He makes a face and sighs like he always did when I said something he didn’t like. “Come on Mare, don’t be like that. I’m trying to be friendly. Let me pay. There’s about to be a line if you keep fussing,” he warns and I hear the stupid coffeeshop door bell ring again. He’s right. There is going to be a line soon if I don’t give in but fuck that.
I don’t want to let him pay. Letting him pay means I owe him something. I’m not going to owe Billy Wright a fucking thing. I’d rather crawl over broken glass on my belly than give him the satisfaction.
I draw myself up, fully intending on communicating my glass to belly fantasy. “Billy,” I start but that’s as far as I get because suddenly right there is the man that I had been hoping to see.
“Julian?”
Nineteen
JULIAN
Some idiot townie thinks that he’s going to buy my wife a fucking feta wrap?
He’s a dead man.
“My apologies, Maris. There was an incident at the hospital this morning that made me late.” I make a show of smiling like nothing’s wrong even though I want to rip the idiot with a man bun’s throat out just for breathing Maris’ air.
“Late?” She looks confused. It makes sense. We had zero plans for breakfast but that doesn’t matter. I was on my way to her house when I scented her and realized she was gone. I’d thought Maris would take a bit slower getting ready but I should have known better. Vampire blood does have the get up and move urgency to it that humans don’t ever know what to do with. While I’m cursed, the walking dead, my blood isn’t. It’s pure life. It heals all, invigorates humans to the point of feeling reborn, and of course, sustains me indefinitely.
I look Maris over. My blood agrees with my wife. She looks stunning. The very picture of vitality and life. Perfection suits her.
“Yes, for breakfast. We made plans last night…” I let my voice trail off and nod with a sheepish smile, “Of course, you forgot. I should have thought of leaving a note. You were exhausted.”
Maris’ face flushes and she dips her head. The idiot at her side bristles like he has a right to her.
“Who is this, Mare? What does he mean last night?”
Mare?
Like a fucking horse kind of Mare? Ugh. How provincial.
“I’m Julian Vale,” I say, holding out my hand to him. I want to snap every bone in his hand when he shakes mine with far too much force to be friendly. I let him think he’s won his little pissing contest with his show of force. “I’m Maris’ neighbor."
“Julian is also the new doctor in town,” Maris adds and frowns at the way the idiot is jerking my hand up and down like he’s trying to rip it off. If I was human, it might hurt. Good thing I’m not.
“A doctor, huh? We have enough of those.”
“Not hardly,” I reply. “And you are?”
“I’m Billy,” he grunts like that means fuck all.
“Pleased to meet you, Billy.”
“Billy was just about to go on his way,” Maris says and takes a step closer to me. “I’m sorry, I can’t believe I forgot breakfast. I should have called you, I mean, I would have but-”
“No number,” I say.
She blushes prettily for me and nods. “Right. I should have asked for that earlier.”
“No,” I correct, “I should have. Since we’re both here, I’ll get us breakfast. You can show me the news office like you mentioned.”
Again Maris looks confused. She never mentioned the news office. Anything to get her away from his townie glaring at us before I kill him in broad daylight and ruin everything.
“I was getting her breakfast. We were about to catch up. Like old times,” Billy interjects.
Maris looks like she wants to vomit at his words. Right. She doesn’t like him. Spectacular. When I rip his head off she won’t cry about it and I won’t have to comfort her and pretend it’s a shame. A splendid time saver.
“No, we were not.” Maris looks over at the barista. “I’m sorry, Belinda. Can we add on Julian’s order? I’ll get it. I owe him,” she says, pulling out her wallet like I’m going to let her spend a cent on me.
