How I met (the girlfriend I had before) your mom

I had seen her there at the library before. She always sat at the same table (in the “Sci-Fi & Fantasy” section) in the same seat (left corner, facing the books). 

Today was the day, I decided. 

I walked over and sat down in the chair next to her. She didn’t look up. I put my elbows on the table, leaned over, and said, “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

Still, she pored over her book.

Is she ignoring me?

I reached over and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. 

She flinched and looked up, surprised. Then she combed her hair behind her ear and pulled out an earbud. 

Oh, she couldn’t hear me. 

I was unsure of what to say next. 

Thankfully, she spoke first, “What’d you say?”

“Oh, I said, can I ask you a question?”

She just stared at me blankly.

Stupid! Of course I can ask her a question. She’s sitting right here.

“Ahem,” I cleared my throat. “What I was going to ask was, umm, if you’d like to maybe go out with me sometime.”

Her expression softened slightly. She looked at me differently. Her eyes glanced for a half-second away from my face—at my arms, my chest. She was considering it. 

“How about now?”

“Oh. Now? What do you mean? Like here?” I looked around.

“Yeah, here,” she said, waving her upturned palm over the table and her open book, like a merchant showing her wares. 

“Oh, hmm, well, I meant like out.” I laughed embarrassedly. “You know? Like out out.”

“Out out?” she repeated dubiously. 

Oh no, now it seems like I’m suggesting something that I’m not. 

“No, not like ... I mean, never mind. Now is great, actually. Should I just ... I’ll pick out a book.”

She nodded approvingly and then looked back down at her own book. 

I got up and looked at the bindings of the books on the shelves. Guardians of the Bronze Gate ... Fairies of the Land Beyond ... I hadn’t heard of any of them.

I picked one randomly: The Time Traveler’s Watch.

Then I sat back down, flipped past the foreword, and began to read. The conflict was obvious right away: the time traveler needed her watch to travel, but she had lost it, so she was stuck in the past.

I got to page five, then I leaned over and asked her, “So, what are you reading?”

She looked up at me, raised her index finger to her lips, and said, “Shh.”