“Been seeing you a lot here lately.” He notes, curiosity in his tone as he leans over the counter and slides a cup of coffee in her direction. “Something changed as of late?”

“End of exams.” She replies back, dragging the beanbag cushion right in front of the front desk before all but collapsing onto it and heaving a sigh of relief. With a smile, she takes the cup of coffee and cradles it into her hands, letting out a blissful sigh as the warmth seeps into her fingers. “Papers are done, so all that’s left is to relax until the end of the semester.”

“Isn’t there a midyear or something like that?”

“There is, but let me dream that I get a break, please?” She asks, taking a few sips of her coffee before letting out a soft sigh. “... Thanks for the coffee, by the way.”

He shrugs and hums in response, glancing towards the monitor for a few seconds before turning back towards her. “Any books that caught your eye recently? I think I’m going to need a backlog of things that I need to read through.”

“Don’t you have a list yourself?” She asks.

“Well, yeah, but they looked good at the time that I flicked through their covers. Now, I’m not exactly sure.” She nods along with a sympathetic expression on her face. “So you know, I’m asking you if you have any recommendations, and I’ll get to read those instead.”

“You have that list with you?”

“Gonna need a minute.” He replies back, already stepping back to his office and rummaging through the stuff within. The sound makes her curious, and she slides off her beanbag chair with an intrigued expression on her face. Much to her dismay, she didn’t get the chance to snoop inside his office, given how he came out with a wrinkled sheet of paper on one hand. He crumples it into a ball before tossing it over towards her, and she fumbles the catch for a split-second before looking through its contents.

She blinks. Then reads through it again. Once more, just to make sure.

Her eyes flicked up towards him, her brows furrowed with her lips pressed into a thin line. “Most of these are romance novels.”

He coughs, turning away from her with a dust of red on his cheeks. “... Yeah. Like I said, second opinion.”

“I’m useless on that front.” She scoffs, slapping down the list on the countertop with a look of disgust. “I read sci-fi or fantasy, not this particular trollop of shit.”

“Oi.”

“I know, I know, different tastes.” She concedes, downing the last of her coffee before grinning in his direction. “... Mine’s better, though.”

“Right.” He drawled, rolling his eyes at her, “Like how most of the people that write them are just hacks trying to make a quick buck?”

“Sure.” She coughed, and he flinched a second later. “Of course. That applies to all the crap that’s being put out as of late. Not exactly confined to just one genre.” She huffs. “Now, you want my recommendation or no?”

He grumbles something under his breath, no doubt cursing her for being in the right. She could only roll her eyes at his antics, even as she flips the sheet of paper over and filches a pen from the counter.

“Alright, so let’s start with something a little more simple for your romance-addled brain.” She begins, her hand already scribbling through the paper. “First, I recommend ‘Vastness’ by Uyder Myers – fucking idiotic pseudonym I know, but it’s not like I choose the names...”