Page 77 of Hopelessly Teavoted
“Shut up,” Az said. “Yes, okay, I stormed out after some slight or another.”
He avoided mentioning that it was because he had lost courage, again, and hadn’t told Vickie how he felt. And then, the next thing he knew, they were switching beer pong partners and Vickie was slipping her arm around Anya, picking them, even though he’d been magicking her balls into the cups that night, hoping that he could at least get a congratulatory hug.
Like the lame creep that he was.
Before he knew it, he had been sulking off behind Danny Nguyen’s house and away from the bright lights of the party, up toward the gazebo on the edge of the property.
“I went for a walk and Alison followed me. We were both a little tipsy, and she kept telling me I was like Mr. Darcy because I was cranky, and we were in a fancy garden.”
“Oh my goddess. How did I never know this? Did youBridgerton-style fuck Alison Price in the Nguyen’s fairy garden?”
“It was a gazebo, and no, I, at age seventeen, was not doing anything with the finesse of a reformed rake. I had very awkward sex with her in a gazebo, and the sex involved stealing a condom because I didn’t bring one. When she wasn’t looking, I magicked it from someone else in the house. I truly hope it was from a box and one of many, or else I ruined someone’s night.”
“I’m sure you weren’t half-bad.”
“That’s actually very similar to what Alison said afterward,” he deadpanned, and Vickie’s laughter pealed across the mausoleum.
Az had forgotten he was even in a house of the dead. It was so easy to forget everything else when he was with her.
Vickie stepped closer, though still at arm’s length, and he could smell her now—strawberries and lavender.
“Don’t worry, Az. I’m not sure if you’re not giving yourself enough credit, or if you’ve learned a lot in the years between,but everything we have ever done, or almost done, has been fucking fantastic.”
Her cheeks colored, the heat stretching tightly between them. He wanted all sorts of totally inappropriate things now. To distract himself, he snapped a final time, and the stone loosened enough that he should be able to pull it off. He tried, but it was still stuck. Must be screwed in.
“That was years ago, and you may be remembering things as better than they were. Or better than I was, at least. Besides. We have a coffin to break into,” he said, not proud of how strained his voice came out. It was bad form to be slightly erect while discussing grave robbery.
“Did you know that most American burials use caskets, not coffins?”
He nodded. “I did. Witches prefer coffins. Most magical creatures do, really.”
“Right,” she said, shaking her head. “Based on the vampire romances I’ve read, that tracks.”
Azrael shook his head, forcing himself to think of the body they were about to disturb instead of Victoria, hot and heavy, reading steamy paranormal novels.
The necessary evil of grave robbery chilled him enough to sober the way he felt.
With a snap of his fingers, the stone finally loosened. A second snap would pull it free completely.
The coffin itself would be trickier.
“Better hope this is a burping coffin, or that it was propped open.”
“Excuse me, awhat?” Vickie’s eyes widened at this.
“I did some work for one of those detective procedurals. I’m not proud of it, but I was broke, and screenwriting can be a tough game. I had to learn all about coffin types.”
Vickie’s eyes were glittering now, and the corners of her mouth pulled up.
“Go on,” she said, rubbing her arm through the pink fluffy coat.
“Bodies emit gases as they decompose,” Az said.
She wrinkled her nose. “Damn, and I thought my deep dive into caskets versus coffins was a lot. I am so glad I deal with the noncorporeal part of death.”
A chuckle escaped his mouth. She was fucking adorable. How was he supposed tonotbe completely in love with her?
Six years of silence between them, a college degree, plenty of failing at screenwriting and substitute teaching high school, and he had learned absolutely nothing about how to stop loving Victoria Elaine Starnberger. It wasn’t his fault. He studied and taught literature, and that shit was chock-full of unrequited infatuation. It was a dangerous business to be in.
