Page 22 of Jurassic Measures
“Oh…wow, yeah, that’s a surprise.”
I stared at her…more like glared daring her to say something more.
“Well, good luck.”
“Mmhmm.”
“Not good luck?”
I stood and wiped my pants of some sequins that got stuck. “If I say thank you you’ll leave it at that?”
“For now.” She winked.
“I’ll accept those terms. Thank you, Amber.”
She dipped her head. “Well, I’m off.”
“I’ll walk you to your car and then I need to Uber home because I was dropped off this morning.”
I could tell Amber was dying to ask but she simply smiled. “I can drive you home.”
“I need to clean up real fast.”
“I’ll help and I’ll drop you home.”
As promised Amber didn’t ask and when she dropped me off she told me to have fun, be safe, and to call if I was gonna be late again tomorrow.
I’d told Landry I’d meet him at his place and we could go to his parents’ together. I had an hour to shower and dress so I rushed inside and got ready for a terrifying night.
“Stop fidgeting.They are going to love you, Jason.”
“Jay, call me Jay. We’ll be together for hundreds of years.”
“Very well. Stop fidgeting, Jay.”
I rolled my eyes. “If you’ve all been alive for hundreds of years, how do you maintain a business and people do not realize you aren’t aging?”
“Good question. Remember when I came to your shop I’d said I’d been in Johannesburg?”
“Vaguely, I mostly remember the bullying.”
He playfully slapped me. He’d called a car to drive us so he could sit with me and relax. We had the partition up so the driver couldn’t hear us.
“I’d been there for twenty years, not five like I told you originally. Before that I was in Paris, and before that I was in Rome. We travel around and when years pass we loop back saying we are Astors and they think we are all part of the same family.”
“Like vampires have to do? Wait are?—”
“No, vampires aren’t real, Jay.”
Any further questions were halted when we pulled up to a huge estate. It was gorgeous and ridiculous. It reminded me of the Great Gatsby house so more like a castle.
“Your parents live here?”
“From time to time.” He winked and we got out.
The front door opened as we approached and a man, the spitting image of Landry just with more gray and a few wrinkles, smiled at our approach. Beside him a petite woman with golden blonde hair, blue eyes, and a few happiness wrinkles herself, waved at us.
“Welcome,” she said.
