“I know you wanted your own room but this way if you need me for anything you don’t have to stand in the hall; just knock on the door. I promise I won’t sneak through in the night and climb into your bed.”
A yawn broke out over my face. “I’m beat. I’m going to order room service and have an evening with my eReader and a nice soak in the tub. Is that okay with you? In the morning I want to set off early to my old apartment to collect my belongings. Maybe we could do dinner tomorrow evening?” I told him.
Flynn nodded. “Sounds fine. I’ve a few things to do tonight and then tomorrow I’m meeting with the competition committee. I’ll book us somewhere nice for dinner.”
“Okay. I’d be happy to eat in the hotel if you preferred.”
“No, I rarely get to New York. I’d like to have an explore while I’m here. Take in some of the sights.”
“Even though I lived here, I rarely did the tourist thing.” I confessed.
“Well then I think we need a trip up Rockefeller or the Empire State while we’re here, and I’m definitely taking you to Tiffany’s.”
“No you’re not.” I told him.
He sat down on the couch in my room. “What’s going on, Serena? I know we haven’t known you that long, but I know enough that you aren’t yourself.”
Sighing, I sat myself on the couch at the side of him. “I feel like a concubine or something. I feel like I’m dependent on you. On all four of you. I have a small amount of savings which if I lived your lifestyle would last me a couple hours. Here in New York maybe a couple months if I was careful. I don’t have shopping-in-Tiffany’s money and I don’t like it, Flynn. It all seems one- well, four-sided. You’re all equal and I’m the odd one out.”
Flynn stroked my cheek. “You worry too much. Look, how about tomorrow evening you find us somewhere to eat and you take me somewhere sightseeing? You pay for it all, whatever you choose. Then you let me take you to Tiffany’s at some point during the stay and that time I get to choose. It’s all about the fun, not what it costs, Serena. Don’t you know money can’t buy happiness, and right now you’re proving that by making it an obstacle in the way of the relationship.”
“It’s a big deal.”
“To you.” Flynn answered, the honesty apparent from the relaxed expression on his face. “To me, I was born rich and the chances are high I’m going to stay rich. This is what I’m used to, and as you know people call me filthy rich; they called me a playboy. All I’ve done is try to live my life the way the cards dealt it. My parents split. It didn’t make it any less difficult because I’m a rich vampire. We all have our shit.”
I raised a brow. “You’ll go anywhere I take you?”
“Yes, Serena. Anywhere. Now I’m going through to my own room and I will leave you to make your devious and devilish plans.”
“I’ll be doing some digging into my father’s whereabouts too tomorrow.” I chewed on my bottom lip.
“If you need me, call me. We’ll work it out. There’s nothing we can’t work out, Serena.”
He kissed my cheek and walked over to the connecting door, using his keycard to unlock it. He raised his hand and winked at me, then closed the door. I heard the lock click from the other side.
Unpacking my belongings, I did exactly what I’d said. Room service, bath, and bed. I didn’t need any more blood until tomorrow, and Flynn said he would organize that, but right now I fancied cake and so I was going to order some. Blood wise I’d learned the clinic and a few other companies had delivery systems and there were ‘pit-stop’ places where you could get a bottle in an emergency. Better that than you ended up draining a citizen.
I had the most relaxed sleep I’d had in a few days. I think it was because my mind was satisfied I was working on answers to all the questions that had been annoying my head.
The next day after a shower, I fired up the laptop and sent a message to my contacts at Revealed magazine asking them to find out what they could about a Vern Johnson. There couldn’t be many people with that name. Rather than look it up myself I’d let the experts handle it. That way if the guy was a complete fake I’d not wasted my time getting my hopes up. A knock came to the inner door, and I went over and opened it, finding my gorgeous Flynn on the other side holding a bottle of the red stuff.
“Breakfast is served,” he smirked, passing me the bottle. He went to close the door, but I shook my head. “Come through. I’m not feeling as anti-social today. It’s amazing the difference a good night’s sleep makes.”
Flynn perched on the edge of my bed flicking his thumb underneath his bottom lip. “Maybe we should all have our own separate rooms as well as the large one we share? I know we’re wanting an equal relationship but you’ve just made me realize that sometimes we need space, and that’s just life. Expecting us to share you in four equal amounts and you to always be loving us back equally-it’s not real life is it?”
He stood up and began pacing.
“I loved Rose, but then on another occasion she’d do something that made me dislike her intensely. Depending on our moods she could deliberately attempt to annoy me, or maybe how I felt at the time amplified the situation. What I’m trying to say, though not very well, is we have to realize this is not going to be perfect all the time because relationships aren’t.”
I nodded. “I definitely want my own room to escape to sometimes.”
Flynn shook his head. “Escape is the wrong word. You shouldn’t need to escape. You just want your own space, somewhere you can go and relax. Where it tells the others it’s a no-go zone. I think we all need one of these and the house has enough rooms.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“And of course although we might get pissed at each other, if problems between any of us arise, that’s something we’d all need to sit down and discuss as that could have serious implications for our arrangement.
I put a hand over Flynn’s. “Flynn. You worry too much. We’ll cross that bridge if it ever comes to it and hopefully it won’t. I wouldn’t have had myself turned into a vampire if I thought things wouldn’t work out.”