Page 6 of Santa's Wish
"You'll have no shortage of job offers!" One had raved.
"You'll have a stable career, none of the uncertainty that goes along with an obscure major," another said.
Meh. I was about to embark on my first job out of college, and maybe the search was easier for me than it was for my liberal arts friends, but I wouldn't have called it easy. Nothing about MIT was easy. Many of my classmates were savants, and I envied them. They knew the answers before I did, and with a lot less processing.
Soft skills, though … that's where I suffered. I was about as blunt as a goat eating a Volkswagen dashboard. I struck out more often than I scored a guy's phone number. Even when I attained the coveted digits, they rarely texted me back and usually ghosted me before the first date.
It was me, not them. I didn't know how to break through to the person on the other side of the phone screen, not even to get laid.
That's how I ended my college career at MIT as a virgin. There were plenty of women who wanted to pop my cherry, but when I approached guys, more often than not, I wasn't what they wanted. Nobody seemed to want a virgin top, and I was too grumpy to be the ideal bottom.
Well. The few times I thought I'd negotiated hookups, they took one look at me and ran. Fuck those guys. Except I wanted to and couldn't.
That's how I ended up at a vampire bar in Boston with two guys I thought were my friends. They'd been to the VIP room and said it was as good a place as any, and paying for it would guarantee I got a wonderful ride and the guy wouldn't ask questions.
Until he did, the fucker. How was this my life? I felt sorry for myself as I downed my third drink. Come morning, I would probably puke it all up. I'd started with a piña colada, switched to a rum and coke to numb my feelings, and switched again to a gin and tonic to try to entice a silver fox vampire at the bar with no luck.
Then this creepy vampire showed up at closingtime. He stood far too close when he shared he'd overheard the conversation in the VIP line and wanted to help.
The vampire I would have voted least likely to intervene did so at the perfect moment. The VIP room Santa told the vampire to take a hike and tossed him outside. I thought the vamp would rip the door off its hinges in retaliation, but nothing happened. Then Santa disappeared, and I still had nowhere to go.
He surprised me when he returned. After hours, he looked completely different from the hot elf of my dreams. He wore a Grinch shirt and jeans that left little to the imagination. I wanted to fall to my knees, pull his cock back out, and worship it, even knowing where it had been all night. Vampires couldn't carry human diseases, which was the main reason I'd agreed to this trip.
Even when he called me an asshole, he was a better friend to me than the jerks who'd left me at Fanglory. And his car … holy fuck, a '66 Chevelle, and he was the original owner. I'd wanted to ask him how many miles she had on her, but I didn't want to know. If she were mine, I'd baby her, but he'd owned her before anyone knew she'd be collectible, and I bet some of those miles were harder than today's city driving.
No, I wasn't in love with his car, or anything about him, but when he asked me for my number, I gave it tohim. Especially when he offered me exactly what I wanted. He said he wouldn't give me a quick fuck, either. He wanted to take me out, show me a good time, and then have mind-blowing sex.
I wanted him too much already. He was too good to be true, and he wasn't boyfriend material.
Still, I had a stigma about sex. I needed to break its hold over me, so I had something to offer a casual hookup. Eventually, I wanted a boyfriend, but I'd settle for some confidence so my hookups didn't run at first sight.
I textedSanta once I felt human again. Drinking always seemed like a fun idea until I puked the next morning. I swore to never do it again, same as always.
"Feeling like shit. Never drinking again. How's your day going?"
I assumed Santa had ghosted me when he didn't respond after a few hours. I'd forgotten the whole vampire thing, though. Once the sun went down, my phone pinged with a text.
"Day just started. If it makes you feel any better, alcohol makes me feel the same way, but for different reasons. How do you feel now?"
How did I feel? Santa cared more about me thanmy friends did. They'd finally texted me this morning to see where I spent the night and to laugh at me because I was a lightweight and still a virgin.
"Better, thanks."
"When are you moving out of the dorms?"
"This weekend."I had planned on moving all my stuff home after finals.
"Do you have a place?"
"Moving in with my parents in Somerville."I planned to stay only for a few months until I got my shit together and found a place of my own. Still, it stung to admit I had nowhere else to go to the vampire who owned his own apartment building and didn't have to pay rent.
"I have a vacancy. My building is five blocks from Imperial Accounting."
"How much?"
"I'll cut a deal for anyone working for the empress."
Holy shit, what?"That's a joke, right? There is no empress."
