Death by Despair

A whole week and three more days down the line and Keira's life had been back to its peaceful nature. By that, she meant no more good-looking and bright-smiling awardee of the most annoying patron of the week. Although, giving said award to Nate was not that fitting anymore.

Nate had not visited the library she worked at since that noon he stormed off after decoding his secret message.

Hyde seemed to be bored out of his mind. It was not a rare occurrence since the only thing he usually did was shelving or sigh at their fellow librarian mishandling books or both. However, Hyde's target in his quest to conquer his boredom was her.

The demoted librarian had begun speculating as to why she was being irrigated and feeling kind of down for the last several days. Keira didn't know whether she should applaud him for taking notice of his colleague's psychological state or be horrified that her gloominess was so apparent to the others.

After a repeated one-night stand with their boss – Keira was just guessing, but it had a high probability of being true – Hyde would eventually conclude that it was just a case of mild 'Death by Despair' which would only take a day to spread to their colleagues.

She would bet her sandwich bought from the vending machine that Hyde only did that because he was such a petty bastard who sulked because she refused to share her love-shaped chocolate cookies stealthily made by Nate, indeed.

She did not have a heartbreak. What was she, a hormonal high school teenage girl?

Keira wouldn't be caught dead missing over a man who broke into her apartment – and cleaned her home and did her laundry, yes.

However, as the seconds passed and there was still no sign of said brazen invader, Keira couldn't help but mull over Hyde's hasty conclusion.

Perhaps he was correct.

Or, more accurately, he was technically correct. Most of her gloominess was due to Nate not visiting the library after saying something came up at work ten days ago.

On the other hand, her agitation was due to the fact that she was still keeping the paper that Nate used to write the Latin words he got from the old tome. The more Keira held onto it, the more her worry festered.

Keira would like to point out that her worry had nothing to do with her liking Nate. She didn't. Despite the fact that Nate genuinely said she was beautiful and that he was the only person to ever ask her out after her colossal humiliation in high school, Keira would never say that he was attractive and kind of sweet.

At least, not out loud. He didn't need a boost to his already gigantic ego.

No, the reason for her worry had more to do with the flawed translation of his handwritten Latin note. 'Kill head lamb and ruler family, raid north den before end of moon, frame slaughter wolf.'

Through the broken sentence, she could make a pretty solid conclusion that someone's life was in danger, as the word 'kill' was glaringly the first he wrote. Then, 'slaughter wolf,' if that wolf was used to refer to Nate, he was in grave danger too.

It was only natural for a person to worry. Even if she didn't know him personally, meeting him several times in the span of three days warranted enough concern for him.

Keira didn't like the fact that she couldn't ask him about it. The gnawing worry feed from her gut, draining her energy even more along with the slow hours of a Monday afternoon. She didn't want to see Nate on TV later, his handsome face displayed above 'Police investigating the murder of Nathaniel Wolfe, body found near Saltgas railroad tracks.'

So Keira, ever practical in the face of uneasiness, decided not to care.

There were many things the boss liked to scold the staff about. Most of them concerning the patrons' suggestions and the latest review of the customer service policy. Over time, the boss also pointed fingers and criticized the staff's old-fashioned dress code – which consisted of worn shirts and loose cardigans.

Then, some of her colleagues also received an affronted look for their failure in imitating the boss' Professional Smile. Despite having quite mastered said smile, Keira couldn't help but point out that the boss herself never smiled at the patrons. Which then, she only answered with a condescending, "That's the difference between me and you, Hawkins. You have to follow orders. I don't."

From that point onwards, Keira made a point to not care about anything else besides giving the very best performance in her work. Namely, smiling like an idiot and being the nailing customer service out there. She wanted to be the Head Librarian, darn it.

Of course, in this case, involving one Nathaniel Wolfe, there were many ways of not caring. There was the usual way, where she would not search on the online news if, indeed, there was a body found somewhere near Banoufield resembling Nate, and not because she hoped that he was alright.

Or the fact that she didn't look into any social media and type Nate's full name – and his possible fake ones, which might contain the words 'King of' or 'Chief Exquisite' like his business card depicted. It was certainly not because of her fear of finding his social media account inactive for the last several days.

Then, there was also the time when Keira's 'not caring' showed itself in the most authentic manner. It was when she determinedly tried to forget the short three days of ever knowing Nate.

Having noticed the tension between Keira's shoulders, Hyde rolled his eyes and slammed canned soda on her desk.

"If you daydream anymore, you'll be the last one here. I'm not waiting for you mourning your boyfriend to lock the doors." He snapped his fingers on her face several times, being all sassy about it. "My dinner is waiting."

"By dinner, do you mean, our boss?"

"She's not my boss when we're–"

"Lalalalalala, I don't want to hear about it!" Keira cupped her hands around her ears.

It was another thing Hyde liked to do to annoy people. Dropping bombs about his love life every other time. Particularly about the affair he had with their boss. It was a wonder how their boss wasn't divorced from her husband yet.

"Thanks for the drink anyway," Keira took a sip from the soda can before she packed for today. Monday's slow traffic and the lack of Nate's presence in the library made her space out a lot. Hyde was right. Both of them were the only ones left in the library.

They made their way out of the library. After giving Hyde a cheer as he stayed behind to lock the door, Keira turned around to descend the stairs. However, she bumped into someone who probably was standing behind the door, unseen by her.

"I'm so sorry," Keira quickly looked for a handkerchief or tissue inside her satchel. She accidentally spilled her soda on the man's white shirt. "I swear, I didn't see you there, sir. Please forgive my clumsiness."

A deep and oddly familiar chuckle greeted her. "Look at what you've done to my shirt," and despite accusing her, the tone that followed also sounded smooth. Soothing her frantic mind.

Keira looked up and said, "Mr Wolfe?"

The good-looking man in front of her sighed, "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Nate?"

"You're here," she said instead. Blinking her eyes furiously, Keira tried to discern if Nate's appearance before her was a mere wistful illusion or a real one.

"I'm here," Nate repeated, amusement clear on his face. His lightly bruised face.

"What happened to your face?" Keira couldn't stop the words laced with worry to come out of her usually filtered mouth.

"What happened to yours?" He repeated again, still smiling handsomely, making her a little self-conscious of the reddish birthmark marrying her right cheekbone. "I think I can't get enough of your beautiful face."

Keira scoffed, so not believing him. But that didn't matter now. "Did you break into someone else's home, and they beat you down for it? Did they call the police?"

Nate hummed in the back of his throat. "Actually, that sounds about right. Though, I got away before the police came."

Eye blown wide at the causal statement, Keira continued, "So, you're fine?"

"Don't worry, my handsomeness will be back top-notch in a night." Nate pointed to his left cheekbone, covered in a bluish color similar to hers. "It'll disappear in a night."

But then, she noticed that he was standing stiffly. Awkwardly. As if he was concealing something. Or something was prickling his side. Probably both. Moreover, his left arm was hidden under his dark suit jacket. "Did you break your arm?"

"I most certainly am not, but someone did," Nate said, shifting on his feet and showing his left wrist, covered in a splint. Lightly, he added, "You should see the other guy."

Once again, she brushed aside his attempt at humor. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you over dinner." Keira was about to say no, but he quickly appealed. "Come on, it's the least you could do after spilling your soda on me."

"But–"

"He's right," a new voice entered the chat. Hyde stopped for a moment beside them after he was done locking the door. "You should go out with the man you missed the most."

"Hey!" Keira glared heatedly at her shameless colleague, who spoke nonsense.

"Ah! So you do miss me! I knew it!" Nate was more excited than he ever was. "Come on, I know a good place serving the most delicious pizza in the entire country!"

And just like that, Keira couldn't say anything else as Nate tugged her hand and practically shoved her inside his blazing red car.