Page 65 of My Vampire Plus-One

REGINALD:Why would you even think that??

FREDERICK:Because you haven’t stopped talking about the Beautiful Brilliant Accountant since the night you met her.

FREDERICK:AND because you haven’t had human friends since we used to try and lure them into the Thames for sport.

REGINALD:Oh man, I haven’t thought about the Thames Games in AGES

FREDERICK:Reginald.

REGINALD:Fine.

REGINALD:It’s for Amelia

REGINALD:So what?

FREDERICK:Are you falling for her?

REGINALD:FALLING for her?

REGINALD:Absolutely not

FREDERICK:Oh so you’re just randomly thinking about someone other than yourself for the first time in 200 years, then?

FREDERICK:

REGINALD:I have better things to do than to fall for a human.

REGINALD:Also since when do you know how to use emojis

FREDERICK:

REGINALD:Did Cassie teach you how to use those?

FREDERICK:Obviously.

REGINALD:I should have known

Reginald

“I need food.”

The man behind the grocery store’s single cash register stared at me from behind owlish glasses. His yellow plastic name tag saidderek. “We’re closed.”

I looked to my left, then to my right. I was the only customer, which would have implied Derek was right about the store being closed if all the fluorescent lighting hadn’t still been on and the door to the store unlocked.

“There’s noClosedsign in the window,” I pointed out.

The man’s stare turned into a glare. “How did you evengethere? The roads are a mess. State police are telling everyone to stay home.”

He was right about that. On my flight there, I’d lost count of all the cars I saw in ditches or stuck in snowdrifts. If I were reliant on human modes of transportation, getting there would have been impossible.

I couldn’t tell Derek that, though. “I was careful,” I said. True enough.

“You’re a lunatic,” he said. That was true enough, too. “I’m closing now, or I’ll never make it home. You gotta go.”

I would do no such thing. If I left this store without groceries, Amelia would have nothing to eat but powdered cocoa until the snow melted. Unacceptable.

“Please,” I said. “This storm caught us off guard and there’s nothing in the house.” I pulled out three one-hundred-dollar bills from my wallet and laid them neatly on the counter, glad that I’d thought to bring along a little bribery money on this trip just in case. “I’m happy to prepay for what I buy with this. You can go now if you need to.”