Reality And Romance

*****

Libby sat in the lost and found room for some time. A constricting sadness welled up in her chest. At first, she wondered if it was just shock from having run into such an attractive celebrity. But it wasn’t. She had been interested in him. Far from the vapid and vain man she had seen on the television, the Andrew Thompson she had met had been smart and he had been kind. He was intense, there was no denying that. But it wasn’t a dark troubled intensity, but rather a sort of forceful energy that exuded from him, an enigmatic wildness that seemed to want to burst from every word and action. As if he were repressing a fire, that seemed just on the brink of bursting free from his every movement.

She shook her head, hoping the force would knock some sense in to her. It was absurd to have expected anything. If he was anyone else she would have asked for his number, but she had quickly thought better of it. Andrew Thompson was famous. He was surrounded by models and actresses, so why on earth would he be interested in her.

Rolling her shoulders, Libby squashed the lingering feeling of disappointment and headed back down towards the library. She tried to ignore the warmth of his jacket on her shoulders, it would be silly to think about that right now, to miss something that had never had a chance of existing in the first place.

As Libby entered the main part of the library, a cold burst of wind ran through the room and she became acutely aware that she was still only wearing that ridiculous Yoda bed shirt. She sighed, and put her head on the desk. From the angle her head was at she could see that someone had left a book on the side, groaning, she raised her head and picked up the book, supposing that she might as well put it away on her way back to the lost and found room to find some pants. The book was ‘A Room with a View’ by E.M Forster and she opened it up to see if it had been stamped yet.

What she found instead nearly caused her to drop the book. Inside the cover was a letter.

 ‘Dear Libby,

Sorry I left in such a rush. As you can imagine from witnessing that phone call with my brother, my family can be pretty demanding.

Honestly, I might be out of my mind for doing this, but the minute I walked out that library I was struck with a feeling that I was missing out on something. I don’t yet know what it is, but I want to find out. I want to see you again. If you want to meet up I’ll be up the top of Hillcrest International, it’s the big red building on 7th Street. Saturday at 8pm.

I can’t give you my home phone number for security reasons, but I promise I’ll be there. I hope that you will too.

Andrew Thompson.

Libby reread the note in frozen shock, before breaking out into a wild smile.

Some days were better than others. Libby decided that this was one of the better ones.