Page 46 of Chosen

Always different for different’s sake.

“Hope you like the view.” Damon’s words floated over to me, my attention split between the bar and memories of Atlanta.

I looked at him before noticing the large ceiling to floor window next to a few wooden tables. I gasped at the sight of it, the view of the rest of the buildings in the square, all lit up with giant trees behind them giving them a beautifully haunted effect. I felt like I was looking at a snapshot of time, able to see the development between nature and the human world, all built out in sparkling lights and leaves that glowed beneath the moon.

“So? What do you think?” Damon asked, as he stood by my side.

“I think I’m in another world,” I murmured, before taking a seat at a table closest to the window.

Damon seemed to flinch at that, a reaction I didn’t understand. I wanted to ask him about it, but before I could, he was settling in across from me, a smile replacing his previous expression.

Hmm.

No point in bringing it up if Damon seemed like he was already over it.

“You told me this was just a regular restaurant,” I started, the view beside me still resonating somewhere deep inside. “You said it wasn’t magical like the convenience store.”

“I’m pretty sure I said it was magical, just in a different way.” He grinned. “But there’s no denying it’s just a regular restaurant, either. You’ll see when we get the menu.”

“I have no idea how you get used to all of this…”

“I don’t think I ever said that, either.” Damon grinned. “I don’t think you ever get used to it. You just learn to find your place inside all of it. And then, it all becomes like a second nature to you—”

“Henry! Put me down! Put me down!” A woman’s laugh cut through our conversation. I followed the sound of the laugh, now spotting them in another corner of the room. There was a tall, lumberjack-sized man, holding onto a small woman, playfully cradling her in his arms. She swatted at his chest, but it was clear it was all for show, the warm expression on her face betraying how she was really feeling.

“I’ll only put you down if you admit you love me,” The man said, a lightness to his tone. “In front of everyone at this restaurant tonight!”

“You already know I love you, Henry!”

“I don’t know if everyone else knows it, though!”

“Put her down, Henry!” Damon suddenly called out, grinning from ear to ear. “Don’t make me come over there and make you put her down!”

“You stay out of this, Damon Anderson!” Henry laughed. “Or else I’ll tell Jacob that it looks like you’re taking a night off! You know what he’ll do to you if he ever found something like that out!”

“Okay, okay. You got me.” Damon held up his hands in surrender. “But she’s right, you know. We already know how much you two love each other. Now, you’re just rubbing it in.”

“Oh, like you never rubbed it in with Lisa!” Henry called back. “No one could escape you two! You were practically attached at the hip!”

Damon’s demeanor changed then, a familiar wince crossing his face.

Once again, he quickly shook it off, as he jokingly waved at Henry. “All right, all right. You two have a good night.”

Lisa?

Who’s Lisa?

The question was burning at the back of my throat, scratching at my skin. Instead, a different question came out of my mouth, one that I wasn’t aching as much to ask. “Are those old friends of yours?”

“You could say that.” Damon smiled. “We used to be good friends before—”

Damon seemed to stop himself in the middle of his sentence, soon correcting it. “We just used to be closer, that’s all.”

“They seem nice.”

“They are.”

The stilted nature of our conversation made my stomach flop. Wanting to somehow reverse it, I tried changing the topic, steering it away from Henry and his partner. “Is it always like that here?”

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