I hurriedly wiped it off with some of the napkins I’d shoved in my pocket when I bought the ice cream, then heaved a sigh of relief when I saw that everything was fine. After so many years of walking among humans, I’d learned to seal my artificial skin color, but there was only so much one could reasonably expect from foundation.
Cosmetics had come a long way since I’d started using them in the fifties, and while I didn’tneedthem to get by, they made everything easier. Especially when I was trying to appear “normal” with my lovely date. I wasn’t an idiot about it; I knew there was a time limit on such a thing. But I never expected my first date with a human to go so well.
Clearly, I was getting ahead of myself. We’d only spent about an hour together. Not exactly the stuff of legends. And I was far too old for any sort ofRomeo and Julietsituation.
“You okay?” Naomi asked from beside me, all smiles. “Do you need some more napkins?”
“Nah, I’m all right. Just startled myself,” I said, laughing lightly. I knew from experience that someone from the coven would roll their eyes at me and maybe huff some sort of dismissal, but the beautiful woman beside me just chuckled along with me. Even being undead, I was well aware that my cheeks would be hurting from smiling so much.
Another quick glance at my hand told me I was fine. Perhaps I should have worn gloves instead. Then again, that would have been a little conspicuous with the scorching summer we’d been having.
“You really got lost in the music, huh?”
From anybody else I knew, aside from Iko, that might have been insulting or a backhanded compliment. But Naomi seemed pleased by the idea.
“I did indeed.”
“I wish I took more time to listen to live music,” she said, leaning forward, supporting that cute, rounded chin of hers in her hand. “It really is an experience unto itself.”
It was like she was reading from a script directly from my mind, and it was difficult to hide my enthusiasm. But then,whywas my first instinct to hide my enthusiasm? So far Naomi had been nothing but kind and supportive.
How long had I been cutting myself into smaller and duller pieces, and itstillwasn’t enough for other vamps? I couldn’t change Ibrahim’s choice to sire me, but what if I could change everything that was expected of me as a vampire?
Or what if I completely gave up trying to carve my way into spaces that clearly didn’t want me?
All right, Rowan, slow your roll a little before you think about completely and radically changing your life.
Clearly, I was even more lonely than I thought, because just a modicum of positive and genuine attention had me feeling like I’d fed from someone who was inebriated. Except my mind was quite clear, and almost standing beside itself, surprised at my somewhat visceral reaction.
“I couldn’t agree more,” I said, shoving my rising insecurities down and seizing the day—an act that was fairly antithetical to being a vampire. “If you’d like, I could take you to some other performances that are coming up in the next month or two. There’s a traveling string quartet performing at the community theater soon—I’ll need to double-check the date—and an a cappella group all the way from Finland doing a show atSuny’stoward the end of the month.”
“Really? They traveled all the way here to our little city?”
“We’re just one stop on their American tour, but yeah, their music is successful enough for them to travel with it, and they’ll be selling vinyls of their last two albums, so I’m quite eager to go.”
This was where she’d lose interest, where she’d tell me that was a weird thing to care about and that a cappella was cringe. But instead her grin grew wide enough to nearly become its own light source.
“I wouldlovethat! Let me just double-check my schedule, but I’m, like, eighty-five percent sure I can make it!”
Huh.
Could it really be so effortless?
“Sure. No issue if you can’t, of course. Whatever is convenient.” Was that playing it cool enough? I’d been called a lot of things in my time walking the Earth, but I was pretty sure that “cool” was never one of the adjectives associated with me.
“It shouldn’t be an issue. I just like to double-check and triple-check before I agree to anything. Ihatehaving to flake out on things, so I try to avoid it whenever possible.”
I couldn’t help but give her a bit of a wry smirk. It wasn’t intentional, but there was so much about the woman, from the way she expressed things, to what she said, that just tickled me the right way. “I feel like that’s an increasingly rare thing in the most recent generations.”
“Recent generations? You meanourgeneration that really popularized the trend and then the younger generations for just perfecting our precedent?”
Whoops, another little slip-up. “I suppose there might be some truth in what you are saying,” I retorted cheekily, another half-lie to make it seem like I was bantering rather than trying to dodge around the age thing. It would probably make things so much easier if I was more comfortable with lying, but I really did want to avoid it as much as possible. I was well aware of whata conundrum and how stupid it was, and yet it did indeed make my conscience feel quite a bit better.
“I like to think there usually is.” Suddenly, her expression went from excited to something more akin to bemused. It was only a slight variation in her pretty face, admittedly, but how could I not notice it with how caught up I was in everything about her?
“What?” I blurted rather inelegantly. But whatever. It was becoming increasingly obvious to me that Naomi expected no false posturing to impress her.
She blinked at me a bit. “I like to think that there usually is truth in what I say.”
