“No, no, that’s not what I meant. It was your smile. Something changed in it, which made me curious. I wanted to know what you were thinking.”
“How did you even notice that?” She sounded so incredulous that I had to wonder what kind of people she was surrounded with if they weren’t caught up in all of her thoughts and expressions.
“Should I not have?” I lobbed back to her, wondering if I was being far too intense far too soon. I suppose that outside of the micro adjustments I had to make to instruments, subtlety wasn’t exactly my forte.
“It’s not that, no. I was just surprised. And to answer your question, I thought it was pretty amusing that we’re already planning our second date and maybe even a third, when we haven’t even finished our first one.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. How had I not even thought of that? If I had the ability to blush, I was sure my cheeks would be crimson under my makeup. I guess I had gotten a bit ahead of myself despite trying very hard not to.
“Sorry about that. I hope I didn’t make you feel?—”
“You have nothing to apologize for. It was a good sort of amusement. I meant it when I said I’d love to go to that concert with you. It sounds really wonderful.” It was her turn to look rather sheepish, and while it was somewhat strange across her features, she still looked just as lovely. “I’ll admit, I haven’t had this much fun on a date in a long time, and all we’ve done is walk around and eat ice cream. I don’t know if that says something about me, something about the modern dating world, or just a little bit of both, but it’s... nice. This whole night has been really,reallynice.”
It was such a simple thing. Four little letters. A phrase that was more often used as a throwaway than anything substantial, but to me? To me, it was so muchmore.
A mutual understanding. A shred of acceptance in a world where I’d struggled to find any. A hint at the possibility of something grander, perhaps even something I had assumed I would never have. Sometimesnicewas worth so much more than we ever gave it credit for.
“Do you want to dance?”
I had no idea where the gumption came from to ask that, and somehow, it was as nerve-racking as the time I’d held off a group of feral witches, who had been storming the ancestral lands of Ibrahim’s old coven for some ancient relic. But the words were out of my mouth before I could think twice about it, so there was no use pretending I hadn’t said anything. I may not have been exactly the smoothest Casanova in the world, but I was a man of my word. I said what I said, and I liked to think I meant what I said.
“Really?” Naomi said, eyes going wide as she nearly choked on her last bite of her waffle cone. Ihadbeen trying to be the perfect gentleman and not watch how that pink tongue of hers had been licking all up, down, and around her dessert. Difficult, but doable. But it was impossible for my eyes not to chase howthe tip of that petal-pink, delicate muscle traced the deep red of her lips. I might not have been human, but I was only a man.
“Absolutely,” I said, taking the final bite of my cone before offering her my hand—after another quick glance to make sure my makeup was still in place, of course. “But only if you want.”
“Yeah, I’m down. But I warn you, I’ve got two left feet.”
“That makes sense.”
“Does it?” she asked, tilting her head again.
Goodness, what an adorable habit.
“Well, all your clients have two left feet, don’t they?”
Her brows knitted together, then understanding dawned, and she let out another sharp bark of laughter. Ilovedhow easy-breezy she was with her mirth. She didn’t try to stifle it, just fully letting herself experience the moment. That was something I could get behind. “Ha! I’ll have you know, I happen to havetwodogs in my rotation who only have three legs.”
“Of course, how ableist of me to assume they’d all be four-legged.”
“Yeah, really. Guess I gotta cancel you now. Excuse me while I make a callout post.”
Another chuckle. My cheeks were already starting to hurt. Apparently, joy had a sore-face cost.
Worth it.
“Perhaps we could dance before you expose my truly wicked ways to the masses?”
She looked back at my offered hand, and I was sure she’d turn me down despite our camaraderie. But then she smiled ever so softly and placed her hand in mine. “I’d love to.”
How lovely.
We stood and walked to a more open area around the fountain. We weren’t the only ones on the aesthetic expanse of cobblestone either. A few older couples and two youngpairs were also entwined together and moving to the rhapsody saturating the night air all around us.
Dancing to jazz wasn’t really like dancing to a waltz or even the blues. Although the band was definitely playing a slower song, there was a heady urgency to it that demanded a certain intent and fervor to motions. And yet, Naomi seemed to fall into it so effortlessly, her body winding as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, moving as if she were wearing actual dancing shoes and not stylish boots.
All that muscle of hers suddenly made a lot of sense—she had a great command of her body. For a brief moment, all my limbs felt too long, and my feet were connected to an entirely different person, but I took a deep breath and centered myself back to the roaring twenties and the swing era. Back then, vampires hadn’t really been known to cut a rug with the newfangled, Americana music, but we were so few and far between that it hadn’t been unusual for me to throwdown with Iko and whatever magical folks happened to be around in the hidden speakeasies we frequented.
Heh, hidden speakeasies beneath hidden speakeasies. It was like a Russian doll of subterfuge. What were those called again?
