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 Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:52 pm
"Me?" asked Sally, batting her eyelashes innocently. "Tempt you? Never." She got the reference, but just barely; while she'd picked up some bible stories over the years through cultural osmosis, Sally's family was strictly Chinese-Secular.
"What about the doors?" she asked. "Are they hidden, or regular, or what? Are we students supposed to know this hallway is here?" Of course, she could think of reasons the librarians might need a hallway like this, but none of them couldn't be just as easily accomplished using the main corridors.
She walked a bit closer to him, her fingers resting lightly against his wrist.
"Only once?" she asked, like it was a great travesty. "Okay, okay, I will take you back there, and I will show you the real Oldpeka. There's this guy there who's got a real brick pizza oven working, I'll show you, it's great."
She dropped her voice suddenly to a whisper, and tugged on Seamus's wrist for him to stop. "Do you hear something up ahead?" she hissed.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:05 pm
"Didn't see the door plans, just the layout blueprints," he explained. "You can see the halls on 'em, and the marks where the doors are gonna be, but that's about it."
Technically, Seamus and Murphy weren't supposed to have seen those blueprints, but they'd made it a priority on any job to know all the nooks and crannies of every building in the city. Never knew when that stuff came in handy, as their Grandpop always liked to say.
Her fingers touched his wrist, and he responded with a wider grin.
And if he were to casually shift his stride just the slightest bit closer, it wasn't like there was anyone around to point and mock him.
"Sounds great. I've heard the old-style pizza is so delicious, it's considered one of the lost secrets of the old worl-" He stopped in place at the tightening of her grip, words cut off, suddenly still and listening intently.
"Not sure," he muttered, near-silently, back. "Maybe it's on the other side of the plywood?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:24 pm
Sally froze like a cornered rabbit, her body rigid and her breathing quiet as two pairs of footsteps and voices approached and then faded away on the other side of the plywood. She exhaled, then smiled at him. "That was a close one!"
After a moment's hesitation, she asked, "Do you think we should turn around and head back?" Someone might notice the plywood was out and come poking around after them. "Or we could keep going and find another exit," she added. "I mean, not that this isn't fun."
"Actually, this is really, really neat." She was going to write an awesome article, and the company wasn't too shabby.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:32 pm
That was good. There wasn't much of a place to hide or run should they run into somebody else in this hallway. He relaxed as he heard the voices pass, leaving them successfully dodging that particular bullet.
"Just a lil' close," he scoffed good-naturedly. "Three inches close. There should be an opening a little further down, if I remember right." One of the marked entrances to the hallway, where the plywood was loose and movable, if there at all.
"Oh, yes, secret plywood hallways. Fascinating," he teased. "C'mon, before somebody else comes by and asks me why I'm hiding back here with a cute girl while on the job."
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:48 pm
"Delinquent," hissed Sally playfully as she followed him. "They might not be neat now," she continued irrelevantly, "but wait until this place is done and other people find them. It'll be a friggin' big deal, everyone will want to sneak around in here."
College in Central amounted to the last big hurrah for rule breaking and lawlessness before assimilating neatly into adult life; Sally intended to milk this for all it was worth. "Tell them it wasn't your fault," she giggled.
A sudden thought and a feeling of boldness crossed her mind. She pressed him up against the wall. "Tell them I seduced you."
And then the wall fell out from behind them, and they wound up sprawled on the floor of the library. Sally laughed. "We have got to stop doing that."
So much for being bold.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:03 pm
Oh, I think I like where this is going-
Life had a habit of ruining any happy surprises in Seamus' life. He found himself flat on the floor -plywood-for the second time today, and couldn't help it.
He laughed and laughed, finally slowing down enough to catch his breath.
"I am seduced," he said, trying to keep a straight face. "Knocked me right off my feet, this one did."
And now they were a mess, looking like they definitely had been wandering around in hidden hallways behind walls, and falling out of said walls.
At least it took less time to get them back up on their feet this time.
"Good thing you wore a hardhat. Concussion count: oh for oh." That was a good track record so far.
"I better get'cha back to your building," he finally muttered, ruefully. He was supposed to meet back up with Murphy around fifteen minutes ago.
Murphy would understand.
He checked the phone in his pocket for messages, just in case, and was struck with genius. Looking surprised, he turned back to her, holding up the phone, perplexed.
"Weird. There's something wrong with my phone, Sally. It doesn't have your number in it."
So smooth.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:09 pm
Sally did not miss a beat. "That would be a problem, wouldn't it?" she asked, and took the phone from him. After a moment of poking and prodding, she figured out the add contact function and tapped in a ten digit phone number and her name, followed by a "(:". She handed the phone back.
"I check mine pretty religiously," she explained humorously. "Just call me when you're feeling up to Oldpeka pizza. I promise you won't be disappointed."
She looked down at the plywood they were standing on. "We should probably put this back where we found it, huh?" she asked sheepishly.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:26 pm
That worked?
Of course it worked!
He was a Carnegie. Those lines always worked. Half the time. He grinned, tucking the phone back into his pocket with a distinct sense of accomplishment.
"Awesome, fixed." Seamus wins against the world. "I'm sure I won't, not when pizza and you is involved."
He shifted his feet on the plywood, snorting when it gave a protesting squeak.
"Just maybe," he agreed, chuckling and shooing her off the board so he could lift it back up, tucking it once more into place with a few more nails hammered in from the tool belt wrapped around his waist. Quick as can be adopting a faux-Uppers-esque accent, neat and proper and gentlemanly, he held out an arm for her to take. "There. Now, Miss Sally Chu, shall I see you off?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:43 pm
"Why certainly," replied Sally, and linked arms with him. Together, they strode out of the library, past the scaffolding and onto the lawn.
Sally turned to him. "Thank you for the wonderful tour, Mr. Carnegie," she said, trying her best to ape whatever accent it was he'd adopted - she didn't recognize it at all. "The newspaper applauds your efforts, you are a gentleman and a scholar."
She continued, still muddling through the accent, "I will describe my tour guide as the most knowledgeable, the most charming, the most handsome individual on the whole construction crew."
She couldn't do it any more. She cracked up. "What the hell is that accent?" she asked. "God, never mind, I'm sorry- I feel like I'm forgetting something, oh, right."
She'd sort of been in the middle of something when the wall fell out from behind them, hadn't she?
Sally smirked at him for a moment, then kissed him.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:53 pm
Seamus had to agree - he was a gentleman and a scholar, the most knowledgeable, the most charming, the most handsome.
But right now, above all else, he was definitely the luckiest man, with a lovely, clever young lady he'd just met in his arms and a surprise kiss upon his lips, which he readily returned.
It was over too soon, but that didn't stop the pleased smile from stretching his face, ear to ear.
"I'll be seein' you around," he promised, genteely retrieving his hardhat from her head and placing it back upon his own fluff of hair. "Later: you, me, pizza, and the mutant rats."
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:58 pm
"I'm looking forward to it," grinned Sally, and waved him off. "Get back to work, don't get in trouble for my sake." Today, she reflected, watching him go, had been far more productive than she'd originally anticipated it would be.
She adjusted her bag (it was finally starting to feel heavy), and turned to head for the far end of campus. She had an article to write, a date to anticipate, and miles to go before she could sleep.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:02 pm
After a minute of staring after her back with the dopiest smile on his face, Seamus remembered he still had yet to meet up with his brother, and turned to take his own path away.
He looked back over his shoulder at her.
Oh man, that was aweso-
THUD.
Sprawled on the ground once more.
Without trying, she'd managed to knock him down a third time today.
He laughed.
[End]
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