Page 19 of Demon's Desire

“I think you made the right choice.” He nodded at me. “Do you like your apartment so far? I swear some of the landlords around here need to be in jail. I’ve seen some shitty apartments rented out at luxury prices.”

“Really?” I blinked. “Wow. Maybe you should come look over my apartment and let me know if I’m getting a bad deal. I think it’s nice? I mean, I haven’t seen any red flags yet.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” He nodded. “You said you had friends in the area. Are you living with them?”

“Well… That’s a funny story, actually.” I smiled sheepishly. “So I moved up here with my college roommate. But last night, my friends’ apartment caught fire, so they’re staying with us for now.”

His face fell. “Damn. Like… fire fire?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “They were having a party. The firefighters said it was probably electrical. No one got hurt, and the damage isn’t too bad, but they’re pretty shaken up.”

Marcus shook his head. “They’re lucky to have you. You guys must be close.”

“I mean, yeah, we are,” I agreed. “But I would let anyone stay there after something like that. I can’t even imagine.”

“Really?” He gave me a slight smile. “That’s sweet.”

“Oh, thanks.” I returned his smile. “So what about you? In this area?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Not too far from here. It could be worse.”

A thought popped into my head, something that had been bugging me since yesterday. “So… since you’re from this area, can I ask you something?”

“Beautiful, you can ask me anything,” he assured me.

I felt my cheeks get a bit hot at that, but I ignored it. “So my friends are in, or they were, in Lakeview. They said they’ve been having these… weird things going on. Then last night, our downstairs neighbor said the same thing. Have you experienced anything like that?”

“Anything like… what?” He raised an eyebrow. “What kind of weird?”

“Um… Like… Weird enough that it would make you believe in ghosts?” I cringed at the fact that I was even asking this ridiculous question.

He grinned in amusement, either at the premise or at my reaction to it. “Hm. No. Nothing that weird in my area. But maybe I’m just lucky. Why? Have you guys seen anything weird in the last couple of days?”

“No… not really.” I shrugged. “My neighbor just pointed it out. She says that she hears things in our apartment when we aren’t there.”

“Really?” He tilted his head again. “Huh… Fascinating. Maybe there’s a ghost who has a crush on you.”

“Oh, shut up.” I laughed and shook my head. Behind me, I heard the door open for the first time in a while. I glanced over my shoulder and froze. There was Elias, but he was with four other guys. I checked my phone. It was past one-thirty by this point. He showed up more than half an hour late and brought friends? That was kind of shitty.

I turned back to Marcus. “Um, my… you know, he’s here. But thank you for keeping me company.”

“Anytime, Mia.” He nodded at me and gave me a half smile as he got up to return to the counter.

I took a deep breath to prepare myself for this awkward conversation, then stood up. The group was standing a few feet away from the counter, looking over the menu. I went over to Elias and gently put my hand on his arm. “Hey.”

He turned around and looked at me with a blank expression for a moment, then he smiled. “Hi. Sorry, are we in your way?”

I blinked, my brows ticking together. “Um… No, Elias.”

His friends turned to look at me when I said that. He looked confused. “Uh… Sorry. Do I know you?”

At that, I frowned fully. “Yeah. We met last night, at Torie and Mica’s party?”

“Party…?” He started to shake his head when one of his friends grabbed his shoulder.

“Dude, you ditched me last night and went to a party?” One of them whined. “Where you met hot chicks?”

Gross.

---