He wasn't the most normal guy you had ever met, you could tell that in the first few minutes of meeting him. Joe actually paid attention to you and listened to every word that you said. He watched you as you spoke and made sure that he helped you in every way that he could. He was very calm and his movements seem to have been decided minutes before he does them.
"I probably spend far too much time reading" You laughed.
"Reading it the best was to spend your life. More intellectually pleasing" Joe spoke.
"What books do you recommend, Joe?" You pulled the sleeves of your jacket down your arms, so that they covered the majority of your hands. It was more of a reflex than anything else but no one really ever noticed.
"What are you interested in?" He asked.
"Romance. Mystery. Horror. Anything that could make my cry" You joked.
"I think I have the perfect book for you" Joe walked off and followed after him down the long aisle. You got to the end and reached a small corner that held a small bookcase. On the third row he picked out a large dark book.
"The Tattooist of Auschwitz" You read the title of the book.
"It's a true story and maybe the scariest one you could read" Joe explained and stared through into your eyes.
"If it's as good as you say, I think I'll be interested" You replied honestly and gazed down at the floor.
"You have a tendency to look away when I talk to you. You don't need to be afraid" Joe told you.
"I'm not afraid" You replied, but you lacked the conviction in your voice.
"You are. You look away from me. You pull for sleeves down to hide yourself and you've hid yourself behind countless amounts of books since we started talking" Joe had noticed things about yourself that even you hadn't noticed.
"Huh" was all that you could say to him.
"How about you tell me all the things you've noticed about me, over some food?" You didn't know where this confidence came from, but as you waited for a reply, the confidence was disappearing.
"That would be great" Joe's response helped you breathe again. You didn't really want to be turned down yet again by a guy.
"I'll be back tonight Joe" You told him after purchasing the book.
You had to be worried. Dating had never been a strong point of yours so you were basically running around your ground floor apartment. There were clothes thrown everywhere as you aimed to find something perfect. You had settled on 2 dressed, you just didn't know which one would be better. There was a khaki green silk maxi dress, or a navy blue shorter dress that would keep you a little warmer. In New York life, you should have gone for the warmer dress, but the shape of the dress was one that flattered you. So you settled on the khaki dress and began changing. The silk material made it a little harder to pick some underwear but you figured it out eventually. And then you began questioning whethe e a dress was too much for wherever you were going to go. Maybe Joe would think it was too much, and not be attracted to that kind of outfit.
"Stop being stupid. Go to the book store" You spoke to yourself.
You managed to make yourself leave the apartment and get a cab back to the familiar shop. The lights were on inside but you saw Joe stood outside the door. You paid the man in the cab and quickly collected your thoughts, and then got out and walked towards the man.
"You look beautiful tonight, Y/N" Joe complimented you.
"What does my dress say about me?" You were intrigued to know what he thought about you.
"That you have some confidence and that's what you want to present. But your hair shows me that you spent a long time thinking about what to wear and had no time for anything else. So that you know, you could wear the same as what you wore earlier, and I would still be greatly interested" Joe sounded like he knew what he was talking about and oozed charm.
"You know exactly what to say don't you?" You giggled.
"I'm good at knowing what a girl wants to here" Joe chuckled.
"So where are we headed for tonight?" You asked him.
"We can go wherever your heart desires" Joe responded.
"My heart always desires sleep but I think that's a little forward" You joked.
"I was thinking, there is a restaurant a few blocks away that has books on the table that you can read whilst you wait" Joe suggested. You had heard about this restaurant but you remembered looking in and thinking that it looked really expensive and you didn't have the money to pay those prices.
"Are you sure? It's probably a lot of money in there" You explained.
"It had books, so it's worth anything" Joe laughed.
"You love books don't you?" You commented.
"My whole life has been books for a long time, so you grow to love more of them" His eyes danced along the shop fronts as you walked.
"My best friend was my English teacher when I was growing up so I guess, the majority of my life has been books" You confessesed.
"I have to admit, that's a a little lonely of you" Joe chuckled.
"Yeah I was a book nerd, no one wanted to be friends with a book nerd" You admitted.
"I understand your predicament there" Joe said.
"You're a bit of a mystery, you know that right?" You asked.
"But does me being a mystery make you more intrigued?" He asked.
"I guess it does" You answered honestly.
"Here we are" Joe said and held the door open for you.
The restaurant was exactly as you had remembered. The decor was particularly dark, but that clearly didn't matter because the restaurant was very busy. People were scattered around the room, seated around random tables, usually in the middle of conversations, many of them ignoring the books that were placed in the table.
A waitress guided you and Joe to a table in the corner of a room. There wasn't many people in that area so you were welcomed by a more peaceful atmosphere. He pulled a chair out for you, like a gentleman and then sat straight in front of you. Joe stared at you fo a few seconds before picking up the boook in front of his and reading the cover.
"Aren't you going to look at the menu?" You asked.
"I'm not hungry but order what you like"
This date was going to be interesting.
Joe was oddly quiet during the dinner. He watched you eat. He watched every movement you made and you could have sworn that when you went to use the toilet, that he followed. You could hear him breathing, but when you went back to the table it looked like he hasn't moved. You didn't say anything but watched him suspiciously. Whilst in the toilet, you also googled him. You found his name connected to a few stories about a girl who was murdered, but there was no social profiles anywhere so you couldn't find out too much about him.
Joe offered to walk you home but you said you would get a cab again, both because it would take forever to walk home and because you didn't really want Joe to know where you lived. He seemed a little weird.
You walk back to the shop with him insilence. No topics on conversation came to your head so you watched the cars drive past you instead.
"Joe?" A woman on the street stopped you both. She was blonde and you remembered her from somewhere.
"Oh hi Annika" Joe said, rather reluctantly.
"It's been a while" Annika mentioned.
"A few weeks is not a while" Joe responded.
"And whose this beauty?" Annika looked towards you.
"Annika this is Y/N a girl I met, and Y/N this is Annika, an old friend" Annika shook your hand and gave a small smile.
"So soon since Beck?" Annika asked.
"I can't be hung up forever!" Joe explained.
"But not a month after everything happened" Annika exclaimed, shocked by Joe's word.
"I do not want to talk about this now" Joe said and pointed towards you.
"Call me tonight Joe. We need to talk" Annika said and walked away from you both.
"What was that about?" You asked.
"Just my past" Joe said, aiming to dismiss the subject.
"Seems like she doesn't want us together" You mentioned.
"I have a strange past" Joe admitted.
"I'd like to find out more" You said, more because he seemed a lot more anxious after seeing that woman.
"No you would not" He told you in a commanding way.
"We'll see"
Little did you know, that if you were to get to know that man you would regret it.