Arthur worked idly as he waited for the time to pass. He had finished all the notices, had sealed them in their envelopes, and handwritten the addresses on them. They lay in a stack at the corner of the desk to be put with the rest of the outgoing mail. After that, he worked on renewing all of the books that needed to be renewed. He would pause occasionally when people wanted to check out books, or need his help finding a book they needed for a project or wanted to read. Finally, he sighed in relief and announced that the library was closed.

He watched the last of the people there wander out, then packed up his things, shut the lights off, and made his way out, locking the doors behind him as he went. He walked to his car, trying to control his pace. He got into his car, pulled out the note, and looked at it once more, trying to decide what he wanted to do. Finally, after much deliberating, he pulled his cell phone out and entered the address in the note into the GPS on it. He backed out of the parking lot and followed the directions to a small

neighborhood before stopping next to a small house.

It had a tiny yard with basketballs, a skateboard, and a bike scattered around it. There was a basketball hoop on the garage and two cars parked in the drive way. The lights were off in most of the windows, only three windows were lit, the contents inside the house hidden from view by the curtains hanging from them. Arthur took a deep breath, turned off his car, and got out. He walked up the small path leading to the door and rang the doorbell.

He waited only a few moments before he heard movement in the house and a voice calling out. A few seconds later, a slightly breathless Alfred opened the door. When he saw Arthur, a smile bloomed across his face. "You came."

"I-Yes, I did." Arthur replied. "Did you think I wasn't going to?"

Alfred blushed slightly. "Well, I wasn't sure you would. You are older than me, after all. I was afraid you would think I was joking."

"Well, I must admit, I did think that for a moment. I don't know why, but I felt like I should come see if you were joking or not." Arthur told him.

Alfred smiled at him and steps away from the door. "I'm glad you decided to come. Come on in. Shoes off by the door, if you don't mind. My brother's weird about that."

Arthur laughs and steps inside, taking his shoes off and setting them by the door. "It's quiet alright. My mother was weird about that as well."

Alfred starts walking down a hallway, and beckons Arthur to follow him. Arthur does, and soon finds himself in a small, but cozy living room. The walls are a deep orange and the furniture looks old, but feels extremely comfortable when he sits on it. Alfred sits next to him and looks anxious. He runs a hand through his hair and sighs, seeming to gather his courage. Arthur watches him silently, waiting patiently for Alfred to speak.

Alfred looks up at him. "What did you think of what I had to say? Honestly?"

Arthur pulls out the note for a final time and looks at it. "To be honest, the first thing I thought was that it was a joke. After all, I'm a good five years older than you. Why would you want to go on a date with me? But as I sat there, I thought about how absolutely adorable I thought you were, and about all of your hopes and dreams and I thought to myself, 'I want to be apart of that. I want to see him make his dreams come true. That's when I decided to come out here to meet you. After that, time couldn't go fast enough."

Alfred looked decidedly less anxious as Arthur finished speaking. "Really? That's a relief." He laughed and grinned. "I, um, made some dinner, if you'd like to stay and eat."

Arthur looked at the hopeful face and smiled back. "I'd love too."

'After all,' he thought to himself, 'we've got to start somewhere.'