Luis nodded. “Alright.” He had all the cards back in a pile, and went about shuffling them. “How about Blackjack instead?”
Karim huffed, “Fine.”
They played Blackjack for over an hour. Luis dealt multiple rounds and tried not to laugh at the drunk vampire’s attempts to best one another. Karim won most of the hands, but at some point Julien forgot what they were playing and started trying to match the suits in his hand like he was playing Go Fish.
Luis only caught on after a few rounds, and called it quits on Blackjack.
They switched to Go Fish next, which Julien was better at. Karim was weirdly more competitive about this game than Blackjack, and sort of a sore loser. Eventually, Luis called it quits on the game because Karim had tucked himself into a corner of the couch pouting about his losses.
Once the cards were packed up, Luis was hungry again. Karim perked up at that and practically dragged Luis to the kitchen.
Luis had only seen the kitchen during the tour, but he took up the counter seat Karim motioned him to before getting the leftover lasagna from the fridge. Julien wandered in and took up the seat beside him with a contented sigh.
As Luis polished off another serving of lasagna under Karim’s watchful eyes, Julien started to tell the story of how Karim had almost lost their car in a round of poker in Brussels. They’d had to flee the police and some hired muscle to get out unscathed. Julien hadn’t let him into a casino since.
Karim looked proud of this accomplishment.
It was almost four when Karim took his empty plate to the dishwasher. Belly full, Luis yawned.
“Bedtime,” Karim declared. Sobriety was beginning to come back to both of them, and Luis wasn’t sure whether he was grateful or disappointed for it.
Julien nodded. Then, “Oh! The sheets in the dryer, I forgot!”
But Karim was already moving around the kitchen island, waving him off. “No, no. I’ll do it, you sit. You’ll break something if you try to make a bed right now.”
He and Karim went back to the door to grab Luis’s duffle, and Karim led him up the stairs and to a room down the hall from their own closed door. It was, like every room in the house, beautifully decorated. His last guest room had been blue and gold, but this one was orange and yellow, bright even despite the late hour.
“Be right back,” Karim said.
Luis set his duffle down out of the way and waited. It took less than a minute for Karim to return with a bundle of bedsheets.
He made quick work of making the bed. “Make sure you compliment the sheets,” Karim said when he finished, “Julien has been hyper focused researching bed sheets and thread counts and all this stuff. Don’t know if it makes a difference, but you know,” Karim shrugged.
“I will. Thanks for making the bed,” Luis said.
“No problem,” Karim said. Then he pointed. “Full bathroom is there. You’re welcome to anything in the house, so if you get hungry, please feed yourself. Julien and I usually go to bed around eight in the morning, up at six, but if there’s an emergency you can wake us. It’s the room at the end of the hall.”
“Oh, okay.” Luis couldn’t imagine an occasion where he’d need to, but it was nice to know he could.
Karim stepped toward him and Luis froze. He reached out, a hand touching Luis’s hair, ruffling it affectionately. It made sparks fizzle to life and zip down the back of Luis’s neck.
“Sorry,” Karim said with a toothy smile as he pulled away. “Been wanting to do that for a while. You always have this cute bedhead look, it’s hard to resist.”
“Oh,” Luis said, his throat catching. Karim’s eyes were dark, and with the fangs peeking out, he looked like he wanted to bite Luis. Taste him.
His heartbeat sped up.
“I always think they look so messy,” Luis said.
“They do, but it works,” Karim said. His eyes roved over Luis’s face, and then he sighed out a long breath and stepped back. “Goodnight Luis.”
He was just going to leave? But why would he stay?
Luis’s head bobbed. “Goodnight.”
Karim left, closing the bedroom door behind him.
Luis, considerably more awake than he’d been five minutes ago, just stood there in the center of the room. He could still feel the phantom touch of Karim’s hand in his hair.
