She disappeared to deal with someone else, which I took as a sign that I'd done everything I needed to.
Now all I had to do was wait. I headed back to where Baal was waiting with an amused expression on his face.
"So if I'm to take a guess at what changed your mind, would I be right in thinking it's a certain ex of yours?" he asked, glancing over at where Bastet was talking with another woman.
"Would you believe me if I denied it?" I asked.
"No. I've known you too long for you to ever be able to convince me that you aren't still interested in her."
"Then I won't deny it."
"You really should move on," Baal chided me. "She's the one that broke it off. She's not going to be interested in starting up again."
"It was a mutual decision," I muttered.
Baal let out a hearty laugh. "Just like every time someone gets dumped. It's always mutual, no one is ever actually to blame."
While his words rang true, I knew they weren't the case when it came to how things had ended with Bastet. We'd both been equally to blame, wrapped up in our own duties and the needs of our temples, rather than spending the time we needed to support the relationship we had.
It was something I regretted to this day, but I knew that nothing either of us could have done would have made a difference.
But that didn't mean I wouldn't be able to convince her to give our relationship a second chance. Time had changed me, and I was sure it had changed her. Our priorities weren't what they once were.
All I had to do was convince her that it would be better now.
The bell sounded, drawing my attention to the nearest empty table. This was going to be interesting.
Chapter 4
Bastet
I plastered a smile on my face as my date changed and someone new sat down opposite me. One look at the man told me all I needed to know about how this was going to go. As if on cue, he started to drone on about a club I'd never heard of and how he was an important member of it. Not wanting to encourage him any further than I had to, I just made noises that sounded like I was listening.
A small bubble of guilt formed within me as I thought about what I was doing, but I pushed it to the side. Things obviously weren't clicking with…
I squinted my eyes to make out his name tag.
Donald? That couldn't be his real name, could it?
After what felt like an age, the bell rang.
"It was nice to meet you," Donald said.
"Mmhmm, likewise." I flashed him a tight smile and waited for him to move on before marking my card as a definite no.
Why had I let myself get talked into this? I hadn't been around this many people in a long time, and there was a good reason for that. I was much more comfortable in a one-on-one situation.
Or even better, one-on-cat. I understood the felines in a way that escaped me with people.
"Hello, Bastet," a familiar voice said.
I looked up, slightly alarmed despite knowing he was in the room. "Ptah." His name came out as a cracked whisper, one I hadn't used in a long time.
He pulled his chair out and sat down, his gorgeous dark eyes piercing me and seeing right into my soul.
There was something about Ptah that always made me feel as if he understood me in a way no one else ever had. It was a skill of his, and one that probably made us both complacent in the care of our relationship.
"I didn't expect to see you tonight," he said.
