Falling From Eternity (A Paranormal Love Story) (13 page)

She told me about her day as we
browsed the menu; joking about how much time she’d taken getting
ready. I was too embarrassed to admit I had as much trouble as she.
I decided on a lobster bisque; thinking that a liquid would be
easier on my stomach. Autumn gave her order to the waiter, almond
crusted halibut, and I requested a bottle of red wine. She toyed
with her empty wine glass as we talked about everything other than
what was on both our minds. We were finally somewhere where we
didn’t have to worry about anyone judging us, and we were both too
nervous to get the conversation rolling in the direction I was
hoping we both wanted it to go.

When the waiter dropped off our bottle
of wine and a basket of crusty bread, I poured our glasses; filling
mine to the top and Autumn’s half way. She gave me an odd look, but
didn’t say anything.

“
Shall we toast?” I asked,
lifting my glass.

“
Sure, what should we
toast to?” She brought her glass up to mine.

“
Uh…” Crap, I hadn’t
thought that far ahead.

“
How about to new
friends?”

Friends?! I clenched my
free hand into a fist under the table, feeling the sting of her
words with precision. I knew I wanted to be whatever I
could
be to her, but
deep down inside I believed I could be more than that.

“
To new friends!” I
toasted her, with the best fake happiness I could muster. When
would I stop being a fool? I felt like I had no control over my
emotions anymore. I would tell myself one thing, and do something
completely different.

“
So, tell me about
yourself, William. You know so much about me, but I feel like
you’re still so
mysterious
,” she said,
playfully.

I watched the candlelight dance across
her curious expression before I answered. “What would you like to
know?”

“
I want to know
everything,” she answered, boldly.

“
Everything, eh?” I took a
long sip of my wine to keep from giving away how amused I was. She
most definitely didn’t want to know everything.

“
Yeah, that okay with
you?” she took on a sarcastic tone that I’d never heard her use
before. I’d thought she was perfect before, but when she was a
smartass it made her even more attractive.

I nodded. It only made it
harder not to want her, knowing she wanted to learn everything
about me. Of course, I couldn’t tell her
everything
, but I would tell her
everything I could.

“
Well, I have a cat named
Tom. He’s a tomcat that I found when I first moved here,” I said,
deciding to start off with the most basic information. I was pretty
sure I had mentioned Tom before, but I’d likely only thought about
it and changed the focus of our conversation back to her like I
always did.

“
A cat? Cool,” she smiled,
a laugh playing on the edge of her lips. “What does your place look
like?” She popped a small piece of bread into her mouth and looked
at me expectantly.

“
I’ve got an apartment
above a little Italian restaurant. And…uh…I’ve got a fireplace, but
my favorite part is that I have two big bookshelves.” I found that
the words came easily, and my nervousness began to melt
away.

“
Oh, do you like to
read?”

“
I love to read. I’d say I
have a few hundred books.” I swallowed hard. Did I just give away
what a nerd I was?

“
What’s your favorite
book?”

“
Wow…um…there are too
many. I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the
heavens.”

“
I think my favorite
is
Where the Red Fern
Grows
. Have you read it?”

“
I have not,” I answered,
daring to scoot closer to her, pretending I was adjusting my
seat.

“
Oh, you’ve got to read
it! I cry every time. I’ll give you my copy,” she said,
excitedly.

“
You don’t have to give it
to me. I can just borrow it. I’m sure you’ll want it back.” If she
was as attached to books as I was it would be hard for her to give
up her favorite one. I was surprised to hear her offer it to
me.

“
Right, right.” She broke
away from my gaze and glanced around for the waiter. They were on
their way with our food so she moved her bread to the side and made
room for her giant plate of halibut, surrounded by grilled
asparagus glistening with a buttery sauce and speckled with freshly
chopped parsley and garlic. She sniffed at the wafting steam, and
smiled pleasantly as the waiter set my bowl of cheesy lobster
bisque in front of me.

I stirred my soup,
pretending to wait for it to cool while I watched Autumn enjoying
her meal. She sighed in happiness at her first bite, enjoying it as
if it were the best thing she’d ever eaten. I almost envied her,
wishing I could enjoy a meal as she did…well, I could enjoy a meal
but it wasn’t entirely the same. When a vampire ate they couldn’t
hold a conversation with their dinner partner, or watch their date
smile when every bite pleased their palate. I shook away the images
of what it was
really
like when a vampire truly had a meal. I ignored the memories
of growling, the crying and the screaming; even the
moaning.

“
So, what else do you want
to know about me?” I asked to distract myself. I brought a spoonful
of soup to my mouth, swallowing hard. It tasted fine, but there was
no enjoyment in it for me.

“
Umm…,” she cut off a
piece of asparagus and popped it into her mouth while she
contemplated her next question. “That night we first
met…”

“
Listen, I’m sorry I
yelled at you about staying in Hazel’s room.” I leaned toward her
ready to plead my case. I’d apologized before but we never really
spoke about it.

“
No, no, no, no that’s not
when we first met,” she corrected me. “I meant the night you were
in my room.”

“
Oh.”

“
I know you’ve told me you
thought I was a resident and were just checking on me, but you
never explained why you freaked out.”

“
I didn’t freak out,” I
answered with a smile trying to play it cool and not panic. She’d
never mentioned it before and I hoped she hadn’t noticed, or
thought she’d imagined whatever it was she saw since it was dark.
“You just startled me.”

She giggled into her wine at my
answer. “Odd reaction for being startled, don’t you think?” I
shrugged, trying to look innocent. If I didn’t believe my story
neither would she. “I was just thinking you ran out of the room
pretty fast.”

“
Uh…yeah, I’m a fast
runner. I ran track in college,” I responded speedily, making it up
as I went along.

“
Really? What
college?”

“
Brown.” I wasn’t entirely
lying, I had
been
to the university but I never attended classes
there.

“
That’s a really good
school.” She poked her fork into the fish and brought it to her
mouth, closing her eyes as she savored the bite. “Why were you
going to leave Denton?” she asked, without looking at me. Her eyes
dropped to her wine glass as she fiddled with the stem.

I hadn’t meant to drop my spoon, but
it clattered loudly against the porcelain bowl; splashing bisque on
the pristine tablecloth. I had to think up a reason quick, any
hesitation would reveal that I was lying.

“
I just felt like I was
ready to move on.” That felt like the closest thing to the truth
without revealing anything I didn’t want her to know. In truth, I
wanted to leave because I hadn’t found what I was looking for, I
was sick of living so close to Ming and the death of Hazel had been
hard on me. She was the first being human or vampire that I had
ever felt connected to, but of course that last part wasn’t true
anymore. I felt like my whole life had led up to the moment I met
Autumn.

“
Why is that? Do you not
like it here?” Finally she dared to look at me again. I searched
within her eyes trying to read her mind, but failed miserably.
Something told me she wanted me to open up to her; to reveal my
every secret but how could I? Then again, how could I not? If I
believed every moment of my entire life had led to this night with
her then I had to hold nothing back. I had to let her know how I
felt or I may never get this chance again.

I decided that I would still hide what
I was, but my heart would be hers if she so wanted it. “I believe
I’m starting to like it here just fine.” I gave her a crooked grin,
as my eyes drank in her every feature with passionate intensity
before taking in a long mouthful of wine.

I almost choked on it when I felt the
pace of her heart begin to beat as rapidly as a hummingbird. She
placed a hand to her chest, giving me an embarrassed look, before
reaching for her glass of water. Did I really make her that
nervous? If I did, then maybe I hadn’t imagined she had real
feelings for me. Perhaps she felt the same powerful attraction and
immediate connection that I did.

“
Everything okay?” I
asked, watching her gulp down her ice water greedily. She nodded,
gasping for breath. I waived the waiter over to refill her glass
and requested the desert menu.

“
Thanks.” Her cheeks began
to blush as she took a small sip of her newly filled glass. Feeling
the slowing of her heartbeat, I decided to focus on my soup and not
throw too much of my feelings on her all at once.

“
If you’d like to go, it’s
alright with me.” I didn’t want to overload her and if taking
things slow was more her speed then that was fine with
me.

“
No, I want to stay,” she
answered quickly, placing a hand on mine. I squeezed her hand in
response to comfort her, and also out of sheer need to touch her.
This time, I didn’t pull away. I let our hands meet for as long as
she wanted them to. It wasn’t until she started eating again that
she finally pulled away.

The waiter left the desert menu at the
table, and I sipped absentmindedly at my soup while we talked more.
She discussed more about her paintings and how she couldn’t seem to
master a new brush technique, blaming it on her inferior brushes.
We went back and forth discussing books we’d read, and before I
knew it she’d finished her meal. I handed her the desert menu,
telling her chose whatever her heart desired.

The joy on her face was priceless as
she scanned the menu over and over before finally settling on a
slice of cheesecake, and some bananas foster.

“
So, you live above an
Italian restaurant and you don’t eat there every day?” she asked
with a mouth full of whipped cream.

“
No,” I answered, with a
chuckle. “I actually don’t care much for Italian food.” I was
roaring with laughter inside, but I couldn’t admit why. There was a
reason I didn’t like Italian food, and that reason was named
Juliana. When I lived in Italy she was a frequent visitor to one of
the live feeding establishments. She had quite the appetite for
onions, and sadly I tasted it too.

“
Then what is your
favorite?”

“
Hmm…I’m not sure I have
one,” I answered, doing my best to look like I was giving it
thought when, in fact, I knew very well what my favorite food was.
“I guess you could say I’m a meat and potatoes kind of guy.” I
laughed at my humor; it was the closest thing to the truth that I
could come up with.

“
I can see that,” she
replied. “You’ve definitely got the carnivore vibe.”

“
Carnivore
vibe?”

“
Don’t worry, most guys
are like that,” she laughed, clearly enjoying how confused she was
making me. “Even my dad. He likes his steak practically mooing.”
She stuck her tongue out with disgust.

“
Mooing, eh?” I couldn’t
admit that I liked my steak the same way, or rather…skip the steak
all together; I’d drink straight from the cow.

“
Tell me about your
parents,” I asked, thinking that since she brought up her father
the subject was safe to discuss.

“
What about them?” her
tone suddenly changed.

“
Well, don’t you miss
them?” I knew there was something she wasn’t telling me. Maybe
they’d had a falling out. I didn’t want to push her, but maybe
talking about it would help. Surely they couldn’t be
that
bad.

“
Of course not. Why do you
think I haven’t gone back?” She dipped her fork into the
cheesecake, and brought the first bite to her lips.
Those
lips made
electricity ignite inside me that made me completely forget my
train of thought.

“
Do you still talk to your
parents?”

“
No, uh, they passed away
a long time ago.” Many years ago, more than I could count, I had
wondered about them. Who they were; what they were like, but when I
finally worked up the nerve to try and search them out they’d been
long since dead. I could have dug deeper; searching for distant
relatives or any kind of connection but what was the point? I’d
seen vampires do that very thing and it always ended in disaster. I
might not remember anything of my life, or any emotions I had for
any of the people in it but I did feel I owed them that much. I
owed them enough to stay away. Far, far away.