back and forth between them. “Oh my god, this is happening,” he whispered.
“After you, killer,” Ed said with a wave of his arm. Stede giggled—giggled!—and wandered towards the door.
Ed shot a parting smirk at Lucius’ thunderstruck face and followed Stede out the door, admiring the view from behind.
Fridays were Ed’s very favorite day of the week. And after sharing a drink that turned into two, which turned into ice cream, a walk in the park, and a dizzying kiss goodnight with the bitchiest librarian he had ever met in his life, Ed had a feeling his Fridays were about to become even better.