Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann Genres: Contemporary Romance, Young Adult
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Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting--working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating--no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.
But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).
When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that migClaiht not be reciprocated—or understood.
Let’s Talk About Love
Claire Kann
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: January 23rd 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
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“Dave called in sick. Alice, I want you with Takumi today. As long as you keep the volume low, you can play music down there.”
“Not the basement,” Alice complained. (Goddamn it, Dave. You had ONE job!)
“That won’t be a problem, will it?” Essie asked like she was imply- ing that it better not be.
“Apart from the spiders, dust, and probable ghost haunting?” Alice pouted while they laughed at her. “Why do you do this to me? Why don’t you want me to be happy?”
“This is a job. You’re paid for your work, not your happiness,” Essie said.
“True, but a happy worker is a productive worker. Or whatever that saying is.”
Essie smiled, shrugged in the most feminine way possible, and sashayed to the door.
“We should go,” Alice muttered, speed walking after Essie.
“You seem better today,” Takumi said, keeping up with her pace. “Almost like a different person, really.”
The three of them entered the elevator. Essie pressed the buttons for the first floor and the basement.
“I can see how you would think that. I was having an off day. I’m fine.”
“You were fine last night, too.”
“Last night?” Essie exclaimed. “Yeah, hi, still here.” “He meant at the bus stop. He waited with me.”
“Alice, I told you I will give you a ride. Carpooling counts toward that carbon footprint thing.”
“That’s really why you want to take the bus?” Takumi asked. “You’re worried about the environment?”
“Yeah,” Alice began. “It’s cheaper and better for the planet to get a monthly bus pass. I get a student discount and the stop is right in front of my apartment complex sooooo,” she trailed of, baffled over why she shared quite so much. Did he really need to know all of that? “Besides, one of the security cameras points right at the bus stop, so it’s safe.”
Essie exited the elevator on the first floor, while Takumi and Alice continued on to the basement. It was deceptively small with no windows, packed with bookcases, two small tables with a computer on top of each—one in the center of the room, the other against the far wall. To the left was a stairway that almost no one used and to the right, a file room housing all kinds of archived paperwork, including the out- dated card catalog.
Alice rubbed her nose, already feeling sneezy. “There’s a ghost down here. I can feel it.”
“Are you psychic?”
“No, but the warning signs are all here.” She began to tick them of on her fingers. “Supernaturally cold, I always feel like someone is watching me, books move from where I know I left them, and some- times I see things skittering out of the corners of my eyes.”
Takumi thought for a moment, surveying the room. “Maybe the heater is broken, the security cameras are on, someone is playing a prank on you, and there are rats.”
“Your skepticism is not appreciated.”
“Hey, I’m not saying I’m not a believer, but if there’s a logical explanation . . .” he said.
“Fine.” Alice threw her hands up like she was done with him. “Go ahead and let your guard down. Don’t come running to me when you get possessed.” She picked up the clipboard with the week’s schedule. “You can work on damaged books,” she said, handing him the list.
“Just decide if it can be mended or if the library needs to order a new one, then follow the instructions for each process. They’re on the cart over there by the drop chute. You know your computer log-in, right? I’ll be over there finishing up the new intakes that are going into circulation since Dave felt compelled to get ill all of a sudden.” She pointed to the table stacked with books and a computer.
“Maybe he’s possessed. It usually looks like an illness at first,” Takumi said, reading the list. He headed toward the farthest table stacked with the damaged books.
Alice tried her damnedest not to smile as she went to her table.
Claire Kann hails from the glorious Bay Area where the weather is regrettably not nearly as temperate as it used to be. She has a BA in English/Creative Writing from Sonoma State University, works for a nonprofit that you may have heard of where she daydreams like she’s paid to do it. LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE is her debut novel.
