Why am I doing this? Why am I letting myself get distracted like this? Why does he have to look so nice and act so kind? And why’s it affecting me like this?
He smiles at me and I just take all my worries, ball them up like the greedy and horrible person I am, and toss them right out the window.
“You look very nice,” he says as he slides into the passenger seat.
I glance down at my clothes that I had to buy today because I didn’t have anything decent that I hadn’t worn to a potential crime scene. “You do too. I probably should have gone to the door to get you instead of just sitting in the car peeping at you.”
“I… thought you didn’t want it to be a date?”
Shit. “Right. No dating allowed. I’d actually prefer if you really didn’t even like me all that much but I’m a bit greedy.”
He gives me a genuine smile that makes me feel things I shouldn’t want to feel. “That’s alright,” he says. “We’re all allowed to be a little greedy every now and then. So, did you decide where we were going?”
“I did!” I say as I put the car in reverse and back out of the driveaway. “It’s a secret, though. I was going to bring my blindfold to make it super secret but thought I might scare you away. You’d ask where I got the blindfold, then I’d have to explain my kinky side and who knows what would have happened then.”
“When you’ve lived as long as I have, you kind of just go along with whatever,” he admits.
“Ah, you should have told me that, I’d have brought out all my secrets day one,” I tease as I start driving. “I’m like eighty percent positive you’ll love this place. When I was thinking of you, it was the first place I thought of.”
“I’m excited and worried, but that just adds to the fun. How’d your day go?”
“Good! I played with my cat. Her name’s Banshee and she’s the ugliest cat you’ll ever see. She haunted my every step until I pulled her in off the street. Her hair was all matted and I thought I was skilled enough to just clip a few of the little mats but now she looks like she went through a woodchipper.”
“How long have you had her?”
“Just a couple of weeks. She started following me and then hanging around outside my window, which made me nervous because I was convinced she was either putting a curse on me or was going to fall off. So I opened my window and she hopped right inside. And as I lay in bed, itching the flea that’d jumped off her disgusting body and onto mine, I realized that if she could climb up to the second-floor window, she could climb down and I was a sucker.”
“Yeah, but it sounds like you like her now.”
“A bit too much, especially now that she’s flea free. What about you? Do you have pets?”
“I have my great-niece’s fish. Not real exciting but she loves the hell out of them, and now I’m stuck having no idea what to do with them. I guess I made them all sick the first week I had them because they wouldn’t stop staring at me, so I kept feeding them. Apparently you’re not supposed to overfeed fish.”
“Huh. That’s kind of the same for all animals,” I say with a grin.
“Shhh… I’m a weak man and when those tiny little beady eyes were staring at me, I just saw hunger in them. But they’re fine now! I haven’t killed any… I think. I swear there were nine but then there were eight. Then the next day there were thirty before the parents ate almost all of them, which I was horrified to find out. It was very traumatic, and I’m scarred after this experience.”
I laugh at the big bad vampire telling me fish have scarred him as I get onto the highway. “So you said your great-niece. As in blood-related?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, that’s awesome. Most vampires don’t stay connected with their families. It’s neat that you are,” I say as I glance over at him and see something there that makes me hesitate. “Did… I say something wrong?”
He smiles at me, pushing away the look that’d been on his face. “Nope. I’ve been very lucky with my family. What about you? Are you close to your family or did they kick you out after you ate all the ice cream?”
I grin at the thought. “Nah, see, I’m just keeping them from getting too many calories. I take care of all of it for them,” I say as I rub my stomach. “It’s actually really tough on me to be so selfless.”
Bentley nods like he understands. “I’m sure. Traumatic, probably.”
“It was. But they still love me for it. They might actually love me more for my sacrifice.”
“Makes sense, really. You have siblings?”
“A brother who is older than me. You?”
“I had a sister. She was also older than me, but we weren’t as close as I was to my niece and my great-niece.”
“That’s awesome you’re close to some family, at least,” I say.
We talk about mundane things as I drive half an hour out of town before pulling up to a state park and parking my car.
“A walk?” he asks.
“Kind of!” I say as I get out of the car. “I suppose I should’ve told you to wear your walking shoes, but you’re a vampire and it probably doesn’t matter, right?”
“Yeah, I just flutter my bat wings and hover,” he teases.
I grin at him while wondering how long it’s been since I’ve felt this carefree with a person. “Makes sense.”
I meet him at the front of the car and incline my head. “Follow me to the surprise. I promise in your millions of years of life, it’ll be the best not-date ever.”
“You realize I’m not a million, right? I’m only half a million years old,” he jokes.
“And you’re still looking mighty fine.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight. You?”
“A hundred and sixty-two.”
“I have to ask,” I say as I head down the sloping dirt path into the trees. “So as a vampire, did it feel weird getting older but still dating people that looked similar in age to you? I mean you look like you’re in your thirties. Did you like date ninety-year-olds for a while?”
“Everyone’s different, but for me, I dated whoever I liked. Man or woman, whether they were in their thirties or fifties or whatever. For this not being a date, I sure feel like I’m getting the twenty questions date version here.”
I wave him off. “Nah, see, we’re building our relationship to acquaintances. Don’t you ask your acquaintances about their dating history without wanting to date them? Don’t you pry into their lives and pull out juicy little pieces you can scrutinize?”
“Hmm… well, if I asked Marcus, he’d probably just lob my head clean off just for fun, honestly. Alexei would snarl at me. Briar would tell me anything I want to know. And Finn would tell Marcus I’m flirting with him in the hopes he’d get to see Marcus verbally or physically abuse me.”
I just stare at this man and question what kind of lunatics he works with. “What’s wrong with them?”
Bentley seems to think about that question as we walk. “I’ve asked myself that again and again and still… it’s entertaining to be the most normal person in the room. Briar’s pretty normal too.”