Running his fingers along the spine of his hardback, Arizona wished - not for the first time - that he could convince himself to take the risk. It was obvious that Gabriel felt some kind of guilt for asking and that made the whole thing even harder. Truth be told, he liked the attention, he liked the fact that someone so fun and attractive thought him interesting enough to take out, and even though it also made him feel a bit squirmy and uncomfortable, that was nowhere near the overlying emotion. If he were a braver person, he’d have said yes in a heartbeat, but he wasn’t.
Books, right. Those were easier.
“Oh, uh, ‘Scientific Writing and Communications’ by Angelika Hoffman.” He replied, reading the title of the book with a little laugh. It wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it certainly wasn’t typical pleasure reading, but it was useful and the author wasn’t dull enough to put him to sleep. “It’s…exactly what it sounds like, but less torturous. It’s partially for school and partially for me, so that’s all the more reason to finish.”
Arizona really didn’t want to pick it up again at this point, he’d lost his rhythm and Gabriel was much more interesting than Angelika Hoffman with her end-of-chapter exercises and manuscript outlines. He gave excellent book summaries and when they got to talking about mutual favorites, the werewolf could easily allow himself to relax. “What about you? Assuming you, too, are not reading Angelika’s guide to manuscripts.”
“I’m reading The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I haven’t read them before and Julian almost yelled at me over it. I mean not that I think he could ever actually yell but he seemed rather distressed over the fact that I haven’t read them. I promised him that I would and that I would report back about what I thought of them. So far they seem pretty good. Honestly I think he might die if I told him that I didn’t like them.” Julian was the owner of the store and he knew him and Arizona were good friends.
It was almost as if talking about him brought him out because suddenly he was setting a tray with tea and cookies on the little table set up in front of the couch. He had greeted Arizona with a bright smile and made his greetings before saying something about having to go work on some things in the backroom. “He’s all about serving tea and cookies isn’t he? Good thing his cookies are really good.”
“Honestly I don’t know that I would find your book all that interesting but if you like it that’s great. I’m happy to be done being a student in all honestly.”
