Going to bed wasn’t in the cards. Not if my roommates had anything to say about it.
“Who was that?” Tanner asked, dragging me toward the living room. I knew better than to try to resist their curiosity.
Olivia had vanished the moment they’d ambushed me at the door. She returned and plopped down on one end of the couch with a pint of chocolate peanut butter ice cream. She patted the spot next to her and held out a spoon. As soon as I sat down, Tanner took the seat on my other side. I was the meat in an awkward sandwich.
“Is that from the emergency stash?” I asked. Ice cream was well-established as a luxury in our apartment. Fortunately, we all shared a favorite flavor, so we split the cost of two pints every month to keep in the freezer just in case.
“I’d say this is an emergency.” Olivia pried off the lid and took a spoonful before passing it. She must have been asleep when I came home with Julian because her hair was up in a wildly messy bun, and she still had one foam earplug in.
“It’s not. I just got a ride home.” I passed the pint to Tanner, not bothering to take a bite. I didn’t feel like ice cream. The taste of Julian’s kiss lingered on my tongue, and for reasons I didn’t care to consider, I wasn’t ready to wash it away.
Tanner shot me a sideways glance and shook his head. He was fully dressed. He had probably been up playing games online and heard me come in. “A ride that delivered you all the way to your bedroom, shut your door, and stayed for twenty minutes?”
“You timed it?” I said casually. “That’s pathetic. It’s not like it’s a big deal.”
“Um, excuse me.” Olivia turned her body, folding her legs gracefully under her as she shook an accusing finger in my direction. “When was the last time you had a man in your room?”
I shrugged, even as my cheeks began to burn.
“I think it was…” Tanner paused, so Olivia could join him.
“Never,” they said simultaneously.
They had me there. The only way to get them to let up was to give them some juicy details to gnaw on. But that was a little complicated given the circumstances. All I could think of was the things I couldn’t tell them. There was no way I was going to admit Julian was a vampire. They would think I’d lost my mind. And not telling them that meant I couldn’t tell them about Carmen or the vampire who’d attacked her or the gig being cut short. But the biggest issue was that I was a terrible liar. Anyone who’d known me more than a few hours knew that.
“He brought me home because he felt bad.” I’d stick to the truth, I decided, but be careful to only give away parts of it. “There was an accident.”
“Oh my god.” Tanner nearly dropped his spoon as he searched me for signs of trauma. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “My cello isn’t.”
“Oh, Thea.” Olivia confiscated the ice cream from Tanner and forced it into my hands. “I knew this was an emergency.”
Now that she put it that way, I had to agree. I dug into the pint until I hit a chunk of frozen peanut butter and then shoveled the spoonful into my mouth. I’d met both of them my sophomore year at Lassiter. Tanner had been a year ahead of Olivia and me, but we’d all wound up in the same history class from hell. The bonding experience had turned into a friendship, so when they suggested we rent a place together and avoid the cost of the on-campus dorms, I’d jumped at the chance. Tanner had stayed after he graduated. I didn’t plan to do the same, and they both knew it. I saw my cello as a ticket to a better life–somewhere far away from San Francisco or the small town I’d grown up in.
“That doesn’t explain why he walked you all the way to your bed,” Tanner said dryly.
“Don’t be a dick.” Olivia threw a pillow at him. “She’s in mourning.”
“I’m fine.” At least, I needed to believe that I was, and convincing them was a step in the right direction. “I ran into him and dropped it. He wants to pay to have it fixed.”
“Good.” Olivia sounded relieved at the news.
“And you thanked him for his assistance by…” Tanner waggled his thick, black eyebrows suggestively.
“Nothing happened.” But my voice cracked, giving the fib away.
“What? Oh my god!” Olivia shrieked and grabbed my hand, almost knocking the ice cream out of the other in the process. I clutched the pint protectively to my chest.
“Seriously, nothing happened. Not really,” I added, pleased that I sounded much more convincing that time.
“That sounds like code for something did happen, but you wish more had happened,” she said, speaking to Tanner like she was translating girl talk for him.
“Yeah, I got that. So what does not really entail?” he asked. “Did you two get naked?”
“Tanner,” Olivia groaned.
“We didn’t get naked,” I interrupted before a fight erupted between the two of them. “We just…kissed, and then he freaked out.”
Olivia crooked her head, trying to make sense of my story’s change in direction. “Freaked out how?”
“I told him,” I said miserably, digging out another spoonful of ice cream. Now that I was talking about Julian, I found myself wanting to get him out of my system. Not because I regretted tonight, but because I knew it wasn’t going to happen again. His reaction to my confession had made that clear.
“Told him what?” Tanner asked.
“You know, stupid,” Olivia hissed through her teeth.
“I don’t. What?”
“That’s she’s…” Olivia shot him a wide-eyed look of warning. “…you know.”
“I don’t see what could be so bad that–”
“I told him I’m a virgin,” I blurted out.
Tanner’s mouth formed an O-shape, but he didn’t speak.
“Yeah, the kiss of death, I know.” I sighed and abandoned the ice cream to our beat-up coffee table. “I just thought he should know if…” I caught myself before I said it, but it wasn’t soon enough.
“You were going to sleep with him?” Olivia clapped a hand over her mouth and did a little shimmy of happiness in her pajama pants.
“It’s about time,” Tanner said, but, at least he wasn’t dancing.
“You act like I’m some sort of freak of nature.” I slumped back against the couch and glared at them both. “I haven’t exactly had the time to meet anyone.”
“But you did,” Olivia said. She could find the bright side to any situation. Usually, I could, too, but tonight I was struggling to see the silver lining. “I just can’t believe it. Are you going to see this mystery man again?”
“His name is Julian, and no,” I said firmly. Then I remembered his dinner invite and frowned. I wasn’t going to take him up on that. I couldn’t after I’d slammed the door in his face. Right? “It was a temporary bout of insanity.”
“Are you sure about that?” Tanner had an annoying habit of knowing exactly what I was thinking.
I rolled my eyes and reached for the ice cream again. I might as well just commit to eating the whole thing now. It had been one of those nights. “I mean, I have to get my cello back.”
“If you don’t want to see him again, you could just ask him to have it delivered,” Olivia said gently.
I groaned, knowing she was right, but feeling all wrong about that idea. “I sort of dropped it. It was my fault as much as his. It feels wrong to just expect him to pay for it and not even say thank you.”
Olivia grinned triumphantly, and I realized I’d played into her trap. “You do want to see him again!”
“She let him inside her bedroom,” Tanner said with a laugh. “That’s the first suitor she’s had since we moved in here. Of course, she wants to see him again.”
“Suitor?” I repeated.
“Yeah, you make it sound like he’s from 1892,” Olivia backed me up.
I nearly choked on a bite of ice cream. If she only knew the truth. Tanner slapped my back helpfully.
“Careful there,” he cautioned. “Are you sure you’re okay?” He was studying me now with his intense, dark eyes. It was just like Tanner to see through my carefully constructed truth to the missing pieces I’d hidden from them.
I had no idea how dangerous Julian’s world really was, but I wasn’t about to drag my friends into this mess. “I will be. I’m just embarrassed.”
“So, he left because you’re a virgin?” Olivia pressed, bringing the subject back to his painful rejection.
“I guess.” I gave the ice cream to Tanner. “He acted like it was a huge deal.”
My roommates’ eyes met over my head.
“What?” I demanded when they remained silent.
“Thea, it is a big deal,” Olivia said. “You’ve waited all this time.”
“You make me sound like an old maid.”
“No one is saying that,” she added quickly. “But why wait and just jump some random guy…”
Because there was nothing random about Julian. He wasn’t just some guy. He was unlike any man I’d ever met. Precisely because he wasn’t a man. He was so much more than that. Just the thought of him sent the memory of his burning kiss to my lips. My fingers drifted to my mouth as I remembered.
“You really like him,” Olivia said quietly.
I snapped out of my trance. “What? No. He’s annoying and pushy…”
“And?” Tanner pressed.
“Gorgeous and rich,” I added with a sigh.
“Rich?” Olivia sat up straighter.
“Gorgeous?” Tanner said. “Maybe you should see him again.”
“I have to, don’t I? I need to get my cello back.”
“Sure, your cello.” Olivia winked at me.
“He did ask me to dinner.” I instantly regretted mentioning it, because they both launched back into the topic.
“What are you going to wear?” Olivia asked.
“Who cares? We need to deal with the virginity thing. That’s the problem, right?” Tanner teased. “Look, if you need help with that, I know some guys–”
“Ew, Tanner!” Olivia cut him off. “Maybe Julian just wants to take her somewhere special before he relieves her of that problem himself.”
In my friends’ book, the fate of my virginity was already sealed. At this rate, I was going to be up all night while they decided exactly how I should give it up.
“As much as I’m enjoying your insinuations, I’m exhausted.” Yawning to prove it, I got to my feet.
“We’re not through discussing this,” she warned me as I carried the empty pint of ice cream to the kitchen and tossed it in the garbage.
“Yes, we’ll talk about this tomorrow, young lady,” Tanner mimicked Olivia’s lecturing tone.
She smacked him and then followed me down the hall. “Don’t listen to him,” she whispered, so only I could hear. “And if you want to talk or ask questions, I’m here.”
“Questions?” I repeated blankly.
“About what to expect when…you know.”
If you can’t say it, you shouldn’t do it. I frowned, remembering what Julian had said. Maybe he was the one who needed to loosen up. I mean, what could I expect from a nine-hundred-year-old vampire?
“Thanks,” I said. “I will.”
I said good night and gratefully closed the door. Olivia’s offer was sweet. But I wouldn’t need to accept it, because Julian had made it perfectly clear he wasn’t interested in taking me to bed. Not anymore. But then he’d gone and invited me to dinner. I wasn’t sure what to make of him, except that everything about him seemed like bad news on paper. So why did it feel so right to be in his arms?
Slipping off my dress, I climbed into bed in my underwear. It felt small and cold. I burrowed into the covers, but it didn’t help. It was hard to believe that an hour ago, he’d been here with me. Telling him was the right thing to do, but I still regretted it. If I hadn’t, would he be here now? It was impossible to imagine him in my tiny, single bed, but I tried to anyway.
I slid my hand past the band of my panties, my fingers searching for relief. But before I could find it, my phone lit up on my nightstand. I reached for it, expecting to see a suggestive text from Tanner or Olivia, but the number was new to me. I had two messages from it.
My finger skimmed over the screen to check them. I recognized the text I’d sent to my phone from his. It was him. I held my breath as I scrolled to the second message.
Dear Thea, it began. I giggled at the formality of the message. It sounded like he was writing a letter. I supposed that I needed to teach him more about text messaging.
I’ll pick you up at nine.
Sincerely,
Julian
So much for waiting for me to decide. It seemed he had chosen for me. Arrogant, grumpy vampire. I stared at the message for a moment, trying to determine how to respond.
