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“Yes.”
“He didn’t ask me himself.” Why does that pinch me somewhere uncomfortable?
“I imagine he would have, if you hadn’t slept in so late,” her words are a gentle but firm rebuke, and she opens up my wardrobe, tsk-ing to herself as she pulls out a dress. It’s sunny and short, light blue and it’ll skim the tops of my knees, showing off more curves than I like. It’s not an evening-dinner dress, but something meant for sunshine and clear skies.
“I’m guessing you’ve decided for me, and you’re going to ask me to go out with him sooner rather than later?” I ask, turning to my dresser and to the sandwich. Beside it, the ivy I rescued from downstairs has started to twine around a necklace stand, sending out exploratory vines to ‘taste’ the surroundings it has found itself in. I find myself reaching for it, stroking my fingers over its shiny, heart-shaped leaves. I swear for a moment that it presses back against my touch, but that’s not possible. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep, that’s all.
“If you can be ready in an hour, Hadrion will meet you downstairs,” Elenora’s words are firm, but polite. “I can recommend a light makeup for you, and I’ll have a selection of shoes and purses ready for you.” She apparently knows much better than I do about where he’s taking me.
“For dinner, right? Early dinner?” I ask her, because that dress does not look fancy enough for an upscale restaurant. She just gives me a blank look and pulls out some accessories for me, but I draw the line at makeup. I can... do my own makeup.
I emerge a little less than an hour later, the soft thick jersey of the dress falling around my knees, my hair pulled back into a loose ponytail that Elenora insisted on, feeling awkward and uncomfortable.
I have no idea where we are going, and I don’t know what he’s planning, especially after last night... my heart feels hollow andsore. True to Elenora’s word though and despite my misgivings, Hadrion is waiting down in the living room, near the door to the stairs. He turns as I come down the steps, his gaze lifting up to take me in.
Is it my imagination, or does he falter? Is there something that flits across his expression, or am I making things up? Telling myself little lies to feel like...
Like his heart might be hurting for me like mine hurts for him?
“I don’t know where you’re planning on taking me,” I say to him as I step down onto the main floor, crossing it to stand in front of him. He’s silent, taking me in and up close. His pupils are so wide that it’s turned his eyes from gold to dull brass.
“You’ll find out,” he murmurs, and lifts a hand. I hold my breath as his fingertips ghost across my cheek, and his eyes flicker to the pendant that’s resting on top of the neckline of my dress before lifting up. “But I’m glad you wore those.” He nods to my feet, where a pair of sensible Chucks waits for me to go on some adventure around Detroit. Those, when Elenora pulled them from my wardrobe, told me that there was no way we were going somewhere fancy for dinner.
It set me at ease in a way that I can’t put into words.
“You look...” He pauses.
“Gorgeous? Murderous? Ready for a multi-episode run on Jeopardy?” My rapid-fire answers make him laugh, and his hand lifts to smooth over his lips, chasing the smile away.
“Beautiful,” he answers, offering me his hand, and my heart lifts, a flutter in my stomach. He leads me downstairs to where a sleek black convertible waits, no driver in sight. In the small back seatsits what I suspect is a picnic basket. I shoot him a suspicious look and he gives me a smile. “What?” He asks as he opens the door for me.
The convertible explains the ponytail that Elenora insisted on. At least this way my wavy hair isn’t going to do its best puffer-fish impression.
“Nothing,” I reply archly. A picnic? A god, the god of the whole freaking underworld and afterlife, is taking me on a picnic? My nerves are fizzing in my stomach, and he says nothing more until we’re driving down the road out of Uptown, traffic seeming to part for us.
“I thought, perhaps,” his words are halting, like he’s not sure of them, “that I’d show you a different side of Detroit.”
“What? The good parts?” Again I catch him off guard, and he laughs, shaking his head. The car engine roars, and we head out onto the highway, the pavement spreading out in front of us. I have to tuck my hair up into a loose bun, and soon we’re out of the city entirely, the landscape transitioning from suburbs and industrial patches to true farmland. I sit up in my seat, watching it slide beside us and disappear behind us.
“I’m not sure,” he says, and glances over at me. His eyes are so bright, like sunlight and gold. “I haven’t been... a tourist in Detroit for a very long time.” He clears his throat. “But there’s a place that I like this way.”
The car mutters to itself as we take a turning corner, through forests that slowly lift, and we rise with them, as we go up a hill. I grasp the side of the car, my eyes wide. I had no idea there were any hills like this near Detroit. Certainly nothing like this was visible from Lowtown.
The trees, to my right, part, and I exhale heavy and hard. Down below, Detroit stretches out in front of us, sunlight pouring over it.
Down there, I know who’s waiting. A million souls, dreaming, hoping, stuck and starving in place, trying to work out a living so they can exist to dream another day. But from up here, it’s beautiful, remote and far away. The struggle isn’t so real. Nobody’s asking me to do something I don’t want to, and I’m waking up in a comfortable bed, safe and warm.
With Hadrion just down the hallway.
His hand closes over mine and I look over at him, my heart surging in my chest. He’s got one eye on me, and one eye on the road.
“Almost there.” his words are ripped away by the wind, but not before I hear them. I stare straight ahead, and he doesn’t let go of me as he pulls into a clearing. There’s a table with a tablecloth set up already, in the middle of it, wires strung from tree to tree, forming a canopy over head. Two comfortable looking dining chairs are on either side of the table, one with a cushion on it.
For me, I realize, my cheeks heating. All of this for me?
His hand squeezes mine.
The car slides into park, and my throat closes up. He’s out of the car before I can say anything around it, and opening my door for me. He helps me out.
