Page 44 of Night Wedding
“Hello, darling.” She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, her lips as cold as my skin.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
She inclined her head. “Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Just checking.” I looped my arm through hers. “Which way are the apartment rentals?”
She motioned that question away with a wave. “That can wait. Change of plans.”
“Oh, what’s on the agenda for tonight?”
Her cool blue eyes gleamed. “It’s a surprise.”
That was something I could do without. I wasn’t a fan of things being sprung on me.
As we walked, she turned her head in my direction. “You seem tense tonight, Diego. Is something wrong?”
Apparently, I hadn’t done a good enough job of cooling off my emotions, and it was likely exacerbated by walking into some unknown destination. “It’s nothing.” I pressed my lips together.
“Come on, we’re engaged,” she nudged. “You can tell me.”
She was right. I shouldn’t keep things from her. “Okay, it might sound stupid. My roommates were messing with me earlier, and it pissed me off.”
Diana paused mid-step, her body tightening beside me. She resumed walking as if shaking off what disturbed her gait. “Messing with you how?” She kept her gaze fixed straight ahead on the harbor.
My hands itched with the urge to crack my knuckles. Since one arm was entwined with Diana’s, I curled my fingers instead. “They sent some woman to my room, a stranger. After I threw her out, they tried to convince me I was engaged to her.” I snorted. “Can you believe that shit?”
“Oh.” Diana pursed her lips.
Was she as disturbed by their ill-conceived prank as I was? “Don’t worry,” I reassured her. “I told them off. In fact, I’ve started thinking—maybe we shouldn’t wait until we’re married to move in together.”
She stopped and turned in a semi-circle. “Right.” She gestured back toward the commercial district. “This might not be the best place for us to live after all. We’re probably better off going someplace where we can have a fresh start. Just the two of us.” She faced me and searched my eyes. “What do you think?”
Yesterday, I might have had reservations, pointing out my job, my friends, and my life here in Salem. After their stunt, that reticence had evaporated like steam from a boiling cauldron.
“I don’t care where we go, babe, as long as I’m with you.”
Down at the wharf, the moonlight twinkled on the surface of the harbor. The salty tang from the sea swirled higher. I did love it here in Salem. Maybe I was being too rash in my decision to leave.
A couple walking a black Labrador passed from the opposite direction. The dog leapt at us, barking mad.
“Sorry,” the man said, pulling on the leash. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
Diana released my arm and hissed.
“It’s okay.” I squeezed her arm. We couldn’t act like that around humans. It wasn’t good for relations with them.
The woman with the dog gave us a perplexed expression and said, “Come on, let’s get him out of here.”
They turned away with the dog.
“I hate dogs.” She sneered. “Why humans are foolish enough to fawn over those smelly beasts shows how foolish they are.”
Right, that was something I’d forgotten about Diana. She loathed animals.
A loud crash boomed behind me, and I jerked my head in that direction. Someone was moving in the shadows behind some bushes. I ran over.
Sebastian was crouched behind a barrel where plastic bottles and metal cans tumbled around him.
