Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,95
nodded. “I’m happily back in debt.”
“Good. Then I’d like to stop talking about Kyros.”
Kyros who was one hundred and fifty today. I hadn’t texted him yet. Was it crazy that I felt so terrible for not going to his birthday dinner?
He was one hundred and fifty.
Tommy stripped off her robe and stretched out naked on the bench. I followed suit on the bench next to hers.
“I’ll tell you about Mr Tommy then,” she said, settling back.
There were ears on this conversation. I’d noticed that my friend was always very careful not to say Theodore’s name outside of my soundproofed office. “He told me he loved me this morning before I left.”
“Uhm, oh my god!” I sat up again. “What did you say? Please tell me you didn’t freak out.”
She grinned, eyes closed. “I said it back.”
I beamed at her and jabbed her cheek. “Is that from the steam or are you blushing?” I jabbed her again.
Tommy batted me away. “I want to be grossed out with myself, but I’m totally blushing. I think this is serious. After two months. Is that crazy, Basil?”
Yes. But this was her first real crush. I was the same with Ricky at the start. “Feels pretty strong, huh?”
“So strong. I’ve never felt this way. Ever. He’s literally a god. And in bed. Don’t get me started.”
Well, that wasn’t going to happen. If I couldn’t have all the Kyros sex I desired, then I’d live through my friend.
She caved with little resistance.
Jealousy swarmed in my chest as she recounted last night’s sexcapades. Twenty-one, and I was as lonely as Mrs Gaughton. And Mr Trenington and Mr Triffz. Maybe my trouble list. They were like me—all of us some variation of the token cat lady.
“I’m so happy for you, Tom,” I said, lying down again. “You’re in love.”
She fumbled blindly for me.
“That’s my boob.” I snorted.
“Whoops.” Tommy located my hand and squeezed it. “The only thing making me unhappy is that he doesn’t know you yet.”
“Hopefully one day soon,” I said lightly.
She didn’t patronise me by agreeing to the statement.
“So massage, manicure, pedicure, hair, and make-up after this?” she asked.
“You know it.” This was long overdue. Me and bestie time—healing time.
She grabbed us a water each, and I gulped mine back.
Tommy sighed. “It’s been a month, lovely. How are you going without your grandmother? And running the estate and all that fancy stuff?”
How am I going?
“I’m going, I guess. It still doesn’t feel real that she’s gone. Every time I sit in her office chair, I expect her to stride into the room and order me out of it. You think I’d be used to grief after my parents, but at least I still had some family after that, you know?”
I took a breath. “I mean, she was always going to die when I was young. I just thought I had longer. It shouldn’t bother me so much, but it just gets to me that she’ll never meet the person I end up with or any children I may have. She won’t see what I become. I hate that most of all.”
“She knew you,” Tommy replied softly. “She knew who you were and would be. And who’s to say she isn’t looking down on us right now.”
My brows shot up as I scanned our naked bodies. “This exact moment?”
We both burst into hoots that echoed around the small tiled room.
“Shit,” Tommy said, wiping her eyes. “Terrible timing. You know what I meant.”
I did. “I haven’t had grieving time, you know? Then again, life doesn’t just stop. Does anyone really have time to mourn? It’s more like thoughts of her hit me at random times—like when Nat King Cole comes on, or I see an advert for a new Tom Hanks movie, or when I see someone wearing brown shoes with a black outfit.”
“Who taught that unfortunate person how to dress?” we chorused, falling into laughter again.
A few tears leaked from my eyes—not entirely from mirth. They felt a whole heap better than the last tears I’d shed. “I’m lucky to have a lot of good memories with her.”
“Agatha was one of a kind.” Tommy sipped at her water, wiping at her beading brow. “Did I ever tell you that she pulled me aside a few months after the last rich-bitch slumber party you ever held?”
It was the party that nearly broke my friend—and the reason I’d severed all communications with the rich girls my age. They’d cut her hair off and held her down to pull off