He chuckled. “You know you wouldn’t hurt like this if you did some actual work sometime.”
I shot my head up off my pillow. “Thanks for the tip, Sloth.” I reminded him. He shook his head but continued massaging me.
“I like all of your tattoo’s. They’re so random.” He poked the mermaid on my calf.
“They are. I had a lot of fun in Mexico.”
“When was that?” He yawned.
“Early two-thousands. Before vampires were outed. It was a lot of fun but much more dangerous.”
“I have a lot of stories that start that way myself.” He quipped.
I tried to relax. I wanted to. I removed my foot from Desi’s hands and motioned for him to get under the covers. I turned the lights off and scooted closer to him, pulling his arm around me. His forearms were large and comforting.
I sighed, and he noticed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Aleida. Do you think she could be right? About you guys being meant for each other?”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want that, so it won’t happen,” he said with such assurance it bugged me.
“You didn’t answer me. Do you think she knows the truth?”
“I really don’t want to talk about this, Scout. Can we just sleep?”
“No.” I pulled away and turned to face him. “You’re not telling me something, and that’s not cool.”
He took a deep breath. Despite the room being dark, I could see his scowl clearly. “I don’t know what to think when it comes to anything she says. I think she’s interested in me, and she’ll say whatever it takes to get me to take a second look. She did try to go down on me, but I kicked her out. I don’t know if what she says is true, and I don’t want to find out. I would one-hundred percent stay cursed forever with you than find out that what she says was true.”
He meant well. I knew he did. But it just made me feel horrible. I turned back around and let him pull me into his arms. I lay there for a long time, wondering if staying cursed with Desi was keeping Aleida from her soulmate and me from mine.
25
Aleida would not let up. Every time we were alone for even a minute, she threatened to tell Scout about the dreams. It seemed like we were still sharing the same visions. Everything except the bridge. She never brought up that moment. Only the sex and the diner.
Where I died.
The bridge was the only thing holding me to the idea that maybe she was wrong. The details she gave each time she whispered in my ear were so vivid I couldn’t deny that we had seen the same thing but from different perspectives.
“You had cigarettes. You smoked one right afterward. How cliche.” She told me as I was exiting the urinal. I refused to look at her. I walked back to my office, pretending I hadn’t heard her. Or seen her.
Scout wasn’t here today, so Aleida and Una were elated. I don’t know how Scout handled it when I was gone. I was gonna lose my shit, and it’d only been a few hours.
“Have you told her yet? Don’t think I didn’t catch how you dodged the question the other night.”
I went into my office and started to shut the door, but she stuck her foot in to stop me.
“Get the fuck out.” I spat.
“Why? Nothing’s going to happen, right? There’s no reason we can’t just talk.”
“I don’t want to talk.”
“Are you afraid you’ll realize I’m right? That’s why you don’t want to be around me. Because once we get to know each other, you’ll see that we were meant to be together.”
“You’re delusional,” I said, squeezing the bridge of my nose. “Will you please go away?”
