My heart sinks. I know how that feels. I too have disappointed people who had high expectations of me. The most painful time was with a man who thought he loved me. In my case, it was my looks that disappointed him, after my words on a page painted a much prettier picture.
Daphne wrings her hands, then shakes her head. “I’m not going out tonight.” A shudder rips through her, and the next thing I know, her humanoid form is gone, replaced with the pine marten. Then, just as fast, she returns to her seelie form. She clasps her hands in an apologetic gesture as she faces Zane. “Oh, sorry! I’ll change first.”
“Keep it,” Zane says. “You don’t have to wear it tonight or go out with us if you don’t want to, but please take the dress. It suits you.”
Daphne wrings her hands again. “All right.” She shrinks back down to her unseelie form and darts away.
I watch her every move, marveling that I’ve witnessed a fae shifting between her two forms before my very eyes. And her clothing remained in place on her seelie form without affecting her unseelie form. What a delight to witness firsthand!
Daphne slips from view, but she’s replaced with a new figure. William halts and whirls in place, staring after a scurrying Daphne, before proceeding forward. “Z, are you in?—”
He pulls up short as his eyes fall on us. They settle on me, sweeping from my head to my feet and back again. His throat bobs, and it seems to take great effort for him to speak. “Are…we…uh, leaving soon?”
Zane purses their lips but doesn’t successfully hide their grin. “We are. Is Monty awake?”
“He’s already gone.” William’s attention is on his cufflinks, the buttons of his dark gray suit not fully fastened, but his eyes keep flashing to me.
I try to maintain an innocent expression, though triumph sizzles in my chest. So, he likes my new dress.
“Gone?” Zane echoes.
“He said something about a boxing match.”
“He did mention that earlier,” I say.
“It will be us four,” William says.
“Three,” I correct. “Daphne doesn’t want to go out tonight.”
William shrugs. “That’s fine?—”
“Two, actually,” Zane says. “I’m not going either.”
William and I shift our eyes to them.
Again, Zane tries to hide their grin, but it’s no use. “Turns out…there’s this thing.”
William levels a knowing look at his friend. “A thing?”
“A thing. But you know where to take her, right? You two have fun.”
“We were supposed to all go together.”
Zane strolls past us with an exaggerated shrug. “Yes, but…there’s this thing. And…look at the time. I simply must be off.”
William scowls at their back. “I know you’re up to no good when the only true thing you can say isthere’s this thing.”
“There’s this thing,” Zane says again, their voice farther away now. I can’t see them beyond the partitions around the dressing area, but I imagine they must be near the elevator doors. “Have fun!”
William heaves an aggrieved sigh, then turns to face me. His expression softens as his eyes meet mine. “Looks like it’s just you and me,” he says, voice low.
“Looks like.”
He angles his head away from the dressing area and his lips curl in a sideways smile. “Shall we?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
WILLIAM
