Page 14 of Looking for Seth

I just wanted to be home where no one was going to betray me.

Chapter 8

Menhit

I stared at Seth's retreating back, trying to work out what had happened and what I should do about it. Despite all the worrying about what had happened, and the different scenarios I'd tried to plan for, none of them had prepared me for this.

"I'm so sorry," I said to the woman about to sit down opposite me, feeling awful that my actions had robbed her of her next date. "You should skip me." I gestured for the man who was supposed to be sitting with Seth for the next date. At least if we both left the event, it wouldn't impact everyone else too badly, though it was still a bad look.

Both of them stared at me in confusion, but I knew that I needed to get out of here and try to explain the situation to Seth, though I wasn't sure where to begin with that. I just knew that I had to. Whether I wanted it to be the case or not, I'd messed up badly, and I needed to fix it.

I hurried after him, promising myself that I'd return and apologise to Venus for the disturbance at her event after I'd talked with Seth. I didn't want her to think that she'd done anything to cause the ruckus, or for her to ban me from attending future events.

I ran out of the room in time to see Seth leave the hotel. At least I was going to be able to catch up with him. It would be so much worse otherwise.

I closed my eyes and resisted the urge to call forth my inner lioness and shift so I could run after him. For one, there were far too many humans around to shift at all. And there was also a chance that Seth could outrun me if he decided to shift too. Though I wasn't actually sure if the rumours of him being able to change forms were true or not.

To my surprise, he turned in the street and stared at me. "Why are you following me?"

"Because I wanted to explain," I said, though that didn't quite encompass it all. "Please hear me out?"

Confusion, anger, and acceptance merged on his face, making his expression inscrutable. It seemed that I wasn't the only one who couldn't work out how the current situation was making me feel. Somehow, it was strangely reassuring to think that he was having the same issue.

His face softened. "Okay. Do you want to get a drink?"

"A drink?" I echoed, too taken aback by his agreement to hear me out to properly process it.

"That's what people normally do when they want to talk," he pointed out.

"Well yes, but..."

"You didn't think that I'd agree?"

"Something like that." I wasn't completely sure I would have in his position, which I realised was ridiculous when I was the one who had asked for all of this.

He gestured to the bar we were standing next to. "Will here do?"

I nodded, not really caring where we ended up, just that we'd be able to have an actual conversation rather than me ruining things by not being able to explain over the phone.

Seth headed straight for the bar, leaving me to trail behind. I wanted to shake myself out of this. I hated being the person who stayed a few steps behind.

"What would you like?" he asked.

"A rum and coke."

He nodded and turned back to the bartender. A pair of drinks arrived minutes later, and we headed over to a corner booth. It was promising that Seth was open to being in a situation that would put him close to me like this, but I was still worried that I'd ruined things by not revealing who I was before this point. Though I was going to stand by the fact that he hadn't told me who he was either. I'd had to learn that from accidentally being shown a photo.

He held out my drink, and I took it, our fingers brushing against one another as I took it from him. My breathing hitched as a small crackle of electricity felt like it travelled down the length of my arm. Logic said that it was completely in my imagination, but I couldn't help but consider that it wasn't. Especially when he was a storm god capable of conjuring that kind of thing.

I cleared my throat. "Thank you."

He nodded and took a sip of his drink.

"And I'm sorry." I swirled my drink around, but didn't take a sip.

He raised an eyebrow. "For?"

"All of this. I didn't mean to make you feel like I'd betrayed you, or hidden things from you, or whatever it is that you feel right now."