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“This is the shelf I was talking about.” I take her hand and lead her to a row of books that have no right to be shelved beside each other. The only thing they have in common is that they are all the titles that Jane has talked to Byron—to me—about. “This is where your DDC number goes.”
“You weren’t lying.”
I shake my head. “024.04.”
“You put my book recommendations in non-fiction?”
I nod, wondering if I’d made some sort of librarian faux pas. “I can change it if?—”
“No. Don’t. It’s perfect. 020s is library science.”
I nod. “Librarians and libraries… and any books recommended by Jane on Book Talk with Byron.”
Jane walks toward the shelf and runs her fingers along the spines. “They’re all here.”
“Every single one. Sometimes I have to read them a day or two after you, since, even with my resources, I can’t always have them shipped in time.”
“Why not get the ebooks?”
I shake my head. “Wouldn’t be the same.”
“And you read them? All of them?”
“Every last one.”
“Oh my god, I am so wet right now,” she whispers. Then she covers her mouth. “I did not just say that out loud.”
“Yes, you did.” I start to smile. “And hearing you say that makes me as hard as the Encyclopedia of Molecular Science.”
It’s something I’d usually think and not say out loud, but I feel like I can be myself with Jane. I stride toward her, and she looks up at me, eyes wide.
“Prove it.” She exhales the words.
“Are you sure?” I cup her cheek with one hand and grab her ass with the other, pulling her against the encyclopedia in question so she has absolutely no doubt about how much I want her.
JANE
Am I sure? I can’t believe that any of this is even real. That I’m here, in this gorgeous library, with Bryan Brooks himself.
I can’t believe Bryan watched every single one of my Book Talk with Byron videos—bought all the books I’d recommended, read each and every single one, and quoted a steamy alien romance back to me like he’d only ever done in my dreams.
And that’s the crux of the matter—that I’d dreamed of doing this with Bryan since the first time I’d stumbled across his feed. And now I’m in the mansion on the mountain with the man himself. He could have his pick of any of his three million followers, yet they’re not here. I am. Of everyone he could have, he picked a library assistant from Maple Valley.
Library assistant. I’m not going to be one for very long. Just thinking about it makes my heart sink. It’s happening because of Bryan—but it’s also not his fault. I can’t blame anyone but myself. I should have gotten my Masters in Library Science instead of putting a down payment on my house. If I had, I’d be a librarian, and a robot wouldn’t be able to take my place. But I thought I had time—that I could still do it next year, or the year after that.
“You’re having second thoughts, aren’t you?” Bryan asks.
“Yes. I mean no.” I sigh. “I don’t know.”
Bryan releases me and points to the deep couch. “There’s actually a quote I wanted to show you.”
I sit and watch while he carefully chooses a paperback from his massive library. His broad shoulders block my view of the title he pulls down, and he walks toward me with it hidden behind his back.
“In town, you asked me a question. My reply is also in the form of a question. The part of the quote you left out.”
The book falls open exactly where he wants it, and he settles on the couch next to me and points at the page while he reads,
“Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup?”
