Design For Life

Chapter 17

A/N: What's this?  I'm posting again.  Why yes, I am.  Not many reviews last chapter, so hopefully this chapter will garner a few.  As always, thanks for reading, reviewing and voting.

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"There is no friend as loyal as a book." Ernest Hemingway

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EPOV

I was a mess after watching Bella board the plane. It was stupid. Couples spent time apart. It wasn't the end of the world, but it sure felt like it. The fact that she was going to be gone for a week weighed heavily on me, and I felt myself brooding. Her plane hadn't even left yet, and I was already missing her something terribly. I was a lovesick fool. There was no doubt about it. I hung around the airport until her plane left, then I slowly walked to my car. The drive home was quiet and lonely, and it seemed to take forever. I pulled into my drive and gave her empty house a sad look. Lord, I was pathetic.

I killed several hours watching Doctor Who and reading, but my mind wasn't really focused. Finally, finally my phone rang. I grabbed it and was elated to hear Bella's voice on the other end. She told me that she'd made it to Phoenix safely, her mom had picked her up, and that they were heading to her mom's place. We spent a while talking, but I noticed that she sounded tired so reluctantly we hung up.

I woke up the next day in a bad mood. My dreams had been dark and disturbing. I had dreamed that Laurent came back and killed Bella and nothing I did saved her. Running a hand over my face, I climbed out of bed and headed toward my shower.

As I stepped outside, I was hit with a gust of wind and rain. Big surprise there. I trudged over to my car and headed off to work. What would normally be a simple, easy drive had turned into a freaking nightmare. The road I normally took was closed, so I had to take a detour that took me a few extra minutes, and I managed to hit every red light along the way. By the time I made it to the library, I was running late, and I'd never gotten around to replacing the umbrella that had been destroyed back when I first met Bella. Soaking wet and pissed off, I stomped into the library to find our little band of employees sitting around a table in the back.

"You're late," Mrs. Cope said, sounding irritated.

Barely containing myself from rolling my eyes, I apologized for my tardiness wondering if perhaps, I wasn't the only one who had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. After putting my stuff away at my desk, I sat down at the table and waited for Mrs. Cope to continue.

"Now that we're all here," she began, looking at me. "I have some bad news. The mayor has cut the funding for the library by half. We're going to be looking at some big changes in the next few months."

"What kind of changes? What does that mean for us? For me?" Jasper asked.

Mrs. Cope folded her hands in front of her on the table and barely met his gaze.

"We'll be keeping the local history room, but the hours will be cut drastically. Everyone's hours will be cut drastically. As a matter of fact, the library will only be open half the time it is now. We won't be open on the weekends at all. We'll be open Monday through Thursday from noon to six."

I think we were all in shock. What kind of moron closes the library on the weekends and cuts the hours back? Anger and outrage poured through me. How the hell were we supposed to live if our hours were being cut like that?

"We're only going to be working twenty-four hours a week?" Angela asked furiously.

Mrs. Cope nodded.

"What about our benefits?" I asked.

Mrs. Cope took a deep breath before she began to speak. "You'll still have benefits if you want them, but since you will no longer be considered full time, the benefits are going to cost you more."