Late nights

XXIII

- I mean, if you really think about it, they can do this when the library is open, it's not really bothering anybody. - Emily finished putting the books in place.

- Well, you do have a point, but look at the bright side - we're getting paid, which I forgot to mention, and also, we have the whole library for just ourselves. A library at night is one of the best things I can imagine.

- It's pretty cool, gotta say. Let's read something. - Emily picked out a book.

- You want to read?

- Yeah, why?

- No, nothing, I just didn't expect it from you. What did you pick out?

- Umm, I picked "The fault in our stars".

- Okay, we can read that one.

They sat down on one of the sofas in the library. Emily just listened to Tom while he read the book. About two hours, Emily had fallen asleep on the sofa. It was almost 2 AM, so Tom wasn't too surprised. 

"Well, I don't want to wake her up, but it's getting quite late," Tom thought to himself. He roamed around the library waiting for Emily to wake up. After fifteen minutes, he realized that she was out for good. He decided to pick her up and carry her all the way home. It wasn't the smartest decision, but he couldn't think of anything else at the time. 

He slid his hands under her, picked her up, and slowly exited the library. With some difficulties, he locked the door and started walking to the dorms since they were closer than his house.

"Someone will think I'm carrying a dead body and call the police on me" He was thinking. His back quickly started to hurt. So did his arms. He kicked on the door of her dorm room and waited for her dorm mate to open it. But nobody did. He gently placed Emily on the floor to think about what to do. He didn't want to look for the keys that Emily had somewhere in her pockets, but he couldn't leave her on the floor.  Tom remembered that their window was open, so he ran outside and climbed into the room through the window. He unlocked the door from inside and slowly placed Emily on her bed, covered her, and went home.

The morning after, Emily called him.

- Hey, how did I get back to the dorms last night? I don't remember a thing.

- Oh, I just, I just brought you home.

- That's weird, I don't remember anything.

- That happens when you're tired, it's okay. Anyway, I'm gonna give you some of the money I got from the library work. 

- You really don't have to.

- Come on, it's only fair. Let's meet up tomorrow, I have stuff to do today.

- Okay, cool.

Tom had learned as much chess as he could to play against Lola. He was confident and entered Lola's dorm ready for some chess.

- I've recovered from Dubai. - Lola chuckled.

- I learned some chess at that time, so let's play. 

Lola was playing so fast, Tom couldn't catch up. He hoped that during all that speed she would mess up at some point and he could win, but that didn't happen.

- I mean, I've read all the books, I've practiced, but I'm nowhere near beating you. - Tom said after multiple games.

- That happens. It happened to me too. Nobody is born a grandmaster. Well, maybe some people are since some kids are literally prodigies. How does that even happen?

- No clue, but it's interesting. Does that mean that intelligence is partly genetic?

- I don't know, maybe it could be. 

- It would make sense. Well, at least a little bit of that could be true. When did you start playing chess? - Tom asked.

- I started when I was five. Became state champion at 13 and I haven't really won anything important since then.

- How many times have you tried?

- A lot, I go to every tournament that happens. Actually, now, over the summer there'll be even more, so maybe I can enter more of them. I mean, of course, I've won multiple times, and it feels good, but I want to win against the big guys. It's weird. For some reason, women don't play as well as men in chess...So I'll change that.