“Mornings fucking suck.”

These were Tin-tin’s first words when she joined Franco at the table. She slammed her head on the table in a desperate attempt to ease her headache. Meanwhile, Franco couldn’t keep his eyes fully open, as he was sure that the light in the room would blind him permanently. Dane appeared at the dining room carrying a tray with mugs of coffee and a whole loaf of bread.

“You would have had a good night’s sleep if you didn’t drink too much,” Dane lectured.

“Just hand me the fucking ice bag, Dane,” Tin-tin growled. “How drunk was I last night?”

“Very,” Dane replied. “You passed out the moment I threw you in the back seat.”

Franco grunted. “You didn’t go after her,” he growled.

“Who?” Dane asked.

Franco looked at her as if she was the dumbest person in the world. “The girl, Dane. The girl.”

Shit! He saw her too? “What girl?” Dane countered.

Franco did not speak, and instead glared at Dane to press her to tell the truth. Dane glared back, and a thin trail of water flowed down her temple. Franco put a bit more intensity in his glare, hoping that she’d talk about what they both saw.

Meanwhile, Tin-tin noticed the glaring contest between her housemates and tried to recall the night before. But her befuddled head was of no use in remembering, so she had to take a wild guess.

“I French-kissed a random girl on a dare, huh?” she asked the two, interrupting their eyeball warfare.

Later on, as Dane was putting on her necktie, Franco decided to open up the topic again. He insisted that he saw the mystery girl as well. Dane didn’t want to hear any more about the girl from the club, but Franco seemed too eager, saying that he was just too drunk to believe what he saw, and that he could have helped Dane that night if he weren’t too inebriated. Dane groaned inwardly as she finished knotting up her tie.

“Hey, just stop it, okay?” Dane said. “She’s not even worth brooding over. It wasn’t meant for us to meet, so let’s leave it at that.”

Franco was quiet after that. He and Dane went downstairs afterwards and joined Tin-tin at the living room.

Before leaving for work, Dane asked her housemates if they’d like something she could bring home later. This was part of Dane’s morning ritual, something she got from her father.

“Get a girl, Dane,” Tin-tin said loudly, then she paused. “Oh, and buy me some quesadillas from Taco Loco.”

Dane shook her head with a smile and closed the door behind her as she left. She took a peek at her watch—9:30 A.M. Her trip to work consisted of a ten-minute train ride and fifteen minutes worth of walking.

She arrived at the inner office of the New Manila City Library at 9:55 and was surprised to see Colin, her officemate, sitting at his desk. Colin, a chubby guy with curly brown hair and tired eyes, usually checks in 10 minutes past 10:00.

“Colin, you’re early,” Dane said, taking off her beanie. “This is new.”

“Nanay called me at 4 A.M. and I couldn’t sleep after that,” Colin told her. “Figured I go to work instead.”

Colin asked Dane about their scheduled game night at his house, and Dane told him she’s still game. But when Colin asked if she’d bring a girl or a guy, Dane smiled sadly.

“Nah, I’m not bringing anyone,” Dane said.

Colin’s shoulders slumped. “No one new, huh?”

“No one new,” Dane replied, then she stood up to go inside the library. “I don’t think there’s going to be anyone new, Colin.”

Dane spent the next half hour returning books to the shelves according to the system. She was pushing the book cart as she looked for the proper shelves when she passed one aisle. She cast as casual glance to check if she reached the right shelves when she noticed someone vaguely familiar sitting on the floor. She looked harder, and at once she couldn’t bring herself to think that she was seeing who she thought she was seeing.

No way. No fucking way.

The ever-familiar fair skin, dark-brown hair, and hazel eyes—she was right, they were hazel—once again permeated Dane’s vision. She looked for the pendant and found it resting snugly on her chest. Dane couldn’t move, torn in trying to decide whether she’d approach her or leave her be. She imagined the personifications of her daredevil and cautious sides taking hold of her shoulders, telling her that she should go for it and leave at the same time. Dane swiped the air in front of her as if to fend them off and was about to push the cart again when she heard a voice.

“Um, excuse me?”

For seconds, Dane was quite taken by that voice. It was sultry, yet somehow innocent as well. Dane knew that once she hears it again it would be the death of her.

Dane turned around to see the face of the voice and was even more dumbfounded. To see the girl up close was a painful joy to Dane, and she marvelled at herself for regaining her composure.

“There’s this book I need but it’s on the top shelf,” the girl said. “Is there a ladder I can use?”

Dane managed to come up with a proper response, saying she’ll head over to Storage and fetch one. But then, the girl looked at her as if she was recognizing someone.

“Wait,” the girl said.

Dane froze.

“Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” the girl asked.

Dane’s head was filled with the word “shit” after hearing that question, yet her only response was an almost inaudible “eh”.

To her fluster, the girl moved closer towards Dane until their faces were just a few inches apart. The girl’s now intense hazel irises locked with that of Dane’s obsidian ones, studying Dane’s face with an almost suspicious scrutiny. After several seconds, the girl moved back, her eyes now calming down.

“I guess I’m wrong,” the girl told her.

Dane stepped back, her hand automatically reaching her nape.

“I get that every time,” Dane told the girl with a nervous laugh. “I guess I look awfully plebeian for people to mistake me as someone they’ve seen before.”

Dane left the girl, telling her she’d send for the ladder. As soon as her back was on the girl, Dane shed off her fake smile and nervously made her way to call Vic, their maintenance man, for the ladder.

The girl, on the other hand, looked on as Dane walked away. Somehow, she knew that she definitely saw her somewhere. She just couldn’t tell where.

Dane finally reached Vic’s room at the upper chambers of the library. Vic, a middle-aged man with thick white hair and tanned skin, was lounging in his quarters eating stale pan de sal while watching television. Vic and Dane both hailed from the same sleepy town back in Cavite, and they were as close as father and daughter. Vic smiled at seeing Dane at his door.

“Hey, Booker,” Vic greeted. “Whatcha need?”

“I need a ladder, Mang Vic,” Dane told him. “Someone can’t reach a book.”

Vic put down his half-eaten pan de sal and stood up. He walked over to the storage room with Dane behind him and unlocked the door with a key from his utility belt.

“Aren’t there any ladders in the library already?” Vic asked. “Why even bother coming—oh. I think I know why.”

Vic smiled. “Someone familiar asked for a ladder, and you couldn’t think of what to do or say next, huh?”

Dane scratched her nape. “I don’t know, Mang Vic. She isn’t that significant, yet I don’t know why I am this flustered.”

“Ah, so it's a girl again. Where’d you first see her?”

“At one of the clubs downtown. Tin-tin dared me to ask her out, but I never got to do it because she left before I could get to her table.”

“And then you see her here? D’ya think that might mean something?”

“What? Nah, I don’t think so. Maybe it’s just coincidental. I don’t know, Mang Vic. And I don’t want to think about it anymore. It’ll just get in the way.”

“Joey never got in the way.”

Dane stopped for a moment and sighed. Vic was alarmed at once, thinking he stepped over the line.

“Oh no, Dane, I’m sorry,” he blurted out. “I shouldn’t have said her name.”

“No, it’s fine, Mang Vic. It’s almost been two years now, I got to pull myself together.” Dane turned to the ladder. “Better bring the ladder to her now. I have some paperwork to do back in the office.”

“What she look like?”

“Brunette, hazel eyes, fair skin. I left her at the art books.”

Vic picked up the ladder and hoisted it under his arm. He nodded at Dane and locked the door as they left the storage room. Dane walked ahead to the office and did her paperwork to keep her mind off last night and the girl.

Vic got to the girl and gave her the ladder, asking if she needed help getting the book she wanted. The girl shook her head, insisting that she can do it on her own. Before Vic left, the girl called him.

“Do you know the name of the girl with light brown skin and short jet-black hair?” the girl asked.

Vic raised an eyebrow, and then he chuckled. “Sure, I know her name. Ten years working here, I’d get to know everybody. Why’d you ask?”

“I may have seen her somewhere and I wanted to know for sure, but she seemed to be...elusive.”

Vic laughed softly. That kid...

“Well, that kid’s kinda shy around people, mostly pretty girls like you,” he said. “Her name’s Dane. Dane Llanera.”

Vic left the girl with a grin. The girl slowly picked up the ladder and propped it against the shelf to get her book. She then began to think about the peculiar librarian, and she couldn't help but smile a bit.