Page 33 of Overexposed

When time and space and the photographer’s intent overlap in perfect synchronicity, that is when art is born. I took a picture of Auris on Wenceslas Square at twilight, him looking not at me but at the sky, and it would become my favorite picture of him. There is a frame now, a big, golden thing, and it hangs in my office instead of the mirror. It’s the expression on his face. It always makes me wonder what exactly he thought that day.

We made it to the museum eventually. It was almost six, closing time, and Auris went ahead with entrancing the staff right away, which would have made me giddy if I hadn’t been so damn cold.

Auris took one look at me and pointed to an archway that branched off to the left of the foyer. “Café, now. They are going to go into overtime and pour warm tea down your throat until your teeth stop chattering.”

“You are overprotective,” I said, but the words came out broken. On account of the chattering teeth.

The look he gave me made me fully realize that arguing wouldn’t do me any good here, so I made my way to the café. I could barely even feel my knees.

The café was nice. It had a dino skeleton on display, and childhood me loved that, especially since I soon had a vampire sitting next to me and ordering a selection of three herbal teas.

“I’m getting the best of both worlds,” I said and pointed at the dino, then at Auris.

He raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Well, a vampire and a dinosaur. One of the two is a dream everyone has had at least once in their lives.”

Auris rolled his eyes. “Now here we are. The human in my care is suffering from hypothermia, and I only have myself to blame.”

I smiled, and while the woman behind the counter boiled the water for all the tea I would be forced to drink, I downloaded an app they had, mostly because I wanted to see what that was about.

Auris watched me explore the very museum we were sitting in from my screen for a few minutes before he spoke again. “Ethan. I cannot entirely believe we are here because you want to learn about history and evolution.”

“Well, I do want to see the mammoth,” I said. “But you’re right. I am more interested in the building. It’s all so big and palatial. It’s a neo-Renaissance beauty. It’s not about any kind of project I’m planning, but from what I’ve seen, this will just be… nice, you know. I wanted to be in a nice place with you. And just the two of us here. It’ll be something special.”

I got treated to surprise lifting Auris’s eyebrows, his mouth opening in a silentoh. “This is a date. You are taking me on a date, my sweet.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Seemed right. You forget we should be dating. You may have your head in a love prophecy, but I do need some dating and a little bit of romance every now and then. I had to take charge.”

Auris stared at me for a good three seconds before I was treated to his melodic laughter, and just joy softening out his faerie prince features.

“Ethan,” he said when his laughter ebbed. “I keep seeing your existence as a special thing, the fact you sleep near me, wake near me, breathe and smile where I can see, but over all that, I forget thatyouare special. And terribly, terribly sweet.”

I grinned at him. “Yeah, you make a pretty good assistant too.”

The lady who would be forced into overtime unless I got warm quickly brought me the tea Auris had ordered -- three large mugs, black tea, chamomile, and sage.

The museum closed up before I managed to finish one of them, but at least by then, I’d had a chance to warm my hands on the mugs.

“So about the holidays,” I said. “I mean, I called Dad from the apartment, and you were there, so you heard, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “You want to stay here and do a Zoom get-together.”

“And you also heard why?”

He nodded again. “Because you want to start something that is just you and I.”

“Yup. Glad you heard that, and I don’t have to repeat it again. When you say it, it doesn’t sound all that sappy.”

“Oh, Ethan, you are trying to be bad again, and I like that so very, very much. Do not distract me too much, or my entrancement might drop.”

“And that from the vampire who once entranced an entire seaside restaurant just to impress a guy.”

He reached out and pushed a strand of my hair back behind my ear. “But it was worth it. The guy stayed for dessert.”

“Yeah. Dessert was good, but if I remember correctly, the real dessert part happened later, in the woods. Now, send everyone home who doesn’t need to be here and let’s go on this date.”

And he did. We left our jackets hanging over the massive banister of the massive staircases that dominated the foyer, but I took my camera as we set off to wander.

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