Page 37 of How Not to Date an Angel

Julian tried not to look too closely at the swirly feeling in his chest right then.

It wasn’t until they were seated in the same places as the morning before that either one of them spoke again.

Julian was on the couch, foot propped up on the short table, and the angel was in their sunlit chair once more.

“So, what about you?” Rami asked, pretending like they were looking for their place in the book, even though it was marked.

“What about me… what?” Julian questioned.

Rami’s gray eyes lifted. “Do you have any… errands to run today?”

“Not really.” He didn’t want to admit that he’d only left the house yesterday before he said something he regretted. “I mostly wanted to snoop around. Check out this little corner of Earth.” As nice as Rami’splace was, Julian was hoping to see a little more of… well, Earth, while he was here.

Rami tilted their head toward Julian. “You say that like you haven’t been before.”

“I’ve visited. For, like, moments at a time, as I delivered messages,” Julian admitted. He didn’t have to tell Rami he didn’t deliver messages anymore. “But I’ve never been able to stick around to really experience it.”

“How do you know so much about Earth, then?”

“The internet,” Julian answered.

Rami blinked. “Hell has internet?”

“Not very good internet. It’s slow as hell,” Julian said with a blank face.

Rami snickered, and it was the sound of it that made Julian’s lips finally twitch.

They went quiet, lost in thought for a moment, and then Rami cleared their throat.

“I could show you around a bit. Give you the full Earthly experience while you’re here.”

Julian’s brow furrowed, surprise filling him. “You’d do that?”

“Well, I can’t exactly see to my clients while you’re around, so I have nothing better to do.”

Ah. “Gee, thanks,” Julian drawled.

“No, I just mean—since I have nothing on my plate, I might as well introduce you to somecreature comforts,as the humans say.”

Julian sipped his coffee and tried not to smile. The angel still spoke as if they hadn’t been here for years and years. “I think I might like that.”

Rami hummed. “Well, there is still—don’t you need to lay low?”

Julian blinked at him, and Rami sighed.

“You know, to hide from whomever… hurt you,” they finished, some emotion flickering in their expression before it smoothed out again.

“Nah, I’m certain they don’t care where I am.”Yet,he finished in his head. “Plus, I’m sure I could sense them, like I did all your goodness.”

He still had a few days. Till the end of the week, at least.

Rami narrowed their eyes at that, but the demon refused to give any more information away, lest he accidentally tip the angel off that something was up. What Julian might be on Earth for was none of the angel’s business, anyway.

“What would you like to see?” Rami asked, smoothing a thumb over the closed cover of his book.

“I don’t know. What is there to see?” Julian asked.

He couldn’t explain the sudden racing of his heart.

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