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“Hey stranger.”

Thayer’s voice pulled me from my iPad, looking up to see him from my table at the diner I’d walked to for my lunch break. I was laughing lightly as he slid into the booth opposite me and he pried a fry from my lukewarm lunch.

“What are you doing here?”

He usually slept through most of the day because of his long nights dancing at the club so it was really rare for him to be up and about before noon, let alone during my lunch break.

Combing his fingers through his perfectly messy black hair, Thayer chuckled. “I got up early for a coffee date with this really hot girl that came into the club last night.”

I rolled my eyes. I should have known only sex or the potential for future sex would cause Thayer to retreat from his usual routine.

“Of course.” I shook my head. “Where are you meeting her?”

“Here, naturally.” Thayer smiled. “I just noticed you on the way in and thought I’d join you for a second.”

“How nice of you.” I said, closing my iPad so that we could talk. I took another bite of my cheeseburger as he picked out another fry to consume.

“How’s the new position at work treating you?” Thayer asked, both of us on opposing schedules now that I was working on the Orb wing.

I’d been staying a little later recently to familiarize myself with the different logging system on the Orb wing, so he’d usually been gone from work by the time I got home. And since I left for work in the mornings while he was sleeping, we hadn’t seen much of each other since I started working with Orbs.

“It’s good!” I told him honestly. “I haven’t exactly made friends with any of my new co-workers yet but I’m sure that’ll come eventually.”

“And the Orbs?” Thayer eyed me evenly. “Are they giving you any trouble?” When I gave him a look that told him I didn’t like that he was implying that they were troublemakers, he added, “Hey, I know how handsy they get. I’m just saying, from experience.”

“They’re not getting handsy at the blood center, but thank you for your concern,” I said with a laugh. Thoughts of Kroven wormed their way through my memory and I hid the smile wanting to brighten my face. I was nowhere near ready to discuss the feelings I’d been having about Kroven with Thayer. Hell, I hadn’t really taken the time to decipher them by myself. “It’s good though. They’re so interesting. And all of them have been really nice.”

Some of them are even nice looking , I thought to myself.

“Glad to hear it.” Thayer grinned.

The door to the diner dinged open and a beautiful blonde in a flowy red dress stood at the entrance, looking around. Thayer turned his head and cleared his throat, getting out of the booth. “That’s my date.”

I chuckled as he smoothed out the Nirvana t-shirt against his frame. “Good luck. ”

“Thanks, man.”

He flashed me his smirking smile and proceeded to greet the blonde by the diner entrance. I finished my meal chuckling to myself as they got a different booth on the other side of the diner.

When I got back from lunch, I was able to finish a few appointments before Kroven's name was next on my list. I'd been excited to see him again, telling myself that I was just looking forward to the conversations we’d end up having. It was getting harder and harder to believe that.

Still that's what I told myself by the time I had seen Kroven to an empty consumption room and handed him the tray with the pair of blood pouches on it. He seemed rather reserved today but he still asked me to sit down next to him for more of our usual inquiries about each other.

Before he could prompt me to ask a question, I said. “How about you ask me something first this time.” I felt bad that I had ended up steering the conversation the past times he’d been in and I usually commandeered the questions to revolve around him instead of it feeling like a truly mutual thing.

What I hadn’t prepared myself for was what Kroven’s question might have been.

“Are you single, Bas?”

I stared at him incredulously, pulled away from my thoughts like I'd been run over by a semi-truck. Why the hell was that the burning question on his mind? I tried to play it off with a little laugh. “Out of all the things you could ask me about humans, you wanna go with that?”

Kroven smiled. “Humor me.”

“Yes, I'm single.” I told him, crossing my arms. “Kinda hard to date when you don't have anything interesting to tell.”

“Oh, I highly doubt that's true. ”

“Maybe to you,” I huffed. “My story isn't appealing to other humans. My parents died shortly after the Orbs revealed themselves and my grandma took care of me until she passed a few months later. I was ushered into an orphanage after that and people were more worried about preserving their lives from the newly discovered creatures than adopting a kid they'd have to take care of, so I stayed there until I was eighteen.” I took a deep breath and just continued while Kroven drank. “Then I lived on the street for a while, doing odd jobs but none of them ever stuck or lasted long enough for me to keep myself from being homeless. But I was able to save enough to get myself an apartment with a friend and found a steady paying job for a while. It was hard but I kept fighting and now I've got a job I really enjoy and I can afford to eat every week. Things could be a lot worse. But it doesn't exactly sound like a great dating profile.”

I felt a warmth spreading over my thigh as Kroven's hand rested there. I looked from his hand back up to his now bold red eyes.

“That must have been really hard, Bas.” I nodded slightly and he added, “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

I felt tears stinging against my eyes and I reached up to wipe them from my face before I instinctively placed a hand over Kroven's on my thigh. It felt good to feel acknowledged. I'd never told anyone but Thayer what I was now telling Kroven.

“Thanks.”

We locked eyes again and Kroven leaned forward a bit, giving me a small smile. My heart raced as I got the impression that Kroven might have been leaning forward to kiss me. That was crazy though. Why the hell would Kroven want to kiss me? A human? As my heart somersaulted in my chest, I thought the better question was why did I want it to happen?

Kroven stood up abruptly, breaking the contact between us as he shifted away from me. He was suddenly stoic and stern, his face void of the carefree and familiar features he’d just been wearing a few moments ago. I was too stunned by his sudden movements to say anything so I just stood up from the couch. Kroven quickly sucked down the rest of his second pouch and then tossed it on the tray. He picked up the tray and presented it to me.

“I’m all finished for today, Bas. Thank you so much.”

“I—” Why was he refusing to look at me all of the sudden? I didn't understand. Was my past too painful for him to hear? Did I alienate Orbs as much as I alienated humans now? But it had felt like Kroven was comforting me and then just as quickly as it had appeared, that comfort had been ripped away without warning or reason. “You're welcome, but—”

“I must be on my way,” Kroven cleared the space between him and the door in a swift display of his heightened inhuman movements. “My apologies.”

Kroven ripped back the door to the room, leaving me standing there with a tray full of drained blood and confusion spreading over my features. After running Kroven off with my life story, apparently I could still make things worse even when I wasn't trying to.

Dinner with Thayer that night made me feel a bit better about what had happened with Kroven. I only wished I truly understood what the hell had happened with Kroven. His reaction and sudden exit from the center made me feel like I had done something wrong, but I couldn't think of what wrong I could have committed. Did I pour my guts out to all of my other Orb patients? Of course not. Kroven didn't feel like my other patients. He wanted to company and...I guess there was some part of me that enjoyed feeling needed in that way.

I finished sipping the rest of my lemonade and realized that Thayer had been staring at me behind the munching of the chicken parmesan I had made for us after I’d gotten off work .

“What?” I asked him with a smirk on my face. “What are you staring at me for?”

“Somethings up with you,” Thayer said, taking a massive bit of his food. Marinara and cheese oozed out of mouth, and plopped playfully onto his awaiting plate below. “What's going on?”

“And why do you think there's something going on?” I guess there was but I kept telling myself I had no reason to be upset at Kroven's sudden disappearance earlier. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened, until he had stormed out of the room for reasons unknown.

“You seem...bothered about something.” Thayer's eyes suddenly widened and a wicked grin colored his face. “Is it a boy?”

“Oh God,” I laughed. “Suddenly we're back in high school?”

“Come on, somethings on your mind. You can tell me if you're having boy trouble.”

I rolled my eyes and sawed at my piece of chicken. The spaghetti I’d made to accompany the chicken was long gone and now there were wayward noodles decorating my mostly empty plate.

“I am not having boy trouble.”

“Girl trouble?”

I laughed. “I guess I could take it as a compliment that you'd even consider me as straight passing.”

“I’m just saying, you can talk to me. I'm not just one of those friends that wants to be only your roommate and that's where the friendship stops. I'm here for you, Bas. I just want to make sure you know that.”

It was such an endearing moment for the two of us that I just gave him a grin as he ate more of his food. We’d been friends for a long time, but it was true. My dating life had never really been up for discussion. Not for lack of interest on Thayer’s part, but for lack of concern to share on mine .

“Thanks, Thayer. That means a lot.”

“Now tell me about this boy.”

I fell into an easy laughter with Thayer, feeling lighter than I had since the incident with Kroven. There wasn't a boy on my radar. Hell, there wasn't even a man, not a human one anyway. But instead, my thoughts were churning out heavy doses of a sangamar that made me feel things I hadn't experienced before. I only hoped that I'd be able to discover why our last interaction had shifted south.