Page 23 of Blood Descendants
Both of our mothers were murdered.
And as I look back up at Ares, I feel like he carries around the same bitterness and general mistrust for the world that I do.
“We’ve never talked about dating history,” I say, shifting the direction of the conversation. “Did you never have any other girlfriends that gave Augustus hope?”
Ares shrugs. “I had one girlfriend in high school. We dated for most of my junior and senior years. If I’m being honest, I always knew she was with me for the money.”
“Ouch,” I say, cringing.
He just shrugs again. “We kept each other company. I was never in love with her. So, it ran its course. There was another woman a year before I Resurrected. Mila was… sweet. Good. She was an incredible person. But I…” He shakes his head, his eyes fixing on the floor.
“What?” I encourage. These are the kinds of details we need to know about each other.
“I always felt like I was tainting her,” Ares finally admits, his eyes rising to meet mine. “My world was dark and dangerous. There are always ulterior motives when it comes to my world. Mila, she wasn’t cut out for it, and I didn’t want to drag her into a life she didn’t belong in.”
I can’t tell. From the look in his eyes, I can’t tell if Ares was in love with Mila or not. I see conflict there, I don’t question that. But love? I can’t really tell.
“What about you, Vengeance?” he asks, clearly done talking about his own dating history.
I take a deep breath, my mind falling back into the past. “Nothing in high school. I was dealing with too much traumafor that. After I graduated, I started dating this boxer at the gym. And it was… nice. But it didn’t really go anywhere because he got transferred for work only two months later. Last year, I started dating this guy who used to live in my building. And, honestly, I don’t really know why, because he kind of always gave me the ick. I think I just wanted some experience, you know?”
Ares nods like he gets that.
“But that was doomed from the beginning. We were only together for about six weeks when I found out he was cheating on me with this woman who lived across the hall from me. And the craziest part is that I didn’t care that much. It was actually kind of nice to have a reason to end it.”
“We’re a couple of winners in the love department, aren’t we?” Ares says with a sad little smile.
I huff a laugh. “Glad to hear I’m not the only clueless one.”
Ares shakes his head at the ridiculousness.
“Now, how about our story?” I question.
“We should probably start from the beginning,” Ares says. He slides up in his seat, sitting straight once again. He already looks like he’s recovered from his headache. “How did we meet?”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” I answer. “I think we say we met online. We talked there for months before we ever met in person, which is why no one has ever seen us together until recently.”
“But we live in the same city,” Ares points out. “That would make more sense if this was a long-distance thing.”
I shake my head. “I have trust issues,” I say with a shrug. “I thought you sounded interesting, but I know the dangers of meeting up with strangers you meet online. So, I told you I wasgoing to need some time. We talked online until I felt safe enough to meet up in person.”
“Fair enough,” Ares says with the nod of his head. “And, by the time we finally met in person, we’d spent months talking already, which put the in-person relationship at an accelerated timeframe.”
“I think it works,” I say, chewing on my lip as I think it through. “We only met in person a month ago. That’s only four weeks. I think we can get away with it if people question it. It’s not a very long amount of time.”
“People are going to call us crazy,” Ares says with an arched brow. “Getting engaged after a few months of online talking and one month of being around each other in person?”
“People do crazier shit all the time,” I iterate. “Look at Las Vegas, people get married after knowing each other one night. A few months of knowing each other isn’t completely unbelievable. Besides, we just play the madly in love card. I mean, Carissa sure seemed to buy it.”
Ares stares at me silently for a few moments, contemplating it all. He’s the one who’s the good actor. Maybe he doesn’t realize just how well he’s selling this.
“I think you’re right. It’s our best bet,” Ares concedes. “But we need the little details figured out. Where online did we meet?”
I contemplate it for a good long moment. A dating app would be the easy go-to. But I’ve never been on one of those, and depending on if anyone digs into our facts, it probably wouldn’t be hard to find that wasn’t the truth. Same for a “wrong number, right guy” kind of situation. There won’t be any kind of text history between us, or call logs.
“I think Snaptalk is our safest bet,” I finallyconclude. “We found each other through some tangential connection and started talking more and more regularly.”
“I don’t have Snaptalk,” Ares pokes at the plan.
