Eternal Ever After (7 page)

“Thank you for dinner. I’ve never had anything quite like it.”

“I’m glad that you like it. I’ll make sure your Beetle is taken care of before you have to go to work tomorrow. You do have to go to work?”

“Yes, but that’s really not necessary. I can call Trina and have her pick me up. I’m sure she won’t mind. Or I could always take the bus.”

-
She won’t mind, but I will.-
He touched my mind with telepathic communication.

“What is that? What did you just do?”

Arie flashed a brilliant lopsided grin. “Telepathy is a clever little trick of mine. Fun, isn’t it?”

“No, not fun. Can you read my mind?”
Please tell me he can’t.

“If I could read your mind there would be no need for conversation.”

“Well, I don’t like your little parlor trick. Don’t do it again. Is there anything else that you can do?”

Arie grinned. I felt drawn into eyes that seemed to be laughing at me. “I can do lots of things.”

Ignoring his innuendo, I looked away. The server returned with a selection of sashimi in a
dashi
broth for
shabu-shabu
, a traditional Japanese offering. With it were two glasses of Riesling. I grimaced at the thought of more wine.

“It’s different for all of us. Like I said, we can scan auras. Some of us can control things, like the weather, or shapeshift. I suppose it all depends on strength and age.”

I thought about the ominous threat and the clouds morphing. But I didn’t want to say anything that might have him trying to scare me off again. Except that now I wondered if he knew and that’s why he showed up when he did. Was he trying to protect me? If so, what was he trying to protect me from? “I suppose that makes sense. Not everyone is good at the same thing.”

Arie raised an eyebrow.

“Humans. Not all humans are good at the same things,” I said, clarifying perhaps unnecessarily, but the wine was getting to me.

Arie smiled. “So how long have you worked at the Coffee Grind?”

“You ask an awfully mundane question. Why would you possibly care?”

“Don’t you think you’re being a bit rude?”

I flushed. “Sorry. I’ve been there a little over a year. It’s okay, I guess, and it’s quiet, which is…good for me.”

“Why?”

“It’s not easy. The Sight isn’t predictable. Sometimes it comes in a waking vision and other times it comes as a dream. I can’t control when or what I see. And the less contact I have with other people the better.”

Arie’s eyes hardened infinitesimally.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

He sipped his wine and it seemed like his thoughts took him somewhere else. I didn’t want to intrude and waited for him to continue.

“Holly, the Sight is something that usually runs in families. Didn’t anyone teach you how to control it? It’s rare, but I’ve seen it before. But I wouldn’t be able to tell you how to use it. You’d be better off asking someone else with your gift.”

“I never knew my parents. My mother had me when she was sixteen and died giving birth to me. My father was eighteen and went off to college. I guess my grandmother couldn’t take me in, but I don’t really know all the details. I grew up in the foster-care system. No one adopted me when I was a baby since I was premature and had RSV. I had to be on a ventilator in the NICU and parents don’t want babies with health problems. If you’re paying that much money, you want a perfectly healthy baby. And when I got older people were afraid of me until I learned to keep my mouth shut about the visions. Then I got lucky when I met the Ellis family. They adopted me.”

Arie nodded. He reached across the table and brushed a stray chestnut strand out of my eyes, which glistened with unshed tears. I don’t know why I told him all that. I never talked about it with anyone. Even after a year, Trina didn’t know that I’d been in the system or that I was adopted. I liked to keep that to myself. I was surprised that I’d told him, and wasn’t sure whether he dazzled it out of me or if I told him of my own accord. Maybe it was because he didn’t look at me like I was a science project, knowing that I had the Sight. And he looked at me like I was so much more. I didn’t know how to explain it, and the wine made everything more confusing.

He pulled his hand away. Our main entree of surf and turf came in the form of wagyu beef and Maine lobster—a potato fondant came with it. I rolled my eyes as yet another wine was paired with the dish. I had lost count of how many glasses had been brought to our table.

“Mmm…so good,” I said in a muffled voice around a delicious bite.

The black truffle emulsion the wagyu beef came served in made the meat mouth-wateringly tender. When I looked up from my dish, Arie was watching me eat as if waiting for my tears or a hysterical outburst. I almost laughed at the scared expression on his face. Obviously, he didn’t know me very well.

“The less intelligence you share with people about your life, the better. What you share is only evidence,” Arie said wisely.

I contemplated his words. Clearly, he knew a thing or two about sharing information. “I guess you’ve had to become…artful about what you communicate.”

“A skill acquired with experience—an essential one to my survival.”

“Then you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

-
Unfortunately, I do.-
His psychic communication didn’t feel intrusive this time. It resonated with a part of me that felt understood. I suppose we all had our secrets. I had to learn to hide the Sight because otherwise I might end up in a loony bin. It made me shiver to think back to the one foster family that dragged me to countless doctors, trying to figure out what was wrong with me and thinking they could medicate it out of me.

Arie was the same. He had to hide who he was or be feared and hated. And when people fear or hate, they’re capable of killing that which brings out the worst in them. It’s only human nature.

The server cleared our dinner and brought two desserts to the table. I eyed the first delectable dish, a raspberry mascarpone with tart yuzu, which the server placed before Arie. Another dessert with a hard
manjari
chocolate shell, filled with salted caramel on top, the server placed in front of me. It came with frozen malted vanilla and I smelled a hint of coffee. Both dishes made my mouth water. For the first time throughout our entire meal I fully relaxed. A genuine smile formed on my lips while we ate our desserts in a silence that felt almost natural.

His dark hair had hints of amber depending on how the light hit it. He had the most striking features I’ve ever seen. And he awoke a desire in me that I’d given up on anyone fulfilling other than myself. I’d finally met someone who made me want to do something about it.

“Holly, I want to show you something.”

“Do I have a choice in the matter?” I asked sarcastically.

“No, but I promise that you’ll like it.”

How could I feel more connected to him than I’d felt connected to anyone in my whole life? I’d only just met him but I felt like he understood me. And that meant everything to me.

***

We headed north on Lincoln Park West beside a tree-lined sidewalk. I could see a fence bordering the Lincoln Park Conservatory on the right. Arie stopped at the traffic signal and I watched distractedly out the window. I smiled at a young couple kissing under the canopy of a large tree in front of the park bench despite the cold. Snow still fell in flakes that wrapped the couple in a semi-private filigree envelope.

Arie turned right onto West Fullerton Parkway and continued straight at the intersection at North Cannon Drive. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye when I began fidgeting with the fabric of my sweater again. I noticed the direction of his gaze and the irritated look in his eyes. I wondered why he looked like he wanted to throttle me.
What could he possibly have against fidgeting?

Biting my lip compulsively, I stopped twisting my sweater and continued to stare out the window. We passed over a bridge while the scenery zipped by in a blur. He merged onto the highway, heading south. The dark waters of the lake looked serene with its deserted beach front and piers where no one ventured in these cold conditions. Arie pulled off the highway, taking the Grand Avenue exit, bearing left onto Lower North Lake Shore Drive.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“You’ll see. I guarantee you it’s somewhere you’ve never been before.” Arie grinned at me and his mega-white teeth flashed through the darkness.

“I’ve lived here my whole life. There’s not much I haven’t seen,” I said, shaking my head.

“You’ll just have to trust me on this one.”

We continued over another bridge. There were boats in a marina across the road on the left and buildings loomed overhead on my right. Arie turned right onto East Wacker Drive and we drove in silence while I tried to sober up.
Where is he taking me?
Arie merged onto a ramp continuing past the Chicago Riverwalk; its scenic view made me dizzy. He turned left on Columbus Drive and I held my stomach as he found a place to park.

I stepped out of the car and Arie appeared at my side. His movement held more grace and fluidity than someone human could pull off. His stealthy movements might be unnerving, but I could hack it if I managed not to puke on his boots. I shouldn’t have drunk so much wine. He grinned at me and pulled me to his chest. Arie’s lean arms wrapped around me and he moved me quickly. Suddenly, we stood in front of a small chain caf
é
on Randolf Street. It occurred to me at random that they had really good pancakes.

“How do you do that?”

“How do I do what?” Arie asked with a smirk.

“I blinked and we were somewhere else. I’ve never seen someone move so fast.”

“It’s easy—I simply manipulated the flow of light and time, bending it to my will.”

“Oh. Right. Like bending time is easy,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“I hope you’re not afraid of heights.” He tightened his grip on me.

“No. Why?”

A current of cold air whooshed around me as we were propelled upward. He landed with cat-like grace on the flat roof of a smaller building in front of One Prudential Plaza. I didn’t have time to panic and wonder whether some passerby noticed or not. No sooner did we land then I felt another blast of cold air. He leaped again, this time landing neatly forty-one stories to its very top. Moving through the air with such speed chilled me, leaving goose bumps on my skin despite wearing a coat. Feeling lightheaded and a little giddy from the drinks we had at dinner, I clung to Arie, trying not to look down.

“Arie, what if someone saw us?”

Arie laughed. “Right, like anyone would believe them. That’s like believing in alien abductions or those fake celebrity pictures you see in tabloids.”

With everything I’d learned lately I was starting to think alien abductions sounded almost plausible, but I didn’t argue my point. “I guess you can’t believe everything you see,” I said with a sigh.

“I’m glad heights aren’t an issue for you. The view only gets better from here,” he said with a smile. “You’ll love it.”

I looked up at another building behind us and blanched.

“You feel okay?”

“Yeah… Just a little dizzy.” I didn’t want to say nauseous.

He tightened his grip on me even further and paused on top of the building. When I exhaled I could see my breath on the cold night air. Arie bent his legs, bracing me against him, and then he bounded through the rushing air to the top of Two Illinois Center. Without effort and with infinite grace, he bounced from the flat surface of its rooftop to balance on the spire of Two Prudential Plaza.

I marveled at how he could balance here with such ease. Looking down, I immediately wished I hadn’t, and gasped at the nine hundred ninety-five foot drop. Closing my eyes, I tried not to picture my mangled body smashed to bits across Stetson Avenue. He looked down at me with a grin that invited mischief while I wrapped myself around him, clinging to his muscled mass even tighter than before.

“Hold on.”

“Believe me, you don’t have to tell me that,” I said.

“Just wait until you see this. It’s better than the stars.”

Arie sprang into the air and landed atop the white granite skyscraper of the Aon Center. I still clung to him but let go of him abruptly, a little embarrassed that I had wrapped myself around him like a burrito. Then I stepped onto the roof to stand beside him.

“What do you think?” he asked, beaming at me.

“I think you’re insane.”

Arie laughed. “That wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard that. Here, take my hand.” He held out his hand and I regarded it with a raised eyebrow. “Trust me,” he said in a voice filled with dazzle.

Hesitantly, I took his hand, smiling down at our intertwined fingers. He hoisted me toward the edge of the building to show off the remarkable view from all directions.

“
Wow!
” I said breathlessly. “This is better than the Skydeck.”

Facing south I could see Grant Park, to the west stood the Loop, the eastern exposure granted a view of Lake Michigan, and toward the north stood the Magnificent Mile and the Chicago lake shore added to spectacular skyline. The lights of the city replaced the twinkling stars. Its manufactured pattern of light looked almost pretty. A full moon cast light on the snow, creating a reflection that illuminated the night.

“Yeah.
Wow.
You’re the first person I’ve brought up here.”

I glanced sideways at him, all my previous concerns forgotten as I stood with him admiring the spectacular view. Something about sharing this little corner of the world with him, a place he hadn’t shared with anyone else, felt intimate. The idea that he would share it with me drew me to him. “It’s stunning.” I peeked over the edge of the building. “I’m not sure about getting down, but it’s incredible. So can I consider tonight a date?”

“Yes, you may consider this a date.”

I suppressed a laugh. Arie and the wine gave me childlike delight at standing with him on top of the world. When he produced a boyish smile that curved his mouth I forgot the view. I turned in his arms and looked up at him. He traced a cold finger across my jaw, down my neck, and across my collarbone, barely visible above my suede coat. His touch felt dangerous and exhilarating as we stood on top the skyscraper—it made me shiver. And I wondered what forever would feel like.