I blinked. “Our whole friendship seems like a fraud now.”
Alexander Shota Akita started cracking the fuck up.
“You have at least twenty Electro-Man comics right here!” I held up the one in my hand even higher. “You have a first edition of Steelflyer sitting around like it isn’t worth a fortune.”
The smile Alex gave me right then, midlaugh was something I was never going to be able to forget. Not ever. But I was too busy being fuckingflabbergastedto really process it. Not surprised. Not astounded. Flabbergasted.
Who the hell was this man?
“I told you I understood your Mistress of Mayhem comment.”
“You said you had a TV,” I muttered, not believing this shit at all.
“I do. You’ve watched movies on it.”
I set the book down and shook my head. “How could you deceive me like this?”
Oh, his smile. “I thought you would’ve noticed them when you snooped through the rest of the house.”
“The rest of the house but not your room or office,” I explained again quietly.
It was like he plugged himself into an outlet, he glowed so brightly right then as his smile widened. “It’s more fun when you figure things out on your own.”
“We watched the fucking movies because I thought you hadn’t!”
“I haven’t,” he said, smiling. “I just read through the script to make sure they stayed true to the storylines.”
I put my hand over my heart as I stared at him.
And he… he fucking smiled even more. “My grandfather will love knowing you liked them too. He’s the creator of Electro-Man.”
It took me a moment to put that family tree together. “On your mom’s side? Your world-killer grandma’s husband? She’smarried?”I squawked.
Curly eyelashes fell over incredible purple eyes. “Gracie….”
What?
His face was….
Oh boy, I wasn’t going to like whatever he was about to say.
“My grandmother has unimaginable power, but she didn’t… reproduce… asexually,” he deadpanned, eyes wide, that fucking smirk on his mouth. “Do I need to explain the birds and the bees?”
“You know what, Alex?” I asked him sarcastically before shaking my head. “How can someone handle who she is? What she is? I feel like I’ve walked through Chernobyl when I’m with her, even when she says she won’t make me feel sick. I swear I had this scar on my hand and it wasn’t there the next day.”
He didn’t look surprised. “They’ve been together seventy-eight years.”
How? And how oldwasshe? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I was going to process that later. It was going to take some time.
He switched back to the other bomb he’d dropped on me. “It was my grandmother’s idea, but he was the artist. It’s a family secret. He was glad when I told him I wanted to do that instead of going to law school.”
“That’s what you’re always working on in that notebook? What you’re always mouthing to yourself?” I croaked.
“Yeah.”
“It’s so obvious though! How do you not get caught? I know you aren’t directing the movies and walking the red carpet, but you won a Pleitsky!”
“They mailed it to me. Plenty of manga artists keep their identities a secret. It helps that family runs the business so no one can force me to do something I don’t want to do, or be somewhere I don’t want to be.”
