in Any Era: An Ancient Vampire’s Guide to Modern Relationships
* * *
I may have survived a vampire kidnapping, but the difficult-to-pronounce and even more difficult-to-assemble Swedish desk had almost broken me.
I stood, stretching my aching back, still twinging from sitting on the floor for hours. Completed, it looked nice in the corner of my living room and would give me a comfortable workspace that I didn’t have to worry about locking up every time I got up. I wouldn’t have to worry about someone rummaging through it to find private paperwork or if I did—well, I guess the person had already broken into my house and I would have more to worry about than privacy. That was the sort of thing I hadn’t had to worry about when I lived on the packlands, protecting myself, but I wasn’t afraid. It felt right to take care of myself, to see to my own security. I wasn’t at all sorry for leaving the packlands. I was only sorry that I hadn’t left years earlier.
So far, my desk, a nightstand and a brand-new bed were the only furniture I had assembled in the apartment—which was a shame because I had a lot of people coming over and there was nowhere for them to sit. Dick and Jane had insisted on doing a housewarming for me. They wanted to celebrate me taking steps towards my independence, knowing what a big deal that was for a young single werewolf.
A knock at my door startled me out of my deep thoughts. I put aside the tiny screwdriver that could only be used to build this stupid desk. I opened the door to find Alex, holding a vase full of tulips of all different colors. And because I’d stumbled on a guide to Victorian floral messages in Jane’s shop, I knew that yellow tulips meant cheerful thoughts. Pink tulips meant affection. Orange meant enthusiastic passion. Cream colored tulips meant “I will love you forever.” I was glad that he hadn’t given me lime blossoms because that was basically the f-word of floral meanings—which I had always found to be weird. What the hell were Victorians doing with limes?
Of course, this was all probably moot because most people didn’t know the meaning of flowers beyond, “these are pretty and smell nice.”
“Are you trying to figure out the meaning of the variegated tulips?” he asked. “I read somewhere they mean ‘you have beautiful eyes’ but that’s never made sense to me. I just had the florist throw them in because they looked nice. The rest of them I mean, whole-heartedly.”
“Thank you,” I said, smiling as I kissed his cheek. “Come on in.”
I opened the door wider so he could step inside. “I don’t have much more put together than the last time you were here, I’m afraid. What is that?”
“It’s a bag. With various items that I might need…should I stay the night,” he said carefully. He lifted a soft-sided cooler out of his bag and placed several units of donor blood in my fridge. “It’s not that I didn’t enjoy camping out here with no supplies last time, but I like to be more prepared.”
“Are you trying to slowly but surely move into my apartment one overnight bag at a time?” I asked. “Because I think we can agree that I need to live on my own for a while, develop adulting skills.”
He held up both hands in surrender. “No, I’m not even pressuring you to give me a drawer, hence the overnight bag.”
I squinted at him. “You came up with that answer too quickly.”
He wrapped his arms around me, murmuring against my lips. “I will wait until you’re ready. I’ll wait forever. I’ve got the time.”
“I can’t decide if that’s a nice sentiment or a vampire dad joke.”
He pulled a gift purple bag out of his luggage and held it out to me. “A little bit of both.”
“But you already gave me flowers,” I objected.
“It’s something for your desk,” he said as I opened the bag and found Funko Pop versions of the Stark direwolves from Game of Thrones. “Dick mentioned that you liked the TV show. And I thought you would like the wolf connection.”
“Thank you!” I exclaimed, carrying my treasures to my desk and arranging them carefully.
“That is a lovely home office,” he said. “I can tell I’m going to have to fight very hard for your attention if I’m going to tear you away from it.”
“I have faith in you.”
My phone rang and my