“The industrial revolution.”
“And feminism?”
“Like I said, you have to really want to see it,” she said. “Rob…not that I’m not happy to see you or anything, but what are you doing here, exactly?”
“Well…” He bit his lip. Thea thought he actually looked a little nervous. “Stephanie Brown told me you might be here.”
“You talked to Steph about me?” Thea was annoyed, but she was also a little bit thrilled, though she would never have admitted that aloud.
He nodded. “I saw you two together before third period, so I thought maybe you were friends.”
“Sure. We are.”
“And she and I have ceramics together.”
“Wait, you take ceramics?” Thea didn’t even bother trying to hide the fact that she had made yet another assumption about him. It was impossible to imagine the sweaty, aggressive, full-contact power forward of the basketball team throwing pots.
“I needed an art credit,” he explained. “Anyway, I asked Stephanie about you, and she said that if I wanted to talk to you, I’d probably find you in the library after school.”
“Of course she did,” Thea said, not at all surprised that Stephanie had given Rob what he wanted. Steph probably thought this was the beginning of the epic senior-year flirtation she so badly wanted Thea to have.
It’s not happening, though. I have no idea what Rob wants, but it isn’t me.
“You should probably go,” she told him.
His eyes widened. “But I just got here.”
Was he being funny on purpose? She couldn’t tell. “I came here to work,” she reminded him. “Not to talk. And besides, it’s the library.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning everyone who comes here is trying to study, and we shouldn’t be disturbing them.”
Rob laughed and waved a hand in the direction of Jillian’s table. “I don’t think they mind,” he said. “Why do you come here to study anyway? It’s not quiet.”
“Usually, no one bothers me,” she said pointedly.
But at the last moment, she added a smile to show him that he wasn’t really bothering her at all.
“We can talk in here,” he said. “No one will even hear us. They’re all too caught up in their own dramas.”
Thea shook her head. “Other people might not take the rules of the library seriously, but I do,” she said. “I’m not going to sit here and socialize.”
“Then maybe we could go somewhere else,” he suggested.
“I have to work, Rob!”
“How about this,” he suggested. “How about if I walk you home. And then I’ll leave you to your work. I promise. That way you and I get a chance to have a conversation, and then you can get back to writing your paper. Is that fair?”
She shook her head. What is it he really wants?
But her curiosity was beginning to get the best of her. And besides, although it had been surprising, she had genuinely enjoyed her night at the Waffle Shack with Rob Honeycutt. The idea of spending more time with him was appealing.
And it wasn’t as if she was getting any work done in the library. Not with all the noise Jillian was making.
“Okay,” she agreed. “You can walk me home. But that’s it. Just home. Then I really do have to work.”
“It’s a deal,” Rob agreed with a smile.