"No." Aelfric's hand doesn't leave her wrist. "What is it?"
"I understand," she says softly. "Why you wouldn't want me."
"That's not—" He stops. "That isn't it at all."
She looks up at him through wet lashes.
"If we met differently," he says, and his voice has gone rough. "I would court you properly. I would write first, then show up at your door with flowers. I would find somewhere quiet for the first meal and we could talk."
Helena is very still.
Oh, Aelfric.
"Is that what elves do for a first date?" she asks softly.
"Something like that."
"Would you like to know what I would do on ours?"
She answers by closing the space between them, stepping between his knees. She is close enough that he has to look up at her. Then she lowers herself into his lap carefully, watching his face the entire time.
Aelfric could push her away.
He doesn't.
Instead he reaches for her mask.
She stops him, fingers tightening just slightly. "Not that," she says.
But she removes the silver wig. Ginger hair spills down her shoulders, warm and unguarded. Helena looks entirely different. She looks entirely herself.
Aelfric's hands find her waist before his better judgment can stop them.
"Helena—"
"Like a first date," she murmurs. "That's all."
She leans in slowly. Her lips brush his.
His resistance doesn't break so much as thin, then vanish entirely.
She kisses him softly.
I shouldn't be watching this. I stare at the wall and pretend I am furniture. The ice in my glass melted some time ago. I stir it anyway.
"Would you like my friend to join us?" Helena asks softly, breaking the kiss.
Oh no.
"What—" Aelfric blinks, disoriented, as though surfacing from something deep. The question dies unfinished. He sees nothing beyond her. His hand slides into her hair and his other arm draws her closer, as if anchoring himself.
I rise slowly. They don't notice me, lost in each other.
I slip from the room and bolt.
The corridor swallows me and I keep moving, past door after door, until I find a stretch of empty wall and press my back against it.
He loves me.
