Page 41 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“So you were in the army?”
“I was.”
“How did you meet this… ancestor of mine?”
“Do you want to sit down or keep standing in the foyer? It’s not the shortest of stories if you’d like to know how I met him.”
He shrugs. “Yeah, I could sit.”
“Are you hungry? I have food here for when Julian stops by.”
“No, no, that’s okay.”
“You sure? You ate dinner?”
Cyrus kicks his shoes off before sliding them into the corner and I have this weird mental image of him kicking his shoes off every day when he gets off work. How nice would that be?
“Define dinner,” he says.
I give him a look and hurry into the kitchen, thrilled he’s here. Thrilled he doesn’t hate me. I will cook him a fifteen-course meal if he’ll stay. Sadly, I don’t have fifteen courses.
“I have some pancake mix and eggs? I try to keep stuff that doesn’t spoil quickly. So I really don’t have much.”
“That’s fine. I’ll make it.”
“NO! No, I can make it. I’ll make it. Have a seat.”
“You really don’t have to cater to me like this.”
“I have to show off my housekeeping skills. Feel free to look at the beautiful vacuum marks in my carpet. Look at those vacuum lines. Don’t you wish you had lines like that in your carpet? Because I can come vacuum your whole house.”
Cyrus seems amused by this. “So… you’ll just come over and clean my house just for fun?”
“I never said it’d be fun, but it’d be clean. I can wear a little apron if you like. Clothes under it can be optional.”
“You’re ridiculous. Stop being so damn nice. You’re a vampire. Act evil.”
“Ha. I tried acting like Casimir when dealing with Zach. Weirdly, I couldn’t pull it off.”
“He really is a nice guy if you’re interested in him.”
I hesitate as that sentence sinks in. “So that means you’re one hundred percent not interested in me?” I ask, feeling quite disappointed. “That’s fine. You don’t actually have to answer that. That wasn’t a real question. That was just like a… joke question. How many pancakes do you want? I’ll make you like ten.”
“I never said that,” he says, voice quiet.
“That you want ten? Fifteen, then.”
“I never said that it was one hundred percent. I don’t know what it is. And if you want to know right now… I’m not sure I can give you that answer. But I also don’t think it’s fair of me to make you wait until I do know. You’re a great guy. You’re nice, funny, and caring. I just…”
“It’s fine. You don’t have to explain it. I understand,” I say. “So twenty pancakes?”
“Let’s try three?”
“Fine, fine.”
“Ezio, I just… I tell myself again and again that I can’t be what you want me to be right now. But sometimes… I find myself being a shitty person because I get jealous when Zach wants to ask you out or when you flash your little app in front of me.”
“Is that why you deleted it?”
