Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lucas took a long drag on his cigarette as he walked along the sidewalk. Taking a slow breath of the hot smoke into his lungs, he let it out in a slow, controlled breath. Construction work was good and all - but he could only get part time hours for part time pay because of his record. He needed another source of income - and fast. The halfway house he was staying at currently was only going to support him for another month or two, and then he’d have to find another place to stay and that meant rent. The construction gig wasn’t helping in that department - it barely covered what bills he had to pay in the halfway house.

The small, colorful help wanted sign in front of a very… unusual book store caught his attention. He stubbed out his cigarette and put it back in his pack to finish later, then tucked the pack of cigs into the pocket of his jacket. Then, with a small breath, he opened the door of the BookWyrm.

Looking around once he was inside, he was unsure why he was even doing this. What did he know about books anyway?

Jessie was in the back of the store changing out some decorations. Spring was just starting and she was tired of all the gray days, cold wasn’t really a thing this year just lots of wet days. She was up on a ladder trying to move around a plaster bust when she heard the bell over the door ring.

“JUST A MOMENT” The brunette shouted out. “Come on you little bugger… just a few… more…. ********!” The bust had slipped from her fingers and tumbled down from the top tall shelf to land on the carpeted floor and break. “Damn, Damn, Damn…” The booklover in her was glad the bust didn't hit any of the books but the proprietor of the store was pissed because now she would have to block off the romance section until she was able to clean up the plaster pieces. Besides where was she going to find a replacement decoration!

“Everything is fine! I’ll be right there, I just need to get down… Ouch… wait… no nononononononononononon.”

CRASH!

A string of curse words came drifting out of the back of the store. Jessie was beyond mad at this point, mostly with herself. In her distraction and her hurry to get down she tripped… and took the ladder down with her. Her a** hit the carpet safely, but the ladder on the other hand decided to go on a rampage. She had watched in stunned horror as the ladder tipped back and forth before bouncing off of two shelves, knocking over so many books and trinkets, before falling right into one of the rear windows… which promptly broke. I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS she mentally wailed as the young woman stared at the destruction all around her, tears welling up in her eyes.

Lucas had already been moving when he’d heard the first string of curses, and had been lucky enough to get a front row seat of the train wreck that had ensued. Cussing a bit under his breath at the damage, he walked out from the safety of the stacks he’d stopped at and moved over to Jessie, kneeling down so he could actually get a good look at her. “You okay?” He asked, pulling a handkerchief out of his jacket and offering it to her.

“Pretty woman like you shouldn’t be crying.” He said with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood as he turned to survey the damage with a small whistle. “Alright…” He said, slowly helping Jessie to her feet once he was sure she was okay. “Looks like we’ve got some cleaning up to do…” He slipped his jacket off, revealing the fine muscled physique beneath. Carefully folding up the jacket he gently draped it over the end of one of the stacks, and started to pick up the obvious books and trinkets that he could replace back onto shelves.

Jessie’s backside hurt but what was bubbling inside her wasn’t pain or sadness it was anger. Anger at herself, at the stupid bust, at the ladder… but mostly at herself. All it had taken was a moment of distraction, one fraction of a second and now… now her books have been damaged. She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts she didn’t realise someone else had shown up. The brunette stared blankly at the handkerchief before shaking her head at it. “I’m fine. Bruised a** and pride but fine. REALLY pissed though.” She still couldn’t believe this had happened. It was like the cosmos were punishing her or something. It was one thing for her books to be damaged by accident by others, it was something completely different when it was her own stupid move that caused it.

“Hun? Crying?” Jessie glanced over at the guy, confused. She wasn’t crying was she? Not even thinking about how it would look she reached up and quickly scrubbed at her face with her shirt sleeve, leaving behind a few streaks of dust. The wet patch on the cream blouse sleeve proved the gentleman was correct, Jessie had been crying. “I guess they were frustration tears. I was just trying to change out some stuff. The next thing I know my butt was hitting the ground and the ladder decided to go on a drunken dance.” She accepted his hand up with a sad smile which turned into a surprised look, “Wait ‘we’! No, no, you don't have to…” But the guy was already at it. “Be careful!” She grabbed his arm as he went to pick up another book. “I can do it myself. Really I can…” Once more she surveyed the damage and sighed, “It will just take a lot of time." Again she sighed, "My poor books.”

Lucas shook his head. “Consider this my interview in response to the sign out front,” He said with a chuckle, motioning with the first free hand he had toward the front of the store. “Provided that there is still a position open?” He asked, raising a brow. Not that it would stop him from helping, quite the contrary, he’d help regardless of there being a possible job or not. His gaze drifted toward the broken window and he cringed. “You know… If you can get a new window… I can replace it.” Construction was a good thing today it seemed.

“Can’t fix any of the broken trinkets though, sorry,” He said, giving her a small frown. “Wish I could.” He dutifully went through the books, stacking them and checking them for damage before putting them back on the stack in the order he could best guess they belonged based on what was already on the shelf that hadn’t fallen.

“Name’s Lucas, Lucas Haynes… What’s yours beautiful?”

“Sign out front?” It took her a moment to figure out what the guy was saying before it clicked, “Oh yes the help wanted sign. It's still good. One of my best employees finally got a full time job after graduating and now I’m a little short. I mean, I have voluntears and a few part timers but Jackson was my go to guy… even if he liked candy crush too much.” She paused in her rambling to scoop up a few bodice rippers that had been knocked over in the commotion. Two of the three were in decent shape, the third however had landed with its pages open and now had scrunchy pages. “Awe you poor dear.” She gently corrected the pages and smoothed the cover back down, her fingers gliding over the shiny image of a shirtless, kilt wearing, muscle bound highlander and a very busty brunette in very little clothing clinging to his legs. “Not the best story line but the sex scenes are very well written… granted the positions aren't very imaginative.” She contemplated the book for a moment before putting it down and tisking in annoyance as the pages popped back up. The damage was done, she would have to pull the smut from the shelves and either donate it or put it in her own collection.

“Window?” Jessie had nearly forgotten the guy was there as she contemplated the bent book but his offer to replace the window had her look over at him. “You know how to replace a window? I honestly have no idea where to even get one let alone to replace it… although,” She trailed off and absently fiddled with a small statue of David by Michelangelo. “I know we have a book about home improvement that might cover window replacement.” The statue was replaced on the shelf with a small thunk before she focused back on the task at hand, “I think I need to call the insurance company first sadly but I do appreciate your offer. As for the trinkets they aren't a big deal. The harder to come by stuff is normally up at the top or I don't put it out it's the books I care about so if you see any with bent pages or covers stick them off to the side. I’ll have to see if there is anything I can do about them.” Once again she bent over to grab a few more displaced items, wincing slightly as the dark blue jeans tightened over her bruised a**. She was going to need a long hot shower and no sitting down for the next few days if the way the tightened fabric felt was indicative of the size of the bruise.

“My name’s not beautiful… would any parent name their child ‘Beautiful’? I can understand going with a name that means beautiful but the word itself.” She grabbed a teddybear and stood up, dusting the poor off fellow off. “Jessie… Jessica Haze at your service. Proprietor and bibliophile extraordinaire.” She smiled at Lucas and stuck her hand out to shake. “As well as a walking disaster if this is mess any indication.”

Lucas chuckled and took the hand, shaking it, then lifting it up he kissed her knuckles. “Well, Ms. Haze, for a walking disaster you are quite charming.” Finally he let the hand drop and returned to his work.

He set aside a few of the books that were damaged, and then turned to look at her. “Yeah, I can fix a window, it’s actually not too hard. Once you call your insurance company I can do it once you get the claim check.” He said with a nod. She was cute, but maaaan was she a space case. Not that that was bad or anything but it seemed like all the signals he was sending were launching way over her head. On the one hand it was infuriating. On the other, it was a challenge and he liked challenges.

“Why don’t we go over my credentials for the position a bit later… say over coffee, or dinner?”

He couldn’t be more blatant if he tried, right?

Jessie snickered at Lucas as he kissed her knuckles in a very gallant move. “Going all knightley on me are you?” The move was very reminiscent of a knight's greeting to a lady which amused her to no end since technically Jessie was a knight herself.

“That would make things easier since I don’t even know who to call to get it fixed. I wonder if the company will require me to hire one of their people.” She eyed the window and the ladder that had caused the whole issue in the first place. “If only the State Farm jingle worked.” She sighed and asked Lucas to excuse her for a moment to go grab a broom. She was back shortly and started to sweep up the mess.

“Well I have a form in the front I can get you but if you want we can talk about everything now while we try to get this cleaned up.” The plaster pieces were easy to sweep up but the dust… the plaster dust was everywhere. After a bit of vigorous sweeping she glanced up, “Coffee? Dinner? If you want coffee I have a maker back in the break room you can use. As for dinner… it's a little early for it don’t you think?” She completely missed what Lucas was going for. “I can order lunch though if you want. There are a few places that will deliver and that's normally what I do when I’m working. Either that or go up stairs to make a sandwich.” Granted the last time Jessie had gone upstairs to cook lunch she had to run back down to deal with some customers and forgot that she had toast in the toaster until the bread was black and burnt.

Lucas just… wanted to grind his teeth. There… there was no way someone was this oblivious right? She… She had to be playing hard to get… right? Granted, he’d met some socially maladjusted individuals while in prison, but none of them had been this… Obtuse?

He coughed into his hand finally and decided he’d just have out with it. “I am trying to ask you out on a date… actually. Mainly because once I fill out that form I very much doubt you’ll hire me. At least once you run the background check anyway. I just got out of prison a few months ago… I have a felony on my record. Drugs, when I was 18. Marijuana if you're curious.”

He turned to wave a hand in front of him. “Clean now, I promise… Can’t really get any ganja in fed pen.” He said with a small chuckle. “But yeah… I figured if I showed myself to be a decent person then maybe I’d have a ghost of a chance but… Now that that’s out in the open…” He sighed and turned his attention back to the task of cleaning up. “I can spare you the trouble of having to read my application and wasting your time…”

“A date?” Jessie had to pause in the clean up, a blush slowly bloomed on her cheeks. “Oh… well… sure I guess. I haven’t been on a date in,” She had to stop and really think about it. “Years. It was years since the last time I really went on a date.” Jessie remembered it, it was one of the last times she and her college boyfriend had gone out before they broke up and that was years ago. “I don’t mind going on a date I guess.” She smiled at him and couldn’t help but snicker, “As long as it's not fish. I can’t stand fish, don't really know why but I don't.”

“As for the jail.” She swiped at the mess a few more times with the broom, “It's not a big deal. As long as you didn’t kill anyone, like serial killer kinda killing, or steal anything I don't really care.” She paused once more in the clean up and asked quite seriously, “What is marijuana like? Never done anything more then some alcohol. Ganja?” His termes really confused her but she was not above asking, “I really don't care. Fill out the application and as long as you haven’t burned books I don't really see why you can't work here. No destroying books! That is the main rule around here. Besides now I owe you at least something for helping me clean up.” Jessie was already thinking of ways to repay Lucas for his help although a meal would go a long way to do so. She used the broom to prove her point by stomping it on the ground and sent plaster dust everywhere. “Ooops.”

Lucas stared blankly at her. She… she had to be kidding right? “Did… did the world completely go bad after I got locked up? Did men everywhere go blind or lose their common sense?” Lucas moved over to Jessie then, taking her hands from the broom and holding them in his own to look down at her with a frown. “How can a beautiful woman such as yourself not be asked out on a date in… years?!” The very thought of it rankled Lucas. Though, to be fair, the fact that she was about as sharp as a rubber ball might have something to do with it.

“I’ll fill out an application then…” He said, finally, gently, before letting go of her hands and letting her resume her sweeping. “Also I wouldn’t destroy books… books are great. Just found out my sister-in-law wrote one!” He said with a small laugh. “Apparently it’s popular, who knew?”

“You have a vacuum around here? That’ll probably work better on the plaster than the broom.” He said with a small nod. “Also, don’t worry about the fish - not my thing either.” He said with a wry smile. “Probably a chain sit-down place… I’m not particularly wealthy.” He admitted.

Jessie was confused at first, part of her wanted to say ‘yes the world went bad. Chaos reigns everywhere now’ but that was her knight side, that was Pompeii speaking not Jessie, not the bookstore owner. As for the blind comment she opened her mouth to make an observation but shut it in surprise as Lucas came over and took the broom from her hands. He stood there holding on to her hands and staring down at her and called her beautiful. Her eyes went wide and for once her mind went blank, as her face turned quite red. “I… um…. well…” She didn’t know what to say but luckily for her Lucas seemed to let the matter drop, much to her relief.

“Great… I mean… good…. I’ll have to remember to get you one… an application I mean.” She knew her face was flaming and focused quite strongly on trying to get everything back into a pile with the broom. She was so focused on the sweeping she nearly missed what he said next. Books, he was talking about books, she understood books, she liked books, she knew how to have a conversation about books. With a mental sigh Jessie glanced up and smiled, “Thats great. It's so hard sometimes to write out a story, your sister-in-law should be very proud. Have you read it? Maybe I have it here in the store?” There were thousands of books in the store, and hundreds more in her apartment, so it was entirely possible the book was shelved somewhere, maybe they were even picking it up now. Jessie surveyed the damage and was surprised that most of it was contained, sure they had a lot still to do but it wasn’t as bad as it looked right when it happened.

“A vacuum?” She asked absently, leaning the broom against the bookcase so she could bend down and pick up a small cherub statue. “Oh yes. I have one in the basement. I don't really have anywhere to store it up here.” She placed the figurine on the shelf and nodded in agreement, “You're right, but I’ve got to get the big stuff up first or it will screw up the vacuum. Hold that thought,” Jessie practically sprinted out of the area only to return moments later with a trash can, “Should have done this first.” She explained with a bright smile as she got down on her knees to start picking up the larger debris and tossing it into the trash.

“Fish?” She had gotten distracted and nearly forgot about the conversation that had just occurred but it came back rather quickly if the blush spreading across her face was any indication. Jessie sat back on her heels and tried to look Lucas in the eye but found that she couldn’t maintain the contact and ended up studying the shelves behind him. “Oh yes… well that's good. It's never any fun to go eat someplace where neither find anything they really like.” Her eyes snapped to his however when he mentioned wealth, a small frown crossing her face. “Well yes of course. That is kind of why you're looking for a job yes? Besides it doesn’t matter where we go, I owe you dinner at least for helping me now. It's the least I could do.” She shrugged slightly and tossed another broken trinket into the trash.

Lucas was actually somewhat heartened by the blushing face. She was able to blush, good, he wasn’t trying to pick up a sociopath or something. She had emotions. He’d run into a couple of those in prison - they’d been scary dudes. Still he was a bit perturbed by the fact that Jessie hadn’t gotten asked out till he’d shown up. That seemed odd to him. Either she was completely unapproachable (which was proving itself to be true) or she prefered the same sex (which he saw no evidence of as of yet) or the least likely, she prefered no sex at all (this proved itself equally as likely as option A). Still, Lucas remained undaunted and when she got the trashcan, he joined her on the floor, taking a knee to help get some of the bigger pieces into the trash.

“Oh, no, I asked you out, so I’m covering the tab tonight…” He sad. “As far as the book, I don’t remember the title, I’ll have to check the YA section later, see if it’s any good. There seems to be some buzz about it.” He said with a small smile. “Which is good, my brother’s family deserves some happiness…” He seemed to trail off them, his face falling a bit before he shook his head and focused on the task at hand.

“Besides, you don’t owe me anything - if you think about it this is really my fault… I distracted you while you were working when I came in. If I hadn’t come into the store to answer the sign, you’d of never gotten into this mess.” He told her with a small smile, dusting off his plaster covered hand to reach up and cup her cheek. “A woman as beautiful as you shouldn’t blame herself for things. It was my fault and I take full responsibility.”

“Well then I’ll have to fix you dinner tomorrow.” Jessie said proudly. Glad that she figured out some way to repay Lucas for his help today. The dinner tonight however would require something more than just a homecooked meal… or would it also cover part of the dinner as well. The brunette frowned slightly as she scooped up a few more pieces of trash. What was the payment ratio of dinner anyway. It never even crossed her mind that maybe, just maybe, Lucas wouldn’t want to eat her cooking… her rather infamous, horrible, unbelievably scary, cooking. With her mind a bit preoccupied she answered rather distractedly, “The YA section is actually over there in a little ‘room’ blocked by the cases. It's my favorite spot in the whole store.”

She was still trying to mentally balance the scales of helping her clean up and dinner vs home cooked meal and a job… because really the job really shouldn’t be factored in since he would be getting paid for it, when something Lucas said had her focus in on what he was saying. “Your fault? It's not your fault. The whole reason of the store is to have people come in, you just happened to come in for a job not a book. If it’s anyone's fault it's Cupid’s fault… or Eros depending on whose story you're going with.” With her hand she indicated what was left of the bust, “The little b*****d just took a swan dive. I guess he really couldn’t live without Psyche.” She glanced up and reached for one of the smaller broken pieces just as Lucas went and cupped her cheek. Again a blush spread across her face but this time she was able to keep her mental facilities, for the most part. “Why shouldn’t beautiful people take responsibility for their actions…. besides not beautiful.” Jessie denied his description of herself, she was a bookworm who hid behind her books. She was no prettier than anyone else and she knew it.

A hiss of surprise escaped her lips as one of the pieces she was picking up sliced into her hand. It wasn’t deep but it was enough to have her jerking backwards slightly which had her bumping into the broom that she had propped up against the bookcase, sending the unfortunate cleaning utensil's pole right into the back of Jessie’s head. “Damn it. Owe.” The brunette absently rubbed the back of her head with one hand as she looked down at her other where a few beads of blood started to well up from the cut. “Napoleon Bonaparte can suck it… ‘There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed’ my a**.”

At the sudden tumble and bumble and utter chaos that followed, Lucas was torn between laughing - which was a very natural reaction - and putting on the charm. He had been about to tell her to not worry about dinner she could just make him breakfast instead when everything just became an utter chaotic mess. Taking her bleeding hand, he placed his mouth over the wound and let his tongue run gently over it, cleaning it up as best he could while being as sensual as he could. Pulling back, he reached out and gently knocked the broom over, leaning in to take her other hand and check the back of her head.

“No, no bump…” He said plainly, before looking back down at her with a small smile. “But here let me kiss it better anyway…”

Leaning down, his lips moved toward her own, instead of the bump to her head.

Jessie was frozen in surprise when Lucas grabbed her hand and used his mouth to clean the cut. Her mind blanked out and she reacted like she would have when she was a little girl, “ewwwwwwwww. That is so unsanitary!” She tried to pull her hand out of out of his grip but again froze when she glanced up and saw Lucas leaning towards her.

“Wh… Wha… What are you…!” Everything in her was in shock. He was getting closer and closer and she had no idea what was going on. If her books were right he was going in for a kiss but why would he do that! They had just met… There was no need for him to try to kiss her. He couldn't be leaning in to kiss her, he was just leaning in to check her head… Yeah that has to be it! There was no other reason. “My… My head…. My head is fine. Really.”

“Kissing you better,” Lucas said, one hand moving to cup her cheek as he finally brought his lips to her own. Okay, so he was moving probably a bit faster than he usually did. Oh who was he kidding he was moving as fast as he usually did just things tended to be far more clear when he did move quickly. She was cute. The fact that she seemed oblivious to this (to the point of straight up denial) was criminal, and Lucas was not going to stand for it. Nope, he could not let a beautiful woman feel unbeautiful.

The kiss was no mere peck either. It was a full on assault of his lips against her own, the kind of kisses you read about in romance novels. The toe curling, kick your foot up behind you kind of kiss that you saw in the movies. Lucas would openly admit that perhaps it was his lack of female companionship in the last… seven or so years that whipped him on to such extremes, but he didn’t regret it.

Not one bit.

Oh… was Jessie's last coherent thought before the small distance between them disappeared and he was kissing her. For her, it was such a new experience: the feel of his lips against hers, his body so close and yet so far, her heart racing, and her brain… Her never quiet brain… Was silent. Blissfully silent.

Jessie's ears were ringing. Was this what the romance books ment when a kiss made the world rock under her feet? Except the ringing wasn't stopping… And it sounded like a phone ringing. With a gasp Jessie pulled back and stared at Lucas surprise written all over her face. “I… I… Need… Phone…. I need to,” she stuttered to a stop but failed to move.

But she had a job to do, and kissing the pirate in front of her would not get that job done… No matter how much better he kissed then Brad, her college ex. Feeling more jittery than she had a right to be Jessie scooped up the books that they had gathered and climbed to her feet. “Yes well. It was a… Nice… Kiss as kisses go. I really do need to give them a call about the window, and find the vacuum, and fix the books…” Jessie kept adding on more to her list of chores as she slowly backed away. Unable to look away from Lucas but also knowing she couldn't, shouldn't, and wouldn't stay in the secluded spot of the store. She paused just once right before she disappeared around the shelved, “and just so you know. You taste like the cookies I burnt last week.” Her smile was bright and a little mischievous as she spun on her heel and disappeared into the stacks, making her way back up to the front of the store. She had a business to run after all.

And an application form to find.

Lucas shook his head and let her go. He killed time mainly focusing on fixing up the area as best he could, and then heading outside to sit on a bench and smoke a few. This one was… different. She was either oblivious or purposely obtuse. He was leaning toward the first option. Which make things interesting. He couldn’t get by on charm alone. He had to prove he had what it took to keep her going.

It was a delightful challenge.