“Sit down, Trace.”
The steel in his tone had him hovering with his ass only a few inches above the seat. He may hate what being the son of December Trace made him, but it had come with certain perks, like the fact that no one dared talk to him like that aside from his music teachers and his actual mother.
For a moment, he debated whether or not to try his luck and storm out anyway, but survival instinct got the better of him at the last minute and he ended up obeying the command.
He’d gone his entire life living on this planet and hadn’t once gotten involved in any Brumal affairs. He so didn’t want to start now, meaning if he had to sit here and grin and bear it like every other unpleasant experience in his life just to be done with it? Whatever. He could do that.
“Why are you talking to me?” he asked, opting for the breezy approach. Maybe if he acted like he wasn’t intimidated and didn’t care that his date was just chased off, Baikal would get bored and end this whole thing sooner. “We don’t know each other.”
“Of course we do,” Baikal disagreed just as his drink arrived. He took it directly off the tray before the waiter could place it on the table and took a deep drag of the fuchsia-colored alcohol. “We’re classmates.”
“We attend the same school,” Rabbit nodded, “but the only interaction we’ve ever had with one another was an accident.”
“Was it?”
“Are you messing with me right now?”
Baikal cocked his head, seemingly finding interest in that comment. Enough to make Rabbit question whether or not he’d said the right thing. “Are you up for being messed with, Trace?”
“No, I am not, Void,” he stated firmly. “I owe you for the ruined shoes. I’ll pay for dinner. But what you did just now—”
“It didn’t take much, did it?” He glanced at the exit and chuckled. “She must not have liked you as much as she claimed if she was able to get that scared just from a look.”
A look from the next in line to rule the Brumal couldn’t really be consideredjust a look, but all right. The first part was a little confusing until Rabbit rethought what had happened at the cafeteria and put two and two together.
“You were listening in on my conversation, weren’t you?”
“It was hard not to,” Baikal said. “I was sitting right behind you and you weren’t exactly being quiet.”
Rabbit was actually known for the way he spoke, in an even, low tone. He tried to think back to see if he’d lost his cool that day due to his anxiety about the date, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t the case.
“So,” Baikal settled more comfortably, crossing his legs and lifting the glass to swirl the contents as he spoke, “now that you’ve seen her in person, how do you feel?”
“About what?” He pretended not to understand, grateful when their food was delivered, cutting off the awkwardness at least for a minute.
“She still your type?” the question came as the waiter was still in the process of turning away and Rabbit glared at Baikal.
“That’s really none of your business,” he hissed.
“I wondered if that title had gone to your head,” Baikal drawled. “The whole school treats you like you’re someone important. Looks like you’ve forgotten there are wolves among you.”
“Is that a threat?” Rabbit couldn’t help but frown. “I don’t understand, why are you bothering with me at all right now? This can’t be about a single pair of shoes, can it? They weren’tthatexpensive, and no one from Vail is going to see us here.”
“Putting up a front isn’t nearly as important to me as it is to you, actually, in the same way that money isn’t really all that important to you,” he said. “We all know your family has enough of it to keep you more than comfortable, after all.”
“Please take a look at where we are currently sitting,” Rabbit stated, “together.Since you can afford a membership at this club, I’d say money isn’t an issue for you either. If you’re going to try and insult me, at least don’t implicate yourself in the process. It’s sloppy.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “Caution, bunny, you’re starting to be more fun than I even imagined. Shouldn’t we take things slow?”
“What?” Confused didn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling. “Did I step into some weird alternate reality or something?” Since they’d already established Void could more than afford his own meal, that wasn’t why he was doing this. It had to be out of pride, which, okay, but all the cryptic nonsense was adding to what had already turned into a seriously stressful situation for Rabbit.
What the fuck was he going to tell his mom later? And what about Arlet? She’d asked if he knew Baikal and he’d answered honestly…only for the asshole to come around and make it seem like they were chummy.
“That depends,” Baikal said. “In this reality, was she still your type, or not?”
Rabbit paused and considered another possibility. “Are you interested in Arlet? Is that what this is about?”
The two of them had gotten along, but the interaction hadn’t even lasted ten minutes before Void had arrived and ruined it. If she was up for giving him another chance, that would be great, but if dating her was going to attract this kind of negative attention…Surely his mother would understand that wasn’t something that would be good for her career and allow him to pull out of the potential marriage match, right?
