Rupesh whistled as he walked the deserted corridors, checking the rooms on autopilot and shook his head as he considered his earlier conversation with Aurora.
"What was that wink?" He thought to himself.
Aurora was in the library most evenings and it was his favourite part of the day to smile at her on his rounds and have a few words of polite conversation. He'd always thought she was beautiful, the way her eyes lit up when she talked about her projects made him smile too. He'd long thought about asking her for a drink but whenever he'd plucked up the courage someone had interrupted him or he'd lost his nerve.
But, tonight was the night. He'd offer her a lift home, since he always worried about her alone in the dark, and then ask if she'd like to get a cup of coffee at some point. He smiled to himself at the thought of sitting in a coffee shop with her.
As he approached the library for the second time this evening, since he'd worked almost an hour late just to give her more time in the place she loved, he saw the light was still on and his heart felt lighter knowing she was still there and he hadn't missed his chance.
Walking confidently through the door, he searched the room for her, when she wasn't on the ground floor he went back to the half-finished exhibition area to see if she was still there. Though the lights were still on and the boxes all open, she was nowhere to be seen.
Aurora was very conscious of the environment, often quoting lines from David Attenborough to him, and would never have left the lights on if she'd gone home for the night. Then he noticed the piece of white bone that she'd been looking at was gone from the table too, knowing she'd never steal he began to look for other explanations. Checking the inventory for the exhibition, he noticed that no such item was described on the log. "Perhaps it had belonged to her then?" he mused.
Ignoring the slight gnawing feeling that something was wrong, he gave in to the disappointment that he'd have to wait to talk till tomorrow to her again. He did one last search of the room, turned the lights off and locked the door.
Had he turned back, he may have noticed her coat hanging on the back of the door, but he stalked out into the night in search of tea and perhaps a biscuit.