“You want to dye your hair? But the blond is so pretty!” I whine. So much better than my natural dishwater hue.
“I’ve had it for so many years. I’m sick of it. It doesn’t have to be an insanely drastic change. Just something new and fresh.” Luna shrugs and goes over to help a customer at the register. “When you’re as old as I am,” she whispers conspiratorially when she comes back, “things get boring after a while.”
It’s weird to realize that she is older than she looks—especially when she’s young compared to Valen and Zav.
“If you’re sure, then I’m totally down for it,” I reply.
“I’m so down. I’ll pick up some color when I close up, and you can just text me a good time to show up.”
A group of customers walks in, and she hurries over to help them.
I scroll on my social feed and zone out while drinking my latte. A notification pops up at the top of my screen, and I almost spit out my mouthful of coffee when I read it.
Valentine: HoAruDoi?!
Valentine: HOWAREUDOIN?
Valentine: …
Valentine: *voicemessage*
Holding the phone up to my ear, I press Play on the ten second voice message and hear him cursing about technology. I picked up a phone for him this week, figuring it was a good thing to get him acclimated to. We covered the basics, and I suppose I could’ve gotten him an old flip phone, since he doesn’t use it for much.
Valentine: How
Valentine: Are
Valentine: You
Valentine: Doing?
I giggle at the broken-up texts and stream of consciousness.
Ava: Good, how are you?I respond, my lips curled with amusement.
Eagerly awaiting his response, I stare at the screen, but his name pops up via call instead.
“Hello?”
“This cursed device is too hard to use. I didn’t want to type out another response, so I called,” he explains matter-of-factly. “Is work going well? Are you well?”
His genuine concern is adorable, and the fact that he’s checking in on me has me kicking my feet under the bar. I’m giddy like a teenage girl with a crush.
“All good here,” I reply, schooling my voice so I hopefully don’t sound too excited. “How’re you and Pom Pom holding up? Did you end up taking him for a walk like you mentioned?”
Luna smiles over at me, hearing Valen on the other line.
“Yes. He decided to pee on every plant we came across andbark at anyone who looked my way. Quite the attack dog.” I hear Pom Pom yip and Valen praises him.
“Glad you’re having familiar bonding time. Is Zav still trying to force you on a cat daddy –dog daddy playdate?”
He’s been asking every time he sees Valen, and I know my vampire isn’t amused by it.
Whoa, my vampire? Since when? Yes, you’re mates, but that’s a little possessive.
“Unfortunately,” he grumbles. “He is … persistent.”
I snort. That’s a nice way of putting it. Zav is the relentless type. When he discovered Celine was his mate, he would show up at random places as an employee just to see her. I wish I could say that has stopped now that they’re together, but just last week he showed up at our Pilates class as the instructor.
