Lucy's Book Club for the Lost and Found: A heartwarming feel good romance novel(11)

There was a rapid beeping noise from the computer in front of him as the screen suddenly flickered and died. He looked up as all the other monitors in the line went blank too, accompanied by a series of exasperated groans from around the room. Callum smiled to himself; the library’s server went down with an annoying frequency, but, as he got up to let Lucy know, this time it might just work in his favour.

He’d had another argument with his brothers last night. He should have walked away, but he was sick and tired of their goading. Loser, loner, they called him, as they pimped and preened themselves, ready for a night out on the pull. Two of them already had girlfriends and frankly they were welcome to their lot. Callum would rather be on his own than listen to the inane drivel they spouted, with their heaving chests spilling out from too-tight tops, lurid lipstick sticking to their teeth. That’s what had attracted him to the girl sitting beside him. She looked like the girl next door – not literally, but she was fresh-faced, with clean-looking bouncy hair, nice clothes and a genuine smile. If she was single she’d be exactly the kind of girl he’d go for, but she wasn’t; she was getting married, which meant that Callum would never dream of coming on to her, even if he did know how.

Suddenly, an idea struck: if he could think of her as just another person, with no need for silly games or flirting, perhaps he would be able to talk to her without getting flustered and tongue-tied. And if he could talk to her, perhaps he could learn how to talk to other people.

Lucy was on her own at the counter, deep in conversation with an elderly lady. That was one of the things he liked about Lucy; she always had time to listen to other people. It made her easy to talk to, and Callum was getting quite confident now, particularly since he had joined the book club. It wasn’t the same for him, though; Lucy was paid to be nice to people. Admittedly, she did it much better than a lot of folk did, but it was just her job; she probably wouldn’t choose to talk to him if she didn’t have to.

He hovered for a moment, wondering if he could interrupt, when Lucy looked across at him and beamed a smile. She excused herself to the old lady.

‘Are you okay, Callum?’

The effusiveness of her smile threw him for a moment, until he remembered what he needed to say.

‘Yes, fine, thanks. But the network’s gone down again, sorry.’

‘Why are you apologising?’ she said. ‘One of these days we’ll get our crummy hardware updated and then you can all work in peace. Meanwhile…’ She turned back to her customer. ‘Can you just give me a minute, while I reconnect this young man?’ she said.

Callum blushed. ‘Or I could do it, if you like… I know how.’

Lucy turned to look at the main computer behind her, clearly torn, then the telephone began to ring. With a smile and a shrug she waved him forward.



* * *



The girl was still there when he got back, staring at her blank screen anxiously.

‘It won’t be a minute,’ he said, sitting down again. She nodded, but that was all. Callum struggled to find something else to say. He mustn’t let the moment go.

‘Will it all just come back up?’ she said suddenly, frowning slightly. ‘Only I’m useless with computers.’

Callum leaned over. ‘What were you working on?’ he asked.

‘I wasn’t working on anything,’ she said. ‘I was just looking at some websites.’

He smiled. ‘Sorry, that’s what I meant. When I asked what you were working on, I meant what program were you using? I didn’t explain myself very well. It makes a difference to what gets recovered when the computer restarts.’

She still looked puzzled.

‘What just comes back up,’ he clarified.

‘Oh, I see.’ She smiled. ‘And does the internet?’

He shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not… but I can help you get it back if you like?’

At first he thought she was going to refuse, but then she looked back down at her notebook. ‘Would you?’ she said. ‘Only I’ve got to get this lot sorted out if it kills me. I’m Phoebe, by the way.’

‘Callum,’ he replied, swallowing. ‘Right, let’s see where you were.’ He moved the mouse and with a couple of clicks reopened an internet tab. He gave a shy smile. So far, so good.





Chapter Six





Lucy looked down at her notebook and the paltry few pages of notes she had written. She was procrastinating again and she knew it. The fact that she had other things on her mind was no excuse. She had been picking up and putting down the book all evening and was beginning to annoy herself; having a brilliant idea about what to write, then returning to scrub it all out moments later. She was going around in circles. Either do it or don’t do it, she thought to herself, but stop dithering about. For heaven’s sake, how difficult could it be? She tutted audibly and swung her legs up onto the sofa, wriggling herself further down into the cushions and flipping to the back of her notebook as she did. It was time to stop kidding herself that this had any importance and get on with something that would make a difference. She pulled off the lid of her pen with her teeth.

She knew how to go about helping Lia – at least she thought she did. Trouble was she was also aware of the old adage: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Just sticking a brochure for dance classes into her hand wasn’t enough, however much Lia might want to go; it wasn’t quite as simple as that for her. Lucy thought about Lia’s situation for a moment. Lia had mentioned that she had no one to go to the classes with, and it had never occurred to Lucy before quite how isolating Lia’s life must be. She thought of her own friends; how they would organise things on the spur of the moment, or drop in and out of each other’s houses for a chat. What would happen to them if she were suddenly to start turning down every offer they made? she wondered. If she constantly made excuses, cancelled arrangements and had to cut short telephone conversations, how long would it be before those calls stopped coming? That was all assuming, of course, that Lia had even been able to make many friends. Where would she have met people if she never went out?