Talia parked her motorcycle close to the apartment building and made her way to her unit. Her show had been quite the success, and she even had half her paintings sold. She greets the old man playing his harmonica by the stair’s railings, handing him a take-out burrito from Taco Loco before unlocking her door and going inside.

Her unit was at the last floor of the building. It was formerly an office space, with five foot high windows and virtually no partitions for rooms. The landlord had the restroom converted into a well-functioning toilet and bath prior to Talia obtaining the lease, and a small kitchen by the corner was installed as well. An elevated area of the space was then turned into a bedroom, covered only with an installation consisting of artfully welded painted metal pipes. The dining and TV areas are both in the same space, and Talia would interchange between them as she eats. The rest of the space is where she works on her paintings, the splatters of paint and tainted oil on the floor serving as traces of her labor.

She prepared another pot of coffee and settled down on the couch as she waited for it to brew. The rest of her pieces are going to be returned tomorrow, and she was thinking of putting them up on auction online or giving them away. She checked her phone for messages and missed calls—she had been very busy with the show that she hadn’t looked at her phone, even just a slight peek at the notifications. She expected a message from someone, and then the realization hits her.

Fuck. I never got her number.

Talia sat up, only to be abruptly stopped by the slight nausea she got from sitting up too quickly. She shook her head and looked at her phone again.

The librarian was, Talia thought, somewhat charming. She couldn’t get her mind off the way she smiled as they talked about the influence of steampunk on their works. And charming as the other girl was, Talia also noticed that she can be slightly awkward. She understood that, as she herself felt the same way. She just handled herself better.

A smile crawled across Talia’s face as she thought more of the librarian. The way she ran a hand across her short, wavy hair...the cheer in her voice as she shared her insights on the paintings...the small chuckle she made when Talia made a joke about one of her pieces...her eyes that somewhat sent a calming wave over her...her lips—

Talia stopped herself from thinking too much of the girl and headed to the kitchen to get her coffee. She turned to the window and gazed at the view of the streets below, smiling again at the thought of the librarian.

I guess...it wouldn’t hurt if I try again.

-+-

Tin-tin grumbled the next morning as usual. Dane and Franco reprimanded her mildly like they always do, to which Tin-tin responds by flipping them off.

“I have somewhere to go, by the way,” Tin-tin told them before leaving the dining area. “Don’t wait up for me if I’m still not here by evening. I’ll be eating someplace else.”

“Uh...sure?” Dane said. “Where are you heading, anyway?”

“Just personal business,” Tin-tin told her.

“You’d better not end up in a bar, Añonuevo,” Franco said sternly. “We’re not picking your ass up again like last night.”

Tin-tin scoffed as she walked away. “As if you’d have the heart to do that.”

Franco leaned back into his seat. “Try me, bitch.”

Dane smiled at the both of them. Dane cleaned the table and left Franco with the dishwashing, which he begrudgingly did. She left for work several minutes later and arrives just before the clock struck eight. Colin arrived five minutes later, and it was business as usual. She had begun to settle on the reality that today was going to be like any other day, until Colin rushed to her in their office, panting after running through the halls.

“Dane! Ack, my chest,” Colin wheezed. “Someone...someone—“

Dane helped him to a chair. “Easy, Colin, who is it?”

“A girl...is looking...for you. She’s by the chief’s desk.”

“Is it urgent?”

“In your case, yes.”

Eh?

Dane left Colin at the office and headed to Mrs. Quinto’s desk, wondering who on earth would be looking for her. As Dane rounded the corner, she heard soft laughter coming from the chief’s desk. Dane paced faster and found the chief librarian talking gleefully with a girl Dane never expected to see again.

Oh crud.

At Mrs. Quinto’s desk sat Talia, smiling as she talked. Dane was stunned for a moment, taking in the sight of the girl and ingraining it into her memory.

Talia caught sight of Dane standing nearby, and the chief librarian looked over as well. Mrs. Quinto threw Dane a knowing look, and Dane’s ears burned.

“Ah, there she is,” Mrs. Quinto exclaimed. “Is she the one you were looking for?”

Talia nodded. Mrs. Quinto stood up and told them she had some other tasks to do, so she immediately left the area. Dane eased her tense shoulders with a sigh as she watched the chief librarian walk away. Talia and Dane shared a gaze before any of them began to talk.

“Hi,” they said in unison, leading to soft laughter.

“You first,” Talia told her.

Dane grinned warmly. “What brings you here, Miss Aldeguer?”

“I forgot something,” Talia answered. “Your phone number.”

Dane chuckled to hide the surprise she felt. “How straightforward.”

“Come to think of it, technically you forgot to take my number, too.”

“Touché.”

“Did you even think of getting it?”

“I was about to, but it may have escaped my mind.”

Talia let out a small smile. “Well, have at it, then.”

Both took out their phones and exchanged them. Dane held Talia’s without flustering despite dealing with the surge of emotions moving inside her. Talia managed to grab Dane’s phone without breaking a sweat.

After quietly typing in their numbers, they returned each other’s phones. Dane shoved her hands in her pockets with a smug smile—a mannerism she had developed after watching Case Closed episodes when she was thirteen.

“So, text you later I guess?” Dane said.

“Who’s gonna text first?”

“I don’t know. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Dane straightened herself in her place. “So, back again with looking for inspirations?”

“Initially, I only went here to get your number, but, since I’m already here, I might as well pick up a book or two for my next work.”

“Suit yourself, but I won’t let you get away with reading on the floor again.”

Talia giggled, and Dane almost melted. Dane lightly shook her head with a grin to ward away the fact that she was swooning over the other girl and left the area, telling Talia she had to get back to her duties.

When she returned to the office, she found Colin sipping a hot mug of coffee. She walked by him as she returned to her desk, but not after she flicked his ear which caused him to almost drop the mug.

“What was that for?” Colin asked angrily.

“Thanks, you dolt,” Dane told him.

-+-

Talia huffed as she laid the books on the table. For her next set of works, she wanted to tackle on the idea of giving emotions a physical form. It had been an overused idea, but Talia wanted to see how her take on it would look like. The books she picked up were heavily illustrated tomes on psychology, photography, and a guidebook in cartooning.

As she perused through the books, the thought of finally having Dane’s number crossed her mind, and she could barely hold in the feeling of jest jumping inside her chest.

What the hell, Talia.  Kilig?

She closed the book and decided to take her browsing home. After settling the ones she had to borrow, Talia carried them all the way to her motorcycle and tied them with the spare rope she kept in the compartment and rushed home.

-+-

“You got her number?!”

The sound of Tin-tin’s shriek was almost sufficient to permanently impair Dane’s hearing, and she had to rub her ear to rid it of the ringing sound. Tin-tin wildly shook Franco’s arm while the latter smiled warmly at Dane like a proud parent.

“That’s an achievement point, Dane,” Franco said. “What do you say we drink to it?”

“Geez, Franco,” Dane said with a laugh. “It’s just a number. We’re not gonna be constantly chatting or something. I’ll be texting her only when needed.”

Franco rolled his eyes, telling Dane she’d desperately need Talia in a matter of days, to which Tin-tin agreed, saying Dane was apparently itching to have phone sex with the artist. Dane had to resist upturning the coffee table out of sheer rage and embarrassment. She opted to let out a heavy sigh instead and stood up from the couch.

“Where are you going?” Franco asked.

“In my room. To browse the internet in peace,” Dane said with a growl.

“Sure you will,” Tin-tin said, laughing maniacally afterwards.

Dane shook her head and went up to her room, her hands snugly resting in the pockets of her cargo shorts. Her fingers reach the phone, and Dane took it out to check the time. A part of her deflated when she saw no notifications from Talia.

Dane threw herself on her bed and looked at her phone again. She debated whether she should call first or not, and then she asked what the point of even getting Talia’s phone number in the first place was. With a huff, Dane resorted to calling Talia right there and then.

“H-hello?” Dane spoke. "It's Dane, from the library. Just checking if this is the right number.”

Dane realized that it was the most idiotic, if not rude, message she ever said in her entire life, and she immediately regretted it.

“This is the right number. Hi, Dane.”

“Good to know,” Dane said with a laugh. “So uh, how was the rest of your day?”

Talia chuckled on the other line. “It was fine, with me getting your number and all. How about you?”

Well, shit. Dane chuckled. Two can play at this game.

“I guess I could say the same about how my day was. Pretty girls like you don’t hand out their numbers very often.”

“I can make exceptions. You definitely caught my attention the first time I saw you.”

Dane blushed at Talia’s reply. Damn, she’s good.

“So I guess I’m a special snowflake, then?”

“So it seems.”

“What were you doing at the library back then? When you asked me for the ladder?”

“I was researching. Looking for inspirations.”

“Well, I assume you got what you’re looking for.”

“Yeah, I saw you.”

Fuck! Dane thought to herself. Why am I so bad at this?

“Flattering.” Dane fought hard to keep her tone steady. “Y’know, that wasn’t the first time I saw you.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. I actually saw you at a nightclub downtown. You were alone by the tables, and you seemed like you aren’t having a good time despite being in an awfully lively place.”

“Then why didn’t you approach me then?”

“There was some hesitation on my part, but then my friends goaded me on it and I walked over to where you were. But you weren’t there.”

“Oh.”

“But it wasn’t a lost cause yet, because I saw you on your motorcycle as I drove on the highway.”

“What?” Talia’s tone rose. “How did you know it was me?”

“The pendant hanging on your neck gave you away. Somehow I remembered it that night.”

“This is crazy. And I thought our paths first crossed at the city library.”

“You thought wrong,” Dane laughed. “The universe really works in rather mysterious ways, don’t you think?”

“I could agree with that. But then again, you didn’t honk at me or something.”

“I couldn’t do that. What if it wasn’t you? So there I was, watching you gain speed and disappear on the horizon. And I thought to myself that I’d never see you again.”

“Until that day in the library.”

“Yeah, until that day in the library.”

“When did you first start working there?”

“Four years ago. I desperately needed a job, and good thing I got hired despite having a different degree.”

“Why? What’s your college degree?”

“Biology.”

“Wow. Didn’t peg you to be a science-kind of girl.”

“Hard to believe I don’t look the part, huh? I sometimes think I took the wrong degree.”

“But something must have motivated you to take that back then.”

“There was, actually, and it’s kind of an absurd thing.”

“What was it?”

“Nah, better not tell you. It’s really absurd…and embarrassing.”

“Come on, tell me.”

“I told you, it’s a stupid reason.”

“But it motivated you at some point, so it must have been a good reason.”

“You’re not letting me go with this?”

“Nope.”

“You’ll have a laugh at this.”

“Dane, we’re getting to know each other. Whatever that is don’t think it’s stupid. Spill it.”

Damn, she’s pushy. “I took Biology because I wanted to be a detective. I watched too much Case Closed episodes.”

Up until recently, Dane considered her reason for taking Biology as a stupid notion, one that’s motivated by sheer fantasies of solving cases without breaking a sweat. 

Talia hummed. “That's interesting."

Dane’s heart almost dropped in utter relief. “Yeah, but I’m not sure about it now.”

“You could have taken Criminology.”

“I had no idea about it back then. And when I did, the university I managed to get into didn’t have that degree, so I chose to stay with Biology. It had its fun moments. The friends I’m living with now came from the same block section I was in, and back then we did ridiculous things and went through a roller-coaster of good and bad experiences.”

“Have you tried applying for other jobs?”

“It crossed my mind then. But my current job is fine as it is, and there’s no pressure. How about you, what was your degree?”

“I took Journalism. But doing art got me where I am and I decided to stay with it.”

“I see. What was your reason for taking Journ?”

“Well, I used to idolize those news anchors on TV, and I wanted to be like them. A friend then introduced me to painting and poof…I became a full-fledged artist in a couple of years.”

“By jove, you are a prodigy!”

“And you’re a scientist. How can I top that?”

“That’s not even a valid argument, I am not a scientist.”

“But you can be one if you know where to go.”

“I have an idea of where to go, but I don’t want to.”

“Stubborn.”

“Pushy.”

“So we’re calling each other out now?”

“You started it.”

“But that’s because I was getting to know you. Have I hit a soft spot?”

“No, it’s just that, it’s one of the things I don’t want to talk about because people would think it’s stupid.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid. Heck, I wanted to be a news anchor because I thought it was a fun thing to do, and I knew close to nothing about being a journalist."

“I guess we’re in the same boat. We were both disillusioned by our own aspirations, romanticizing them until we came face-to-face with the things we should do to achieve them…and it all crashes down and leaves us shocked and unsure of what to do.”

“You definiteYou sure have a way with words.”

“It’s one of the few things I’m really good at.”

Dane remembered the game night with Colin, so she had to cut their conversation short. Talia bade her goodnight, to which Dane replied with a curt “sleep tight”. Dane skipped her way to the junction, the smile on her face never fleeting.

That was something.