"The way he reacted to you—yes."
I was studying my menu, trying to remember what I’d wanted. Some kind of salad, I think. Or had it been the pulled pork sandwich? That was always good.
"But he smiled at both of you, so I’m betting bi."
"Pulled pork sandwich. I’m going to back to work, so I don’t have to eat light. But the waiter wasn’t smiling at me, he’d noticed he had only looked at Nathaniel and I was the only one close enough to let him look at me and still see Nathaniel."
"You made him see you when you looked up and smiled," Nathaniel said.
"Not on purpose," I said.
"We’ve all started adopting some of Nathaniel’s charms," Micah said.
I looked at him. "You, too?"
He nodded, smiled, and looked down, as if he were a little embarrassed. "I’ve found that a little charm helps a lot in politics, and you want people to like you; no one is better at getting people to like them than these two." He ended with a wry tone and a look halfway between amused and disgusted, but ended with a smile.
Jason batted blue eyes at him. "Aw, that’s so sweet; you’ve been taking lessons in luuvv from us."
Micah scowled at him, and I realized it was a look more reminiscent of me. Did all couples begin to pick up mannerisms from each other? I knew I’d picked up things from Jean-Claude, but I was his human servant, which meant that personality and psychic gifts literally mingled, or were contagious. But then I was Micah’s Nimir-Ra, leopard queen, and Nathaniel was my animal to call, so maybe it was the metaphysics still. I’d learned that my initial attraction to Micah had been vampire powers—mine, not Jean-Claude’s. The powers of Belle Morte’s line were lust and love, with the caveat for most of them that you could only control someone to the degree you were willing to be controlled. For me it truly was a double-edged sword, and with Nathaniel and Micah I’d been willing to be cut to the heart. By the time I’d made Jason my wolf to call, I’d had more control so we were still just friends. Though I’d bound him to me during a crisis, by accident, just reaching out for the metaphysical help that was closest, I hadn’t made us fall In Love with each other. I was relieved and I think so was he.
"Do you really not understand that he was flirting with both of us?" Nathaniel asked.
I gave him a look. "He could smile in your direction looking at me, without staring at you. I think he’d noticed he was only staring at you and it finally embarrassed him."
Nathaniel looked across me to Micah. "You saw it. What do you think?"
He took my hand and kissed it, gently. "I think she doesn’t see herself the way we do."