Fireworks sounded an awful lot like gunshots.
Eve Baird was not horrendously shaken up by gunshots, but every once in a while, they would catch her off guard and send her back to the days where she had to be combat-ready in seconds flat. Today was one of those days.
It was probably pretty dangerous to be shooting off fireworks in the city. Someone was really not using their head.
Her first reaction was a white hot blast of anger. She stood up sharply and went to go out and give these people a piece of her mind. You're supposed to give veterans advanced notice about your fireworks - didn't these people have any decency? But another loud bang stopped her directly in her tracks.
Unfortunately, the library was deserted. Everyone had taken the day off for the Fourth of July, but Eve didn't really celebrate for very obvious reasons, so she'd stayed behind to do some research.
Another three bangs came quickly and Eve ducked and rolled behind the couch. She looked around. Of course there was no one. But her brain was in another time, another place, and she couldn't remember if she was okay then or now or either. It was a jumbled mess up there.
She didn't often flash back, but now her brain was jumping back and forth. She heard herself barking orders, but then it was quiet and gently lit in the library, but then the guns started again and she saw one of her soldiers gun down an innocent, right before her eyes. A little girl screamed, begging for her mother, but the mother would never answer again.
Eve Baird had been and always would be disillusioned with war.
Another round of popping fireworks, louder than the last, made her think it was getting closer. Eve did something very out of character, then. She whimpered.
Counting backwards from a thousand, she picked herself up off the ground and tried her best to drown everything out. She wandered deeper into the library and hoped the sound would muffle, which it did. She found the proper door and let herself into a small room with a crackling fire, kept colder than the rest. There was steaming tea on the coffee table and a soft blanket on the couch, and a TV sat in the midst of a wall unit covered in DVDs.
She selected something cute and mindless, a kids' cartoon about an elephant named Henrietta. It wasn't really interesting to Eve, but the colors were light and calming and that's what mattered more. Every time a firework went off, she cranked the volume up a little higher and burrowed deeper into her blankets. She felt pathetic, but she also knew this wasn't her fault. She just had to ride it out. Like always.
It was getting better and Eve was almost asleep on the couch, but the door burst open at the same time as the firework finale began outside. Eve screamed and jumped up, knocking her mug onto the floor where it shattered. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she faced her assailant, a man with a head of flowers.
Flynn lowered the bouquet. "Hi." Awkward silence stretched between them while Eve breathed heavily.
"Flynn Carsen." Eve glared. A thousand threats danced on her tongue but she couldn't pick her favorite, so she just stood there, glowering.
"Um." He gulped. "Hi there, honeybun." She narrowed her eyes. "Sweetie pie?" Narrowed them further. "Eve. Hi Eve."
"What do you want?" She sat back down on the couch, leaning over to pick up the broken shards of ceramic.
"To see you." He seemed to remember the flowers hanging limp in his hand. "Here! Happy Fourth. I know you don't like fireworks so I got you some colorful flowers instead."
"I don't celebrate at all." Eve raised an eyebrow. "I have never celebrated."
Flynn fidgeted nervously. "I know. I was just looking for an excuse to buy you flowers."
Eve gave him half a smile. They were very pretty, vibrant reds and whites but no blues. They blossomed open like fireworks, but they were noiseless.
"Sit down, Librarian." She patted the couch beside her. "Watch some movies."
So they spent the rest of the night squirreled away, long after the fireworks ceased.