“Did the other girlfriends get a library too?” she played into the skit.
“No, just you.”
“Because I’m your favorite?”
“Oh, one hundred percent.”
Bel gave a triumphant grunt before taking a sip of the expensive wine. “My dad said you guys talked while you worked.”
“We did.”
“You’ll be happy to know you must’ve said something right because he was hinting that I move in with you.”
“Thank you, Papa Emerson.”
“He also said it was weird because you appear the same age as his daughters, yet lived through the same years in history as him.”
“I guess that would be weird for a parent. Does that bother you?”
“No… actually, yes.” She peeled herself off his chest and shifted to stare him in the eyes. “I can’t help it because, as lovely as today was, my birthday is a reminder that we aren’t growing old together, and we never will. Right now, I look younger than you, so no one questions our relationship. In five years, we’ll look the same age, and then I’ll surpass you. People won’t question us when I’m forty-five, and they might not when I’m fifty, but after that? After that, people will assume I’m the one with money, and that’s why you’re with someone so much older. And finally, people will stop assuming we’re a couple because they’ll believe I’m your mother and eventually your grandmother. How can we stay together when I’m saggy and wrinkled, but you’re still chiseled and gorgeous? How will youlove me when I lose my hearing and my eyesight? I’ll be old, and you’ll be perfect, and then I’ll be dead.”
“No, we’ll both be dead,” Eamon interrupted. “I have no intention of outliving you. We’ll live together, and then we’ll die together so that I might be buried in the ground beside you. Hell, I don’t even want separate caskets. Your bones will rest beside mine. Not even death will part us.”
“That’s a lovely sentiment… if not morbid, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m aging, and you aren’t.”
“Nor does it change the fact that I love you.”
“Now, yes, but I won’t always be beautiful?—”
“Isobel, stop.” His command froze her where she sat, and seeing he startled her, Eamon slid his hands against hers until his fists enveloped them. “First, you will always be beautiful. Look at you. How could this ever be ugly? It’s impossible. And second, what have I done to make you think I love you for your looks? Have I failed you in some way? Have I made you insecure or feel inadequate? Because your beauty isn’t why I’ve sworn my life to you.”
“I know. It’s just that?—”
“No, do you know?” He cut her off. “Do you really know, because I shared my past with you? I told you about my devil of a father, and how my mother committed suicide just to escape me. The vampires and Dhampirs were among the most beautiful creatures to walk this earth, yet their ugliness was a poison. Every single one of them was hateful. I was hateful, but you? You’re beautiful because you are more than your skin. You’ve proved that in the way that you love me despite my history. I’m not going to wake up one day and forget how intricately we are tied together because you have wrinkles.”
“I know you love me… I think I’m just scared. I want to grow old with you, but I’m terrified of aging alone.”
“You won’t be alone.”
“But I will be. You might be there, but you won’t turn grey and forgetful with me. I’ll have to face my mortality alone, and it scares me. This past year has been chaos, and I love you, so I haven’t thought about our age difference. But my father’s comment, combined with my birthday, really hit that reality home.”
“Is it the kind of reality that’s making you rethink us?” Eamon’s grip tightened around her hands as if he were afraid that if he let her go, it would be the last time they touched.
“No! Oh my god, no.” Bel pulled her fingers from his grasp and cupped his jaw. “I want this. Us. I’m just scared.”
“I know… well, truthfully, I don’t. I don’t understand that fear. All I can do is assure you that my love will remain steadfast until we both leave this world.”
Bel opened her mouth to respond, but before she could utter a sound, something cold and wet slapped her in the face.
“What was that?” She swiped her fingers across her forehead as the heavens answered her question. A majestic rumble of thunder echoed off the night sky, and twenty seconds later, a terrified blur of black raced from the rose bushes with his tail between his legs.
“We should—” Eamon started, but a fat raindrop landed on his nose just as lightning lit up the air, only this time the drop wasn’t alone. The heavens opened, weeping in earnest with inescapable tears, and, with a shriek of surprised laughter, Bel raced after Eamon as he gathered their belongings and tugged her back to the mansion. The trio spilled into the library as another crash of thunder obliterated the silence, and the soaked Cerberus dove for the nearest couch and shimmied his stocky body below it.
“Chicken!” Bel smirked as water dripped from her dress to pool at her feet. “I hope the rain didn’t ruin this.” She lifted the limp fabric and let it slap against her legs with a wet thwack.
“It should be fine.” Eamon pulled off his dripping shirt. “The designer is big on sustainability and eco-friendly designs. She doesn’t create garments that end up in the trash so easily.”
“Oh good, because I love this outfit, and that storm came out of nowhere,” she giggled, the wine and Eamon’s chiseled form shrouded in darkness going straight to her head.
