With that information, he could see her at long last. Face. Body.
Caught talking or eating. From the side, the back, the front. In motion. Still.
Oh, God, her heartbeat was echoing in her ears. And when BAWN’s response popped up within seconds, she literally jumped.
Book!AeneasWouldNever:I’m here.
Book!AeneasWouldNever:Wow. This is a surprising development.
Book!AeneasWouldNever:It’s wonderful to see your face, Ulsie.
Unapologetic Lavinia Stan:Only my face?
Book!AeneasWouldNever:All of you. I just checked, and there are some very nice shots of your dinner tonight appearing online, as you said.
Wonderful, he’d said.Very nice.
Slowly, her heart rate was calming, the prickle of nervous sweat at her hairline diminishing.
Itwas okay. It was okay. He’d seen her, and hadn’t turned away.
She should have known. BAWN wasn’t shallow or unkind.
He hadn’t even seemed especially shocked by news that she’d gone on a date with one half of their OTP, weirdly enough. Unable to resist, she did a quick internet search of her own, to discover what version of herself he’d just seen, and...
Yes. There she was, on Twitter and Insta and one entertainment blog post already. In some shots, those bastards had caught her midchew. In others, though, she was smiling.
In one, Marcus was leaning across the table, staring at her intently. Touching the back of her wrist in a way that made her shiver to remember, shiver to see from an outsider’s perspective.
Unapologetic Lavinia Stan:You’re right. I just found a few of the pics.
Book!AeneasWouldNever:I imagine it must be hard to have your private life suddenly so visible. Does it bother you?
Unapologetic Lavinia Stan:Well, it’s not my FAVORITE thing in the world, but it’s okay. In general, I don’t give a shit what strangers think. Just the people I care about.
Book!AeneasWouldNever:Good.
Book!AeneasWouldNever:So how was the date?
Here be dragons, she thought.
Because she couldn’t really tell him much about her topsy-turvy dinner with the man who played Aeneas, could she? Notwithout violating Marcus’s privacy and contradicting his chosen public persona, which she refused to do.
Even if that hadn’t been an issue, though, she wouldn’t have described the date in detail. If BAWN cared about her the same way she did him, hearing those details would sting, and she wasn’t about to hurt him. Not for anything.
God, if he’d gone on a date with a famous actress, she couldn’t even imagine how insecure and worried she’d be. So no, she wasn’t sharing specifics. And depending on how he responded to their conversation tonight, there might not be any future specifics to omit.
Unapologetic Lavinia Stan:It was pleasant. He seems like a genuinely decent man. The food was EXCELLENT too. If you make it to San Francisco for Con of the Gates, maybe we could go there? My treat.
Book!AeneasWouldNever:Any interesting tidbits? Behind-the-scenes secrets he let slip? Or personal anecdotes?
Unapologetic Lavinia Stan:Nope. None.
Unapologetic Lavinia Stan:He was very circumspect.
Book!AeneasWouldNever:Do you want to see him again?
His assumption that Marcus would be willing to see her again, that the existence or lack of a second date was entirely up to her, was flattering—but BAWN had entirely ignored her mention of meeting in person. Dammit.
