Zahra Grimaced As The Woman Spoke, Feeling Dumber By The Moment For Picking Such A Hot Day For Her Pilgrimage

Zahra chuckled, very much capable of remembering the first ever full on grocery trip she had done after moving out of the dorms as a college senior. Sure, she had gone grocery shopping before but the panic she had felt while wandering the aisles of the local Food Lion had still been palpable. "Right? I sometimes feel like my wallet is an ancient relic of some sort," she agreed with a slighly amused smile. She could be a creature of habit and had hard time imagining switching to a sleek card holder or just trusting in the power of Apple Pay. "I don't know, it seems very scary to me. My Midwestern turned New Yorker self wouldn't be able to handle it."

"Oh yeah, I learned that rule super quickly. Like I didn't buy my own groceries until I was in grad school. Suddenly I had to figure out how to budget, plan meals, eat healthy, all that. Not going food shopping hungry was definitely lesson number two. Lesson number one was don't forget your wallet at home. These kids today with their apple pay have it so good." She laughed as the waiter approached. The women ordered their meals and go their drinks refreshed. "Oh I know, some of those fancy supermarkets are so intimidating. Like I'm rich enough for those places but I'm East Coast rich, not West Coast. Sometimes it felt like another planet."

She grimaced visibly before nodding. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she hurried to assure despite feeling anything but fine. Still, it was none of this stranger's business and not something she wanted to burden him with. "It's just hot. It was quite the way to get those books here." Despite her resistance, Zahra did eventually sit down, the physical exhaustion catching up with her. "Thank you. I'm Zahra, by the way. Thank you for you help."

The change in her demeanor worried him immediately. He frowned and stepped a little closer but not too much as to invade her space. "Hey, are you feeling okay?" he asked, looking around the library. "Do you want to maybe sit down?" made a move to lead her to one of the chairs nearby, not able to actually grabbed her because his arms were full of her books that they hadn't returned yet.

“ur so quiet” its so fucking loud in my head

It was clear Zahra was itching to get out of the situation and forget all about it now that her breath had steadied and her arms didn't ache quite as much. He hadn't seem bothered to be helping her but she still felt embarrassed, her cheeks having turned a traitorous shade of red from more than just the physical activity.

"No need", she assured, shaking her head as she stood up hurriedly and pocketed her wallet with the library card in it. "I'll stop by to eat something." Zahra went to straighten her shirt before glancing at the man, managing a brief smile that didn't quite reach her dark eyes. "Thank you again. Uh, it was very nice of you."

Matt looked at the card in his hand and gave her a nod. "Zahra." he stated, slapping the card into his palm once. She didn't give him her name when he introduced himself but it was at least good to know it now. "I'll be right back then."

He smiled politely and picked the bag of books back up into his arms and disappeared further into the library, only to be back a few minutes later with a receipt and bottle of sweet lemonade he found on a vending machine. Matt offered it to her along with the card. "Take this for the road back."

Zahra glanced up from her phone at the customer in front of her, the man clearly frustrated by something. The reason didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to her, but she obviously didn't have the whole story and couldn't know why he seemed so agitated. "I'm not in the habit of eating other customers' food," she informed, back to swiping through her e-mails, "or have any desire to steal it." Truthfully, she couldn't imagine anything worse than sharing some random stranger's food. "You and your tacos will probably be just fine."

open starter @boroughshqlocation: 10 Year Anniversary @ Casa De Tacos, Queens

"i'm makin' it clear right now, you have to pry all ten of these out of my dead cold fuckin' hands man, i'm not sharin', or splitin' or anything, and i mean that shit." he says matter-of-factly as he rubs his hands in line, now not being too far from getting rewarded for the day. it had been a long ass stressful day at the garage (as per usual) so nothing was standing in his way of having this one thing, even if it meant he cut in front of the annoying little toddlers that kept screaming and running around a few feet ahead. children were the future his ass.

Zahra studied the cover of the book that had caught her attention for a moment before thumbing through the pages as if trying to catch a word or a phrase that would solidify her decision to purchase the book. However, a voice clearly addressing her made her stop.

"Oh yeah?" she glanced at the young woman before turning her attention back to the book. "Just how annoying are we talking about, though? Is it a pain to get through it?" As much as she wanted distraction, she was of the opinion that life was far too short to be reading bad books. Besides, she certainly had a fairly handsome collection of unread books at home. "Thank you, though. It's good to have recommendations. It did seem pretty interesting."

who: ( open !! ) @bhqextras location: cover to cover

often times when maddox found herself with nothing to do, she would go to the bookstore. it was a knee-jerk reaction, fuck knows she had too many unread books already. but who couldn't resist the excitement of a new book? besides, it was commonly agreed upon that just being in the presence of books was fulfilling enough. she was so enthralled by the stacks, she almost didn't notice the person beside her until she'd wandered far too near to them.

"if you're debating on whether or not to get that one, you should know it's my favorite. though, i'll be honest, the main character is a bit annoying at first. have faith in knowing it is an integral part in the story. i promise she gets way less insufferable."

Glancing at the woman who appeared quite pregnant, Zahra hurried to shake her head. She couldn't possibly involve this kind stranger in her dumb mess of a situation.

"Oh, I can't expect you to help. I made my bed, now I must lie in it, or however the saying goes." Of course she had to oppose, embarrassed she appeared as if she needed help carrying the books she had been dumb enough to check out and now return in one trip. That being said, Zahra had to admit she was just about to give up and escape, leaving the bag and its contents behind. She had to admit defeat and accept the helpful offering, no matter how mortifying.

Nodding, she picked up just a few books, the ones trying to make their own escape. It was a miracle she hadn't actually lost any of them on the way. That acted as a small consolation at least. "Actually, that would be really helpful. Carrying this would be a lot easier if I didn't have to worry about some of these getting lost," she admitted, a hint of defeat in her voice.

For as long as Sage could remember, libraries were one of her happy places. While many of the memories she had of her mother eroded with time, she could remember spending hours of her early childhood happily perusing the many shelves of their local library while her mom held her ever-growing stack of books with an amused smile. Walking up to the library the only thing she looked forward to more than finding a new read was the air conditioning. While summer felt like it had barely begun, it was already kicking her ass. “I hate stairs,” she grumbled as she trudged up the steps, one hand on her lower back and the other fixing her ‘I’m not like other girls, I’m worse’ tote that threatened to slip off her shoulder. She had only borrowed a couple books this time but was already a day late to return them. Something that was minuscule in the scheme of things, but stressed her out endlessly. Finally having made her way up the steps, she stopped beside another patron to also catch her breath. How any person chose to have a baby was beyond her. Even more baffling were the people who chose to have a second baby knowing damn well the little fuckers made it so much harder to breathe. Taking in as deep a breath as she could, Sage glanced down and noticed the tote spilling over with books. “Damn,” she said before she could stop herself, her gaze darting from the overburdened Ikea bag to the breathless woman with a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I won’t ask. Plus, I can’t judge. I usually look like I robbed the place when I leave,” she added though even she had yet to take out quite so many at the same time. Truthfully, it made her feel like she should step up her library game, but seeing how winded the woman was had her reconsidering. “Do you need help? I can’t carry all of them, but I can lighten your load a little.” She held up her practically empty tote as she spoke. Sure there wasn’t far left for her to go, but she knew that if she was struggling, she would have been happy for the help. Hell, if it had been socially acceptable, she would have asked someone to fireman carry her up those damn steps just so she could avoid the struggle.

Being taken care of made her feel like a kid, small and not in control. Her lips curved down in a slight frown before she managed to catch herself. He was just being kind, far kinder than he had to be with a complete stranger. So, instead of turning into a petulant child, Zahra nodded curtly and offered her library card without any further arguments. She really didn't have it in her. "Good to meet you."

"Yeah, yeah. It was just a long hike," she answered, her voice low, "but I'm fine. Need to start exercising more, I guess. Or stop lugging around so many hardbacks. Maybe both."

"Maybe I could get your library card and return these for you. And I'll find you some cold water." Matt offered quickly, Putting the books down on the floor by his own foot. "I'm Matt, and don't worry about it, really. I'm glad I was close by to help."

Matt looked around the building. At least the AC was on. He imagined carrying that weight in New York City's summer would exhaust anyone, he couldn't blame the brunette. "It is really hot out, you should just take a breath here." He smiled and squeezed her arm gently before he pulled back and crossed his arms across his chest, just waiting on what to do next. "Have you eaten anything today?"