How to Discipline Your Vampire(80)

            “I have Coke,” I answered.

            “Sweet,” Katie said greedily, “I haven’t had a bump in weeks.”

            Janine slapped her hand on Katie’s shoulder. “She meant Coke as in cola . . .”

            “Lame. Whatever. See you at eight.”

            I never noticed my diary went missing until it was too late.



            So yeah, I had trust issues.

            Which was unfortunate when William decided to tell me a few stories from the nursing home this morning before work.

            He sure got chatty when he was talking about his old people. Sometimes it was hard for me to listen because I pictured him as an old person because technically, he was.

            “Harry started a group with some of the other war vets. I think it’s really good for them. Some of the guys never really talk to anyone other than their family and the nurses. Swapping battle stories around the card table is like therapy for them now.”

            “What about you? Is there part of you that wants something like that? Vampire group therapy?”

            “Why do you ask?”

            I sighed. “Because I think you need more than just your family and your old people. It can’t be easy hiding your nature from ninety-nine percent of the people you meet. I mean, I know Breanna and Steven are close to you, but you must want more friends that are vampires.”

            “Harvey’s a friend, and Claude to some extent. Plus, I have you.”

            “I’m not a vampire.”

            “Doesn’t matter—you know what I am, and you’re accepting of it. I told Viola about you,” he said sheepishly as he finished grilling the English muffin for my breakfast sandwich.

            “Are you telling dirty stories to your old people?” I asked incredulously. “You realize you could give them a heart attack.”

            He laughed. “Of course. It helps them get limbered up before their fitness classes.”

            “No, I mean it,” I continued. “Picture sweet little Viola listening to you go on and on about how you like to be tied up and spanked. How tomorrow you’ll be role-playing as a crooked cop. Could you imagine what her nearly dried-up hormones would be going through? It’s just wrong.”

            He stroked my hair. “Viola had mentioned that I looked different. Happy,” he said with pride. “And I told her it was because of a girl.”

            I felt slightly nauseous at this revelation. “Aww,” was all I could manage for a response.

            “I told her I had the most beautiful, intense girlfriend in the world,” he said, assembling the sandwich. “And that I had fallen in love with her.”

            I gulped down the orange juice and wrapped breakfast in a napkin. “That’s nice.”

            I snatched my keys and headed out the door to work.

            “I think I might need some time alone this weekend,” I said. “Maybe you should hang with your fam.”





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

            William

            Yesterday was one of the strangest days of my long life.

            She has been acting strangely standoffish lately, and when she told me she needed the weekend to herself, the truth hit me hard.

            Cerise was thinking about leaving me.

            I could see it in her eyes every time we parted—she knew soon it would be for the last time. I feared she wasn’t ready for a long-term relationship, especially from what she had told me about her past . . . which was nothing.