Chapter 14
Edur
I knock on the front door of Lexi's flat and wait for her to open it. I messaged her mirror to say that I was on my way to pick her up for our date, but she hasn't responded yet. I pull my handheld mirror out of my pocket to see if there are any updates, but there's nothing.
The sound of footsteps heading towards the other side of the door catches my attention, and I look up from my mirror in time for it to swing open. I'm greeted by a siren with pale blue hair and dark blue skin. I recognise her from Healing, but I don't know her name.
"You're here for Lexi?" she asks.
I nod. "Yes."
"Just so you know, I've promised to lure you to the depths of the Rosewood Moat if you hurt her," the siren warns me.
"Message received. But I don't intend to."
"See that you don't." She opens the door properly just as Lexi appears in the hallway in a cute cream dress and her bag slung over her shoulder. Her arms and legs are bare, revealing the fins that I now know to be sensitive on her forearms and calves.
Her face lights up into a smile when she sees me. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear the doorbell."
"I looked after him," the siren responds with a grin.
Lexi laughs. "Dare I ask?"
"She was very welcoming," I say.
"I like him already. Have a fun date." The siren waves and disappears into what I assume is her room.
"Hi," Lexi says as she reaches me, going up on her toes and kissing my cheek. "I hope Marnie behaved."
"She threatened to drown me if I hurt you."
"She did promise to do that, yes." She closes the flat door behind her and slips her arm through mine.
The walk from the academy to the nearby town doesn't take long.
We could drive it, but the weather is dry, even with winter approaching, so it's not an issue, especially when it means I can spend more time one-on-one with Lexi.
There are other students making the trip down there too, but they don't pay us any attention.
"I'm sorry about Marnie," Lexi says. "I know she's joking, but it's still not nice to be threatened."
"Don't worry about it," I assure her. "I know that she won't actually go through with it. And I'm glad that you've got someone on your side."
"Not worried that you're going to be overtaken in my affections again?" It sounds like she's trying to tease me, but I can tell that she's genuinely worried about it.
"No, I'm not." I try to give her a reassuring smile. "I'd like to think that we can move on from that."
"I haven't really done anything to make you think that I won't run away again," she says.
"Not true." We step out of the way as someone comes past us. "You haven't run away from any of the fun conversations we've had."
"I hadn't really thought about that."
"I have." I smile at her again as we arrive at the pub that I know she's been wanting to eat at.
There's a lull in our conversation as we're shown inside and to our table.
"It's nice in here," she says as she stretches her legs out under the table, accidentally bumping them against my knees. "Sorry, the table's smaller than I thought it was."
"I don't mind being so close to you," I respond.
The server returns with our drinks and sets them down on the table between us. Lexi stares at her lemonade with a strange expression on her face.
"Are you okay?" I ask, concerned that she's upset by something.
"I'm fine." She bites her bottom lip, clearly not fine.
"But?"
"How do you know there is one?"
I shrug. "I've known you for almost ten years, even if we weren't in one another's lives for three of them, that's still a long time," I point out.
"So sometimes, it's obvious when there's a but.
So, what is it?" I reach over the table and take her hand in mine, running my thumb over the back of it.
Her gaze drops to the gesture, and she seems to relax.
"I've been thinking about the other night. When we...well, you know." She toys with the straw in her glass, clearly nervous about the conversation. I wish I could reassure her more about it.
"What about it?" I ask, a little nervous that she's going to say that she didn't like it after she thought about it. I know that's a risk, and I don't want her to do anything she doesn't want to.
She takes a deep breath and suddenly sits very straight. "I'd like to try more," she blurts out.
"Oh."
"If you want to," she adds quickly. "If you don't, then that's okay too."
"Sorry, I was just taken by surprise. I thought you'd want to take more time to think about it."
"I did too," she admits. "But I found myself thinking about it at multiple points, and wondering about what else might be fun to do."
I raise an eyebrow. "So you have a list?"
Her cheeks turn a darker shade of green, making my heart constrict. "Just some ideas. But if you don't want to do it, or you don't want to know, then we don't have to."
"I want to know," I say, completely fixated on her face.
Before I can say anything else, our starters arrive. Fried whitebait for Lexi, and paté for me. Her face lights up as she sees the tiny breaded fishes, and I know from many other meals with her that it means they're cooked well.
"Where were we?" she asks as she picks up one of the tiny fish with her fingers and dips it into the tartare sauce.
"You were saying that you wanted to try more things," I say, using my knife to spread the paté onto the thin slices of toast that came with my starter.
"Oh, right, yes. Well, I would. I have a few ideas"
"I'm glad. But erm, maybe we should talk about what you want to do when we're in private, rather than in the middle of a pub."
"Oh, maybe." She tucks a strand of deep green hair behind her ear, showing off the slightly greener tops of them.
"It's not that I don't want to hear, it's just that I'm not sure here is the right place for the conversation."
"I know." She smiles, and I can see from her expression that she really believes that.
It helps things settle within me. Now that we're talking about this, and doing it in a way that makes her feel safe, I have every reason to hope that we can avoid a situation like when she discovered we were mates.
We're working out how to communicate with one another, and hopefully, that will mean that we can work through other things too.
"There's one thing I do want to ask before we're in bed again." She eats some more of her whitebait.
"Oh?"
"Is it okay that we haven't already done it? I mean, it's been five days, right? So that'll be about a week. And I just want to make sure that it's okay with you and that it's not disappointing..."
"I'm not disappointed," I promise. "And I really don't think that a week is very long.
I've thought more about when you asked me about how things were with my exes, and it's strange, because I've never thought about it before.
But now that I have, I'd say that I don't have a high sex drive.
" I speak quietly so that I don't make either of us uncomfortable by having anyone overhear us.
"Oh."
"And my exes were often the ones who initiated.
" I eat some of my paté, pleasantly surprised at how good it is.
I've heard good things about the pub from other students, but I didn't know if it would live up to the reputation.
I'm glad it is. It's a reasonably priced place, and not far from the academy, so I'm sure we'll find ourselves here for a date again.
Lexi laughs. "That could be a problem if I'm not an initiator."
It's hard not to join in with her laughter. "Then maybe we're better suited than we thought."
"Maybe."
"We'll figure it out if we keep talking," I promise.
She meets my gaze. "I'm glad you think so."
"I do. And not because of the mate bond."
"No, it's not because of the mate bond," she responds. "Though maybe that helped me be brave." She gives me a small smile, making my heart squeeze in response.
"Then we're going to be really glad about it," I respond.
"I am sorry. About not being brave three years ago. I didn't want to hurt you. I did the only thing I could think of in that moment to protect myself, and it was completely the wrong thing, especially because I ended up hurting both of us in the process."
I swallow hard, trying to think about how I want to respond. There's still the lingering hurt about her running away that day when we were eighteen, but it's growing fainter by the day. "I probably wasn't ready then either," I say slowly.
She lets out a sigh of relief, and I admit to feeling it too. "We were young."
"We still are." I take her hand back in mine and meet her gaze across the room in the pub. "But that just means that we have a long time to work this out."
"I hope you're right," she responds.
"I am." I smile at her, feeling everything settle within me. If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that I want a future with Lexi, and I think we're going to be able to have one.