"You're not-- Er, sorry. Faulty gaydar then. Just cause I'm an old queer, I shouldn't have assumed." Right, that was awkward. Also had to be complete bullshit, right? No way in hell was that bloke straight. Repressed, he was getting that now, but he wasn't here to drag librarians out of the closet.

And now he'd flustered him, make him go dangerously red - he hoped he'd not explode or anything - and in general behaved like a dick. He smiled weakly and turned his head to Adam, holding a hand out. "Show me the book, kid. Has it got them tigers you wanted?"

Maybe Adam could use his devilish powers to spontaneously open up the Earth, that'd be handy. "C'mon, boy. Let's leave the nice man alone before we make a bigger mess." Than he'd just made. Turned out, he was even more of a monster than Adam. Must be running in the family.