Fated

“Long ago? What do you mean? Are you like advanced or something?” She looked at him with wide, admiring eyes, and he smiled back at her.

“Something like that,” he said. “So your friends are back there, at the party?” he added.

Maria nodded.

“Yeah, all of them except… Well, I’m not friends with her anymore, so yeah, all of them.”

“Except who?” Lore asked, intrigued.

Maria blushed.

“Well, my former best friend. She’s not there. But like I said, we’re not friends anymore.”

“Scarlet?” he asked, then immediately regretted giving too much away.

Maria looked at him, suspicious.

“Like, how do you know all this? Are you, like, stalking me?”

Lore began to feel her retreat from him, and he didn’t want to lose her. He looked at her, held her cheeks, made her stare at him, and flashed his eyes at her. She blinked, and as she did, he wiped out the last thirty seconds of their conversation from her memory.

Maria blinked several times, and he took her hand, and they continued walking.

Close call, he thought. Let’s start again.

“So your friends are back there, at the party?” he added.

Maria nodded.

“Yeah, all of them except… Well, I’m not friends with her anymore, so yeah, all of them.”

“Except who?” Lore asked, intrigued.

Maria blushed.

“Well, my former best friend. She’s not there. But like I said, we’re not friends anymore.”

Lore paused this time, thinking through his words.

“What happened between the two of you?” he asked carefully.

Maria shrugged, and they continued to walk in silence, their boots crunching in the hay.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Lore said, finally. “Anyway, I know what it’s like to be estranged from a friend. My cousin Lore. We were once as close as brothers. Now we don’t even speak.”

Maria looked up at him with compassion.

“That’s awful,” she said. “What happened?”

Lore shrugged.

“Long story.” Centuries long, he wanted to add, but he restrained himself.

Maria nodded, clearly feeling sympathy for him.

“Well, since you seem to understand,” she said, “then I’ll tell you. I don’t know why, like I don’t even know you, but I feel you’d understand everything.”

Lore smiled reassuringly at her.

“I seem to have that effect on people,” he said.

“Anyway,” Maria continued, “my friend, Scarlet, she, like, stole a guy that I liked. Not that I care about the guy anymore.”

Maria stopped talking and Lore sensed she wanted to say something more, and he read her mind:

Well, not since I met you, that is.

Lore smiled.

“Stealing someone’s mate,” Lore said, shaking his head. “There’s nothing worse than that.”

He squeezed her hand tighter, and Maria gave him a half smile.

“So you’re not friends anymore?” Lore said, fishing.

Maria shook her head.

“No. I like totally cut her off. I kinda feel bad about it. I mean, she’s like still stored in my favorites and we’re still friends on Facebook and everything. I haven’t quite gotten that far. But I haven’t called or texted her. We used to text a hundred times a day.”

“Have you tried to text her at all?”

Maria shook her head.

“I don’t really want talk about it,” she said.

Lore sensed that he was pushing too hard. There would be plenty of time for him to seduce her, to find out all he needed to know about Scarlet. In the meantime, he had to make her trust him – to trust him completely.

They reached the center of the corn maze, and they stopped and stood there. Maria looked away, and Lore could sense how nervous she was.

“So, like, now what?” she asked, her hands trembling. “Maybe we should get back?” she added.

He read her mind:

I hope he doesn’t want to go back. I hope he kisses me. Please, kiss me.

Lore reached down, held her cheeks, leaned in, and kissed her.

At first, Maria resisted, pulling back.