I can’t help my own smile, glad to see that there are still things that make her smile, even something as ridiculous as what those other two Alphas get up to. She’s right though, they’ve got a similar reputation among shifters. “In the interest of fairness, the articles also mention that they’re really good at their jobs. Negotiating deals for companies and stuff like that. Their family businesses are in real estate, business side.”
She looks at me, simply curious. “And you? What do you do?”
“My job is really boring, really.”
“I don’t care. You know my jobs, you’ve seen me at one. I play princess for little girls at parties, so their parents don’t have to go out of their way to actually understand what kids would like to do at parties, and they can be with the adults while the kids are looked after. I don’t think it can be much boring than that.” She reaches out and as she’s about to put her hand on my leg she pulls back, her cheeks going pink. Cute.
I pick up one of her strawberries and hold it out for her to eat. She frowns for a moment, before opening her mouth so I can feed her. I pop the strawberry into her mouth and watch her chew on it before I answer. “I’m in analytics. It’s boring. Numbers, lots of numbers. My clients want to know what to do with their company. They want to know where to invest. Stuff like that. I look for the right variables and run the numbers for them.”
“Numbers guy, nerdy.” Her smile grows more, genuine happiness. “You must be really smart.”
“Liam is on the other side of the work. He creates some of the programs I use. He creates a lot of programs for different companies.” If anyone is the smart one of us, he’s it.
She nods, thinking for a moment. “He was working on a laptop yesterday, while we were waiting at the airport.” So she did pay attention to us, even though she was pretending she wasn’t.
“Yes. He’d made a script that mined the web for any new mentions of our names or the Gala. He wanted to make sure that we knew what was going on at all times.”
“And?” She doesn’t look so happy now. “Found anything that you’ve not mentioned yet?”
“Not much. I promise. Liam has been tracking your family as much as he could. But, last I heard, there hadn’t been much interesting going on. Though, it was late, they may have had to wait until morning before making their move. The Gala itself has never been covered this much by news websites. Though, I don’t think they really appreciate the type of attention they’ve been getting.”
The Night Gala is never without controversies, but this year might have been a little bit too much. They’re currently getting part of the blame for ‘letting’ us sneak off with Cyra and for there supposedly not being enough guidelines to ‘prevent’ Alphas from taking any Omega away from the party. And they’re under a lot of fire for hosting this Gala in the first place, some places calling it ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘barbaric’, that it isn’t of the times anymore. Which I definitely agree with.
“It originally started with Zack and Spence’s entrance, that kind of blew up all over the place. But, of course, that was quickly overshadowed by us five sneaking off. And they had a couple of pics of us leaving my place. But nothing after that yet.” I don’t want to worry her, but she takes the information in with a strange calm.
“Okay.” Her voice is quiet and she picks up one of the croissants, plucking at it and eating it in small pieces while the flakes flutter down into her lap. She doesn’t seem to notice it, lost in thought.
“Your parents have been talking to the press. They’ve revealed some stuff about you, about your past, your schooling and things like that. But they’ve not told the media that you’re a phoenix. Which should keep you safe for now.”
This time, I’m the one reaching out and I slide my arm over her shoulders, over the fluffy blanket, and I move closer to her, keeping her cradled against me.
She finishes the croissant, whatever hasn’t landed in her lap anyway, and then pulls the blanket around herself more, leaning into me, as she lets out a long breath. “Tell me something else. Something fun. I don’t know. Anything. What happens once we’re safe again? Maybe we can return to a normal life. That we can... I don’t know. Something to make me forget all of this, just for a while.”
I pull her closer, sliding her legs over my legs and wrap my other arm around her too, holding her as close to me as I can, wrapping my body around hers protectively. “Next summer. We’re going to return to his house, or... I don’t know, something similar. Something at the seaside. Some place where the sun rises and sets on the beautiful blue ocean, every day. You’ll spend all day sitting behind the house, doing what you love best.” Not that I can imagine her ever sitting still, but that doesn’t have to ruin the dream.
“Reading.” Her voice is soft, sweet, as she speaks into the blanket. Her warm breath seeping through it and hitting my bare chest, spreading through me like a slow fire. “I like reading.”
I softly laugh. “Reading, okay. You’ll be reading all day, only stopping when you want to go for a dive in the beautiful blue water. Wait, no. You’ll have wireless earbuds, super good ones, I don’t know. And when you go for a swim, or just float in the water, you’ll listen to audiobooks. Once you’re done there, you pick up the book again and you keep reading. You’ll be able to read all the books you never had the time or energy to
