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Her big glasses had fallen down the bridge of her nose, and my fucking fingers itched to push them back up, or pull them off completely.
And since that was fucking ridiculous, I just clutched the coffee cups tighter, feeling the warmth through the paper.
“You’re… you can’t have those in here,” she said, voice thick from sleep.
“What?”
“The coffee. You can’t have that in here.” Confused, I gestured toward her three cups on the table. “Right. Yeah. They’re in spill proof containers,” she said, reaching for the nearest one, pupping up the top for a sip, then wincing. “Cold,” she grumbled.
“I brought you a warm one,” I told her, holding it out.
“You brought… what?” she asked, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t think my brain is firing on all cylinders today,” she admitted. “Do I know you?”
“No. Perhaps you’ve heard of me. Professor Than. Bael Than. But I am actually here because I have heard of you,” I told her. “Professor Astor,” I added, moving forward to hand her the coffee. She took it with both hands but made no move to drink it.
Apparently, human women lived in fear of human men slipping drugs into their drinks to take advantage of them.
And they wondered why hell and the demons who worked there were necessary. For shitheads like that.
“Professor Than,” she repeated, her finely shaped brows drawing together a bit. “Interesting last name. Than. Means death,” she told me.
Though, of course, I’d known that.
It was why I’d chosen it.
Demons didn’t inherently have last names. So I’d needed to invent my own.
“Bael, though, is a type of citrus tree. Not nearly as macabre. So, Professor Than, what can I help you with?”
“I’m… creating an… app,” I said, recalling the story I’d come up with. Apps were a bit of a mystery to me still, but I understood that they were things on those phones humans were always glued to. And that there were apps for “everything.”
“An app. Not really my area of expertise. I can’t seem to figure out how to sign back into my streaming apps,” she said, waving toward her phone.
“I didn’t need help with the building of the app, per se. More the content of it,” I told her, pulling out a chair to sit down.
“What is the content?”
“Greek mythology.”
“Greek mythology,” she repeated, brows pinching. “I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but I really don’t think that is going to be a big hit in the app world.”
“I am creating a game that… in a fun way, teaches the myths to children and adults,” I told her.
“Really? That’s… that might be the first game app I ever download,” she said, a smile tugging at her plump lips. “So, will it be like building your own Greek village with the gods wreaking havoc and such?”
I had no idea.
“Yes, exactly that,” I agreed.
“That could be amazing. It might even get people into the topic of the myths moving forward. Maybe I won’t have such a hard time making the myths seem worth studying after that app comes out.”
“That’s the goal,” I agreed. “Unfortunately, while I find it fascinating, I am not the expert on the myths that you are,” I told her as I made a mental note to find some books on what app creation entailed before heading back to my hotel later.
The lie was getting elaborate.
Normally, I would have probably grumbled about that. But it wasn’t exactly going to be a hardship to spend time with Professor Charlotte Astor.
Besides that, I had to admit that it felt good to be away from the house that all of us shared.
