Max took a sip of his soda, then cleared his throat and said, “If you wanted to visit your grandma, I’m sure Ben would be fine with it, too. She sounds like a great lady, and I know she’s important to you.”
Yeah, I melted into a puddle. “I… uh… I’ll give her a call tonight.”
Max smiled at me, tilted his head to kiss the back of my hand, then went back to his meal.
I was so fucking in love with him and with Ben. They were such good people. I just hoped I could take care of them on my turf while also taking care of myself.
Chapter Eleven
Max
There was some weird sort of comedy in that getting from the airport to our hotel took twice as long as the flight to New York. Apparently it wasn’t always like that, but Luca admitted it was often exactly like that.
Sitting in an Audi A8 with a driver in the front and us three in the back was kind of surreal, too. The vehicle was the most expensive I’d ever seen in real life, let alone been inside. Mostly it was the extra goodies, though, as Ben explained. The basic model wasn’t that expensive—although still outside anything I’d ever pay for a vehicle even if I had that kind of money.
I wasn’t super overwhelmed yet, but the traffic and all the people outside the Audi felt like a lot. I was relieved when the driver told us that we were about five minutes from the label headquarters.
Luca had wanted to rip the Band-Aid off, since the travel wasn’t too bad. He looked nice, but he’d told us that they’d primp and prime him at the label anyway. Their job was to make Luca look as good as he could and I could understand that.
By the time we got to the intimidating looking building and the driver told us he’d wait with our stuff like apparently previously agreed, the nerves ramped up significantly.
As we stepped out of the car, I looked around at the tall as fuck buildings and the amount of people everywhere. I… I wasn’t a fan.
I turned to Luca, who seemed to take everything in. He gave me a small, tight smile, then squeezed my hand before doing the same to Ben’s.
I felt my brother’s emotions as if they were my own. Or maybe they were. Everyone joked that we were one person, after all. In that moment, we were fine. We were here for Luca. We’d need to unwind something fierce once we got to the hotel later though.
Luca took a deep breath, then clearly braced himself. It was as if a mask dropped over his features. It was startling to see how what I recognized as his public persona just slid over him like that. Then he looked at us, nodded at the doors, and we went in.
The receptionist waved us through to the elevators and back. “Good to see you again, Luca!” she called out.
“You too, Jenny!”
Once we were in the elevator, going to the fifteenth floor, Luca sighed. “She’s great. Probably one of the few people here who aren’t looking at us with dollar signs in her eyes, you know.”
I squeezed his wrist. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m good. Better than I thought. I just want to get this over with.”
Ben kissed his temple, and then we were at the correct floor.
As soon as we stepped out of it, a young woman with a clipboard peeked out from a nearby doorway.
“Oh, excellent! You’re early.” She beamed at us. “Let’s get you to wardrobe and makeup.”
Luca glanced at us with a distinct “here we go” look. “Hey, Willa. Of course.”
We followed her and Luca through the hallway of closed doors that seemed to be offices of different kinds. Then eventually, the space opened a bit and there were signs to hair, makeup, and wardrobe.
As soon as we got to the latter, the middle-aged, flamboyant human man squealed with excitement.
“Luca!” He practically ran to embrace Luca and they both ignored it when the woman told us she’d be back in a bit.
As they ended the hug, Luca turned to us and said, “This is Alexei, he’s the wardrobe wizard, says so on his name tag. Alexei, these are my partners, Max and Ben.”
Alexei clapped his hands excitedly. I wasn’t sure how he clocked vampirism so easily, but his words proved that he was very observant, when he said, “Oh my, Luca. You have gone through many changes since we last met, haven’t you?” He held out his hand for me to shake, then Ben. “It is obvious that you two adore him. It is all in your eyes.” His Russian accent was delightful in his slightly higher voice.
“It’s definitely all mutual,” Luca said, giving us heart eyes.
