Chapter 14: Waiting For You

Thirty-five dollars and every girl's worst nightmare later I was eating (or more like picking at) lunch with both Ben and Jane. I hadn't yet breached the topic of the events of last night. I still wasn't sure if I wanted to. But it was beginning to seem as though I was going to have to spill whether I felt like it or not, because both Ben and Jane were giving me the "something big happened and you're not telling me" look.

I let the silence continue a little longer. I could wait it out. Besides, with both of them here, two different opinions clashing – I didn't think it would be pretty. The tension was certainly growing; I was already shifting uncomfortably in an involuntary fashion minute by minute.

They just sat and stared, silently judging me…

"Arrgh, fine! Stop looking at me that way!"

Ben sat back in his chair with a self-satisfied smile while Jane leaned forward, ready for a good dish into my business.

Ben started for me. "I can already guess that it was Lestat," he said, "now as to what it was I can only surmise…"

I didn't say a word, but I could feel my cheeks turning a violent shade of red.

"HA! What did I tell you? I knew it right from the beginning!"

"Shut up, Ben." I was never going to hear the end of this.

"You don't mean…" Jane began with a horrified look.

Suddenly my salad became the most interesting thing in the room.

"Evie!" They practically said in unison.

"Alright! We did it! Big whoop, ok?" But of course there was no way they would let me off so easily.

"Details, you little slut you, we want details!" I think Christmas morning had come early for Ben.

"There's nothing to tell." I said, evasively.

"Like hell there isn't." Jane jumped in – that actually surprised me.

Shaking my head I started to explain how he'd shown up at the concert and messed with my interview.

"Oh, this is truly brilliant." Ben said, smiling from ear to ear. "Two guys in one night, I never would have guessed that you were such a man-whore."

"Hey, do you want to hear this or not?"

And, as an afterthought, "And I'm not a man-whore!"

I moved on to the fight and the ensuing post-fight make up (and of course this morning's resulting freak out). I'd never had such a captive audience. Once I was finished I was surprised to see that both of these people who'd always been so readily vocal when the topic of Lestat was brought up seemed to be speechless.

"Well?" I said. "Questions, comments, concerns?"

"Wow." Jane said, and then retreated to her thoughts.

"Damn. So does that make you a vampire now?" asked Ben.

"Thanks for the tact, I appreciate it, really. I haven't grown any fangs yet, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe there."

"But do you think he'll…"

"NO," I interrupted, "at least not if I can help it".

Jane's face suddenly turned harsh. "Evie, you've gone in too deep this time. He's dangerous! What were you thinking?"

Ben laughed, "She wasn't for once, thank god!"

"Ha ha," I threw Ben a dirty look, "Jane, we've been through this – there's nothing I can do! I don't know how to get rid of him!"

"Oh you have no interest in getting rid of him and you know it!" Ben shot back at me.

I blushed again. Damn involuntary body reactions.

Jane's look softened, but her eyes were worried. "Do you love him?" she asked, "Is this relationship turning…serious?"

I had dropped my fork at the word "love". Ben laughed and I made like I was going to stab him with it.

"Oh, this is serious alright," he said.

Somehow I managed to extract myself (and everyone else) from that luncheon in one piece. I sat on my couch with the black rose and tried to think clearly about what might happen next. Nothing would come, so I threw myself into work instead. I didn't exactly accomplish as much as I would have liked; every time I took my pen off the paper or my face away from the laptop screen I had to look over at the rose sitting on the pillow. It wouldn't make sense, my being in love. I hadn't decided to stop hating him yet! It just wasn't reasonable; it went against everything I'd always been so sure of. And he certainly didn't love me. I was absolutely positive about that. But last night…and the rose… It had to have some sort of meaning, didn't it?

I found myself counting down the minutes until sunset that evening. He had to come. He had to give me answers. For the first time I realized that I needed to see him, even if it was just to continue the fight we'd been having (or staging) since we'd been introduced.

Six o' clock passed. I watched the sun dip down behind the buildings outside my window. The sunset was beautiful; a full palette of colors - crimsons to rosy pinks, yellows, and blues to a deep handsome black. I watched every second, rose in hand, waiting.

Seven came with no Lestat, Eight and Nine followed with the agonizingly slow speed that always comes with expectation. Finally I couldn't take it any longer. He'd only appeared in my house a few times, but I was always running into him outside. That must be it – he must be waiting for me to come to him. Knowing his character, it did make sense; I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before.

I went and got dressed, opting for the same garb as usual. I had to play this right; undoubtedly he would be similarly prepared for the game. I wasn't going to let it show that anything had changed. Not yet, anyways.

I stepped quickly down the stairs, despite my best efforts my body continued to show all the worst signs of my nervousness. I was practically shaking.

As I walked down the street towards Fortune Petite I began to feel different. I was getting more paranoid with every step I took and I quickly realized that there was more behind my fear than Lestat. Something was wrong. It was eerily quiet, the street seemed to be entirely empty save for me. I started walking faster, eyes trained ahead, but the quiet. The quiet was following me. I turned my head every which way, but there was no one there. I had a great desire to run, but my legs felt stiff and sluggish despite the adrenaline. I felt as though I'd become a deer in headlights, but I couldn't see any danger.

That was when my brain decided to revive the memory of Lestat shoving me towards my doorway… Could the other monster be following me? This was turning into a bad horror flick. Where the hell was Lestat?

I looked behind me, but the street was still empty. I quickly decided that this was all nonsense and I should just run straight to the café from here. I took another step, readying myself for take-off, when all of a sudden there was a strange man standing directly in my path.

A man with fangs.