“No, I get it,” he says, cutting me off. “Really, it was a long shot.”
I think I see him wilt a little before that same unburdened smile crosses his face. “Anyway, I’ll see you in there.”
He goes inside, and the moment the door shuts, I feel a little of that tightness creep back into my chest. Fortunately, I still have my cigarette to ease my ache, but as I savor it, each puff makes me think of him, of the interaction I just shared. The first unburdened distraction I’ve enjoyed in what feels like ages. I mouth the words “sexy Frankenstein,” a large grin burning my cheeks. But then I shake the thought along with my head.
“Am I really that easy? Does it really take that little for me to fall for someone?”
I finish the cigarette and head back inside. I get back to the table just as V is done yelling something into her drink. “Can you believe that bitch gets royalties on these things? Vodka, tomato juice, and Tobasco, and she gets 1% every time!”
“How many has she had to drink?” I ask Gabby.
“Oh, this is her first,” Gabby teases. “The bartender was busy, and the other one took ages.”
I look to the bar and see Manny. He’s talking to a small group of blonde bimbos, doing little bottle tricks, making them smile as they stare at his big arms. And of course, one of them slides her phone number to him on a bar napkin. I close my eyes as the ache in my chest creeps back in. I should have known he wasn’t actually interested in me; he just met me, and he doesn’t know me at all. He’s a bartender, for Christ's sake; he was probably just being nice.
“And where were you?” V asks me, breaking my view.
“Daydreaming,” I huff in a defeated tone. “Let’s get out of here. I’m starving.”
I grab my leather jacket and get up from the table.
“Hold on, I just got my drink,” V hisses as she chases me.
“Just bring the glass, it’s not like he’ll notice,” I sneer back as I head for the exit.
Chapter three
Universal Monsters
Universal wasn’t what I imagined it would be. I don’t think it was what any of us imagined it would be. Sure, I’d never been to an amusement park like this; they weren’t really my scene to begin with, but somehow it never crossed any of our minds that we were going to the one amusement park in the world famous for making money based on characters that looked like two out of the three of us.
“Oh my god! Do you work for the park? Is this for a new ride?” Two college-aged girls, still on the upswing of their day, hounded V, posturing for a selfie. When she hissed and bore her fangs to drive them away, they just shouted with delight before snapping a pic.
Gabby and I watched from a bench outside the mummy ride, sharing a popcorn. “Gabs, did you really not think about the fact that there’s a mural with two of our faces right over there?”
Gabby turned to look at the large faces painted on the side of a squat brick building. They weren’t us exactly. I’m obviously not the original Bride, and V isn’t Dracula’s Bride, but you see a pretty girl with a streak of white hair and scars, and another one with fangs, and the conclusions aren’t hard to draw.
Gabby collected a handful of popcorn out of my bag. “Okay, minor oversight, but at least we get to skip most of the lines.”
“Easy for you to say, no one’s clamouring for ghoul selfies every five feet as we try to get on the Hogwarts Express.” Gabby pouts, though part of me wonders if it’s at my comment or another flock of college coeds closing in on her girl. “You know you could help her.”
“I know, but sometimes it’s nice to remind her how lucky she is that she’s with me and not those floozies.”
The edge in her voice catches me by surprise as I turn to look at her. “Are you? Is there something up between you two?”
Gabby presses her face into her cheeks, not an admission, but certainly not an “everything's fine.”
“You know we can talk about it,” I continue.
“No, it’s whatever.” Even for someone undead and partly incorporeal, it’s odd to see the way her jaw can still form a tight line, the way her brow knits as she chooses her words. “Besides, we’re supposed to be here to cheer you up.”
V finally breaks free of the coeds, snaking through the rest of the crowd like a shadow before reaching us. “Thanks for the assist, you two were a real help.”
“In my defense, you do look exactly like the mural,” I reply, pointing back to the building-sized painting.
V doesn’t even bother acknowledging the joke. “Well, I’ve had enough fun for one day. What’s say we get out of here and hit a club?”
“But we haven’t seen the fireworks yet!” Gabby protests. “And I was hoping to haunt the park staff after closing.”
