Tara snorted, "I don't know why I still waste my time slumming it with you humans."
"Slumming," Sam almost sounded offended, "and who are you calling human?"
"Don't mind my big bad blood sucking cousin Sam, she just mad cause her other half is traipsing around Europe with tall blonde and delicious."
Jealousy was an obvious emotion Tara hadn't indulged in for a long time for good reason. The bond between Pam and Eric wouldn't break at every emotional temper tantrum that travelled through their link. It fed on Tara's insecurities and she'd go insane and push Pam away before she made progress in the vicinity of commitment.
Tara grimaced, "I got no interest in knowing how you know Eric is delicious."
"That's fine hookah 'cause I got no interest in telling all my secrets."
Sam lowered his bottle of beer, "Didn't he tie you up and torture you?"
"If I said I kinda liked it would you lose respect for me?"
The bar owner admits, "I would if I had any for you."
"Fair enough."
Lafayette earned a kick from his cousin, "you nasty bitch."
"Only Tuesday through Saturday between the hours of 5 a.m. to 5 a.m."
A curious shape shifter asked, "what about Sunday and Monday?"
"I pamper myself with rest and old movies where the baddest bitches make those vindictive entrances wearing diamonds and silk."
Tara glared, "you never did grow out of that huh?"
"You don't grow out of good tastes hookah, once you've got it there's no washing your hands of it."
The front door opened and slammed and a blur of a body rushed up the stairs in the direction of the main bedroom.
Lafayette whistled, "there she blows…"
It often baffled the bar owner how Tara could stand Pam's cantankerous nature, "what the hell has her pissed off now?"
Tara shrugged uninterested in following Pam to find out. It was best to let the older woman come to her when she had a bad day, by then she knew she could be civil. Yet, she was curious as to why she returned early from her trip.
Eric strolled in the room wearing black, "She told me to keep the car running. Whatever you did it's got something to do with Montreal."
Sam worried, "she knows about Montreal?"
Lafayette's brow rose, "you stepped out on Pam with a Canadian?"
"What…no," she turned away from her cousin addressing Sam, "we were careful."
Sam hissed, "how would she know?"
Resigned Tara sighed, "how do women know anything, it's one of life's greatest mysteries."
The enraged blonde-haired woman joined them with a velvet box in a white-knuckle grip. She grimaced at the Christmas music in the background, "what the hell is this?"
Tara deadpans, "a box."
Sam's eyes bulge recognizing it.
"Do you know what's inside it?"
"You know what's inside it I know what's inside it, what's with the twenty questions?"
"I knew you were crazy, but do you think I'd marry into it?"
Tara licks her lips glancing at Sam, "it's not what you—"
"We wouldn't last one day married let alone eternity."
"It's not what you think," she promised.
"I think it's a diamond engagement ring I found in your sock drawer."
"Okay," the younger vampire conceded, "that part is what you think."
Pam was spiraling, "you are crazy to think I'd be crazy to say yes, marriage would be insane. How would you even begin to ask because I don't do gondolas and you won't get me anywhere near a jumbotron?"
"Look Pam the thing is—"
"The thing is she loves you," Sam stood between the women startling everyone in the room. Tara tried to interrupt, but Sam held up a warning finger hushing the dark skinned woman, "no now Tara I can't stay quiet, tis' the season to speak from the heart."
Pam shifted her weight to another foot impatiently.
"And you," he pointed accusingly, "have you no shame?"
He started walking towards her and stopped adjacent to the recliner Lafayette leaned out of for a better view of Pam's reaction.
"I'm not familiar with that feeling, but I guess if I had your wardrobe I'd have an idea."
Sam ignored the insult, "You really don't know do you?"
"That you're an irritating meat sack that's losing his value every second he opens his mouth?"
"No," he paused meaningfully, "that that vampire right there loves you."
"Sam," Tara warned.
"And not just love the way humans define it, but since I'm closest to human I guess the best way I'd have to describe it is. The best way to describe how she feels is: She could stay awake just to hear you breathing, watch you smile while you are sleeping, while you're far away and dreaming, she could spend her life in this sweet surrender. She could stay lost in this moment forever, 'cause every moment spent with you is a moment she treasures."
Tara held her fist over her mouth watching Lafayette's brow fold suspiciously at the familiar words.
In predictable Pam fashion, "I'm going to rip your throat out and feed it to a puppy."
"What's so bad about spending forever with the only woman who's crazy enough to want to?"
Pam stared dumbly at the blonde bar owner with gray stubble on his chin.
"Nothing," Sam answered for her, "not a—"
Pam obstructed his airway with an angry grip on his throat. In the seconds, it took everyone to realize the blonde meant to fulfill her promise Pam surprisingly released him. He crumbled at her feet holding his throat struggling for air.
Blue eyes bore into chocolate brown and the fury inside them tempered substantially from when she found the box, "Tara."
She heard the summons in the tone. She followed Pam outside through the sliding door window gave the common room a view of the pool.
Tara was ready to tell the truth, "Pam—"
"Is this about Eric?"
Anger welled in Tara's chest irrationally, "no."
"It's embarrassing to hear it from Lassie in plaid no less," her maker started, "I feel it, but a girl likes to hear the words and I suppose you'd have gotten it out at the speed of molasses."
Tara blinked. When in doubt she kept her mouth shut.
"Is this a joke?"
"What?"
"The ring, a commitment, a wedding you pick?"
"I'm not laughing."
"Vampire's don't do marriage."
"Who said we had to be like every vampire, we ain't, and we never will be."
"I won't wear white."
Tara warily replied, "okay."
"I detest most of your friends especially Lassie."
"In a hundred years you'll barely remember them."
Pam eyed her until impatience won out, "are you going to propose to me or not?"
Tara shook her head, "not yet."
"Why? Have I ruined some grand romantic gesture you spent months working on because you know that if I was to say yes, I wouldn't dare say yes to something mediocre?"
"You're holding the ring."
Pam clenched the box tighter never breaking eye contact with Tara. When she handed it over the dark skinned woman checked the diamond.
"Well?"
"Not yet," Tara repeated replacing the lid.
"When?"
"When I decide."
"I might change my mind by then."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take."
A blonde brow hiked.
Tara refused to be bullied by a lone brow or the pout punctuated by her lover's blood red lipstick.
"I could make you."
"That's a little desperate even for you."
"I'll be back tomorrow morning," she apologized.
Tara understood the demand of Pam's work as Eric's second in command. She protected him, supported him, and maimed for him for the sake of an internal battle for power. She felt like a homemaker waiting for her soldier to return from battle. Although their business hadn't turned out to be all out war the game of politics was just as dangerous if not more.
Diving for Tara's mouth Pam sucked on her lower lip replacing them with teeth nibbling softly until she drew blood.
It was her version of saying, "I'll make it up to you."
Pam turned without a word visibly irritated by Tara's lack of proposal. However, if she were honest with herself the younger vampires' refusal incited a spark of anticipation. In the same strange way she arrived, she left with Eric in tow sending a lazy glance in Tara's direction.
Bouncing the box in her hand Tara met his unwavering gaze until the elder vampire disappeared just as suddenly as Pam.
Tossing the box to the shape shifter, "Aerosmith, that's the best you could do?"
"I panicked."
"Now she expects me to propose to her, as in on my knee grand romantic gesture proposal, propose to her."
"It would have happened some century or another," Sam stated unsympathetically.
"Well my friend you've just cost yourself another trip to Montreal because I'm keeping the ring."
Sam frowned, "hey wait—"
"No, you should have let me tell Pam about Luna and you're going help figure out how to propose to her."
"Hell no."
"Hell yes," Tara asserted.
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Happy Holidays to all and salute to Aerosmith. By the way, I rewrote For the Love of the Game and I posted it on inkitt feel free to check it out. Also, I'll be posting more works up there so you'll have two sites to stalk my stories if my muse doesn't abandon me.