MADversary (2 page)

The kid smiled, looking surprised that Megan would do something nice for him. 
“Really?
  You’d do that?”

She nodded and began tapping on the keyboard.  While she did, she said, “Now, this book will be due in two weeks.  The due date will be printed on the receipt I
’m going to
give you.  If you need the book for longer, you can call us to extend the due date for another two weeks.”  She tucked the receipt inside the front cover of the book.  “If you lose your receipt, you can log
in to our website and type in your library card number.  It’ll show what’s checked out to you and give you the due date.”  She held the book out to the young man after demagnetizing the book so he could walk out the doors without another embarrassing moment.

“Cool.  I appreciate that, lady.”

She smiled.  She’d managed to shut the blonde kid up, and that alone was worth it.

After the boys left, one of her coworkers,
a wispy thin girl named Serenity
also stationed at the counter
, said, “You’re too nice, Megan.  I would’ve let the kid have it with both barrels.”

Megan didn’t want to explain how she often lived her life by
following her heart
, but it was true.  That was why she’d given the kid a break.  In fact, that was why she worked at the Winchester Public Library to begin with.
  Most of her decisions, big and little, we
re made that way
.  So far, she was still alive and maybe not
happy
but certainly content.  And that was good enough for Megan.

So that she wouldn’t have to discuss
her life philosophy
with Serenity
, she walked over to the cart of returns by the check-in desk.  Jeff had pulled all the books out of the drop box and scanned them in, and he’d also been keeping up with returns all morning, but he hadn’t put them away.  That was fine with Megan.  It was one of her favorite jobs (and one of the jobs everyone else despised).  It gave her a sense of accomplishment to return her beloved books back to where they belonged.  It also afforded he
r many opportunities to think without being
disturbed.  Most of her big decisions as an adult had
also
been made while shelving returned books.  “Should I buy that car?  Should I go out with that roguish guy who called?  Should I move into that new apartment?
  Should I spend that much on a new computer?
”

She looked down at the pile of books on the cart through her muted green eyes.  What a mess.  No one seemed to care about these babies like she did.  She ran her fingers through her shoulder-length dark brown hair and then rolled her shoulders, ready to get to work. 
She put the
books in order on the cart
,
then
wheeled it over to the first part of the nonfiction section first.
  As she started putting several psychology books back where they belonged, she allowed her mind to wander.  It was decision time.

She was going on a date tonight with a gorgeous guy she’d met
at a concert she’d attended with her best friend
Lisa.  A couple of weeks ago, they’d decided to go watch a show with a
couple of local bands at The Black Sheep in Colorado Springs.  Shows of local bands always cost a lot less
than the well-
knowns
and sometimes even
put on
better shows
than those
put on by big bands, because the local up-and-comers were usually hungry and played like it.  This particular show
had been
full of raw energy, and she and Lisa had been close to the action.  And the place
had been
jam-packed, so meeting Dylan was easier
than the way she met most guys, and she knew right away that they had something in common.

She started putting away a comparative religions book,
then
had two legal books to shelve, rolling the cart along as she went.  She knew part of the reason why it was hard finding guys to date was because of her job.  Men didn’t come to the library with the intention of picking up women.  Yes, she’d been asked on one or two dates at the library, but it just didn’t happen that often. 
And honestly?
  She was getting nervous. 
She wasn’t a desperate girl, but it was starting to feel like, over the last year, her opportunities to date good guys were fewer than before.  She didn’
t necessarily want the marriage-
and
-
kids dream that other girls wanted, but she did long for a meaningful relationship.  She wanted someone to wake up next to, someone to go to the movies with, someone to cook a meal with.  She was tired of making connections that didn’t work.  Yes, she loved men and she appreciated a good-looking guy, not to mention a satisfying romp in the sack, but she was tired of the dates that went nowhere.  How could she seem to connect with a guy when they first met and then on date one somehow
manage
to wreck it?  Was she too honest, too open?  Maybe she’d try keeping to herself with Dylan tonight.  It couldn’t hurt, could it?

Chapter Two

LISA’S BLUE EYES
sparkled as a raucous laugh poured out of her mouth. 
She and Megan
sat at a picnic table in the park across from the library.  Lisa had brought her specialty—mandarin orange salad—for the women to eat at lunch.  Lisa was on a perpetual diet and, therefore, the girl ate more
lettuce
than rabbits
, and she had dozens of delicious salad recipes.  Megan stabbed an orange with the plastic fork and nibbled on it, afraid to put it in her mouth in case Lisa started making her giggle too.  She didn’t want to inhale an orange, only to have it get stuck in her throat.
  Imagine how the obit would read…
.

“Oh, my God, Megan.
  Would
you stop worrying so much?”  Lisa tossed back a lock of blonde hair behind her shoulder to keep it from dipping in her salad.

“I can’t help it.  I just know something will go wrong on this date.”

“That’s a shitty attitude, girlfriend.  Of
course
something will go wrong if you expect it to.  You have to have a positive attitude.”

Megan screwed up the corner of her mouth. 
“Easier said than done.”
  She chanced the orange, wrapping her lips around the fork and pulling it into her mouth.

“All right.
  I
gotta
know.  Have you given the high school reunion any more thought?”

Megan swallowed the orange.  “Yes.”

“And…?”

“I haven’t changed my mind.  I’m not going.”

“Oh, come on, Meg.  I don’t want to go by myself!”

“
Sorry,
Lee
se
, I just can’t find any good reasons to go.”

“Are you
kidding
me? 
Seriously?
  I can think of
thousands
!”

“Name one.”

Lisa used her fork to scoot pieces of lettuce glimmering with dressing and dotted with almond slivers around the paper bowl.  She sighed.  “Well, maybe it’s not a
nice
reason, but I’m dying to see what childbirth did to
Summer
and Monica.”

Megan swallowed the bite in her mouth.  “That’s…unoriginal.”  Summer and Monica had been co-captains of the cheerleading squad their senior year in high school.  Both Megan and Lisa had thought the cheerleading girls would go on to do big things like most privileged daughters do, but instead both married their high school sweethearts.  One girl’s said sweetheart was a year older and attending college in Boulder, while the other was a senior and did attend college…but in nearby Colorado Springs.  The two of them “had” to get married so their bundle of joy could be considered legitimate.  Summer and Matt Harper
at last count
had three children and he was now the manager of his father’s hardware store in downtown Winchester.  Monica’s future
husband had attended CU in Boulder
, and she went to school there after graduation as well but never finished.  Once her boyfriend John graduated, they married, but last Megan knew, they lived in the Denver Metro area.
  “You know, they probably look just like we do.  I doubt they look any worse off.”

Lisa waved her fork back and forth, the tines pointing at Megan. 
“Oh, no.
  I saw
Summer
a few years ago, and she looked haggard.”

Megan shrugged.  “So what are the other nine-hundred ninety-nine reasons?”

“Aren’t there
guys
you’re dying to see?  I mean…I always imagine one of the computer nerds will come back all rich and sexy
and remember I was nice
to him
.”

“Also unoriginal,
Leese
.
  You
gotta
stop watching stuff like
Romy
and Michele’s High School Reunion
.  That’s all total fantasy.”  Megan picked up her napkin and wiped her lips.  “
That’s
why you’re dying to go.  You think you’re going to impress the hell out of everyone while laughing your ass off at the misfortunes of others.”

Lisa grinned.  “Well, there
is
that…
.
  But I also just want to see people I’ve fallen out of touch with.”

“I don’t.  I’ve stayed in touch with the people I’ve wanted to.”

“Me, Megan.
  That would be
me
.  You haven’t stayed in touch with anyone else.”

“My point exactly.”

Lisa sighed and stabbed another piece of lettuce with her fork.  Megan felt a little guilty, especially seeing Lisa’s bottom lip begin to push out in a slight pout.  But she didn’t feel guilty enough to give in.  Lisa looked up.  “Okay, fine.  Give me some good reasons
not
to go.”

Like she hadn’t already outlined a solid case.
  “Well, I
don’t
want to see what ten years have done to everyone.  I don’t care if
Summer
has big hips and stretch marks and doesn’t wear makeup anymore.  I don’t care if every last computer and gaming geek I remember comes to the reunion loaded with dough.  I just don’t
care
,
Leese
.  There’s nothing there for me.
  And…”  Oh,
shit
.  She’d said too much.

Lisa wasn’t stupid.  She pounced on it like a cat. 
“And
what
?”

“Oh, nothing.”
  Suddenly, Megan was interested in her salad again and piled a forkful in her mouth.

Lisa’s eyes narrowed down to slivers and she dropped her voice.  Megan became aware of the cool April breeze on her arms, and she wanted to pull her sweater back on.  She felt like a bug under a microscope, and Lisa wasn’t going to let her squirm free.  “I don’t think so.”

She let all the air out of her lungs in a long exhale.  Better to just get it over with now. 
She forced her eyes up to look in Lisa’s.  “What if…Tyler’s there?”

Lisa’s chin dropped as did her hands and the flimsy plastic fork from her fingers. 
“Oh, my God.
  I should have known.”

Megan shook her head. 
“Oh, no.
  Don’t make a federal case out of this.”

“But it makes so much sense.”

“No, it doesn’t.  I have no idea why I would be so worried about seeing him again.”

“Yes, you do.”

Okay. 
Yes, she did.  Tyler Green had been her boyfriend her senior year in high school for all of three months, the last three months of school.  When school
let
out, he and his heavy metal band had wandered off first to Denver and then to L.A. to make it big while Megan had been responsible and gone to college in
nearby
Pueblo
, Colorado
.  He and his friends had left just days after graduation and, throughout the summer, he and Megan had maintained a long-distance relationship over the phone, but by the time she was knee-deep in school, both of them admitted it wasn’t working.  Their phone calls had become sporadic anyway and they weren’t even exchanging emails anymore by that time.  But Megan knew the truth.  She knew he must have been enjoying the rock star life.  She knew women were probably falling all over him and offering themselves up to him for whatever pleasure he could ever ask for. 
How could she compare?  And, besides that, she was lonely.  She missed having him around
, and a long-distance boyfriend was like no boyfriend at all
.  She still didn’t date until her second year in college, just couldn’t bring herself to do it.  “I guess maybe I do.  I…think it would be awkward, don’t you?  I mean
,
I’ve seen his picture and stuff, but in person…might be pretty weird.”