5 Books For Eveline

13

13

"Grievances? You ambush me in a café and start having a go at me for no reason. That's my grievance!" Purdy couldn't believe her ears as the woman lifted her hands from her jacket, shrugging her shoulders. "Just leave me alone."

"Look, we both said things we probably regret, but, honestly, you really need to get out of this deep blue funk you're in." Briar leaned her head to the side, trying to look behind Purdy into the house. "Especially if we're going to work together to find these books. There are, after all, only ten copies of the next one. We shouldn't waste time chasing the same ones, right?"

Whatever else people, or Briar, could say about her personality, Purdy was not an idiot. The idea of making sure they searched different places seemed like a smart move. That, and it meant that Purdy could be where Briar wasn't. They could spend little time in each other's company. She gave the other woman a distrustful look.

"That makes sense. You take the first fifty locations. I'll take the second fifty." Satisfied, Purdy began to close the door and paused. "If you find a copy and still have locations to search, leave a list in my letter box."

Before she could close the door, Briar's hand slammed upon it, pushing it open a little further. The other woman tilted her head, her auburn hair, tied in a ponytail, falling down like a pendulum. She shook her head towards Purdy, trying to push the door open a little wider.

"No. That's not what I meant." As Purdy continued trying to close the door, Briar lifted a booted foot, placing it between the door and the frame. "I meant work together. Share ideas. Then, when we've worked out the best locations, visit them together. God! You're as hard work as I remember, only moodier."

"Don't talk to me as if you know me! You don't!" Purdy gave serious consideration to slamming the door on the woman's foot. It was a heavy door. "No one does."

She expected the sympathetic look to fall across Briar's face but, instead, the woman rolled her eyes and the blew a raspberry. She acted like a child, despite them both sitting at the tail-end of their twenties. It didn't seem as though the women were about to remove her foot and they remained at an impasse.

If Briar decided to push the door open again, Purdy didn't think she could stop her. Purdy had the height and weight advantage, but the other woman had full use of her body, able to put both hips into the contest. Instead, Purdy continued to glare and hope that Briar would back off. That she would give up this foolish, annoying notion that they could act like friends.

"Look, I tell you what. Let's swap e-mail addresses and phone numbers. At the very least." With one hand keeping pressure on the door, Briar reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone. She looked up at Purdy, expecting her to do the same. "We can send updates. I'll give you my social media account, too. That way you can download the pictures if you like. I'm doing, like, this whole thing for this search."

Purdy didn't know what to say. She didn't have an e-mail address, nor a mobile phone. She had no need of them, finding the landline phone more than enough for her needs and she didn't fancy going to the library every day on the off chance that Briar had sent her something. She didn't mind going to the library, of course, but for her own reasons. Not to keep in touch with someone she didn't like.

"I don't have any of those." Her mumbled response caused Briar to open her mouth in surprise, her lips moving as though trying to find the right words. Then she laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. "I don't need them. Just leave a list. In the letterbox."

"Do you have a pen and some paper?" Coughing, trying to control her laughter, Briar mimed writing in the air. "You do have that, right? Or have you decided to regress back to the stone age?"