The jingle of the chimes above the door alerts him of a new arrival. With practiced ease, he places his current reading material on the table, sliding a bookmark in between the pages before brushing a stray hand against the mouse. The monitor flickers on at the movement, showing a completed database with a blinking cursor.

Hopefully, it would make any casual observer see that he was hard at work.

“Yo.” A friendly voice calls out, popping in over the counter and waving a book at him. “It’s me. Paige was busy buying uh... stuff, so she asked me to return this book in her stead.”

He blinks, leaning into his seat and peeking over the edge of the counter. A sunny demeanor – definitely not Paige, for sure – with bright hazel eyes and blonde hair. A bit stereotypical sure, but it wasn’t as if he was going to say it out loud.

“Sorry, I...” His brows furrow. “Have we met?”

She hums, quickly extending out her other hand towards him. “No. No, we haven’t. Name’s Shia, Paige’s friend. Coincidentally, she told me a lot about you.”

He stares at the offered hand, shaking it once before flicking his gaze back towards the book. He freezes, all but recognizing the book that he lent out only a few days ago, before gingerly taking it away from her grasp.

“Escher.” He could only babble in response, refusing to meet Shia’s stare. “And whatever she said about me, it’s all fucking lies.”

“I don’t know about that.” She drawls, leaning over the counter with a mischievous grin. “She told me that you lent her that book.”

“I don’t know about that–”

“Really?”

“Alright, so I lent her the book.” He admits, quickly snatching his cup of coffee and slurping it down to buy himself more time. “... It was more of a ‘you make me read this, I make you read this’ sort of thing.”

“Like exchanging favors.”

“More like a little book club.” He dryly replies, shaking his head as he turns back to ‘type’ at the computer. “In all fairness, what she recommended me was good. Don’t know if she liked what I lent her, though.”

He pauses in his ‘work’, quickly glancing towards Shia. “... Did she like it?”

“Well, I’m supposed to not tell you the fact that she’s looking for a sequel...”

Escher’s mouth hangs open. “No way.”

“Yes way.” Shia nods, giving him a conspiratorial wink. “I think she’ll make a detour around some pet shops if she doesn’t find one. Now, normally I’d be all confrontational about awakening by dear old princess to some kinky shit, but...” Another wink, “... I think I can forgive you just this once.”

He leans back into his seat, turning his chair towards her with narrowed eyes.

“Alright, then.” He sighs. “What do you want?”

“I’m not gonna give her my collection of the series, because duh.” She hums, watching the blood pale from his face, “So I thought to myself, ‘Hey, he recommended this to her, so odds are he has a complete collection under his belt or something, so why don’t I just bug him about it?’”

He holds his chair in a death grip, even as he leans forward with wide eyes. “No.”

“Oh come on, it’s not like she’s going to slobber all over the pages or something.”

“No.”

“Look, it’s either that, or I stay here to pass the time and let Paige detour to a pet shop or something.”

“No.”

Shia sighs, shaking her head and settling onto a stool. “Well, you’re a tough nut to crack.”

“... Not really.” He huffs, leaning back into his seat before slurping up the last of his coffee. “Nope. Not gonna believe you on that one. Pretty sure that she’s not really affected by it all. No doubt that she read through it with a bored expression on her face or something like that–”

“Uh...” Shia trails off, “... Sure. Whatever makes you sleep at night, mister–”

The bell jingles. Both of them turn towards the entrance, seeing Paige enter with a smile on her face and carrying a brown paper bag.

“Hey princess.” Shia greets, aiming a lazy wave in her direction. “What’s that you got there?”

“Ah.” Paige smiles, shaking her bag to the telltale sound of chains. “A smoothie.”