A Lover Like Him (The Perfect Lover book #2) (Espresso CRK)

Chapter 32

Espresso's Pov

I wandered past the village stalls, looking for the old, square-shaped library I had spotted the previous night. The skies were cloudy, but narrow sunbeams peeked out from behind the poofy cotton.

I found the decaying library soon enough and frowned. In the daylight, it appeared much more ruined, especially with the clouds that grew more gloomy. There was moss thrown at the bottom, the windows were covered by what seemed to be large cocoa tree leaves rather than proper glass, and it looked much tinier compared to last night now that it didn't blend into the shadows and buildings around it.

Swish.

The leaves were suddenly drawn back from one of the windows and a head poked out. I stopped a few feet from the wooden doors and stared back at the female cookie.

She blinked her dark brown eyes and smiled, "O-oh!"

Then she disappeared behind the curtains. I raised an eyebrow and turned back to the door. I pushed it open and immediately heard the door hit something and a pained yelp. The cookie I saw before jumped back from me, clutching her hand which was turning pale and inflating.

"Oh gosh, I am so sorry!" I gasped, faking a sympathetic, regretful, expression.

"N-no problem, welcome to the library!" The female squeaked out, one of her eyes squeezed shut with a tear at the corner.

"Would you like me to help you?" I asked, lifting up her hand like an aristocrat.

"It's okay, I'm fine," She reassured, straightening up, "I feel great."

No, clearly that was painful for someone like you.

"That's a relief," I sighed, pretending to be relieved, "hm.. you're Liberica, correct?"

I recognized the cookie from yesterday. Only a few pure coffee cookies, (Cookies who don't have added chocolate or milk), so I actually bothered asking around for her name. The other unsweetened coffee cookies residing here were Drip Coffee and Irish.

The librarian brushed back her short, black hair, "I'll just let you take a look around. Call me if you need anything."

I flashed her a small grateful, passed off as gratitude, and explored the library's inside. Fondue was likely coming later anyway, I don't need to look for her.

The inside of the library gave a cozy feeling, the opposite of my library in one of the spare storage rooms of the castle. The only similarity was the small piles of books stacked on the floor.

Fucking-vexing Master, I thought bitterly, I don't even get the keys to my library.

"Espresso, I'm glad you decided to come by! I wasn't sure if you'd come!" Fondue said, crash-stumbling out from behind the librarian's desk doors.

"Fondue, greetings," I nodded politely, "I was curious of that project that you mentioned last night."

"That's good to hear," She said, smiling as she straightened up.

She beckoned me to follow her to the backrooms, where the flushed librarian sat. She looked up momentarily when we entered, but at the sight of me, she quickly turned away.

"Hey, I got some coffee," A deep voice said, entering the small office. The speaker was a white haired male with pale skin and brown chocolate eyes. He noticed me and introduced himself as Hershey Le Blanc, apologizing that he didn't know I was coming and therefore didn't brew me any coffee.