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Madeleine stared at the pile of books in front of her with a mix of dejection and frustration. When adding books to the library, the most important factor was size. Slim or narrow volumes didn’t tend to fit even the smallest knives. Still, Madeleine wished so many of their books didn’t have stickers on them. Often they were bought secondhand, and had everything from prices to “now a major motion picture” stuck on them. Was it mainly an aesthetic concern? Yes. Did that stop it from bothering Madeleine? Certainly not.
Florence strides over to the front desk in her workout clothes, which is to say a sports bra and a pair of tight leggings. Madeleine looks up from her work, her attention immediately diverted. Florence catches sight of the desk, covered in books, bottles of rubbing alcohol, Goo Gone, pink erasers, and weirdly enough, a hairdryer. She grins. “It looks like you’ve been working almost as hard as I have.”
Madeleine sighs. “I don’t understand why someone would deface a book with stickers.” She gestures to a large copy of The Picture of Dorian Grey, which has a round, orange sticker boasting “50% OFF!” covering almost a quarter of the book.
Florence, ever more focused on practicality than visual appearance, laughs. “You’ll be here all day if you plan on de-stickering all these books. And besides, aren’t we “defacing” them quite a bit more than the stickers are?”
Madeleine just huffs. “Come over here, you hold the hairdryer while I go at it with the eraser.”
Florence rolls her eyes but obliges. She positions the hairdryer over the book, far enough to make sure the pages don’t curl, and Madeleine gently rubs the sticker with the eraser. “You’re cute when you focus.” Florence murmurs, to which Madeleine blushes. She and Florence have been dating for several months at this point, but still gets flustered by her affectionate teasing.
Finally, the sticker dislodges, and Madeleine grins in triumph. “One more book rescued!” She exclaims proudly. “Sixteen more and we’ll be done with the gothic section.”
Florence's eyes bulge. “Sixteen more in just the gothic section?! I was wrong about you being here all day, you’ll be here for the rest of your natural life, at least.”
Madeleine giggles and unplugs the hairdryer. “Well…I could be persuaded to take a break…” She trails off, turning towards Florence and brushing her arm against her shoulder.
Florence takes Madeleine’s hand and leads her away from the front desk. “Well it’s a good thing I can be very persuasive then.” The two of them disappear into the media room, intending to enjoy their break before Madeleine inevitably has to resume “rescuing” those books.