Page 7 of Santa's Wish
"I assure you, she's very real and scary as fuck. I'll tell you about her during our nighttime tour."
This was moving way too fast. I stared at my phone for a few minutes, wondering if I should cut off all contact with him. For all I knew, he wanted to turn me into a vampire sex worker at the club, or maybe a day servant.
"I'm not going to turn you into a vampire,"Santatexted a few minutes later.
While I contemplated that statement, my phone pinged again.
"I'm not recruiting you to work at Fanglory, and I already have an apartment manager."
"Are you psychic or something?"
The response took longer than the others. He probably paused to laugh at me.
"Some vampires are psychic, including the empress. I am not one of them."
I don't know why I believed him, but I did."Okay."
"Okay, you're moving in?"
"Okay, I'm glad you won't turn me into a vampire, and you're not recruiting me."
"But … "
Santa already knew me too well. I wanted to live on my own, and Santa had a vacancy. Might as well ask more questions.
"How much?"
Santa didn't lowball me, but it wasn't too expensive. The cost per month was a little over a quarter of my monthly take home pay from Imperial Accounting.
"What's the room like?"
He sent pictures worth far more than a thousand words. The building was an old brick walk-up, five stories, but inside, the rooms looked modern and pristine. I wouldn't be sharing a cupboard with a rat colony, unlike my best friend from high school, whohad moved to Long Island after graduation the previous spring.
"Third floor,"Santa added."No elevator, but you're in good shape."
"Is that your way of flirting with me?"
"I don't know what the fuck I'm doing."
I was still laughing at his honesty when his next text came through.
"Do you want the apartment or not? I have thirty minutes to list it on apartments dot com or I miss the window for their weekly email."
"That's a scarcity marketing tactic,"I replied.
"Is it working?"
I'd never even spoken to a vampire before last night, that I knew of. Here I was, considering moving in with one, or moving into the building he owned.
"Do you live there?"Okay, so maybe I was flirting, too.
"Maybe."
My phone rang a moment later.
"Dude, nobody talks on these things anymore," I said in lieu of greeting. "Wait. Can you hypnotize me with your voice or something?"
He laughed. "Hello to you, too. If I had mind control, I wouldn't need to call you. You would already be here."
