Seer (28 page)

“Why not?”

“What if you guess about something I am not ready to tell you? If I’ve promised to be completely honest, then I either have to tell you when I’m not ready to talk about it, or else I have to lie to you. I haven’t lied to you yet, and I don’t want to start today.”

“So you admit there are things you aren’t ready to tell me?” I sighed. “Why not.”

“I didn’t say that. But I don’t know
what you might guess. Maybe you’re going to ask about something illegal I’ve done, and if I tell you about it, then you’re an accessory after the fact.”

I paused. “All right. We’ll play it your way. But you know, you can tell me anything. You can even tell me about the bodies you buried.”

“Accessory after the fact.”

“So you admit you buried some bodies!”

“Is that one of your guesses?”

“Hell no,” I said. “Ten guesses?” She nodded. “I need paper.”

I dried my hands while Solange grabbed paper and pen for me. I took my time, writing down my guesses, but I didn’t let her see the list. I divided the list into categories as I wrote it. About half the list was about how she saw me or what she wanted from our relationship. I turned to her. She was watching me carefully.

“First one,” I said. “You intentionally didn’t ask me out first and were waiting for me to ask you.”

She laughed. “That one is true.”

“Why did you wait?”

“I don’t know if this is a complete answer,” she said, “but I can be hard to say ‘no’ to. If we went out, I wanted it to be at least as much your idea as mine. I think I needed to know that, and not let myself believe you were just along for the ride.”

“Is that part of the money thing?” I asked.

“Probably.”

“Number two,” I said. “You wish I were submissive and would just do what you tell me to do.”

She frowned.

“What?”

“I am deciding if I want to establish a pattern of admitting or denying each of these. I don’t want to inadvertently tell you something when I refuse to comment.”

“Ah. How about this? You will answer some of them, but we also agree that you specifically won’t comment on some, and thus I am not allowed to take a ‘no comment’ as anything one way or the other.”

“All right. Do you believe that one is true?”

“Maybe,” I said. “Sometimes, anyway.”

“It is entirely false. If you were submissive, we would have a different relationship than we have. Not better, not worse. Different. I want you to be you. You occasionally have self-esteem issues, and I wish you didn’t. But otherwise, I wouldn’t change a thing about you.”

I thought that was really sweet, and I came around the counter to give her a hug. We held each other for a minute before I pulled away and returned to my side of the island.

“Three. You have fantasies about things you’d like to do to me in bed.”

“Oh please,” she said. “Of course I do. If you want a real answer, you’re going to need to get more specific than that. And I am pretty sure you have fantasies, too. Everyone has fantasies.”

“All right,” I said. “Regardless of whether you want me submissive in other ways, I think you have fantasies where you dominate me, perhaps tie me down, perhaps do lots of kinky things to me.”

She didn’t answer. I waited to see what she would say. “I think I’m not going to address this one,” she said. “But I want to ask: do you believe that one.”

“Yes.”

“Why do you think I don’t share them with you?”

“Because you’re afraid of freaking me out.”

“Would I?”

“No,” I said, “as long as they don’t involve anyone else, and you don’t hurt me.” I smiled. “And you don’t do anything you wouldn’t let me to do you.”

“Maybe I know that, and that’s why I don’t ask to do them.”

I studied her. I didn’t have a clue what was true on this one. “Maybe I’d suspend that rule.”

“Maybe I don’t want to do anything to you that you don’t want.”

“Maybe I’d like it.”

“Maybe I’ll take that under advisement.”

We grinned at each other.

“Four. You ran a background check on me.”

Her expression gave her away, but then she schooled her features. “No comment.”

“Five. You hate the cats and wish I didn’t have them.”

“I’ll address that one,” she said. “I don’t like your cats a whole lot more than they like me, but I’m glad you had company before we met. And I know they’re important to you, so I don’t wish them ill. If something happened to you, I wouldn’t take them to the humane society, but I might see if your other friends wanted them. Do you think they know that, and that’s why they don’t like me?”

“I doubt it. Cats typically love to torment people who don’t like them. I think they’re jealous. They haven’t liked…” I closed my mouth.

“Oh ho!” she crowed. “A secret you aren’t sharing?”

“No,” I said. “It’s just bad form to talk about past girlfriends with the current girlfriend.”

“Oh go ahead.”

“Fine. They haven’t liked my past girlfriends that much, either.”

“They like Dolores.”

“They know Dolores is just a friend.”
I consulted my list. “Number six. You are afraid of my dreams. More specifically, you’re afraid I might discover things about you that you would rather I didn’t.”

“No comment,” she replied. I laughed.

“Seven. Sometime in your past, perhaps more than once, you have been seriously physically hurt.”

“Like a car accident?”

“Like rape, assault, attempted murder.”

She eyed me carefully before she said, “No comment.”

“You know, Solange, you can talk to me about it.”

“Moving on.”

“Eight. You have hurt people yourself.”

“I’m a lawyer,” she pointed out.

“I don’t mean that, and I don’t mean an ex-girlfriend. I mean physically hurt them.”

“No comment.”

“Why not?”

“Because either you’re right, and I wouldn’t want to make you an accessory, or you’re wrong, but it goes back to not giving you clues for nine and ten.”

“Nine.” I looked away before sharing it. “You are currently engaged in some sort of illegal activity.”

She stared at me. “No comment.”

“Ten,” I said. I smiled. “You and Aubree are some sort of day-walking, blood-drinking vampire. Sometimes you take it straight from the source.” I touched my neck. “Sometimes you take it from the bottle or bag, like from a blood bank.”

She laughed. “That’s number ten?”

“Sure.”

“Are there such
things as day walking vampires? I thought vampires couldn’t eat real food or abide sunlight.” She pointed to the food I was preparing. “Are you sure you don’t want to come up with something more plausible?”

“I
dunno,” I said. “Maybe that first dream wasn’t so metaphoric. If so, you have to admit that would be a pretty big secret.” I smiled. “You can tell me, Solange. I won’t judge.”

She laughed again. “I’m afraid, my love, that if I’m some sort of vampire, I’m just going to leave you guessing about it.”

“You’re not going to deny it?” I asked.

“Oh please. If I deny that one, you’re going to wonder which of six through nine are true.”

“So you admit some of six through nine are true?”

“I admit nothing.”

“Chicken.”

We teased each other back and forth for a while, but then she asked, “So, Sidney. From your list of ten items, which were inspired by your dreams?”

“I’ll tell you how many, but not which ones, if you answer one of seven through ten.”

“Not six?” she asked.

“I already know you’re worried about what I might dream,” I said. “Or you wouldn’t have just asked that last question.”

She frowned for a moment. “I pick which one.”

“Yes.”

“All right,” she agreed.

I picked up my list and counted. “Four,” I said. “You already know I had that dream about you as a vampire, and that implies that you were hurt and that you have hurt others in return. Plus one more.”

“So vampires hurt people? They don’t get their blood from, oh, I don’t know. The willing?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know much about vampires,” I said with a grin. “Especially the day-walking kind that can fool their girlfriends for more than a year.”

She grinned. “So you haven’t had any dreams of me and my sexual proclivities?”

“I had a dream about you and Aubree, but it was another vampire one. You bit her neck. She seemed to like it.” I shrugged. “No, none that seem plausible. I think I might like those.”

“Well, I promised to answer one more. I think I’ll let you continue to have your fantasy about my blood-sucking ways. Yes, I’ve been hurt. The people who have hurt me will never hurt anyone else ever again. I do not believe I have agreed to offer details.”

“I believe, however, that you deserve a hug for answering.” I moved around the island, and we hugged and nuzzled for a while. Then she asked, “Willing to play the same game in reverse?”

“All right,” I said. “Are you going to ask ten questions about my dreams?”

“Maybe one or two,” she said. “But you don’t have to answer.” I stepped away from her and went back to preparing dinner. She in turn collected the paper, and she spent a few minutes making her own list.

“Ready,” she declared.

“Do I have to answer as you go, or can I wait until the end?”

“I answered as we went.”

“Not even half, though. I bet there’s not a single one of yours I’m afraid to answer.”

“You have to answer as we go.”

“What do I get if I answer all of them?”

She smiled. “If you do, then I’ll either tell you that you’re wrong about the fantasies one, or I’ll spend the evening demonstrating some of my fantasies.”

“Oh?”

“If I have fantasies of that nature, you can be assured you’ll like them a great deal.”

“All right. Deal.”

“One. You want me to take the lead in the relationship, not necessarily all the time, but most of the time.”

I sighed. “True.”

“Furthermore, that surprises you, because you’ve never let anyone else in the past.”

“Is that your number two?”

“Follow
-up.”

“True.”

“You’re hoping I have the type of fantasies you asked about, and clearly you hope I’ll act on them.”

“True.” We grinned at each other.

“Three. While you haven’t been shy about asking women out in the past, you wouldn’t have been brave enough to ask me if it weren’t for that dream. Which I will point out, is ironic, given that you dreamt I am some sort of monster.”

“I never said you were a monster,” I said. “But true. I wouldn’t have had the dream if we weren’t going to be together in some way. Maybe it was just a business relationship, but you were as interested in me as I was in you.”

“Four. You’re still intimidated by the money, although you also enjoy the rewards. You try to hide it from me because you know I don’t like it getting between us.”

I sighed. “True.”

“Five. Part of the reason you have worked so hard for your career, although not the only part, is to show to your uncle how successful you can be.”

I stared at her. “Do you know that as a fact or are you guessing?”

“There have been hints.”

“True.”

“Six. You have had some horrible dreams that haven’t happened yet. Horrible dreams.” When she repeated those two words, she stressed them.

I looked away. “True.”

“Will you talk to me about them?”

“I don’t know. They don’t make sense.”

“Have you seen anyone dead?”

“Yes, but the dream flat out told me it might not happen that way.”

She pursed her lips. “Sidney, if there is any chance we can prevent it, you have to tell me.”

“There isn’t anything definite. I see bodies. I don’t see how or where it happens.”

“You need to talk to me, Sidney.”

“Like you tell me your secrets?” I asked. I sighed.
“What’s next?”

She paused before going on.
“Seven. You have voted Republican at least once in the past, and now you’re ashamed of yourself.”

I laughed. “False.”

“I have,” she said.

“You can vote here?”

“I’m a naturalized U.S. citizen, Sidney. Yes, I can vote.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“Eight. You contemplated seducing Dolores.”

I had to think about that one. “I wouldn’t say it that way. I wondered if she had feelings for me, but I don’t do straight girls. Not again. I think she’s curious. I don’t know if she’s serious
.” I paused. “I don’t want Aubree to pressure her.”