Chapter 20 #2
We’re posted up at our usual high-top booth in the back corner of Cabo Cantina, the city’s most underrated dive.
The tables are permanently sticky, the booths have duct tape holding the vinyl together in places, and the décor is so tacky it almost circles back around to tasteful.
It’s been our favorite spot for years, mostly because the margaritas are strong, delicious, and dangerously cheap.
We’re already on our third round, and the tequila has finally started loosening the knot that’s been sitting in my chest all day.
Taylor swirls the ice around in her glass, watching me over the rim with an expression that’s been steadily growing more smug the longer I’ve talked.
I filled her in on everything– the disaster with Albert, Elliott losing his mind and going all scary possessive, last night’s kinda-sorta-threesome with his ex, and finally, the Secondary Services Addendum currently open on my phone.
She’s been skimming the contract for the last five minutes, and instead of launching into the lecture I’ve been expecting about being more careful, less reckless, blah blah blah… she’s just smiling.
No, not smiling. Smirking.
“What?” I ask impatiently.
“Oh, nothing,” she sing-songs in a tone that absolutely implies otherwise.
I narrow my eyes. “You’re obviously judging me hard right now, so just spit it out.”
“Not judging, I’m just…” She laughs into her drink, taking another small sip before continuing. “Honestly, I’m kinda loving this for you. No offense, but every guy you’ve dated has been some flavor of emotionally stunted asshole.”
I roll my eyes, though she’s not wrong. “Your point being?”
She laughs again, flipping her glossy brown hair over a shoulder. “My point is, I never would’ve pictured you with the stable, scholarly type. It’s a refreshing change of pace.”
I scrunch my nose, shaking my head. “I’m not with him, Tay.”
“Uh huh,” she snorts, lifting her glass.
“I’m not dating him,” I clarify. “Just finally getting that big vampire dick.”
She chokes on her margarita, doubling over coughing while I just give an innocent shrug.
“What?” I ask sweetly.
She points at me accusingly between coughs. “I hate you.”
I wave a dismissive hand. “Psh, you love me.”
Her lips twist into a scowl, but she knows I’m right. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have pried herself away from her cozy little vampire-king-love-nest just to meet me for cheap margs and girl talk.
Taylor finally recovers, taking another sip before setting her glass down. “So…” she says, steering the conversation back on track. “How do you actually feel about the contract?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, my smile fading a little. “I mean, I know I want to have sex with him.”
“Shocking,” she deadpans.
“But…” I gesture toward my phone. “Some of the stuff in there is outside my wheelhouse. I’m an adventurous girl, but not tie-me-to-a-cross-and-flog-me adventurous.”
Taylor’s eyes widen as she snatches up my phone. “Is that seriously in here?” she asks, swiping through the contract.
“Well, not specifically,” I admit. “But if I let him restrain me, how far does it go?”
She huffs a laugh, shaking her head as she sets the phone back on the table.
“What?” I ask.
Her forearms come to rest on the sticky tabletop, her eyes locking onto mine. “That’s actually a completely reasonable concern, Bex. I’m proud of you for taking your time with this instead of blindly jumping into it.”
I snort. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Seriously,” she says, fully committing to the parental bit. “You know I love you, but your choices have always been… questionable, at best.”
“Like signing up for an underground vampire blood agency?” I shoot back.
She clucks her tongue. “Exactly like that.”
“And look how it’s worked out for us.” I point at our drinks. “These are the cheapest margs in the city, but we had to flirt our way into getting them bought for us. Now, we’re running up a tab we actually know we can pay. We’re moving up in the world, bitch.”
She rolls her eyes, a reluctant smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Just because it worked out doesn’t mean it couldn’t have ended in disaster. I’m not judging, I’m–”
“Oh, you’re absolutely judging,” I cut in with a grin. “It’s alright, though. That’s kinda your brand.”
Taylor heaves a long-suffering sigh, tipping back the rest of her margarita.
“So,” she says, setting aside her empty glass. “Back to the contract. If there are certain things in there you’re uncomfortable with, you need to tell him. Have an actual conversation.”
I flinch back with a grimace. “Ew, no. If I do that, he’ll make it all clinical and un-sexy.”
She picks up my phone again, the screen glowing back to life. “Be that as it may…”
“I hate when you start sentences like that.”
“… you still need to have the conversation.”
I groan, scrubbing a hand over my face.
“You need clear expectations going in,” Taylor says, her gaze dropping back to the addendum. “Then nobody gets blindsided. Honestly, I wish James and I had talked through ours more before I signed…” she trails off mid-sentence, blinking at the screen before slowly looking up at me. “Uh, Bex?”
“What?”
“You do realize there’s an exclusivity clause in here, right?”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
She turns the phone toward me. “This.”
I lean over the table, squinting at the text. “Neither party shall engage in sexual activity with any third party unless both contracting parties are physically present and provide consent,” I read aloud before looking back up at her and shrugging. “Yeah, so?”
“Bex.” She gives me a loaded look. “You’re not exactly known for monogamy.”
“Says who?” I scoff.
She doesn’t answer– just raises a skeptical brow.
I hold her gaze for all of three seconds before I start laughing.
“Okay, okay. That’s fair. But it’s not like I’ve had many opportunities for hookups since I moved in with Elliott.”
“What about last night?” she counters.
I wave a dismissive hand. “That doesn’t count. Besides, it was his idea.”
“Well it’s another thing you’ll want to clarify,” she says, turning the screen back toward herself, fingers swiping. “There, I highlighted it for you.”
She flips the phone back around, a bright yellow highlight now marking the exclusivity clause.
I nod approvingly. “Fine. Highlight the no feeding thing too.”
She glances up.
A devious grin stretches my lips. “I want some biting with my fucking.”
Taylor snorts, shaking her head as she scrolls farther down the page. “Did you ever find out what his deal was with that?”
“Just that he prefers not to,” I mutter, licking salt from the rim of my glass. “Dude has so many bizarre quirks that the blood thing isn’t even in the top three anymore.”
She arches a curious brow, but doesn’t ask. Instead, she scrolls to the top of the document and starts reading again.