Page 56 of Galen
“Oh. What do you think about this?” he asked, holding up a necklace. “Think it’s anything demonic?”
“No. I feel no energy coming from it.”
He nodded, marked something on his paper, then rifled through another box of things. I paid close attention to the objects and searched for any clues that could help us learn more about the ring, but everything appeared to be useless junk.
It wasn’t junk to him though. His eyes lit up as he examined them. We price-marked the items, and I helped him carry them to the main part of the shop. There wasn’t enough room for him to place everything on display, but we grabbed what he thought would attract the most attention and stored the rest in the back.
I enjoyed watching him work. He had a sharp eye and vast knowledge of nearly every object he picked up, telling me random facts. His excitement over it all was what I enjoyed most.
“I’m boring you, huh?” he asked after telling me about an antique sewing machine that was used to make costumes in a traveling circus and said to be haunted.
“Not at all.”
I could listen to him talk all day.
“Thank you for helping me,” Simon said later that evening as we left the shop and walked toward my car. We had another thirty or so minutes before sunset.
“You’re welcome.” I unlocked the car and placed his bag in the trunk.
“It was nice to get out of the house for a while.” He slid into the passenger’s seat. “If it weren’t for the fact shades still have me on their dinner menu, I’d say we could go out to eat.”
“Like a date?”
A blush crept up his neck, and he shifted his gaze to the window.
“The last time I went on an actual date, gladiators were still fighting in arenas.”
Simon flipped around to me, eyes wide. “Seriously? I don’t know what’s more interesting. Your huge gap in dates or how you were actually around during gladiator days. Okay, the gladiators win. What was that even like?”
His excitement brought a smile to my face.
“Bloody,” I answered. “Definitely not for the faint of heart.”
“Why haven’t you dated since then?”
I started the car and pulled out of the lot behind his shop, turning onto the street. “There’s no point in it.”
“Why not? Don’t you get lonely?”
“I fuck when the urge strikes. That’s all I need. Anything more creates too many complications.”
“Is that how you see me, then?” Simon asked, his voice softer than before. “As a complication?”
Why did that make my chest hurt so much?
Not knowing how to respond, I said nothing. The purring of the engine was the only sound as I drove us home. When we returned to the mansion, Gray pounced on Simon as soon as he got out of the car.
“How was work?” he asked, looping their arms together. “Did you sell a lot of stuff?”
“The store’s closed on Sundays, but it was a good day.” Simon smiled at the shorter male. “Galen helped me a lot.”
When Gray looked at me, a mischievous little grin on his face, I rolled my eyes and kept walking.
“Come to my room,”Alastair told me telepathically.
We entered the mansion, and I turned toward the stairs. Simon looked back at me as Gray led him down the hall. I nodded to him before continuing to Alastair’s room on the second floor, knocking once I was outside his door.
“Come in.”
