Page 32 of The Bleeding Hearts Club

Fuck. Theo, now’s the time to do that weird thing where it seems like you can read my mind.

I hear his deep laugh through the door seconds before he pulls it open.

“I can’t read your mind, Mina. That’s some ridiculous Twilight shit,” he states, smirks, and continues, “I do, however, have such great hearing that when in a close vicinity, I can often hear them as they are formed.” Theo shoots me a cheeky grin.

“That explains it then. Okay,” I say before I pause and start laughing. “Dude, I bet this week in the hotel has been fucking brutal. Oh my God.”

His face scrunches up and he shivers dramatically. “I’ll need at least four months of therapy after this, just to get over the things I’ve seen, or that’s happened to me. Don’t even get me started on what I’ve heard.” Theo sends me a fearful look and I can’t do anything but cringe.

“I—I am so sorry.”

“I’ll be okay…eventually. Now, what’s the plan here, sweetheart? Because I know for a fact you have been cursing my name since you woke up,” I open my mouth to argue with him, but he cuts me off, saying, “Don’t lie to me, Mina. I heard the second you woke up because you stopped snoring and then your proclivity for setting fires kicked in.”

I snort, rolling my eyes. “Asshole. But yes, if you are so interested, I am not happy to be awake before the sun is even up, but this isn’t for me. It’s for you. Now, come on jackass. We don’t have all day. And before you even start, yes I know we technically do have all day, but I have a lot for us planned and it’s all time sensitive. So, shut up, and let’s go.”

The hotel is eerily silent at this time of morning. Which is perfectly reasonable because only psychopaths like getting up this early. Another tally for Theo’s red flags, but honestly, who’s counting those anymore.

He just trails behind me, following me into the elevator where he grabs the bags from my arms with a small smile.

It’s the little things.

Which is exactly why I planned what I have. Breakfast on the beach to watch the sunrise, an early morning swim as the sun makes its ascent high into the sky. Afterward, a little hike to a waterfall a half a mile from the hotel, luckily on a posted trail so there’s no chance we’ll get lost, or I’ll break a leg. Lunch consisting of burgers and shakes out on the patio. Maybe another dip in the water so Theo can surf and I can read a bit, and just enjoy each other’s company. And at the end of the day, we’ll take a canoe out on the water, and Theo can teach me all he knows about the stars.

Chapter 12

Mina

“Do you think we’re alone out here? Like, the universe I mean.” My voice breaks through the rushing of waves against the slightly rocking canoe. I’m cool with canoes apparently, not ferries.

“I don’t know, Mina. What I do know is that most of what we see isn’t always what it seems. Take me for example.” His arm waves over him. “By all intents and purposes, I shouldn’t exist. So, I don’t think it’s my place to decide whether or not aliens can too, ya know?”

“Yeah,” I trail off. We’re lying in the canoe, his head next to mine, and our feet propped on the edge of the small boat, staring at the vast endlessness that is the night sky. Today was everything I had hoped it would be.

Theo had shown me time and time again this week, in ways that I hadn’t even noticed that he cared for me. It was my turn to repay the favor, and if the content little smile that has stayed on his face through most of the evening is anything to go by, I think I succeeded.

“How, uh—”

“How did I become a vampire?” Theo cuts me off.

“Uh, yeah. If that’s okay? I don’t necessarily know proper vampire etiquette.” He snorts at my terrible joke, and it’s then I think that I realize that I don’t need to strive for a romance like in my books. They aren’t real. They’re overly dramatic, and have convoluted plots for the sake of conflict and tension, and things aren’t always like that in real life. But what I can have from my books, is a love that is just a fierce.

I’m not a main character. I’m a dick. I’m fat. I’m weird as hell, and prefer the dead people from my job from those that are living, like back on the island. I won’t live a cheesy romcom. I won’t have a meet cute at a coffee shop, and a John Cusack holding a stereo in my backyard.

But I can have a love like that. Just as accepting, fulfilling, and fun with this goofy ass “bat-next-door” that barreled into my life and completely flipped it on its head.

“I like that, Mina.” Theo finally speaks again.

“Huh?”

“I like the idea of having a love like us and no one else.”

“You heard that?”

“Sweetheart, you were practically screaming it.”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad you know and I don’t have to tell you, but there’s still a lot you need to tell me, like how you got your training wings,” I tease him and from my spot I can see a smile playing at the corners of his lips.

“I suppose I do. I was twenty-one. My friends and I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras—”