I Astral us to the pool, as requested, and he sits on one of the sun loungers. I follow suit, not bothering that we are naked due to the shadow cover over the garden, which effectively blocks us from prying eyes.
“Want to tell me what’s on your mind?” I ask, squinting at him as he stays silent. I call two cold beers to us from the bar fridge and hand him one, along with a pair of Ray-Bans. Impromptu-nude Astralling into the sunny garden comes with its issues.
“Thanks,” he mutters as he takes them from me. “I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days. Especially the last day, after your trip to the past and future, and the side…” He waves his hand about to indicate the alternate universe. “This other world you went to, it concerns me.”
“How so?” I ask, even though it concerns me too, but probably for different reasons. Namely all the kids that seem to be knocking about.
“We are married there,” he says. “We have been married there for five hundred and seven years. I don’t know what I am like there but if the other ‘you’ is any indication, I must be a bit of a prick.”
I stifle my laugh as he is being serious, so I say instead, “Well, you weren’t you. Not the ‘you’ I know and love. You were different. Harder, less patient, and definitely not fun.”
“Hm,” he says pensively. “Is that what us being married did to us? Turned me into an un-fun douche and you into a slutty power-hungry harpy?”
Harpy? I think, a bit offended, but then give in: other me is a complete cow. Note that I can’t argue with the ‘slutty power hungry’ part.
“Dev. They aren’t us. We don’t know how they started off.”
“Maybe. It has opened my eyes, though. If you asked me right now to marry you, I would go without a second thought for anyone else. I am in love with you, I always have been, Lizzie. What you said to me the other day…” he sighs. “Why did you never bring it up again? Why are we sitting here, in love with each other, and not married? I don’t understand it.”
I chew the inside of my lip. “I don’t know,” I say cautiously. “Is that what you want?” I add softly.
“Would’ve been nice to have the option. But I’m fucked now, aren’t I? You’re married to Cole, and apparently engaged to Constantine. Where the fuck do I fit into all of this?”
“Where you always have, right by my side,” I answer. “And if you mean when I’m with CK in the future, it has already been discussed, and is non-negotiable, that you will come to Ponte with me. Both of you.”
“Both of us?” He gives me a puzzled look.
“You and Cole,” I say.
He lets out a loud guffaw. “Oh, sure, just up sticks and move us all to Italy. I can only imagine the look on Constantine’s face when you told him that.”
I laugh too. “He wasn’t over the moon, but he will agree to it. He has no choice. The three of us are a package. Plain and simple.”
“You seriously think Cole will come too?”
I sigh. “I hope that in time he would. I wouldn’t expect him to straight away obviously.”
“You seem quite sure that he will leave you, though.”
“Charges always leave their sires. Even you, you stubborn fool.”
“Hm, well, we’ll see. I won’t be placing any bets anytime soon. I think Constantine is in for a long wait.”
I don’t respond to that, so he gives me a thoughtful look. “I know you’ve only made me do this so that Jess has an easier time of trying to find other interests than me.”
I shrug. He knows me so well.
“She isn’t a bad girl, just a bit misguided.”
I snicker into my hand and he frowns at me until he realizes what he just said. “Christ, now even I am starting to sound like him.”
“He is very affecting,” I point out.
“Indeed. She’s had it rough. It’s affected her and her attitude towards men, I think. She doesn’t want to be a victim, so she tries too hard to be something she isn’t. I’m starting to think that maybe I need to be a bit more…I don’t know…there for her.”
“Like it or not, she does need you,” I say with a sigh. “Just be careful, Dev. Don’t give her anything more than you are prepared to see through.”
“I guess Constantine’s pep talks are working,” he says with a nod.