Chapter 13

Erica

Robin waves to me from the other side of the room and I suppress a groan. I should have known that being on the ball committee would mean that I had to do jobs on the day of the ball.

I head over, weaving between several members of the rugby team doing some kind of drinking game where they down pints one after the other. It's definitely a case of being able to put the students in a classy event, but that not being enough to stop them messing around.

"I need you to take over the cupcake stand for ten minutes or so," Robin says when I reach them.

"Okay, is anything wrong with it?"

They sigh. "It was Yas who was meant to be tending it, but she's sick, so I need someone else to do it."

"All right, I'll head right over." I turn around to head over to the table, stopping when I notice who is already behind it. Maybe if Robin had started with the fact I'd be working with Rupert, then I might not have resisted so much internally.

He looks up and flashes me a charming smile. "Hey."

"Hi. You look good. Bouncy ball bow tie and all." I cringe a little as I say it, realising that I definitely could have been smoother in my word choice. I set my clutch bag on the table so I have my hands free.

"It looks good, doesn't it?" he responds, reaching up to straighten it. "You look great, by the way."

"Thanks." I reach up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "So, what are we doing?"

"Just handing out cupcakes. People have tokens. They give us one, they get a cupcake. Turns out it isn't just you who thinks that cupcakes are good drunk food."

I laugh. "I never said they were good drunk food, just that I didn't want to have nothing in my stomach when I was drinking lots of liquid. And it's not as if the cupcakes didn't prove useful in the end."

"Mmm, fair point, you did have a bit too much to drink in the end."

"I did. Though I stayed hangover-free thanks to my impromptu shift."

"Ill-advised more like," he responds, but I can tell from his expression that he's saying it in a teasing way and not because he thinks I actually did anything wrong. Though technically, I did. It's illegal to shift in a public space not assigned for it, though I doubt the academy will do anything about it. I certainly hope not because we've been shifting back and forth in this room constantly. It just probably wasn't sensible for either of us to do it.

"Erica!"

I turn to find Mandy in front of me, with Darius by her side. "Hey, you two. How did the exam go?" It's been weird not to see them for the last couple of weeks after meeting as regularly as we have been doing.

Mandy grimaces. "Not bad."

"Better than she thinks," Darius says.

Mandy smiles at him, her face softening as she does.

"Sorry, can I get past," Rupert says, putting a hand on my back as he moves behind me. It's an intimate gesture, and one that we haven't shared in a long time. And not like this either. We were kids the last time we touched properly.

I watch him as he heads over to where Robin is, presumably to report back to them about something.

"Who was that?" Mandy asks.

"No one," I say a little too quickly.

She raises an eyebrow. "You realise that's not going to work on us, right?"

"What?"

"Well, I'm a succubus," she reminds me. "Which means I can sense attraction. And Darius is a cupid, which means he can sense...well other kinds of attraction."

"Right, I totally forgot. That's super creepy, Mandy."

She laughs. "How do you think I feel? I'd much rather not feel the attraction of hundreds of people at once. Do you have any idea how bad that's going to get in a few hours when people have drunk more?" She visibly shivers.

Darius reaches out to take her hand. "It'll be okay," he promises.

She nods, seeming to relax at his reassurances. "Anyway, I can sense whatever it is going on between you and that guy, and if there are emotions involved..." She looks at her boyfriend and he nods. "...then Darius can sense that too."

"All right, but this goes no further than this conversation," I say.

"Have you ever heard me talk about anyone else's attraction?" Mandy asks.

"No."

"Well, there you go then."

"Rupert and I are old friends," I say. "We've known each other since we were like five or six, and we were close. Then we fell out, now we've been spending some time together while doing all the ball prep. It doesn't mean anything."

"Ah, that's what it is," Darius says.

I shoot him a questioning look.

He shrugs. "Oh, the affection between you was coming across as complicated, I was trying to untangle it, but now I get it."

"Okay..."

"There's nothing you don't know about," he says. "It's the childhood affection mixed with whatever new affection is growing between you."

"Right." I look over to where Rupert is talking to Robin still. "So, what do I do about it?"

"Depends what you want to do," Mandy responds. "You're the one in control. But if it helps, he's as attracted to you as you are to him."

"What?"

She cocks her head to the side. "Maybe even more so."

"Why do I feel like your horns should be out during this conversation?" I mutter.

"You don't want that, her tail has a mind of its own," Darius teases good-naturedly.

"Mmm, true, it would definitely be destroying the cupcake display. Which is actually why we came." She holds out two tokens.

I switch them for cupcakes and say my goodbyes just as Rupert comes back.

"Friends?" he asks.

I nod. "They're from my Supernatural Psychology study group."

"Cool. And wow, that is quite the tattoo she has," he says as he stares at Mandy's back.

"It's not a tattoo," I respond. "That's what her wings look like when they're retracted."

"Oh, wow. I didn't even realise that was a thing."

"Neither did I until she told me," I respond. "Was everything all right? With Robin?"

"They just told me that I needed to let them know when we were down to the last tray of cupcakes."

"Huh, I didn't expect them to go so fast, especially when we haven't actually eaten yet," I say.

"I'm guessing people are hungry." He pauses to exchange a token for a cupcake before turning back to me. "And food isn't served for another hour. Maybe you want a cupcake yourself."

"A whole cupcake might be a bit much. Want to go halves?" I don't know why I suggest it, but the moment the words are out of my mouth, there's no pulling them back.

"Sure. Though I don't think we have a knife. Who runs a cupcake stand without a knife?"

I shrug. "I guess they don't expect anyone to share one. It's fine, we'll just..."

"Bite it in half?" he suggests.

"I was going to say I'd use my hands."

"Right." He looks away, clearly a little flustered over something, though I'm not entirely sure what. Maybe the fact that he's suggesting we share something in a way that it could be argued is quite intimate.

I pick up a cupcake and use my fingers to break it in two, holding out half of it to him. He takes it from me, still seeming a little worked up about it.

I swipe my finger through the frosting, and eat some of it, while Rupert just stares at me.

"What?" I ask.

"I thought you just did that because you were tipsy," he murmurs.

I frown. "Eat frosting?"

"Use your finger to do it."

"I've always eaten my cupcakes like this," I remind him. "You've seen me do it dozens of times."

From the expression on his face, it seems like he thinks that seeing me do it this time is different from the dozens of other times he's witnessed me eat cake before.

I can safely say, I've never felt so self-conscious eating half a cupcake before, but now it's like Rupert is watching every moment of me doing it.

And I'm really not sure what to make of his intensity.